As President of the AAG, an Australian citizen, and one deeply committed
to fostering international understanding and human rights, I am saddened
to read Paul Treanor's sweeping generalizations about "the AAG" and geographers
practising in the US.
Jan Monk
-- Original Message --
>Ron Abler wrote:
>>
>> 11 September 2001 Geographical Community Fatalities
>
>If there is such a thing as a 'geographical community' then
>presumably it extends to the many teachers, students and
>researchers in geography, who have been killed by United
>States military actions, and by third parties implementing
>US policy.
>
>But I don't think Ron Abler, or the AAG, is capable of
>understanding that. The 'community' they have constructed is
>an American, at most western, community. Their attitude is
>a microcosm of American attitudes. Americans simply don't
>seem to understand the depth of suffering, that they inflict
>on others. They have not 'dehumanised' their victims, they
>have de-existed them. The world is seen totally from the
>US-American perspective, and the boundaries of 'community'
>stop at the Mexican border.
>
>I don't think any of the European nation states ever
>developed such a complete detachment from their enemies -
>who were often their neighbours. Hate is not the right word
>for this American mentality. Although there is a deep hatred
>for America's enemies, as you can read on usenet groups, it
>is often accompanied by extraordinary ignorance - thinking
>Serbs are Arabs and live in the Baltic, for instance.
>
>It is is primarily a culture of indifference and
>incomprehension. I have absolutely no doubt, that Ron Abler
>can not see how offensive his message is. I think he simply
>can not understand, that there are other people with a
>totally different perspective - and that they have a better
>claim to moral legitimacy.
>
>This is in itself a root cause of American arrogance, in its
>foreign and military policy. They can't see the other side's
>perspective, because they can't even see the other side -
>except as demons. And in turn, that generates intense hatred
>of the United States. I don't see the world as a simple
>American Empire: Europe especially has got the geopolitical
>status it asked for. If Britain is a vassal state of the
>USA, that is mainly because millions of Britons (led by Tony
>Blair) deeply want it to be a vassal state. So that is
>primarily a European problem, and that must be the general
>judgement also.
>
>This superpower exists: 270 million people who will not
>admit the rest of the world to their moral community. I
>think in the first instance the answer is, to create
>distance from it. I certainly think is is time, to break all
>academic links between Europe and the United States. If
>America wants unilateralist hegemony, let them do it at
>home, and let them study it and teach it at home.
>
>
>
>--
>Paul Treanor
>
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