Re: Imperial grief

[Waistline2]

>There is also an imperial grief. I hope humane people on this list will forgive me, in speculating whether this tragedy might do anything to knock  Bush's imperial arrogance. The idea that the whole nation must go into mourning because it is shocking that 7 people trained for struggle might fall foul of the risks, is not unconnected with the belief that the USA must remain inviolate from having to negotiate a collective global way of reducing risk in the world. <


Imperial grief is an appropriate title for this thread. The break up of Columbia and the death of its seven-member crew was unknown to my wife until I informed her. Her response was "Bush ass is in trouble." Sensing the look of bewilderment on my face she stated, "When you have a stupid mutherfu**er - that is also ignorant in power, trying to prove something to his daddy, everything starts going wrong."

I grinned broadly because reality is interactive and I do not have to understand the avenue in which an individual makes the "connection" between seemingly unrelated events and administrators in authority. My mind drifted back some twenty odd years when my children were in elementary and Jr. High School and the Challenger explosion occurred. My son came home from school and said, "Dad do you know what NASA stands for." I said yea and spoke of the Space Administration. "No dad, Need Another Seven Astronauts - NASA," and start laughing.

I was horrified at this ghastly sense of humor but understood it was produced in a social setting and environment.

Shift. 9/11

I watched the events of 9/11 on television because it occurred on an election Tuesday and I had not gone to work to take part in passing out literature for several candidates. The events were horrifying and unbelievable. Later when the official body count came in - 3000 plus, I was not horrified. Last year when I found out that 18,000 died in America due to lack of medical coverage I was horrified.

In my more than less daily debate on various chat lines over the current war drive I mentioned the death figures from lack of medical coverage and several folk responded, "shit happens, what about 9/11?" I asked for an explanation. "The 18,000 who died did that to themselves and 9/11 was done to us by someone else."  The ideology of "someone else" was understood as the "philosophic other" -  "the outsider in our midst," and I understood what was being said and expressed - imperial grief.

The issue is complex but riveted to the ideological currents that grew up on the basis of slavery in America and the isolation of a class that evolved into a people - an utterly unique phenomenon in history. What is being spoken of it not merely white chauvinism but national chauvinism, although there is no Great Wall of China that compartmentalizes ideological conceptions.

The Bush Jr. administration and its ideologist correctly wanted to know the impact of Columbia on the thinking of the American peoples (peoples always have an "s" - plural) and the current drive to war against Iraq because "everything that happens under your watch is your fault, even it you did not directly interact on an occurrence."

"Ideological interactivity," is the watchword. It is Bush Jr. fault because the focus of the country has been deliberately shifted to war and "screw the little man/women" and the money is going into the military and NASA could have been thrown a couple of more billion for a new space craft.

One can of course explore the ideological frameworks of imperial peoples - who are stratified, and ascertain why they grieve a certain way while their governments reap havoc on the world' peoples and destroy the life force of billions of people. My statement to sum up this occurrence is simple and yes - dogmatic. "The multi-national state of the United States of America is the international hangman of revolution and the enemy of the peoples of the world." This statement was formulated in 1973 and remains true today. This statement is short, sweet, to the point and expresses the experience billions are living.

The wife was right - again, and intuitive materialist in her outlook. Twenty some years ago my son was right, "Ned Another Seven Astronauts."

To grieve for ones own and not that of "the other" is the height of imperial degeneracy, sectarianism and narrowmindness. To grieve for seven and not recognize the million who die daily is testimony to the degeneracy of the industrial stage of development and blood lust. The 3000 plus dead from 9/11 are not opposed to the 18,000 dead from lack of medical coverage. Rather we have 21,000 dead on our soil, - who happen to make the news, and the masses must learn the connection between events. I do not suggest that one use this understanding in their daily battle - art, of winning over the laboring masses to the cause of the just, unless they are dealing with people who can understand this elementary truth.

When I said this to the wife she grinned broadly and said,

"You still don't get it. That mutherf***ing Bush is going to try and kill at least a billion people minimum."

I thought to myself, "The multi-national state of the United States of America is the international hangman of revolution and the enemy of the peoples of the world."

As the saying goes, "truth is truer than (individual) facts."


Melvin P.