the ice age
Years ago I read a book called the Ice Age, by Margaret
Drabble . I think I read it because the band Joy Division had a song
Living in the Ice Age. It didn't take much to get me to read a book
back then. Now,"nothing will hold, nothing will fit, so it's into the
cold with a smile on your lips - when your living in the ice age." It
was a good book without being a great book, but I'd recommend it, so go
read it, if you feel inclined. It's about England particularly
London in the mid 1970's.
I flipped on a radio next to my bed after my alarm went off last
Thursday; early so the news of the bombings filtered in under a certain
hypnotic osmosis before I was really awake. The sets of thoughts that
came to me later were that, at this time last summer, my sister Ann and
her family had been in London. They had ridden on the London subway the
double decker buses, they were pulling the original double deckers with
the on/off platform back out of service last summer. The picture of
that bus shredded and opened like a tin of meat, stays with me. They
say the bus explosion may have been an accident, its bomb may have been
heading elsewhere. Its not as though we have to travel abroad to suffer
violence or that not doing so will save us. It is about the perception,
In Americans, Lurking Fears Rise to Surface - New York Times, that zones of safety are shrinking. And as well the prime topic of conversation remains forever fixed around fear
Bombings Rewrite G-8 Agenda - New York Times.
What is the purpose: what could anyone expect this to accomplish? I
don't have a window into the mindset of these individuals. Terror for a
purpose, or just terror. Evil or a way of being soured below human
empathy with the human condition. An inhumane life. There is something
about this that sometimes seems artificial. Fantasy violence manifested
crudely (London Bombs Seen as Crude; Death Toll Rises to 49 - New York Times)
into our real world, but not representing real oppression or clash of
civilizations. A psychopathic flailing against the culture of their
obsession, the west. Previously it seemed rare for such violence to be
directed deliberately and directly, not collaterally against civilians.
Ordinary working class people in the daily journeys of their life.
Without even an anonymous phonecall before the blast "There is a bomb"
(even the IRA did that). This is violence learned at a remove, through
movies and videos through lectures, through hate filled propaganda
taken up by impressionable minds: For a Decade, London Thrived as a Busy Crossroads of Terror - New York Times.
Who may not have any direct experience with the level of violence they
inflict. Street gang culture of the bored and soulless. I read that
there are indications that these may be European Arab islamists, a new
Al qaeda of European born and European drifted. Is there; then, an Al
qaeda leadership still in existence which can form a uniform and
coherent program of what they want, and organize review and control
campaigns that lead to such specific result. What do these attacks say
about to that question?
Concerted efforts by our governments may prevent a cataclysmic
attack - one that would cause thousand or hundreds of thousands of
casualties, but we can not prevent attacks that can kill dozens of
hundreds - not and remain an open society. The war we fight should
proceed in positive acknowledgment of that.
11:35:29 PM  ;;
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