From: "Malcolm Thompson" <mac_thompson-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: glee at the bombings
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 02:04:37 +0000


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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