File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0109, message 178


Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 23:38:12 -0400
From: aalessan <aalessan-AT-kent.edu>
Subject: RE: national subjects/poco epistemologies


Danny wrote in his post:
>
>My fear, and the fear of most others outside the U.S., centers on what will
>happen now. The correlation of Bush's frightening promises of aggression and
>his escalating approval rating make me shudder.
>
I value the points raised by Danny in his post and hope that they continue to 
be 
discussed on this list in all their complexity. I just wanted to add, in 
response to this particular fear, that I believe that the widely publicized 
statistics that claim overwhelming support for a "war on terrorism" among 
Americans are, if not totally false, at least totally misleading. The same 
thing 
happened in the lead-up to the Gulf War--we were told that overwhelming 
numbers 
of Americans supported the action, when in fact there was widespread doubt and 
ambivalence about it. I say this in no way to defend the American reaction, or 
even to suggest that there aren't certainly large numbers of Americans who on 
some visceral level want to go to war with someone (though who that someone is 
remains unclear even to Bush and those around him), but simply to point out 
that 
this has everything to do with the attempt to manufacture consent in advance 
for 
the sorts of military actions that Danny and many others of us on this list 
fear. In other words, if 91% of my "neighbors" are so prepared to go to war, 
who 
am I to have doubts?--that's the groundwork that's being laid. The work of 
those 
of us who want to hold on to any hope of heading off the horrible violence of 
a 
military retaliation lies in making it clear that there is space for alternate 
reponses. The American left didn't do well at making such alternatives heard 
in 
the weeks before the horrific attack on Iraq; there may be a chance, in the 
small time we have left, to begin to voice our opposition to military action 
before it begins. I hope that the day of action that has been called on 
September 20 will help to do just this, and I hope that members of the list 
who 
hear of other such events and opportunities will make them known. Those of us 
who teach postcolonial studies in the US, as Danny suggests, also have our 
work 
cut out for us--especially the work of defending those who will be the first 
potential victims of the jingoistic reaction.

I don't ordinarily use this phrase, but I feel the need to sign this post in 
this manner, in the fullest sense of the words:

In solidarity

Anthony C. Alessandrini
Assistant Professor of English
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242
(330) 672-1725
aalessan-AT-kent.edu



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