RE: tragedy in New York

From: Eugene Matusov (ematusov@udel.edu)
Date: Sat Sep 15 2001 - 10:43:35 PDT


Hi everybody--

I think that terrorism is a systemic, relational, and social phenomenon.
I found that Diane and Phillip C nicely expressed this point by saying,

Philip C wrote,
> For me all this leaves only one strategy that has any real hope of
> reducing the probabilities of a repetition, and that is to politically

> address the social and economic conditions that place whole
> populations in such sloughs of hopelessness that they perceive
> themselves as having no real stake in the world, even in life itself.
> Not everybody living in the conditions of Afghans turns into a
> terrorist, but such communities provide the ore from which terrorists
> can be refined.

I'd add that ways of our lives may contribute to these conditions.

Diane wrote,
> there is no good or evil here, no good guys and bad guys, and
> the very idea of an enemy has been splintered with a new complexity.
> i have never supported Americentricism, and have always agonized for
the
> ways innocent lives are sacrificed for the sake of ideological causes
- i
> have always feared the wrath or moral righteousness and ignorance.

It is also a question about our own responsibility. I do not want to see
"collateral damage" on CNN in a few weeks or months caused by US
military actions in the war on terrorism. The questions are what it is
about, how we participate and contribute to it, how to stop a cycle of
terrorism?

What do you think?

Eugene



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