Oh dear. Here we go again: blame and vilification Series XXVI.

Richard, I don't think anyone here has supported terrorism, from whatever
source. Imagine if I were to start ranting about US funding for terrorism in
Britain in the last four decades, i.e. the IRA? How come defenders of the US
right are so conspicuously silent about such little matters as Dick Cheney's
disavowal of the Geneva Convention or the abandonment of SALT? I find such
things scary, and disturbing, I am not afraid to confess.

And in the matter of poetics the moot point is the use of political rhetoric
that is being employed, the disfigurement of language it carries. I don't
feel comfortable with that. How can someone highlighting the problems being
faced by an _American_ artist (America sic US there) be adjudged to be
'anti-American'?

ps how come you can't spell 'Alison' right?

Another example of a Big Nation's insularity?

Best

'Aluminum.'


David Bircumshaw

Leicester, England

Home Page

A Chide's Alphabet

Painting Without Numbers

www.paintstuff.20m.com/index.htm

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Dillon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 12:30 PM
Subject: Re: 1945 Was His Finest Year


> No, Allison.
>
> Your characterization of our government's stated vision of the conflict:
>
> >]
> >>the political rhetoric which says "those who are not for us
> >>are against us", and I think it is not only very difficult but
> >>disingenuous to argue that these contexts have nothing to do with the
> >>decisions not to stage a particular work about a currently sensitive
> >topic.
>
>
> is to stand outside the conflict, looking on, as if you know what's
> right, what's fair.
>
> When an American citizen like myself stands up and says, "No, you
> look at your own standpoint and what you are taking for granted here,
> " you don't like it.
>
> Tell me if you have ever looked into the world the Al Queada and
> those who committed the Achille Lauro outrage create for their
> families and create for those they despise? Has Adams? Did the
> writers in _100 Days_?
>
> You don't see yourself has having an agenda, as standing
> ideologically, as taking sides.
>
> But you have and you do.
>
> The luxury of a "Both/And" resolution to the problem created by the
> Moslem world's militant action against ALL of the other societies
> that surround it in its expansion is something you take as a right,
> as natural.
>
> But El Binzer doesn't offer it coming the other way.
>
> Ask the Indian Parliament.
>
> Ask the Phillipine Government.
>
> Ask the Christians who are being massacred all over the world, right now.
>
> Nothing Faux about that geostrategical analysis. Jihadistan is and
> has been at war with all of the rest of us. Write a poem and tell us
> how we in America misunderstand these kind folk, Poet Croggen.
>
> I don't see you RadLibs standing up and writing operas depicting
> these heroic operations.
>
> You either stand for something or you don't. Your idea that you are
> somehow able to judge your culture and its political system, that
> Adams can, without somehow speaking also and with equal vigor from
> inside the minds of the guys on the other side, namely the Radical
> Moslem Cells, is fatuous and winds us up with bad art. This bad art
> is best seen in _100 Days_ because there the leaping to conclusions
> and the ideological predispositions and the total stupid lack of
> knowledge regarding the election laws of the United States and the
> theory behind them is permanently rendered in all of its jackass,
> puerile, sophomoric banality. It is most memorable when one the
> American leaders of your movement declares herself at the outset of
> her idiot rant to be, "A Terrorist."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >At 2:08 AM -0500 12/1/2002, Candice Ward wrote:
> >>All the "smearing" would seem to be Alison's, and in service of the
> >>anti-Americanism she would proudly claim, going by this post. I think
it's
> >>all shameful myself, and I deeply resent her subjecting this list and
> >>another to these repeated and deceptive uses of the media to stir up bad
> >>feelings among people who gather here from different countries to share
> >>poetry--a passion and a topic from which we're diverted and distracted
again
> >>and again by personal and political agendas that have no place here. I'd
> >>like to reiterate David's call for an amnesty among us, and this time I
hope
> >>even Alison will put aside her issues for the sake of poetry.
> >
> >Candice, as a total misrepresentation of my intentions of posting a
> >comment on the controversy about John Adams, you couldn't have done
> >better. We differ in the weight we put on things - the events which
> >you treat with dismissive scorn deeply trouble me. It's hard to
> >ignore their context, which are the new and sweeping anti-terrorism
> >laws and the political rhetoric which says "those who are not for us
> >are against us", and I think it is not only very difficult but
> >disingenuous to argue that these contexts have nothing to do with the
> >decisions not to stage a particular work about a currently sensitive
> >topic. Arts companies, and particularly opera companies, which are
> >both very expensive to run and tend to be deeply conservative
> >institutions, will take great care not to offend the ruling powers.
> >(I have had a couple of operas staged myself, and I speak from
> >experience). The retreat from art which is difficult, which
> >questions, which perhaps offends, art that takes risks, to art that
> >merely entertains or maintains the status quo, is an all-to-easy easy
> >one for such companies to take. I personally do not see that as
> >desirable. Or democratic.
> >
> >Klinghoffer has always been staged more in Europe than in America,
> >where it has had very few productions. It takes literally years to
> >arrange an opera production, so his current European tour is hardly a
> >result of his more controversial nature since September 11. The
> >comment that his career has taken off because of his
> >controversialising is snide indeed.
> >
> >I also don't believe that poetry is insulated from the other arts.
> >In fact, I should hate to think it was: what a sad situation! I
> >think of poetry as one of many interconnected activities, all of
> >which I do, in fact, deeply love; and my concerns speak out of that
> >love. As for politics: whether we like it or not, it's around us. I
> >can't see that it "has no place here". And I do not have a
> >simplistic view about the relationships between politics and art.
> >
> >My comment about racism arose from bafflement. I can't see how
> >criticism of the US government equates to a hatred of the American
> >people, which seems to be the claim here. I am not being hostile to
> >you, but you certainly are being hostile to me. Does that mean I can
> >claim you are being anti-Australian?
> >
> >A
> >--
> >
> >
> >Alison Croggon
> >
> >Home page
> >http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
> >Masthead
> >http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
>
>
> --