David, given the gift of David Lloyd's piece - instead of ignoring it as 'information overload' - it think it informed, well thought out, and worth responding to, controversial et al.
Stephen V
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
--- On Sat, 1/3/09, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: World Affairs, and the Moral High Ground
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 6:34 PM
Alison
any murder is very individual, as it only happens to the one person it
occurs to. When I say I don't know what is going on in Palestine, it
doesn't mean I haven't read Said, or I don't listen or read or
watch
the news, it means I don't think those maps of reality I receive are
adequate.
As far as I can tell the situation is that a very well-supported state
is being attacked by gangsters posing as religious nationalists,
neither party is creditable but innocent people are being killed on
both sides, it's awful, I don't have an answer to it all, and
particularly I don't want to pretend I do.
the point of my post was that even in this little corner of the
universe that I inhabit, I don't know what the fucks going on, we live
an age of information overload, where the more we know means the less.
Best
Dave
2009/1/4 Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>:
> There's a big difference between an individual crime, which is being
> investigated and is tagged as "wrong" by the State, and a crime
that
> is committed by a State. Particularly, and this is crucial, a state
> that calls itself a democracy.
>
> If you don't know much about the situation in Palestine, Dave,
it's
> easy enough to find out. You could start with reading some Said, who
> was one of the wiser commentators on the situation. And an acute
> literary critic as well, so you could feel all literary as well.
>
> I'm not a protest kind of gal. I've been to precisely one in my
life -
> the protests before the US invaded Baghdad. I knew when I went that
> the protests wouldn't stop the invasion, which had been planned for
> literally years (although I suspect it blunted the edge of the Shock
> and Awe campaign - not that that helped later). I went because I
> didn't want to be complicit with what I believed was a criminal
> disaster with horrific implications for international law, that my
> country was participating in, allegedly on "my" behalf.
Everything I
> feared came about, but only because it was so predictable.
>
> I'm going this afternoon, not because I think it will stop anything
> that's going on as the tanks roll into Gaza, but because the barefaced
> lies that are being printed about Gaza make me angry, and because my
> politicians are shoving out the usual mealy-mouthed evasions.
>
> And yes, I think of Darfur and Somalia and the Congo and other
> unfashionable conflicts, where atrocities take place every day without
> rippling the surface. Or the more endemic economic crimes that enslave
> people in "offshore" factories - like Amatil in Fiji, where
they've
> been shooting trade union leaders. Yes, injustice is everywhere. Yes,
> I am a writer and not an activist. Etc. We all live with these
> dilemmas. But I feel that while saying no might make very little
> difference, not saying no is worse.
>
> It's not about high moral ground. It's about the kind of world you
> want to live in.
>
> xA
>
> On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 11:51 AM, David Bircumshaw
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Early on the other day, about 30 yards from where I live, a guy was
>> stabbed to death:
>>
>>
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Woman-arrested-murder-probe/article-583469-detail/article.html
>>
>> will give you news details. Apparently his suspected murderer was a
>> woman. I didn't know who he was, or who is believed to have killed
>> him, all I knew was that on the morning police tape was around the
>> streets and the very road I live on was blocked off by police cars and
>> there was a forensic tent set up. Tonight, complete strangers have
>> been straggling around mutually sobbing about the site of the death,
>> presumably they were friends of the deceased.
>>
>> But I know nothing, or next to nothing, about it, even though it
>> happened almost on my doorstep. Likewise, I know next to nothing about
>> what is going on in Gaza and Israel, I can see no point in
>> pontificating. If I, or anyone, could think of something to help end
>> that tragedy that would be great, but, to go back, the other night, a
>> bloke was murdered, a few yards from my home, I was watching a
>> schmaltzy film on tv, and didn't know, not that I would have been
>> capable of doing anything much if I did, other than calling the
>> emergency services.
>>
>> --
>> David Bircumshaw
>> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
>> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
>> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
>
--
David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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