Date: Sun, 23 Apr 1995 14:00:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Kevin T. Mahoney" <ktmahone-AT-mailbox.syr.edu>
Subject: oklahoma bombing


i don't know how many people are following the development of this 
bombing, but there seems to be a lot going on in how this instance is 
being used to reconfigure how domestic surveilance takes place, what is 
legitimate, and in the reinvigoration of the "american way of life" as 
clinton has stated in his recent press conferences.  clearly this is an 
instance where there can be agreement that it was indeed a tragedy, what 
troubles me is that how we understand the reasons for this action and the 
kind of cultural meaning it is given, is by no means self-evident.  if 
anything the way that this act is being deployed is as a moment of 
cultural regroupment--where the american way of life is given new meaning 
through the rhetoric of fear and threat.

furthermore, this incident has made me think quite a bit about the 
ideological role of "crises" in the u.s. and capitalism more broadly.  it 
seems that while many of us who consider ourselves to be marxists would 
agree that crises are built into the dynamics of capitalism, i for one 
have not really thought through how these crises--these eruptions of the 
contradictions of capitalism--are systematically understood by the 
bourgeois culture industry and bourgeois theorists.  watching the media 
blitz around this crisis the alliance between the liberal and the 
conservative are starkly present through the trope of ensuring the 
"safety of the nation."  so i have been trying to make sense of how the 
cultural machine is appropriating this event and putting it to the use of 
strengthening the most conservative (not in the republican sense, but in 
the conserving of the forces of capital) arguments for the american way  
of life.

what is starkley missing from all accounts of this incident is a 
consideration of the social/material conditions that would make this 
event even thinkable.  this morning of "this week with david brinkley" 
the explanation rested upon suggesting that the rise of the "citizens 
militia" movements througout the country (several thousands of members 
apparently) is the result of a few "kooks."  however, when they interview 
the spokesperson for the michigan citizens militia, he was more informed 
as to his rights under the constitution than the alarmist media 
representatives---the alliance of george will, kokie roberts, david 
brinkley and sam donaldson.  

i am writing this more to open the question on this list--specifically on 
how we as marxists move to make sense of this kind of event outside of 
the dominant media common sense, that is how we put our vast theoretical 
resources to work...

kt


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