[Nettime-bold] Amerika for Theorists (fwd)

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

Amerika for Theorists


Understand we are a mean country first of all; social Darwinism on the
most brutal and vulgar scale dominates our thinking. Never mind we are
down on the quality of life indices; we demand to be counted the greatest
country on earth, one which is god-given. Understand our compassion comes
at a price; if you do not place us on human rights commissions, we will
bomb you, withhold funds, throw more of our own in jail.

Understand we are not a democracy; our "president" was not elected by a
majority; our gunlaws go wildly against the demographic grain; our health-
care is dominated by drug companies and professionals who wreak havoc
among the poor and elderly.

Understand we are guilty of the worst racisms, the largest jail popula-
tions, and one of the most violent societies on the planet. Understand we
believe in white male superiority, the punishment of the poor, and the
exaltation of violence which makes a man, a man.

Understand our ignorance; we do not know the capitals and heads of states
of our neighboring countries, much less their policies. They are our bor-
ders and our dominions; they are independent by virtue of our kindness.
Understand free trade is free profiteering without regard to environmental
regulation and protection. Understand Amerika comes first and we do not
care about global warming or pollution unless these are cost-free and
immediately economically beneficial to our upper classes.

Understand our poor are already our walking dead; that our poor come in
all colors; that they are irrelevant; that we believe their votes can be
bought, sold, and ignored; that we believe they are diseased and obstacles
to greater and greater wealth.

Understand our meanness is tied to our greed; that our rapaciousness knows
no bounds; that ignorance can be fought by the blunt edge of the sword;
that we do not care if we make enemies and more enemies. Understand our
word "freedom" is our word, not yours, and all of us are perfectly free in
this great land of ours.

But above all, understand our meanness: to those of us whose voice is
irrelevant, to those of us who oppose us, to any country our demographics
that crosses our beliefs, to our own creative artists. Understand we
possess the violence of the Taliban, ready to unleash it; that our jails
are overpopulated by victims of our Apartheid; that we possess, at a
moments notice, the bludgeon of Nazism. And understand that we are the
Panopticon; we have the god-given right to spy on each and every human on
the planet, and to destroy him or her at will.

You must understand this if you are to extract the marrow from the bone,
the muscle from the brain; you must understand this if you are to defeat
us, reduce us to ash and fragments of contaminated flesh, in our god-given
country, the greatest of them all.

_



_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold