Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 18:05:15 -0100
Subject: Re: 9/11/01


Eric/Steve/All,

First, condolences.  Many of us have similar experience.  Over a 15 month
period, beginning in Oct.'97, my sister and brother lost husband and wife to
cancer, the latter undergoing chemo and suffering the the consequences you
describe.

To steal a phrase from another context, one could call the loss of loved
ones "Postcards from Eternity", intimations not of "immortality" in
Wordsworth's phrase, but reminders of the certainty that the fruit of the
tree of life is death.

Like all the ancient mythmakers, priests, philosphers, and poets, we search
for
a personal theodicy.

As to the political impact of 9-11, I am substantially in agreement with
your remarks excerpted below.

Last night on National Public Radio, I heard successive call-in comments
from three people.  Senator Leahy, an 18-year old young woman from St.
Louis, a 41 year-old  unmarried man who hopes to marry and have children.

All three spoke of the need for restraint, reflection, a careful approach to
governmental action.  The two younger persons were convinced that violence
will lead to an endless cycle of violence.

It is ironic that the U.S., which does not want to be the World's Policeman,
does want to be its military leader, with the assent and cooperation of
other nations, so long as they will do its bidding.  The League of Nations,
and later, the United Nations, were given impetus by U.S. leadership, pushed
aside when they did not serve U.S. purposes.

As we have discussed recently, flows of capital and flows of population
determine global wealth and global poverty.  This has been true to some
extent, of  the most powerful nations since the Industrial Revolution.  It
was, of course
accompanied by the flow of ships, planes, troops and armanents used to
insure that exploitation of resources, and  transfer of wealth to
capitalists of home
nations could proceed in a peaceful environment.

The event of 9-11 raise the ante for the military game, but the basic
objective is unchanged.

Regards,
Hugh






> My own feelings are extremely conflicted by all of this.  President Bush
> has called this an act of war.  I see it instead as an act of
> globalism.  What died on September 11th was the myth that America is
> alone and separate, apart from the world.
>
> America has always tended to see itself as isolationist.  In part, this
> luxury was due to its unique particular geographical circumstance.  The
> Atlantic separated it from Europe, the Pacific from Asia. The neighbors
> to the North and South were weaker and relations with them were fairly
> easy to maintain.
>
> Now with the compression of space and time that characterizes globalism,
> this immunity has been forever lost. America can no longer act as though
> it were a gated community in the face of the world.
>
> I see Americans struggling right now with this new awareness, their
> gradual awakening to the reality of how hopeless and narcissistic, its
> dreams of SDI and unilateralism have become.
>
> I have heard voices asking: "How could such a senseless act occur
> here?"  It is difficult for Americans to see themselves as the rest of
> the world does, especially with the weak news coverage provided by the
> American media.  More is known here about Gary Condit than about
> Afghanistan or Palestine.
>
> Americans want to see themselves as noble, idealistic and courageous.
> The reality of sanctions against Iraq, the elimination of the homeland
> in Palestine, the sweatshop conditions in the oil fields, the bombing of
> civilians during the Gulf War, the unacknowledged racism against the
> Middle East, none of this registers deep within the America psyche.  In
> our proclamations of innocence, we fail to see the blood on our own
> hands.  We rail against terrorism, but forget to mention the School of
> the Americas or the history of the CIA.
>
> Which is not to condone what happened here this week.  Nothing can. No
> possible good can emerge out of this tragedy.  It remains senseless and
> horrible and numbs the mind.
>
> The real question, however, that Americans must ask themselves is this.
> Will we continue to believe the duplicitous and bipolar logic of a Bush
> administration that wants to proclaim in the fundamentalist theology of
> a Christian jihad that we are good and they are evil? (Whoever they
> are.) Or will we sober up to the true reality of what we have become and
> begin to shoulder a greater responsibility for our global presence
> within the world?
>
> That is the terrible choice that confronts us now.  Will we remain as
> children living in a fairy tale view that America is a kind of theme
> park of freedom and democracy or will we mature into a deeper and more
> tragic vision?  Will we engage our role as global citizens and begin to
> realize ourselves as the multitude and not merely as God's own chosen
> few?

----- Original Message -----
From: Mary Murphy&Salstrand <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net>
To: <lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 4:41 PM
Subject: 9/11/01


> In the Inferno, when Dante meets Virgil he describes the Roman poet as
> one whose voice is hoarse from a long silence.  That is a little how I
> feel right now.  Words have become difficult lately.  This is also why I
> have been so silent.
>
> In June, my wife Mary and I found out that Lily, a close friend of ours,
> had been diagnosed with diabetes and there was a chance she had cancer.
> Further tests confirmed this suspicion.  She was diagnosed with ovarian
> cancer.  Later, the possibility of pancreatic cancer also began to
> emerge.
>
> The doctors prescribed kemo treatment for her in the fall.  Lily tried
> to be brave and positive in the face of all this.  Mary and I also hoped
> for the best under the circumstances. We would wait with her and see
> what developed.
>
> In late August Lily went to see the doctor.  He told her that kemo was
> no longer necessary. The cancer was too far advanced.  He recommended
> hospice care instead.  She was only given a few more weeks to live.
>
> Mary and I were shocked by this news.  We had known all along that this
> was very serious.  We never expected events to move as quickly as this,
> however.
>
> Lily remained at home with family and close friends.  There was a deep
> sense of love and mourning.  On September 1, she died.  She was only 43.
>
> Then, on Tuesday, September 11, the catastrophe struck New York and
> Washington D.C.  Without going into details, let me just say I knew of
> number of the people who were trapped inside those towers.  I have
> talked directly to family members of some of those who are missing and I
> have wept.
>
> In tragic circumstances such as this, terrible ironies emerge.  There is
> the man who was working in the building and went down for a smoke when
> the first plane hit.  Another went to work late that day because she was
> busy frosting her sister's birthday cake. Both survived. Another woman
> lived in the Midwest and was only there in New York that day to attend a
> business meeting.  She is now among the missing.
>
> My own feelings are extremely conflicted by all of this.  President Bush
> has called this an act of war.  I see it instead as an act of
> globalism.  What died on September 11th was the myth that America is
> alone and separate, apart from the world.
>
> America has always tended to see itself as isolationist.  In part, this
> luxury was due to its unique particular geographical circumstance.  The
> Atlantic separated it from Europe, the Pacific from Asia. The neighbors
> to the North and South were weaker and relations with them were fairly
> easy to maintain.
>
> Now with the compression of space and time that characterizes globalism,
> this immunity has been forever lost. America can no longer act as though
> it were a gated community in the face of the world.
>
> I see Americans struggling right now with this new awareness, their
> gradual awakening to the reality of how hopeless and narcissistic, its
> dreams of SDI and unilateralism have become.
>
> I have heard voices asking: "How could such a senseless act occur
> here?"  It is difficult for Americans to see themselves as the rest of
> the world does, especially with the weak news coverage provided by the
> American media.  More is known here about Gary Condit than about
> Afghanistan or Palestine.
>
> Americans want to see themselves as noble, idealistic and courageous.
> The reality of sanctions against Iraq, the elimination of the homeland
> in Palestine, the sweatshop conditions in the oil fields, the bombing of
> civilians during the Gulf War, the unacknowledged racism against the
> Middle East, none of this registers deep within the America psyche.  In
> our proclamations of innocence, we fail to see the blood on our own
> hands.  We rail against terrorism, but forget to mention the School of
> the Americas or the history of the CIA.
>
> Which is not to condone what happened here this week.  Nothing can. No
> possible good can emerge out of this tragedy.  It remains senseless and
> horrible and numbs the mind.
>
> The real question, however, that Americans must ask themselves is this.
> Will we continue to believe the duplicitous and bipolar logic of a Bush
> administration that wants to proclaim in the fundamentalist theology of
> a Christian jihad that we are good and they are evil? (Whoever they
> are.) Or will we sober up to the true reality of what we have become and
> begin to shoulder a greater responsibility for our global presence
> within the world?
>
> That is the terrible choice that confronts us now.  Will we remain as
> children living in a fairy tale view that America is a kind of theme
> park of freedom and democracy or will we mature into a deeper and more
> tragic vision?  Will we engage our role as global citizens and begin to
> realize ourselves as the multitude and not merely as God's own chosen
> few?
>
> with love and grief,
>
> eric
> 9/13/01
>