Obscene.
Three prisoners in our national oubliette-manqué hanged themselves:
Military officials were not releasing the names of the detainees, but said two were Saudi Arabian nationals and one was a Yemeni national. [Rear Admiral Harry] Harris described them as having close ties to terrorist organizations in the Middle East and said their suicides were "not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us."We're now so fully terrified of the shadow of our national nemesis that an act of total surrender by our purported enemies must be repackaged as an attack. So terrified that the spokesmen of empire specifically reject the argument for desperation and embrace the super-villain theory, that even the prisoner's death by his own hand is a blow to the body of state. Où alliez-vous, Michel Foucault ?
I don't have any particular sociological expertise, but I do spend a lot of time in my neighborhood bars, which are treasures of Pittsburgh, each and every one of them. I can happily report that most of Ordinary America isn't very worried about our civilizational doom. The Spenglerian dreams of our court intelligentsia and the half-assed millenarianism George Dubya, Marionette to the Stars, just haven't infected the factory floor and the call center cubicle. The spasms that followed September 11, 2001 were more a reaction to an image than to an event, in part because even as our governors mimed the rituals of national healing, the indicated in plain language and action that we must, like them, accept the self-created mantle of Last Bastion of Civilization, as Europe sunk into decadence and the rest of the world cowered before the Muslim hordes. What a preposterous time it's been.
But now it's wearing thin, and Americans, who've never been so comfortable with the imperial dreams of their superiors, at least not when they have a little time to chew on the thought, increasingly turn their anxieties back to mundanities: health insurance, retirement, savings or debt . . . Bref, the same insoluble problems that have afflicted every civilization ever. No doubt there's still a balance of terror in the bank, but the account is nearer and nearer to overdrawn. I'm not sure what that means, if it's good or bad, but there it is.
7 comments:
IOZ - please check that last sentence - there's something wrong it - there's no predicate for the subject "Americans". It's very disconcerting.
Thanks.
Thank ya! Somehow I published prematurely. It's been appended.
How are you going? (That's how Aussies say "hello" now. "G'day" is getting passe, if I may continue in your French theme.)
Not all Americans are blase about the atrocities being committed in our country's name. My wife and I actually emigrated from San Francisco to Melbourne, Australia last year because we felt too guilty about staying in America. Lucky for us I'm a registered nurse, so I could get a work visa here, and we had a house we could sell at a decent profit. (Especially when you convert it into Aussie dollars.) But yeah, the complacency is astounding.
Here's an interesting thing -- even though we used to alienate our friends in San Francisco because we were so aghast at the way the U.S. is going, ALL the Aussies we've met are perfectly in agreement with us. It's so odd to hear these ridgy-didge old white Anglo types sounding as radical as us. I expected that of the young people, and the immigrants (Melbourne is full of Vietnamese, Italians, Greeks and more Muslims than I expected) but even the native Aussies look at the U.S. like a formerly favourite uncle who turned out to be a child molester. Terrible the way the U.S. has fallen even in the eyes of a country that used to idolise it.
Bars of Pittsburgh? Lucky you! Beer is such a good deal in the U.S. compared to here. It's $5.80 a pint! On the other hand, there's a wine glut here, so we hang out in wine bars. They're more friendly here than in the States. But I don't envy you having to stay there. My conscience feels so much cleaner now. Good onya for having some morals, mate.
And, in other news, it has been announced that Hamas has broken the truce with Israel. This following the shelling and strafing of a Palestinian picnic where 7 were killed which was not, apparently, a truce violation. Leaving one to assume Palestinians are not allowed to eat out-of-doors nor defend themselves. Sounds about right.
It would be nice to live in a country that devotes its resources to dealing with real problems instead of imagined ones; a country led by a government sworn to serve the peoples' needs, instead of bilking and deceiving the people for the enrichment of a handful of plutocratic families. . . but I'm not getting my hopes up.
I think there's an aspect of the American psychology that makes a sizeable minority of us prone to irrational fear in general, and that it will always be possible for clever and unscrupulous politicians to manipulate this fact to their advantage, by directing enough minds away from worries like "insurance, retirement, savings or debt" and towards more convenient "dangers" like gay marriage and the "death tax".
Suicide as "asymmetrical warfare." Not to worry, because we're treating the bodies with "utmost respect."
The juxtaposition falls far beyond irony.
And the administration responsible remains oblivious to their manifest hypocrisy.
I think that maybe what disturbs me more than anything else is that so few people seem to see it. We should all be enraged - not that we've killed people, or that we were forced to defend ourselves, or felt compelled to take prisoners; we should be enraged that we have collectively colluded with a leadership who doesn't balk for a minute at sacrificing the principles we've bought and preserved at such grave cost.
What was that great quote from Vietnam - "We had to burn the village in order to save it"? Well, we treat people with dignity only after they're not people any more.
I wonder if we'll ever learn.
FB
Hello
http://www.cagefightingschool.com/ - ambien online pharmacy
Your doctor must be informed of the side effects of Zolpidem which can be any of the following: • Uncertainty or confusion • Odd behavior • Symptoms of melancholia • Problems with coordination • Changes in the vision • Suicidal thoughts • Restiveness or agitation • Hallucinations • Fainting • Slurred speech
You must realize that such side effects may or may not manifest on you.
[url=http://www.cagefightingschool.com/]buy ambien online[/url]
This sleeping disorder which can give someone a lot of discomfort can now be relieved by Ambien.
ambien online pharmacy
Following are the outcome of the study:
• Daytime drowsiness was manifested by 8% • Dizziness was shown by 5% • Diarrhea was presented by 3% • Difficulty with coordination was displayed by 3%, and • Lightheadedness was manifested by 2% • More than 1 per cent of patients showed allergic reactions, sinusitis, heart palpitations, dry mouth, abnormal dreams, tiredness, and unexplained rash.
Post a Comment