Ever since the messianic convulsion of the first Christians and beyond
the heresies and revolts, there had always been this anticipation of the
end, ultimately through death, through a seductive suicide aimed at
turning God away from history and making him face his responsibilities
pertaining to beyond the end, to fulfilment. What in fact is terrorism
if not its own means of conjuring up the end of history? It lures power
into a trap by way of an immediate and total act. Instead of waiting for
a final date of reckoning, it positions itself vis-a-vis an ecstatic end
in the hope of inciting or spurring conditions for Judgement day. An
illusory challenge, of course, always fascinating nevertheless because,
in a rather profound sense, neither time nor history were ever accepted
or embraced. Everyone remains conscious of the arbitrary or artificial
character of time and history. And we are never the dupes of those who
would have us hope.
Pataphysics of Year 2000
/Jean Baudrillard/
http://www.uta.edu/english/apt/collab/baudweb.html
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