brian carroll on Fri, 14 Sep 2001 03:23:02 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> a call to peace... |
late last week i sent a post that did not make it to the list, which attempted, albeit imperfectly, a strategy to address issues of anti-globalization, intellectual property, and copyright, using a different logic, a different reasoning, a different language than that of opposition: http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-bold-0109/msg00151.html the logic of war: either-or when things are in a closed system, sides can be taken, and predictable outcomes can occur. it may be no one's choice. to make, to change, but a group of people whom work together, cooperation before competition, or at least a balancing of these. but, today, pragmatic logic that reigns from the enlightenment era, quantum paradox and its logic be damned. war is a simple test, if attacked, retaliate. US President Bush used the word 'test' in his addressing the Country, which brought tears to my eyes, as it is all predictable. this is not standardized testing though, there are more than two choices, but in the logic of either-or, there are two choices, for and against, anti- and what is. understandably, people, including the Mayor of NYC and Governor of NY state this attack as having no reason, that it is illogical why anyone would kill innocents. this is the status quo of a media system which does not offer alternative views of the situation, that many people do have reasons for attacking the US. but the US is like an island, interior, insulated. but no more. many refer to this as Pearl Harbor II. a grave concern for anti-movements now underway in a world of either-or logic, those whom are working peacefully or not, for change, are suspect. predictable in that opposition in a closed system leads to war. the post that did not make it to the nettime-list was meant to suggest that by changing the logic of movements of critque and change, that representation could be had, not through the same logic of opposition and concilliation, but democratic debate, that it could be a goal, to get to an open table to discuss issues, but not in traditional terms. but to define and de- lineate 'public' and 'private' aspects of globalisation, intellectual property, and whatnot. the concern being that those who stay in opposition- mode, internal or external to the US, are now the enemy of the people, as portrayed by the media. and, scarier still to imagine, that some in the movement may find 'victory' in this war-mongering, as it is equal and opposite violence to the ideology that is trying to be transformed through people and their democratic efforts to enact change. the clampdown, soon to occur, is of any difference to the status quo, it seems. any webpage, any connect- ion, any thing suspect. any affiliation. trust no one but those above. dissenting the same issues, in the same terms, is now not only cultural alienation, but also a life-death scenario, should it conntinue in violent methodologies, in words, in ideas, actions. if a goal could be to make public the processes, to define the private aspects that are at issue, and the private aspects that are necessary to the pragmatism of the everyday economy, yet, also, to include the public issues being set aside to promote, unabated, the development and refinement of a system that does not serve people as well as it serves the system, because it is a closed system. language is the way out, logic, truth, that is, the ideas. the actions. reasoning works, if it can be made to be included in the private workings. to get into the ideas, instead of bullets. to sit at a table or at a podium in debate, rather than have standoffs with citizen police, meant to protect the system that exists, yet, still, the rights of people, within limits. could it not be a goal, to get to the table, in public, to talk public ideas, with representation, in public policy on local and global levels? could this not be the goal of the movements underway, beyond opposition, but towards transformation... yet, the old logic is bureaucratic, it will not do. it is circular, looping, maddening. death be told. i worry about all the good people on the streets trying to make change, protesting, that they will now be considered the enemies of the state, as they use their rights to protest for change. but without a plan beyond the same-old logic. it will not work. it is a simple equation. an Standardized Apptitude Test (SAT), war or peace. please consider language, logic, and the rationale of anti-thinking, anti-acting, anti-ideological acts. they are now acts of war, violences, bullets, bombs, as dangerous as these, if not proposed in some other context which offers a different alternative to war, on the ground, but to vigorous democratic debate in public forums, tables, not tanks and tear-gas, as the field of operations. institutions need to open up discourse, but not to traditional pundits and their either-or logic, on all sides. but to the diplomacy of realistic change, with ideals, but also concilliations, compromise, and understanding. no platform here but that of a citizen whom does not find a place on either- side -or the other. it just doesn't make sense. it is not so simple. it is not one choice or the other, winner and losers. 'the public' needs to be defined in policy, in actions. as does 'the private'. economics is a technology that pushes forward, that defines, and it is based on private initiatives, business. and policy follows. the free market, while it may work for private business, does not apply for the 'public free market of ideas'. there is none. everything is privitized by default. without a change in logic, in language, in reasoning, there is only the predictable. war. which is now underway. greatest fear now, given the symbolism of the attacks on the US, is a symbolic retaliation, which i myself fear is not going to be done by smart bombs, given the psyche of the damage to the present American ego, and damage to it. if done as bravado, as a show of force, i fear it could at some point be a tactical nuclear strike, given the stakes of where things are at. maybe in some remote location. but it is a fear. hopefully unfounded. but it seems the only thing as strong a show of force, equal and opposite, to the inner nuclear explosions which now are going off in the brains and the emotions of people in the US. everything is silent in the small island city where i live. quiet. no road ragers today. no honking. all is quiet. few cars. few people. silence. and waiting, around the televisions, to hear. the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings as reported on the design-list, the reason the World Trade Center buildings fell is because of their unique structural design (as stated by John Young of cryptome.org), which holds the video up from the outside walls, not from the interior of columns. thus, penetration of the outer walls caused total structural failure, and collapse, whereas in a traditional building of interior column design, would likely not have had the same effect of the plane crashes. ~g. from design-l mentiones http://www.stratfor.com as a good source for info on what is unfolding in the US. the weirdest thing i could ever imagine.... a few months ago (1-3 months) i turned on the TV and tuned in the SF/east bay stations, and there was an odd movie on, i think it was an episode by the former creator of the X-files, or else a made-for-tv movie. in any case, the plot was: that the CIA was corrupt and needed to create terrorist actions to keep things under control. senior CIA people, i think one whom 'went disappearing', showed up as part of a plan to drive a commercial airline into the World Trade Ctr (i believe it was these). the son, a geek detective, figured out his father was involved and somehow at the last minute, was able to turn the plane away before impact. but, like the movie the Manchurian- Candidate in reverse, the movie's plot was that the CIA was the one with plans to take such action. that this was a movie, or a tv episode, and a few months later this happens, at the World Trade Center, and also at the Pentagon, CIA hq, makes one wonder about the symbolism of such movie-making as a sub- text, a subverting of the movie-image into a type of reverse-propaganda of the freedom to imagine the absurd, and then, the imagined unimaginable indeed happens. the plane does crash. two do. one more hits the pentagon. ties into the movie plot rather well and makes such an odd, direct, literal connect- ion to this movie, that it is beyond belief. it is hard to believe such a symbolic act, and its prior symbolism in US tv-world of making-believe, is a tactic of reverse-pyscho-engineering. the fear those whom stick to the either-or logic, and those who try to move beyond it, everyone, becomes a terrorist for not 'thinking alike' in a bureacratic democracy, as it necessitates controlling chaos. that is, the people, not the technology. giving technology the freedom, the people, controlling and odering them to serve the needs, economic, social, and political as it is predefined and refined in the status quo worldview. how can one work for freedom if one dissents, works against, when there is a feasible need for a military state, in a state of war. freedoms are secondary to duty. to allegiance. to orders and controls. it is an impossible situation, beyond war war war, unless we can work together as public people, sharing a langauge, defining a shared logic (both-and, neither-nor, either-or) which is more able to address the complexities of paradox, of multiple viewpoints, of relativity, truth beyond power, but also dealing with the reality of where things are at today, realism in relation to idealism. it is predictable. closed system, closed thinking, closed logic. either-or leads only to war. peace, not through keeping things the same, but transforming through debate of ideas, not exchanging gunfire, but to address the unaddressed, in democratic free speech and the public ideas shared. public and private. a cooperation. a realization of what the issues are. beware of evangilists for the old worldview and its logic. it could be deadly. tables, debates, ideas, transformation, change, protesting for these, for not only inclusion and participation, but questioning of the very foundations of the current worldview. people are people, still. there is still hope in the human community to make change, within different ways of seeing/being. i plead for others to consider this, to consider how anti-this and that can lead to anti-thought, and just more one-sided (they win) tv news about how things are perceived. get in front of the cameras, with the ideas, the new logic, and think beyond the traditional model. it is opening up, through questioning, through better reasoning, through truth and consequence. freedom is at stake. please... -- .. . . . . . .. .. . . . . .... .. .. ... . . . . . . . brian thomas carroll the_electromagnetic_internetwork electromagnetic researcher matter, energy, and in-formation human@electronetwork.org http://www.electronetwork.org/ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # 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