Sorry for the delay in participation -- many technical snafus over the last few
days.
Interesting how these things seem to come together or apart. On the discussion
here about terrorism and chat, it's no surprise to me that Paul, rather
ironically, challenged a definition of terrorism. What my questions were aimed
at, and still are, is whether chat offers any purchase for understanding
terrorism, with the provisional definition of "violent actions towards
instilling fear" in a broad sense, but certainly focusing on the recent
terrorist acts, and keeping in mind Mehan's sense of permissible inference.
Violence could be similarly challenged, but I'd like to start with a rather
liberal definition that could include words as weapons of violence -- one of
the tools that the bin laden network also uses is the fax machine.
From earlier background research ( a long time ago) I learned that lot of
things have been written about the connections between terror and war, and the
political underpinnings for war. A classic is by Clausewitz, and appears on
line. It has some interesting and applicable definitions:
http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/On_War/ONWARTOC.html
What drew me to Clausewitz 20 years ago was a more modern book by Herman Kahn
which was famous for introducing the term "megadeaths" and making thinkable the
unthinkable. I think being a child and living through the terror of the
missile crises had a profound effect on me. These two books look at warfare
from a sovereign nations and strategic perspective, so how much those lessons
can carry over to bin laden's terrorist organization is unclear. Perhaps Che
Guevarra's book is more appropriate. And Che fits the pattern that Phillip
noted.
That aside, I think Bill Blanton's mapping is interesting, though debatable --
how well can thin lines of interaction be described as a system of activity?
What are its many intersections with other systems and how are they carried and
enacted? How are its boundaries located? In what acts? (And I wonder about
the differences and similarities between such a system and something like the
distributed system of xmca) Would it be useful to look at the historical
development of warfare, and consider the splintering/mutation into forms as
guerilla warfare and terrorism?
The scene is the countryside in late night, with the moon rising, and the
characters huddled around an open fire:
"Over the lip of the little dell, on the side away from the hill, they felt,
rather than saw, a shadow rise, one shadow or more than one. They strained
their eyes, and the shadows seemed to grow. Soon there could be no doubt:
three or four tall black figures were standing there on the slope, looking down
on them. So black were they that they seemed like black holes in the deep shade
behind them. Frodo thought that he heard a faint hiss as of venomous breath
and felt a thin piercing chill. Then the shapes slowly advanced.
Terror overcame Pippin and Merry, and they threw themselves flat on the ground.
Sam shrank to Frodo's side. Frodo was hardly less terrified than his
companions; he was quaking as if he was bitter cold..."
The fellowship of the ring.
J.R.R. Tolkien
bb
=====
"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly become the author of something beautiful."
[Norman Maclean in "A river runs through it."]
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