Re: Imperial grief
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,
RE: Imperial grief
Title: RE: [PEN-L:34303] Imperial grief some quibbles/comments... Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine Chris Burford writes [about the Columbia tragedy]: 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. call me a crude materialist, but it's not just a belief. It's also the facts that (1) the US media find more to broadcast about national events; (2) the event involved the US government, the most powerful in the world; (3) it involved NASA, a government organization that (despite its military connections and privatization) is overwhelmingly supported by people in the US and gets a lot of support around the world; and (4) the US is currently the most powerful country in the world. The particular cruelty of the recent US wars, has been partly dependent on the idea that not a single US serviceman must die - the high level bombing of Yugoslavia, and then of Afghanistan. In the latter case specialist teams were allowed to take part and be in harm's way to use Bush's homely phrase, to the extent that a special interrogator who was too provocative got killed. The death reflected more on US cowardice than that of the perpetrator. I don't know if the word cowardice can be applied to an entire country. However, Chris probably meant the word US to refer to the US power elite. But even that elite isn't cowardly in its use of the sons and daughters of the non-elite in war. The problem isn't cowardice. The fear of losing even a single US soldier arises from the Vietnam syndrome (i.e., the mass resistance to and/or dissent against the US war against Vietnam, which was encouraged by the large number of US casualties) and from the brouhaha due to the disaster of the US adventure in Somalia more than 10 years ago. The elite doesn't want that kind of mass resistance and that kind of brouhaha, so it tries to spare US lives. However, I bet that Rummy, Wolfowitz, and the boys would love to destroy the Vietnam Syndrome forever so that they could be brave using other people's children again, just as in the good old days. Now we are on the threshold of Bush completing his father's unfinished business in Iraq, which took something over 100 US service lives if I recall correctly. most (almost all? all?) of whom were victims of friendly fire. JD
Re: RE: Imperial grief
Jim Devine wrote: call me a crude materialist, but it's not just a belief. It's also the facts that (1) the US media find more to broadcast about national events; (2) the event involved the US government, the most powerful in the world; (3) it involved NASA, a government organization that (despite its military connections and privatization) is overwhelmingly supported by people in the US and gets a lot of support around the world; and (4) the US is currently the most powerful country in the world. Not crude at all. Someone once said something like Ten deaths are a tragedy, 10,000 deaths a problem in public sanitation. One could add that the 10 deaths are tragic only if the media tell us about them. I think the best commentary was written about 60 years ago -- Carrol Deportee The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting, The oranges are piled in their creosote dumps. You are flying them back to the Mexican border To pay all their money to wade back again. Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won't have a name when you fly the big airplane And all they will call you will be deportee. My father's own father he waded that river, They stole all the money he made in his life. My sisters and brothers come working the fruit trees And rode the truck til they took down and died. Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won't have a name when you fly the big airplane And all they will call you will be deportee. Some of us are illegal and some are not wanted. Our work contract's out and we have to move on Six hundred miles to the Mexican border. They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves. Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won't have a name when you fly the big airplane And all they will call you will be deportee. We died in your hills, we died in your deserts, We died in your valleys and died on your plains, We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes, Both sides of the river -- we died just the same. Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won't have a name when you fly the big airplane And all they will call you will be deportee. The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon -- A fireball of lightning which shook all our hills, Who are all these friends all scattered like dry leaves? The radio says they are just . . . deportees. Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won't have a name when you fly the big airplane And all they will call you will be deportee. Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards? Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit -- To fall like dry leaves, to rot on my topsoil And be called by no name except deportees? Goodbye my to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita, Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria. You won't have a name when you fly the big airplane And all they will call you will be deportee.
Re: Imperial grief
Excellent commentary, Carrol! Thank you. I think the best commentary was written about 60 years ago -- Carrol Deportee The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting, The oranges are piled in their creosote dumps. You are flying them back to the Mexican border To pay all their money to wade back again. Tom Walker 604 255 4812
