nettime's_wilderness_of_mirrors on Sat, 15 Sep 2001 04:07:14 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> a very reflective digest [lichty, guderian, gh, schaefer, fry]


Patrick Lichty <voyd@voyd.com>
     Two quick WTC reflections
Carl Guderian <carlg@vermilion-sands.com>
     Crime, not war
gh@popstar.com
     Tribeca report
Franz Schaefer <schaefer@mond.at>
     stopping the madness. how do we prevent even more harm...
"Nicholas C. D. Fry" <fried.nicky@virgin.net>
     <Reflections on this week's terrorist attacks in USA.>

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Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 11:49:00 -0700
From: Patrick Lichty <voyd@voyd.com>
Subject: Two quick WTC reflections

I was thinking about the response that Bush has announced on CNN et al, and
the inpression that comes to mind are the paradox of violence and the fall
of the nation state,

The Paradox of Violence in American Culture
America is a culture of violence and tragedy.  On televised programming,
gunshots ring out, heads explode, and sex is reduced to jiggle tactics for
our 'tit'ill-ation.  The most popular video games are typically the most
violent (besides Myst), and everything in AMerican culture has to be
'extreme'.  Have you seen the new 'Extreme' tampons?  (Just joking).

However, amidst all of this, large amounts of effort are expended to
instill conflict resolution techniques in American schools.  The philosphy
taught is that if you're hit, you have to take a moment and consider your
actions.  

In the case of the WTC, within minutes Bush was announcing "terrorist"
actions perpetrated upon the American public, and within 24 hours, the
American war machine's hammer is cocked, ready to respond before a clearly
defined adversary known.  To me this smacks hollow with the restraint we
try to teach our kids.

The Nation-less State.
Here's the problem:  The US government's rhetoric has repeatedly tried to
equate its response with nation states.  Their Harbors will not be safe,
they say.  This once again returns to the affiliation with a nation state.
The problem is that there is a high degree of probability that all of this
is privately funded, not affiliated with any nation state, and operations
are likely to have taken place in many of the US's allied nations.  The
network of terrorism is also likely made up of hundreds of individuals
operating in independent 'cells' all over the world.  This is La Femme
Nikita vs. Get Smart. The American rhetoric is still plugged into the old
model of organization - the nation-state.  In this case, an overlay of
highly mobile, independent alliances and cartels are made evident, much as
in a cyberpunk novel.  The target moves, and its nature can change
dynamically to adapt for contingencies.  When the regimented, hierarchical
structure of conventional nation-states are confronted with this agile
enemy, they struggle to comprehend the paradigmatic shift that has happened.

Sure, the US might wish to eliminate harbors for terrorism.  So then,
should the Air Force bomb the flight academies in Florida that trained some
of the WTC terrorists?  If, as one TV rumor puts it, there was a
Germany-based cell involved, should Germany be bombed back to the Stone Age?  

Hardly.

New realities are being made evident, and extant structures are trying to
deal with them in traditional terms.  Until the powers that be understand
that these new agile and stealthy operations operate in ways and structures
perviously alien to them, the possibility exists that such events are
possible, even likely in the future.

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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 11:57:43 +0200
From: Carl Guderian <carlg@vermilion-sands.com>
Subject: Crime, not war

It's probably too late, but this should have been treated as an
international crime, not as the start of a war. Terrorism--the real kind,
not Black Bloc anti-capitalist brawls labeled as such by politicians--is
already considered international crime. It's just that some countries
couldn't be bothered to get involved. With bin Laden's previous atrocities,
Afghanistan only suffered small retaliatory strikes. All the rhetoric about
"just deserts" falls flat when it's this bad, though I do hope it will
cause certain people to rethink the policy of keeping evil people on the
payroll.

Treat it as a crime and Afghanistan has a duty to extradite bin Laden when
the US succeeds in tracing the attack to his organization. The Taleban may
now be coming around to this way of thinking, if it's true they've got him
under house arrest. Label bin Laden a criminal and you strip him and his
followers the status of warriors. Rutger Hauer said it best in the
cardboard epic "Wanted Dead or Alive" (since movies metaphors are lately
flying thick and fast) when he told the terrorist played by Gene Simmons
(of KISS): "You're a fly, buzzing around a piece of shit."

Arrest bin Laden, preferably with the cooperation of the Taleban. Whatever
they think of Americans, this is beyond the pale. If they won't help, we
shoulder them aside and go after him ourselves. The world can tolerate
black money, mafiyas (more or less), black money and a semi-wild internet,
but not this. No sane government would hide someone who could do this.

Put bin Laden in shackles and a prison orange jumpsuit and shave his beard
to regulation prison length. Put him and his co-cospirators on public
trial. No going out in a blaze of glory for bin Laden.

This certainly tests the bounds of crime, but treating this as a criminal
case instead of a war will do a lot to calm everybody down. It won't scare
the crap out of friends and enemies alike. It won't put the US on a war
footing, much less give legal cover to those with a hardon for emergency
powers. It won't result in muzzling of the press (truth being war's first
casualty) or bans of encryption. It won't result in the Cold War-style,
"with us or against us" mentality that smothered dissent and excused the
sort of idiocy that led to our cultivation of bin Laden in the first place.

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From: gh@popstar.com
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:05:40 +0800
Subject: Tribeca report

I live 8 blocks north of the world trade center.  My 
view is south facing the towers.  I saw and 
videtaped the whole thing.  Its a video I'd rather not 
have.  The Friday previous to the attack I was at 
the Trade center changing airplane tickets.  One 
month ago I went up to the top with my 
brother-in-law, his teenage daughter and his wife. 
My Street Harrison Street is being used as a 
major staging area for the clean-up and rescue 
operations.  Yesterday they were cleaning 
asbestos off emergency vehicles.  The police 
have barricaded the cross street in lower 
Manhattan. You have show a photon identification 
to go back to your home.  Twice when I tried to go 
through a barricade to get to my home I was 
turned away by a cop even though I had proper ID.  
We have no subway service. The grocery stores & 
restaurants are all closed.  My car is parked on a 
pier below 14th street on the river.  I don't know 
whether they'll let me get it.  We are all in shock 
here.  I walked my wife up to a working subway 
station in the village at 6th ave & Bleecker. The 
whole of 6th ave was lined with hundreds of dump 
trucks coming from New Jersey. They were 
pointed downtown ready to clear the debris. The 
street was lined with people who applauded and 
cheered on the men driving the trucks.  



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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:09:22 +0200
From: Franz Schaefer <schaefer@mond.at>
Subject: stopping the madness. how do we prevent even more harm...

a horrible tragedy. many innocent people died. 

but what is coming now could, in the long run be even more dangerous to all
of us:

1) restriction of our freedom and privacy in the name of "protecting us".

2) it looks like bush and many others are planing violent retaliation. this
  would only advance the vicious circle of violence and counter violence. 
  and that could eventually bring us WWIII.

i believe each of us has the duty to do everything possible to prevent that.
in order to couteract to lunactics like mister bush it would make sense to
lean a bit more to opposing positions.

here are a few ideas that might help us to do that:

*) express solidarity with the victims and their relatives but strongly
   oppose bush right wing politics

*) express opposition with the capitalist and imperialistic politics of the
   usa in general.

*) point out that spending more money for (so called) "defense", espionage,
   and surveillance will not be useful instead that effort should go to
   helping development of 3rd world countries. as long as we build our
   wealth on the suppression of 2/3 of the world we should not be surprised
   by what happened on september 11.

*) oppose the destruction of civil liberty.

    "Those who would trade liberty for security will get
     and deserve neither.".
      --  Benjamin Franklin

*) show support for the freedom of religion and show special solidarity with
   the islamic religion. not every muslim is a fundamentalist just like not
   every christian is a fundamentalist. and even the persons who label
   them self fundamentalists are often not bad people.

*) if your country tries to support bush and his insane ideas of war then
   organice protests against your local government NOW.

... add more to the list...

greetings from vienna, austria.

mond.


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   .                   Franz Schaefer        NEW  Fingerprint:
  ..           +43/676/3195231 +43/1/3178892    GPG: 57C2 C0CC
  ...                 schaefer@mond.at     6F0A 54C7 0D88 D37E 
    ...              http://www.mond.at/   C17C CB16 CFA2 F632

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Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 18:40:23 +0100
Subject: <Reflections on this week's terrorist attacks in USA.>
From: "Nicholas C. D. Fry" <fried.nicky@virgin.net>

Reflections on this week's terrorist attacks in USA.

The recent events in USA have proved both terrifying and fascinating to
anyone watching or listening from a 'safe' distance. Receiving such
extraordinary events over the television made them perversely familiar. As a
number of journalists have pointed out, the images resembled Hollywood's
favourite, 'explosive' film dramas, with aeroplanes crashing out of control
and enormous explosions sending cities into chaos; not unfamiliar fantasies.
I imagine many people repelled by that kind of Hollywood drama would have
felt some strange sense of satisfaction when witnessing what could be
described as the world's most severe example of loss of innocence. Many news
broadcasters drew attention to the fact that it was going to be another
'perfect day' in New York under clear blue sky; the sublime cleanliness of
wealth and order. The certitude and pertinence of the multiple, terrorist
operations resembled in some respects a most merciless chastising.

The tarnishing of America's domestic innocence and economic sanctity was
fast becoming an inevitable and, some may deem,  necessary event in the
unfolding history of global politics. The dramatic increase of activity by
the western anti-capitalist/ anarchist movement, and the pronounced
intensity of their actions has been a strong foreboding to anyone with any
interest in diversity of political opinion and the conventional hypocrisy of
enduring bureaucracies. It has become increasingly clear that changes across
the world have to be made and that the governing bodies responsible for
initiating these changes simply aren't effective. Since President G W Bush
came to power on the backbone of his 5 billion dollar election campaign
there's has been nothing but contempt for American foreign policy. He seems
destined through stupidity to lead the entire western world even deeper into
the hatred of middle eastern nations and currently, into an international
exchange of body counts. But, I guess as Blair says it's the duty of the
'free and democratic world to eradicate' this new breed of 'Evil'...
evidently we can conclude from this proclamation that,
a) Western democracy is a farce,
b) this so-called 'Evil' is indiscriminately infectious, and
c) that logic is no longer something contained by the rules of language.

All the Media lean in favour of preserving illusions of ideological
invisibility; the terrible attack was a terrible attack, no more, no less.
The media have predominantly failed to illuminate anything more than a
powerful blow, there was apparently nothing of any educational value to be
teased from the event. The sleeping lion took a blow to the head, and will,
after figuring out what the hell happened, shortly begin flailing his
drunken arms about in the vain hope of chancing upon his long-gone
tormentor.

The selected, media images emulated this paradigm in a number of peculiar
ways. I was amazed at how little of the actual human casualty was televised.
Images of the aeroplanes and buildings played (as we all know) over and over
again like matchbox toys in a child's game; (a remarkable irony where the
media suddenly found itself struggling to arrest it's incredible moving
images, as if the video of the disaster, if it were played enough times,
would establish itself as a static form. For as soon as the apex of an event
(a crash) were set in motion, it would be over. The moving image, by it's
temporal frivolity was inadequate, and the way in which the media looped the
footage endlessly showed their fruitless attempt to evoke the unmoving
historicism and unambiguousness of the Photograph.) The images were
reassuringly ordered. And, although the most incredible and disastrous loss
of life took place, there were very few images that explicitly revealed this
fact. When the TV news broadcasters were attaining to shed some light on the
history of Osama Bin Ladin and showed scenes of the destruction and carnage
that ensued when the American embassies in Africa were bombed, countless
images of mutilated, bleeding and dead Africans filled my screen. The
gratuitousness of images representing African, Asian and Middle Eastern
disasters strikes a stark contrast with the remarkable censorship pulled
over White disasters. The veneer of control and orderliness sustained and
maintained by Western Media held fast. We were yet again protected from the
fact of Death 'in our own back yard', for the gratuitousness by which it is
conventionally symbolized, was absent from this most coarse and tragic event
of destruction.

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