Phillip C. scrobe:
>
>
>Worse - the underlying contradiction tells us that there is a constituency
>of support for the actions. If we pursue the perpetrators in ways that
>create new grievances amongst that constituency, then we run the risk of
>increasing, rather than decreasing, the frequency of such disturbances.
absolutely - and there is the deliema that the perpetruators are
continually on the outlook for new grievances.
>
>
>One of the grievances that is becoming apparent to me in posts I am
>receiving from friends and colleagues in Europe, Africa and Asia, goes
>something like this:
>
>" Yes, it was awful, but why does it take the blood of innocent New
>Yorkers
>to produce such a will to act? Why was the blood of the people of Belfast
>(Moscow, Gaza Strip, Baghdad, Kurdistan......) so much less worthy of
>such a
>global response? Is America concerned with the world, or just America? Or
>does it genuinely believe that there is no difference?
to which i would add, where is France with the basque (ETA) terrorists of
spain? italy with ETA? or Germany with the IRA? we all, certainly not
least the americans on this list, have very high expectations for america
- perhaps higher than what we expect for other nations. i certainly do.
though in retrospect that's silly. why should i expect less of spain than
the usa? where indeed was australia or new zealand during the time of the
disappeared in chile or argentina? we are all in degrees complicit with
violence - it is woven into our mutual histories as Philip G. has
pointed out, not least in Pope Urbana's exhortation to the mob. yet, do
europeans feel a historical/cultural connection to the murders committed
at the world trade center/pentagon, four commercial airliner hijackings?
i think that the questions that Phillip C. relays to us are more than
valid - and that these questions apply to the questioners as well.
>
>This looks like the big foreign policy test to me.
yes - everyone's foreign policy.
>
>I may never know your response to this. I am off. I may be about to spend
>the rest of my life in a queue in some as yet unidentified airport. If I
>ever emerge into cyberspace again it will be in the office of Yrjo
>Engestrom
>in Helsinki.
>
i myself can only imagine Yrjo greeting you with an enormous hug after
you've journied two thirds around the earth. whew!
>
>
phillip
* * * * * * * *
* *
The English noun "identity" comes, ultimately, from the
Latin adverb "identidem", which means "repeatedly."
The Latin has exactly the same rhythm as the English,
buh-BUM-buh-BUM - a simple iamb, repeated; and
"identidem" is, in fact, nothing more than a
reduplication of the word "idem", "the same":
"idem(et)idem". "Same(and) same". The same,
repeated. It is a word that does exactly what
it means.
from "The Elusive Embrace" by Daniel
Mendelsohn.
phillip white
doctoral student http://ceo.cudenver.edu/~hacms_lab/index.html
scrambling a dissertation
denver, colorado
phillip_white@ceo.cudenver.edu
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