McKenzie Wark on Thu, 25 Oct 2001 10:17:13 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> gravity hits the weightless economy... |
Index to This Fabulous World / 24th October 2001 A is for Anthrax McKenzie Wark It would seem that the powers that be really do believe that we live in a weightless, frictionless, 'new economy', were pure information circulates without the tiresome efforts of mere blue collar workers. Even the dogs in the White House were tested for Anthrax, but nobody bothered to test Washington's postal workers, who actually have to sort and shift the mountains of mail that passes through Washington DC. Two postal workers died from exposure to Anthrax. After only a few weeks on the job, Tom Ridge, the Bush-appointed director of Homeland Insecurity already has two preventable deaths for which to account. The discovery of Anthrax in mail sent to Tom Daschle, majority leader, led to a massive operation in which Congress was shut down and searched by investigators in those contamination suits so familiar to regular viewers of the X-Files. The media responded approvingly to these elaborate precautions, as well it might, given that media outlets have also been targets for Anthrax attacks. But just as it was the assistant, rather than celebrity news spokesmodel Dan Rather who opened the ill-starred envelope, it was the postal workers and political minions who really faced danger. The assurances as to their own safety offered by the talking heads of the military entertainment complex are quite genuine, given that neither Rather nor Bush or Dashle open their own envelopes. All the mail in Washington, including mail to Congress, passes through the mail centre on Brentwood Road Northeast, where the two real victims worked. Two more mail workers are in hospital with Anthrax. Surprisingly, mail requires workers to actually sort it and deliver it. Just when the American ruling class has succeeded in making workers invisible and irrelevant, they start to turn up dead from neglect. The free world can at least sleep safe in the knowledge that no Congressional animals were harmed in the recent attacks. American workers, on the other hand, have every reason to think that the new-found aura of unity in adversity radiating from the Anthrax-free person of President Bush does not necessarily include them. "I'm confident when I come to work tomorrow that I'll be safe," says President Bush. The same may not be true for the rank and file of the 'information economy'. NOTES David E. Rosenbaum And Sheryl Gay Stolberg, '2 Postal Workers Die and 2 Are Ill; Inhaled Anthrax Indicated', New York Times, 23rd October 23, 2001; Francis X Clines, 'Early Results Are Negative in White House Anthrax Tests', New York Times, 24th October, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com INDEX TO THIS FABULOUS WORLD http://www.fineartforum.org/Backissues/Vol_15/faf_v15_n09/text/feature.html See also: A HACKER MANIFESTO 2.0 http://www.feelergauge.net/projects/hackermanifesto/version_2.0/ # 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