Ben Hoh on Thu, 17 Jan 2002 06:48:02 +0100 (CET) |
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[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> Let's Tell War Stories! |
> war is elsewhere, and if nettime has memory it might remember a few of > those, say serbia. ilich, Don't you think that the poorly excused punitive adventure in Afghanistan, in which the question of violence ("collateral" or otherwise) has been almost completely erased in the public sphere, has constituted a war??? And that this is inextricably bound up with the growing wave of local repression in the US (e.g. the disintegration of civil liberties in general, the savage use of racial profiling, racist mob violence, the rise of inane patriotism, etc.)? These are obviously codetermining phenomena. In Australia, for example, the so-called "War on Terrorism" has dovetailed with our popular government's incarceration of refugees (many of whom have lately been from Afghanistan) in concentration camps run by private corporations, and has fallen neatly into step with the longstanding and regular criminalisation of the local Arab population. These instances of repression cannot but resonate with the action in Afghanistan, to which my government made direct military contributions. (And, in fact, the governmental attempts to justify the internment of Afghan refugees -- by suggesting that they are "potential terrorists" -- suggests that they are also prisoners of war, in a very real sense.) Yes, the outrage of Americans at the events of 9/11, and various attempts to code it as a uniquely apocalyptic event, are *almost* invariably enunciated in a way which denies the systematic murder that occurs elsewhere in the world, especially that which the US directly sponsors. And at worst, it is mobilised to justify further murder. Hence, the rhetorical antidote for many of us is that "the world did *not* change on September 11". But it did change, as the current sitution of "anti-personnel" ultraviolence, boring patriotism and leadening repression attests. This is how I read the word "war". It is our context. Ben _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold