Hmmmm.
The issue of moral outrage cuts like a 2 edged sword. It is OK if that
outrage results in the acts of last Tuesday yet it is not OK if that
outrage turns around and cuts in the other direction. It is OK if outrage
aligns itself with the ideologies of some scholars yet it is not OK if it
doesn't. The suggestion seems to be, still, that the root cause for last
Tuesday's action are the US policies or confluence of US policies
surrounding politics, economics, and defense. If that is the case then let
the debate and any subsequent action occur on those levels by all
interested parties.
Not at the level of last Tuesday. I respectfully submit that those
arguments by folks suggesting some sort of justification for last
Tuesday's event is an example of the left hemisphere of the brain
"interpreter" doing what it is anatomically designed to do which is locate
a "self" within the constraints of a personal
"centering" narrative. Problem is that the center for most Americans today
is not aligned with those who blame us for the conditions of the world
. Therein in lies the rub and the root reason for our reaction. There is
no justification for the purposeful action of mass murder completely
premeditated and aimed not at the policy makers but at a bunch of good
folks enjoying life and the liberties that are at their disposal. You do
not get at the policy makers in this way but what you do is create an
American sentiment from the ground roots level that is so robust, so
strong, and so outraged that it is like a tidal wave in its effects on
policy being developed right now. To assume that the perpetrators of this
act are noble or represent a noble cause because of the consequences of
our policies ( intended or unintended) is simply mind-boggling to me. The
US people did not set this agenda or write these rules of engagement that
you speak of. In a similar vein I am certain that the Afghan people did
not set the agenda that Bin Laden and the Taliban have set in motion. We
are not going after the people but the agenda setters. Plainly, these
rules of engagement have been set by those with a sense of evil based in a
fundamentalist belief system. In my lifetime I had not even come close to
envisioning the rise of a Hitler like demagogue . Yet here we go again as
if history and the ideological formation of "generic" subjectivity is a
surprise.
If there are those on this list who feel that there exists a direct causal
chain between US policy and last Tuesday's premeditated, meticulously
planned, mass murder resulting in the death of ~6000 people then please
sketch it out in a scholarly way. I for one would like to see how our
policies create a mindset that justifies premeditated murder as an
intended consequence.
Mike Chumer
|