From: "Salil Tripathi" <salil61-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: 
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 08:19:50 +0000


eldorra

thanks for posting this letter from the LRB. i had read it in the print 
edition. how removed the mary beards of the world are from the real world 
has rarely been put forward so intelligently.

salil


>From: eldorra mitchell <manynotone-AT-yahoo.co.in>
>Reply-To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>To: postcolonial capital <postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
>CC: deleuze-guattari-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 08:29:13 +0100 (BST)
>
>  From LRB Vol 23, No 20 | cover date 18 October 2001
>  With a few exceptions, your 11 September roundtable
>(LRB, 4
>                  October) is agreed on one central
>point: what happened in New
>                  York and Washington can be directly
>blamed on US policies
>                  and actions from the 1960s to the
>present, with Israel's
>                  treatment of the Palestinians as the
>last straw. Fredric Jameson
>                  reminds us that the recent 'events',
>as he calls the horrific
>                  attacks that killed thousands,
>provide us with 'a textbook
>                  example of dialectical reversal'.
>Others - Tariq Ali, for instance
>                  - warn us not to incense Arab nations
>even further, as if a mea
>                  culpa on our part could now end the
>threat of further attacks,
>                  this time quite possibly ones of
>biological warfare.
>                      But what I wish principally to
>address here is part of Mary
>                  Beard's contribution. 'When the shock
>had faded,' she writes,
>                  'more hard-headed reaction set in.
>This wasn't just the feeling
>                  that, however tactfully you dress it
>up, the United States had it
>                  coming. That is, of course, what many
>people openly or
>                  privately think. World bullies, even
>if their heart is in the right
>                  place, will in the end pay the
>price.'
>                      On 11 September, according to the
>latest figures as I
>                  write, 6333 Americans and 2593
>foreign citizens died in New
>                  York. That's approximately 9000
>people. (I am not counting
>                  those who died at the Pentagon.) Most
>of us know someone or
>                  know of someone who has died in the
>WTC debacle. And most
>                  of the people who died had relatives,
>including thousands of now
>                  orphaned children. If you multiply
>9000 by, say, four you have
>                  36,000 innocent people whose lives
>have been destroyed in one
>                  way or another. The victims,
>incidentally, included a high
>                  proportion of Latinos and blacks as
>well as a good number of
>                  Muslims. And, contrary to the clich
>about the WTC and the
>                  Pentagon being emblems of US imperial
>power, the victims held
>                  a great variety of jobs: they worked
>for travel agencies,
>                  restaurants, public relations firms,
>TV networks, insurance
>                  companies, law firms, art supply
>manufacturers. In short, they
>                  were a cross-section of America.
>                      But Mary Beard, writing from
>Cambridge, surely one of
>                  the most idyllic safe havens in the
>world, tells us that 'the United
>                  States had it coming' and that this
>is 'of course' what many
>                  people 'openly or privately think'.
>In the circles in which Beard
>                  travels, perhaps many people do think
>this. Certainly most of the
>                  LRB's contributors seem to. Perhaps
>this is why academics are
>                  now so poorly regarded by the rest of
>the population and why
>                  there are so few academic jobs for
>recent Humanities PhDs,
>                  either in the US or the UK. Outside
>the ivory gates, 95 per cent
>                  of the US population evidently
>disagree with Beard's
>                  assessment. But of course we know how
>spurious this 'fact' is.
>                  As Jameson tells us, the people 'are
>united by the fear of saying
>                  anything that contradicts this
>completely spurious media
>                  consensus'.
>                      Fear, one wonders, of what? Has
>Jameson ever been
>                  silenced for his views? Beard, in any
>case, goes on to complain
>                  about our 'glib definitions of
>"terrorism"' and our 'refusal to listen
>                  to what the "terrorists" have to
>say'. 'There are,' she continues,
>                  'very few people on the planet who
>devise carnage for the
>                  sheer hell of it.'
>                      Well, I suppose it depends on
>what one means by 'the
>                  sheer hell of it'. By analogy to
>terrorism, perhaps we should not
>                  have bothered with definitions of
>Nazism or Fascism, but should
>                  have listened to what Hitler and his
>friends had to say. I seem
>                  to recall that Neville Chamberlain
>tried just that; he even had 'a
>                  piece of paper from Herr Hitler'. But
>as Churchill knew, 'an
>                  appeaser is one who feeds the
>crocodile thinking it will eat him
>                  last.' As it turned out, after all
>that 'listening' at Berchtesgaden,
>                  there were quite a few people on the
>planet who were quite
>                  happy to devise carnage 'for the
>sheer hell of it', taking that
>                  phrase quite literally. Hell is, in
>any case, what transpired.
>                      It is true that the US has
>committed some atrocities in the
>                  Middle East and that, say, Clinton's
>bombing of the wrong target
>                  - a beautiful new hospital - in the
>Sudan was a major crime.
>                  Does it therefore follow that 'the US
>had it coming'? And which
>                  of us in the US are included?
>                      I have been a subscriber to LRB
>since the journal's
>                  inception some twenty-five years ago.
>But I hereby cancel my
>                  subscription and shall urge my
>Stanford students and colleagues
>                  to boycott the journal. Let me end,
>however, on an upbeat note
>                  that speaks to Beard's 'of course'.
>The man who takes care of
>                  our garden in Pacific Palisades,
>Ruben Vargas, was here the
>                  other day. A Latino who came to
>California from Mexico not all
>                  that long ago, Vargas has a daughter
>who is a freshman at
>                  UCLA. Some of us like to think that
>such upward mobility is
>                  what makes the US unique. I asked
>Ruben what he thought of
>                  the attack. 'Well,' he said, 'at
>least now we're all in it together.' I
>                  responded: 'But Ruben, many of my
>friends think it's all
>                  America's fault.' He smiled and said:
>'Excuse me, Marjorie' -
>                  yes, in California, one has only a
>first name - 'but isn't that a
>                  minuscule part of the population?' Of
>course!
>
>Marjorie Perloff
>
>Los Angeles
>
>
>
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