Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 09:21:06 -0500
Subject: Re: 9/11/01


Steve, 

It feels good to be writing again and also to hear from you.  

A couple of short points about your response. 

I was talking about Americans subjectively, not objectively. Certainly
the map does not fit the territory, as I thought as I showed in one
paragraph in my post, referencing some of the terrible things we have
done in the middle east.

What I meant was this. American policy is really a form of
anti-globalism because its wants to act unilaterally to achieve its ends
with the narcissistic thought that there will be no consequences.  In
short and to be vulgar - we want to fuck the world without getting
fucked back. 

911 revealed that project to be a folly.

For me globalism is a condition (something like Lyotard's postmodern!).
It is not a matter of tendencies, but of an emerging situation.

Like you, I refuse the resurgence of religion, whether Islamic,
Christian or Jewish.  All are involved in a mystification that must be
overcome.  My hope is a world where people begin to take responsibility
for their own actions and not ask "why does god permit this to happen?"
(It happens because of neo-liberalism in the context of globalism. God
is irrelevant!)

The whole idea of framing this conflict in terms of Jesus versus Allah
as a kind of World Federation wrestling match scares the hell out of me.

eric