Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Osama bin Laden is dead. (How hard) did you celebrate?

roachboy · 05-03-2011, 04:13 AM

if you actually read the article linked below the quote, 9er, you'll see that it is a more sophisticated and specific argument than you might get by reading off what you want to see from a paraphrase of a line used mostly as a teaser.

on the one hand sure. if you believe the mythology that reduced the 2001 attacks to the a single very bad apple (rendering neutral the manifest problems of empire but hey everyone sees what they want, yes?) so that we are collectively in a re-run of some cheesy western and have just witnessed----sort of----the climactic showdown between Good and Evil at High Noon in front of kitty's saloon---then sure. it's a simple little world, that, but it provides a quaint narrative and you don't have to work too hard to get it and who doesn't like the climactic gunfight in a western. and except for the whole civilization thing no problemo. but you present yourself above as having access to some Higher Reality, a revealed wisdom about what's Really Going On with people. it's a little unnerving, this rhetorical position you like to trot out. o the thin veneer of civilization--so easy to strip away.

and yes it is easy to strip away.

but i would think you'd kinda like that thin veneer of civilization. because what's behind it isn't great. it isn't smart. it isn't interesting. it's just death. like an endless ted nugent song. yeesh.

because one of the main problems with systematized barbarism national-security state stylee is the lies you have to tell to pretend its not there. but you have to lie about it because---well----it's that's how war economies roll. they're only easy to sell if you talk a bunch of shit about freedom and all that. of course it's only meaningful, this freedom business, so long as you don't fuck with the empire.

this whole charade of the war on terror is about maintaining in place the hoary old national-security state. it's about a vision of capitalism as a war economy predicated on a politics of security uber alles.

until the national-security state is dismantled, we are the beast.

problem is that folk like it. they like the westerns they get to watch. fuck yeah america they say once the dude in the white hat guns down the dude in the black hat who is exactly the same as the dude in the white hat except for who's cheering for him

05-03-2011, 04:13 AM	#66 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	if you actually read the article linked below the quote, 9er, you'll see that it is a more sophisticated and specific argument than you might get by reading off what you want to see from a paraphrase of a line used mostly as a teaser. on the one hand sure. if you believe the mythology that reduced the 2001 attacks to the a single very bad apple (rendering neutral the manifest problems of empire but hey everyone sees what they want, yes?) so that we are collectively in a re-run of some cheesy western and have just witnessed----sort of----the climactic showdown between Good and Evil at High Noon in front of kitty's saloon---then sure. it's a simple little world, that, but it provides a quaint narrative and you don't have to work too hard to get it and who doesn't like the climactic gunfight in a western. and except for the whole civilization thing no problemo. but you present yourself above as having access to some Higher Reality, a revealed wisdom about what's Really Going On with people. it's a little unnerving, this rhetorical position you like to trot out. o the thin veneer of civilization--so easy to strip away. and yes it is easy to strip away. but i would think you'd kinda like that thin veneer of civilization. because what's behind it isn't great. it isn't smart. it isn't interesting. it's just death. like an endless ted nugent song. yeesh. because one of the main problems with systematized barbarism national-security state stylee is the lies you have to tell to pretend its not there. but you have to lie about it because---well----it's that's how war economies roll. they're only easy to sell if you talk a bunch of shit about freedom and all that. of course it's only meaningful, this freedom business, so long as you don't fuck with the empire. this whole charade of the war on terror is about maintaining in place the hoary old national-security state. it's about a vision of capitalism as a war economy predicated on a politics of security uber alles. until the national-security state is dismantled, we are the beast. problem is that folk like it. they like the westerns they get to watch. fuck yeah america they say once the dude in the white hat guns down the dude in the black hat who is exactly the same as the dude in the white hat except for who's cheering for him __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 05-03-2011 at 04:17 AM..