About 2 years back,I was really appalled after reading The New Rulers of the World. An excellent piece of work by writer John Pilger exposing the other side of capitalism.
Before exams got over on 28th Apr , I had one book to read COLLATERAL LANGUAGE.It questions about americas new war on terror. The book is a collection of series of essays by various authors on topics like cowardice, evil, fundamentalism, justice, terrorism, unity wrt to americas new war. It shows the importance of language in framing out peoples believes and carrying out the hidden motive of gains of few wealthy at the expense of heavy losses to others. Though some content in the book is very heavy and complex to understand. Also as the writers vary in each essay, the writing style differs.
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Some Notes on the same:
Daisy cutters( bombs that incinerate a one square mile area) , smart bombs and cluster bombs with there ability to take large number of lives , particularly in repeated air raids, are weapons of mass destruction.
Panic is blinding the population by wrapping their perception through fear.
Anthrax –creating xenophobia , and then using homeland security as placebo.
Durkheim theorizes four different types of suicide:
Egoistic- result of society that promotes extreme individualism, one in which there is little connection between the individual and his/her community
Anomic- function of a rapid social shift that occurs when a society changes its norms or values. When this happens people cannot make sense of the new societal rules, norms, or values and feel lost and confused about the world around them.
Fatalistic- result of an oppressive situation. People will be more likely to take their own lives when they are living in a situation where there is little to no hope of alleviating the oppressive conditions under which they live.
Altruistic- result of an extremely tight knit society wherein the rules and values guiding the society are so strong that the values of the collective group become more important than the life of the individual. Individual takes his or her life for a society and a belief system that is larger and more important than the self of the individual.
I believe the altruistic motive was a major force for the ones who executed 9/11 incident.
Evil
Individual theory- evil is a force or principle residing in human beings
Structural theory- the kinds of actions or events that get called evil arise from a complex of psychological, relational, and socio structural factors that ultimately could be identified and correctively transformed.
Solutions for first---- identify and eliminate individuals responsible
Solution for second---- diagnosing the origins and operations of human evil.---- careful consideration of the psychological and conceptual states of the people involved and of the ways these states are influenced by wider social systems in which people are embedded.
Killing of innocent people is justified because one is good, and killing of people by evil is considered unjustified. What then is the distinction between good and evil , if not the actual life of people?
USA PATRIOT( Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism). This bill includes provisions that would allow for the mistreatment of immigrants, the suppression of dissent and the investigation and surveillance of wholly innocent Americans. The government has cleverly used patriotic fervor to garner widespread support for legislation.
5 Fundamental Islamic tenets:
1. Belief in One God and Mohammad as his prophet
2. The practice of giving alms to the poor
3. Making a journey to Mecca at least once during one’s lifetime
4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan and
5. Prayer
There is a misperception of fundamentalists being against freedom of thought and modernity.
The language of targets helps move the actions of war into the realm of the abstract; it objectifies human life.
Todays American state is a semimerged combination of biggest corporations, finance companies and banks along with key financial , economic and military parts of the government. This collectively along with WTO bypass democracy in the name of enforcing free trade.
americas policy in middle east ---support the governments in the middle east which ensures smooth flow of oil. If any danger posed to the supply topple the governments( either through coveted operations or war) and replace with a friendly government.
violence – from far right---- terrorism
what US and allies does termed as ------counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, self defense and war.
An interesting fact(given by a Brazilian anarchist group)
36615 children died out of starvation on September 11,2001
victims: 35165 children
where:poor contries
Special TV programs: none
Newspaper articles : none
Message from the President: none
Solidarity acts:none
Minutes of silence: none
victims mourning:none
organized forums:none
pope messages:none
stock exchange: didn't care
euro: kept its way
alert level:zero
army mobilization:none
conspiracy theory:none
main suspects: rich countries
In US official terms.. “terrorism” is what “terrorists” do. And who are the “terrorists”? Well, we know who they are, because we have already identified them- they are the ones who commit “terrorism”. Its a form of tautology.
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I had a thought, How about investing $ 812 billion ( which has been spent in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan till now and the figure is likely to rise in the near future as a lot needs to be done in other to bring these countries to state of normalcy) to the development of the nations without raging war, this would ensure that one changes the perceptions of people living there and is in concordance with evil reduction , when we look at it from structural theory perspective.I believe that war should be the last option which in current scenario dosent seem to be the case. If we look back in history the war is not a solution but a never ending chain , generating more hatred and fantism among those involved. Israel-palestine is a good example... where the US is hell bent of its support for Israel no matter whether all actions by Israeli government are rational and justifiable....and Palestine similarly supported by Saudi Arabia and other middle east countries. I wonder what would be life of children growing up in palestine when at the age of 10 , instead of holding a cricket bat or badminton racket, they are holding machine guns, AK47.......really its no big deal to assume that such a child would be future suicide bomber who has always seen the opposite sides ugly face....... on the other end.... destruction caused by suicide bombers in Israel further promotes their belief that they should continue using military force against Palestine people......... Who is benefiting out of all these acts???? Israel or Palestine ??? , one sure winner of all such acts are the artillery manufacturing companies ...... is it ethical and in the interest of all.....???? this fight is like a never ending chain which goes on and on.........
The rains have become more erratic these days , with sudden downpour anytime.Hope it continues for some more time after exams. Love reading at ease in this kind of weather. Also the day for making a unique record is coming nearer.........
