Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 01:23:15 +0200 (CEST)
From: Birgit Bock <birgit.bock-AT-student.uni-tuebingen.de>
Subject: Re: glee at the bombings


I second that !

jeremiah

On Thu, 13 Sep 2001, Malcolm Thompson wrote:

> Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 02:04:37 +0000
> From: Malcolm Thompson <mac_thompson-AT-hotmail.com>
> Reply-To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Subject: Re: glee at the bombings
>
> look,
>
> according to the WHO, between 30 and 40 thousand people die every day due to
> famine and starvation, and (here is where the WHO's analysis stop) this is
> largely due to international capitalism and its systems of production,
> expropriation, and distribution. the world trade center and the pentagon
> aren't just icons for this system - they play a directly causal role in
> organizing and implementing that system. so if, on one day, anti-capitalism
> (whatever else the attacks were, they were certainly anti-capitalist and
> anti-imperialist) chalks up a death toll of (say) 20 thousand people, we're
> still nowhere near a level moral tally.
>
> the infliction of mass suffering is nothing new. americans (i am not one)
> *have no right* to their sense of security.
>
> it can, of course, be said that the people there didn't know or couldn't
> imagine the complex implications of their actions in a global system of
> oppression. but what of it? it is a drastically impoverished notion of
> justice that requires that agents know the effects of their actions in order
> to be held culpable.
>
> on the other hand, the world trade center and the pentagon contained
> janitorial staff (i believe the company whose contract it is is 'abm
> international) - so underpaid (predominantly) people of colour were among
> the victims.
>
> there is no 'we' that was uniformly traumatised by this experience. i don't
> work or live in an icon of american imperialism, so what have i got to worry
> about?
>
> yes, yes - harsh, i know. but honestly...
> mlcm
>
> "I labour to be brief; and become obscure." - Horace *Ars Poetica*
>
>
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