|
what seems to matter for those who forgot about all the problems that attended the iraq farce is that bush appeared to respond to 911. what object of the response seems much less important than the fact of response. this follows from the administration's almost immediate framing of the attacks as a variant of the western film--good vs evil--no need for precision in the target selection if you reduce everything to those terms--all that matters is the fact of response and the equating of that response with the actions of "the good".....within this, it is possible to be at once vacant and resolute. all that matters is mobilization.
this seems to me the only explanation that makes sense, in general terms.
let's see: a nation united behind the signifier of a Leader mobilized into a total war against an enemy that is everywhere and invisible, both within and without, in which all that matters is the dynamic of response.....hmm....well, lots of people found this compelling the last few times around too. thinking italy in the late 1920s and moving forward. you can figure it out.
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|