Alan Sondheim on Thu, 10 May 2001 17:59:46 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Amerika for Theorists (fwd) |
Amerika for Theorists Understand we are a mean country first of all; social Darwinism on the most brutal and vulgar scale dominates our thinking. Never mind we are down on the quality of life indices; we demand to be counted the greatest country on earth, one which is god-given. Understand our compassion comes at a price; if you do not place us on human rights commissions, we will bomb you, withhold funds, throw more of our own in jail. Understand we are not a democracy; our "president" was not elected by a majority; our gunlaws go wildly against the demographic grain; our health- care is dominated by drug companies and professionals who wreak havoc among the poor and elderly. Understand we are guilty of the worst racisms, the largest jail popula- tions, and one of the most violent societies on the planet. Understand we believe in white male superiority, the punishment of the poor, and the exaltation of violence which makes a man, a man. Understand our ignorance; we do not know the capitals and heads of states of our neighboring countries, much less their policies. They are our bor- ders and our dominions; they are independent by virtue of our kindness. Understand free trade is free profiteering without regard to environmental regulation and protection. Understand Amerika comes first and we do not care about global warming or pollution unless these are cost-free and immediately economically beneficial to our upper classes. Understand our poor are already our walking dead; that our poor come in all colors; that they are irrelevant; that we believe their votes can be bought, sold, and ignored; that we believe they are diseased and obstacles to greater and greater wealth. Understand our meanness is tied to our greed; that our rapaciousness knows no bounds; that ignorance can be fought by the blunt edge of the sword; that we do not care if we make enemies and more enemies. Understand our word "freedom" is our word, not yours, and all of us are perfectly free in this great land of ours. But above all, understand our meanness: to those of us whose voice is irrelevant, to those of us who oppose us, to any country our demographics that crosses our beliefs, to our own creative artists. Understand we possess the violence of the Taliban, ready to unleash it; that our jails are overpopulated by victims of our Apartheid; that we possess, at a moments notice, the bludgeon of Nazism. And understand that we are the Panopticon; we have the god-given right to spy on each and every human on the planet, and to destroy him or her at will. You must understand this if you are to extract the marrow from the bone, the muscle from the brain; you must understand this if you are to defeat us, reduce us to ash and fragments of contaminated flesh, in our god-given country, the greatest of them all. _ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net