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roachboy · 03-03-2007, 11:24 AM

i can see the appeal of such simple-minded thinking about this, powerclown.

if you think "terrorists" are somehow intrisically Evil, it is all the easier to watch them die on television--and not just them, but their families: destroy them all--bulldoze their houses, divert their water, you know the drill....

television is key here: on television, there is no systematic oppression--there can't be because the nature of video footage doesnt allow for it. if you want to give a sense of systematic oppression, you wedge a sequence of stock footage referencing some past in between footage of people talking as they stand near various buildings. television does not enable you to even start thinking about cause, about structural features, about systems, about the relation between social, economic political oppression, the lack of a sense of viable political mechanisms that would enable a redress of these, and a possible turn to "terrorism" as a response.

television shows you things.
you confuse a sequence of things with reality.

on the other hand, the assumption that context is not important makes you a good television viewer--the conclusions you draw from television footage has to do with some "essential" Evil because the situations from within which such actions arise are not available to you a priori (the medium) and are excluded with even more force by conservative political assumptions--which confuse the surface of things with how things are, which looks around and sees the "amurican way of life" and does not connect it to anything, just takes it as given.

if you sense that this surreal "way of life" is being threatened, absent either a coherent account of your own situation or one of the situations that might drive people to consider violence that you call "terrorism" then it would follow that indiscriminate killing on the part of the state is justifiable for you. no limit to it because Evil is being Exterminated by the Forces of Truth Justice and the American Way.

so if you think about palestine, for example, if you do think about it, it is easy peasy to televisualize the conflict and see only Evil Palestinians and Nice Israeli Victims staged across some displacement of the Showdown at High Noon on Main Street blah blah blah. this because your view of Things is such that the actual history is excluded of the treatment of the palestinian population by the israelis since 1948, its various phases, etc, and of the palestinian responses to occupation in its various modalities since 1948 and the dehumanizing effects this protracted conflict has had ON BOTH SIDES.......but this little story leaves out the third side, the one made up tv viewers who do not understand shit because they are handed nothing but shit and confuse that shit with the world: much easier to decide on the basis of video footage that you are watching good versus evil and to cheerlead for the good with all the analytic sophistication required for any professional wrestling match, and to hope that Good exterminates Evil, wiping out every last man, woman and child because, damn it, that's what the Good does is exterminate Evil down to every last man woman and child because that way the Good demonstrates its inward Quality as the Good, through the violent elimination of what opposes it.....and boy is that a convincing demonstration, everyone thinks so.

no wonder "terrorism" is such a surprise.
whaddya so pissy about, guys? this is happening because of the Amurican Way of Life, which is the very objectification of the Good..you cant possibly oppose it...you cant possibly have a problem with it or *any* of its implications...what grounds would you have? any claim you make is a demonstration of your inward Evil. so do what Good People do when faced with oppression and get with the program: understand that the Good necessitates your wholesale dehumanization and it'll become easier to accept your lot. it's what made america great.

wake up.

03-03-2007, 11:24 AM	#55 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i can see the appeal of such simple-minded thinking about this, powerclown. if you think "terrorists" are somehow intrisically Evil, it is all the easier to watch them die on television--and not just them, but their families: destroy them all--bulldoze their houses, divert their water, you know the drill.... television is key here: on television, there is no systematic oppression--there can't be because the nature of video footage doesnt allow for it. if you want to give a sense of systematic oppression, you wedge a sequence of stock footage referencing some past in between footage of people talking as they stand near various buildings. television does not enable you to even start thinking about cause, about structural features, about systems, about the relation between social, economic political oppression, the lack of a sense of viable political mechanisms that would enable a redress of these, and a possible turn to "terrorism" as a response. television shows you things. you confuse a sequence of things with reality. on the other hand, the assumption that context is not important makes you a good television viewer--the conclusions you draw from television footage has to do with some "essential" Evil because the situations from within which such actions arise are not available to you a priori (the medium) and are excluded with even more force by conservative political assumptions--which confuse the surface of things with how things are, which looks around and sees the "amurican way of life" and does not connect it to anything, just takes it as given. if you sense that this surreal "way of life" is being threatened, absent either a coherent account of your own situation or one of the situations that might drive people to consider violence that you call "terrorism" then it would follow that indiscriminate killing on the part of the state is justifiable for you. no limit to it because Evil is being Exterminated by the Forces of Truth Justice and the American Way. so if you think about palestine, for example, if you do think about it, it is easy peasy to televisualize the conflict and see only Evil Palestinians and Nice Israeli Victims staged across some displacement of the Showdown at High Noon on Main Street blah blah blah. this because your view of Things is such that the actual history is excluded of the treatment of the palestinian population by the israelis since 1948, its various phases, etc, and of the palestinian responses to occupation in its various modalities since 1948 and the dehumanizing effects this protracted conflict has had ON BOTH SIDES.......but this little story leaves out the third side, the one made up tv viewers who do not understand shit because they are handed nothing but shit and confuse that shit with the world: much easier to decide on the basis of video footage that you are watching good versus evil and to cheerlead for the good with all the analytic sophistication required for any professional wrestling match, and to hope that Good exterminates Evil, wiping out every last man, woman and child because, damn it, that's what the Good does is exterminate Evil down to every last man woman and child because that way the Good demonstrates its inward Quality as the Good, through the violent elimination of what opposes it.....and boy is that a convincing demonstration, everyone thinks so. no wonder "terrorism" is such a surprise. whaddya so pissy about, guys? this is happening because of the Amurican Way of Life, which is the very objectification of the Good..you cant possibly oppose it...you cant possibly have a problem with it or any of its implications...what grounds would you have? any claim you make is a demonstration of your inward Evil. so do what Good People do when faced with oppression and get with the program: understand that the Good necessitates your wholesale dehumanization and it'll become easier to accept your lot. it's what made america great. wake up. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 03-03-2007 at 11:27 AM..