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Saturday, January 10, 2015

On Terrorism(French Edition)



What has stricken me, from the evening of 9-11-2001, to this day, is the tacit prohibition on considering the perspectives of the perpetrators.
We are expected to only consider it from our own( somewhat elitist and exclusive) perspective: they “hate us for our freedoms”, even as those Freedoms are whittled away out of Fear of Terrorism(“fear-ism”).
Their violence is always presented as Irrational, Barbaric, and Unwarranted.
Conversely, we are encouraged to think of our own, retaliatory Violence as Good and Just...and always perfectly Rational.
We are not to question the Official Story.
We are never to look into the perceptions and motivations of those Others.
I found out about this Prohibition the hard way.
That afternoon and evening...and for the following weeks...I, as is my habit, speculated aloud about possible alternative explanations and chains of Causation.
“Look at the History,” I said....
“Look at the West's meddling in the entire Arab World, for centuries...”
One can think of all of this as a considered response to Our own aggression and
avarice and double-dealing with the inhabitants of those regions.
From Churchill throwing darts at the map, to Sykes-Picot, to the Crusades, to the imposition and then propping up of various dictators and strongmen...from the House of Saud to Saddam to the Shah to Mubarak.
Our employees have waged a long campaign of violent, often Imperial, meddling....and the results, for the People on the ground in those places, have been economic and social stagnation.
From that perspective, from the perspective of those who have grown up in such chaotic environs---and confronted by wealthy Imperial strength—is it any wonder that those folks would eventually strike back at what they perceive as their Oppressors?
But we are all but forbidden from such contemplation.
To even consider that the Terrists may have a Grievance...and a legitimate one, at that...is considered as bordering on Treason.
This manipulated narrowing of Thought means that the same People, and “People”(the Paper Kind) ,who are behind the Oppression and Aggression against the entire Third World.--including the Arab/Muslim parts-- can also direct their Oppression and Aggression inwards...corralling and delimiting the Thoughtscapes of their own People, so as to curtail any opposition...and any formation of alternatives to their Paradigm.
TINA, again.
Hydraulic Despotism, applied to the Psycho-Social milieu.
It is instructive, that the first words to come from the public face of the various “intelligence” agencies after the bloodletting in France, are all about the “Need” to give up more of our Freedoms in service of “Fighting the Terrorists”.
Our Privacy, Our Freedom of Thought and Communication, are to be Sacrificed on the altar of FEAR.
That this end so closely coincides with the purported agenda of the Terrists, themselves, is yet another thing from which we are to avert our eyes.
That We allow our own governments to, essentially, accomplish what those governments tell us, in all sincerity, are the “Goals” of the Terrists, is the most hellish of ironies.



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