Bill,
Why are you using this word "terrorism" and how could work be done on it.
I've been sickened recently to watch Henry Kissinger on the tube,
pontificating and puffing, and I know that he is a number one individual who
harbored and abetted the murder of far more than 6,300 human beings during
his hey day. That he personally worked out the arrangements to have at
least one democratically elected government overthrown by grisly dictators
who tortuted and murdered thousands of people; and this isn't even to start
on his activities with respect to Vietnam. So when you propose to study
"terrorism": will you study HK? or is terrorism only terrorism when it
isn't carried out by a nation-state but by some other organization? The US
government has trained people who carry out activities that could clearly be
called terrorist for more than 50 years, especially for use in Central and
South America. Would you call the US flying B-52s over Guatemala City in
1954 to intimidate the population into rejecting a popularly elected
progressive government an act of terrorisim since it's only purpose was to
instill terror; or do they actually have to drop the bombs? Wasn't
Hiroshima the greatest act of terrorism the world has ever known, even if it
was conducted during war time, what about Dresden??? All civilians, no
military value to the targets. Who started this deadly cycle, who nourishes
it daily by supporting the worst of autocratic and dictatorial regimes.
So what is a terrorist? It is really difficult to avoid falling into this
growing swirling double think that is being foisted on us on a scale
heretofor unseen. I strongly support the decision of The Guardian (GB) to
excise the word terrorist from all of its discussion of the war being waged
on the USA and its allies. Who's the terrrorist?
The chickens come home to roost!
On the other hand, I think that CHAT could provide a powerful tool for
analyzing how racial profiling is being given new consideration since it
isn't cost effective to search everyone at an airport although everyone
recognizes that racial profiling is a violation of the fundamental ideals of
the Amerikan society.. What clearer manifestation of the principle
contradiction of all activity systems in capitalist society could you ask
for?
Paul H. Dillon
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Barowy <wbarowy@yahoo.com>
To: xmca <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2001 6:40 AM
Subject: chat and terrorism
> I realize this is a gruesome topic -- but has anyone done activity
theoretical
> studies concerning terrorism?
>
> Is there some theoretical understanding of how this arises as a form of
human
> action?
>
> Where would we begin? Would Bateson's stick be replaced with a rifle?
Would
> the animal in Leont'ev's hunt become Bin Laden? Would we substitute
Mohamed
> Atta for Huckleberry Finn?
>
> 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."]
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Listen to your Yahoo! Mail messages from any phone.
> http://phone.yahoo.com
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Oct 10 2001 - 15:49:22 PDT