<nettime> The Terror'd Society

[andy@remotelinux.com]

The Terror'd Society



I would like to know when the word terror went from being an adjective to
a noun.  I would like to know what goal reductionists have when changing
the way words are used in the public arena.  I would like to know why
complex social situations are reduced to line items of bullet points.  I
would like to know how this can substitute for understanding people and
the decisions they make.  I would also like to know why in the context of
complete annihilation journalists can make cheap side swipes over belief
differences, but I'm not waiting for a forthright answer.  I want to know
why fearless executors of a plan are called cowards at the success of
their endeavors.  Individuals that do so violently are called terrorists.  
Pronoun.  I would like to know what could bring an individual to commit
acts of terrorism to their own demise.  But it has come to me over time
(perhaps for you as well) that there are more things in the world that I
would not do, then I would.  It has also came to me that I will truly
understand fewer people the more individuals I know, and even less of the
changes these people go through. The thoughts and attitudes of the
American collective that concern me the most lies with the gravity of our
influence around the globe rather then the result of our actions: all you
need to do is look at any number of foreign media publication and see that
all eyes are focused on the actions and ideas of Americans, at home and
abroad.  The symbolic nature America has earned throughout the world with
it's diverse and troubling history influences the world much more then we
realize.  This is at once a great honor and a great burden.  A great honor
to be esteemed from half away around the world of places I have never
been.  A burden, to the responsibility's of the standards we have declared
ourselves set to accomplish.  As times and people change, I want to leave
this world a richer place for the generations that proceed me.  But when
trivial pursuits are heir to arresting the potential of human development,
an individual has nothing more to do with themselves then cede to apathy.  
Maybe, sit on Ponce de Leon and watch the day go by.  Nothing wrong with
that of course.  My way has taken a different course.  But I needn't had
to.  When a person I know is not capable of changing themselves for the
better what good am I for following their lead?  What good am I without
being able to listen to what another person tells me?  What good am I when
I don't know when to stop dispensing advice?  What good am I when I am not
the leader for myself to follow.  What good am I to doubt that there is
something untrustworthy with divisive politicking.  I would like to know
how it feels good to insult another person in Congress and feel good about
it, to question it would be contentious. Perhaps the role of diplomacy in
mediating human affairs is absent from Congress, college courses, public
education, parents, and church.  In American English, to be diplomatic has
more connotations of being a diplomat for some government rather then a
quality worthy in itself.  Although essential in every aspect of society
from business, learning, and even spouse relations- no other quality can
find a solution to the turmoil our society believes itself to be in. Or
maybe 9/11 didn't last long enough.  I guess that's what all the hub bub
is about the Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden this 
week.


Andrew White

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