[Nettime-bold] RE: <nettime> Amerika for Theorists (fwd)

["Bruce Fancher" <bruce@duocash.com>]

Understand first of all that we are intellectuals and as such we are
entitled to judge the rest of society and when we find it lacking to dictate
how it should be properly organized.  Never mind that we live and work
cloistered away in ivory towers, detached from the lives of most the people
of this country and the world.  Understand that real actual reality does not
matter, all that matters is our perception of reality as distorted by our
self-hatred and wish fufilment.

Understand that those who disagree with us will be attacked and demonized as
racists, sexists, homophobes, fascists.  Understand that those whose lives
we feel entitled to shape and distort using the coercive power of the state
are desperately in need of our help, despite what they or anyone else might
believe.  We will disregard the destruction we have brought on them and
instead blame the failure of all of our earlier efforts on the malevolence
of our enemies.

Understand that while living the good life made possible by free markets and
democracy in the most peaceful, free, tolerant and prosperous country ever
to exist in the history of the world, we will attack the very system and
citizenry who make our level of freedom and material comfort possible.  We
will hold our society up to impossible standards, demanding utopia, but
ignoring the day-to-day and year-to-year improvements in the lives of
ordinary people.  We will ignore the freedom and wealth, beyond the wildest
imaginings of our ancestors, which virtually everyone in our society enjoys.

Understand that we will ignore the 100 million innocents murdered and the
hundreds of millions more who have led lives of poverty and repression in
Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nicaragua and
everywhere our beliefs have actually been put into practice.  Understand
that although we defended those regimes and held them up as examples to be
emulated, we will pretend that those crimes had nothing to do with us or our
beliefs.  We will delude ourselves into believing that next time someone
puts our beliefs into practice it will be different, like an unrecovered
alcholic who believes that next time he picks up a drink he will be able to
control himself, despite all past evidence to the contrary.

Understand that the death, destruction, poverty and repression we have
visited upon people here and abroad are nothing but abstractions.  What is
truly important is our vision of "social justice," not the actual lives of
the people who have suffered under the conditions our vision has brought
about.  Understand that we will detemine the validity of all truthes solely
on the basis of whether they support our belief system.  We will ignore all
evidence which is contrary to what we wish to believe and denounce as a
bigot and liar anyone who dares to speak against us.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: nettime-l-request@bbs.thing.net
> [mailto:nettime-l-request@bbs.thing.net]On Behalf Of Alan Sondheim
> Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 1:49 AM
> To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
> Subject: <nettime> Amerika for Theorists (fwd)
>
>
>
>
> 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.
>
> _
>
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