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roachboy · 08-10-2004, 06:38 AM

i am not sure how things got diverted onto a black/white choice here: the americans are doing no good, the americans mean well so are trying to do good...since the war requires a marketing campaign--moreso in iraq than elsewhere even, it stands to reason that the americans would be trying to "do good things" materially--if they did not, what possiblity would they open up for themselves?
the americans would have no choice but to think about the relation between their actions and "terrorism" if they did not try to "do good" in iraq.....and elsewhere....

every colonial power has imagined that it too was "doing good"--the civilizing mission, dontcha know...the atrocity exhibition that is the history of belgium in the congo, for example, is littered with pronouncements about how much good the belgians were doing--they were working toward "moral improvement" as they rounded up villages that did not make their rubber quotas, marched the inhabitants out into a sunny place, crowded them together, built walls tight around them, and left them there to die slowly in the heat. for example.

whether you believed a given colonial occupation was "for the greater good" or not was a function--then as now--of control of information flows.

for whom does this control exist?

is control over information a therapeutic operation that functions to reduce cognitive dissonance for the folk who find themselves having to carry out the directives that shape a misbegotten, illegitimate war?

is it a therapeutic operation aimed at shoring up support domestically for the administration?

do you believe this narrative for reasons other than the fact that it makes it easier for you to not experience dissonance in your relation to this fiction of the american nation by looking too much at what this war is doing in the name of "doing good"?

how fragile is this therapeutic narrative?

what kind of relation is there between the defensive reactions on the part of the administration to outlets like al-jazeera and the gap that seperates how the administration sells the war to itself and what is happening on the ground?

08-10-2004, 06:38 AM	#19 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i am not sure how things got diverted onto a black/white choice here: the americans are doing no good, the americans mean well so are trying to do good...since the war requires a marketing campaign--moreso in iraq than elsewhere even, it stands to reason that the americans would be trying to "do good things" materially--if they did not, what possiblity would they open up for themselves? the americans would have no choice but to think about the relation between their actions and "terrorism" if they did not try to "do good" in iraq.....and elsewhere.... every colonial power has imagined that it too was "doing good"--the civilizing mission, dontcha know...the atrocity exhibition that is the history of belgium in the congo, for example, is littered with pronouncements about how much good the belgians were doing--they were working toward "moral improvement" as they rounded up villages that did not make their rubber quotas, marched the inhabitants out into a sunny place, crowded them together, built walls tight around them, and left them there to die slowly in the heat. for example. whether you believed a given colonial occupation was "for the greater good" or not was a function--then as now--of control of information flows. for whom does this control exist? is control over information a therapeutic operation that functions to reduce cognitive dissonance for the folk who find themselves having to carry out the directives that shape a misbegotten, illegitimate war? is it a therapeutic operation aimed at shoring up support domestically for the administration? do you believe this narrative for reasons other than the fact that it makes it easier for you to not experience dissonance in your relation to this fiction of the american nation by looking too much at what this war is doing in the name of "doing good"? how fragile is this therapeutic narrative? what kind of relation is there between the defensive reactions on the part of the administration to outlets like al-jazeera and the gap that seperates how the administration sells the war to itself and what is happening on the ground? __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 08-10-2004 at 06:41 AM..