Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Posted here Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at 8:25:18 PM     Juan Cole on the situation between the US and Najaf. http://www.juancole.com/2004_04_01_juancole_archive.html#108188631557107161  The report about Sistani's strongly-worded message to the US warning them against attacking Najaf is now available in English. I haven't seen an Arabic text. Some 2500 US troops surround Najaf, and Muqtada al-Sadr says he is willing to sacrifice himself for Iraq. CNN says that those clerics negotiating with Sadr have warned the US not to come into Najaf, and have darkly intimated that the ones who caused the crisis "must pay." It is not clear if they mean the Army of the Mahdi or Paul Bremer, or both. I put that first because it is so different from Bush's conference, with its bullheaded determination to be god's fist in an unwilling world. Bush, by being loser than normal (some think signs of drink or sedatives), actually revealed more of what and how he thinks, and for those who feels secure with him, he seemed determined and strong. "It is better to fight them over the than over here," said a few of the callers on c-span after the conference. One thing, with the 9/11 hearings and the conference tonight, we are seeing more about this government than usual, and just imagine if we had this kind of "dialog" every week, with the development of everyone's understanding that would follow. It might be a great place to live.   ********

Posted here Tuesday, April 13, 2004 at 10:36:38 AM     When an article has a tone, it is always worth while thinking of how another tone, based on different facts, can play out. Her is one I think worth experiencing, but to realize there are different experiences possible, still with truth. We really have no idea who pays for this privilege of superficiality, but those billions who are doing the paying -- far out of our reified view -- are getting a clearer idea all the time. Of course, this culture is pure charade. We can pretend we are as disembedded as we like, but we are invariably physical -- diaphragms heaving incessantly, articulating gases in our guts, dissipating heat, concentrating urine, sloughing off dead cells, yawing and eating and scratching and sleeping and fucking and finally, dying. Inside-Outside. Inside this whole charade, where money “grows” and media-stunned young women aspire to be models for Victoria’s Secret, resides liberal hypocrisy. Outside it resides imperial militarism -- the last refuge of capitalism as it devours its own social and material bases like a vampire stranded alone on a desert island. from www.counterpunch.org what is wrong about this kind of article is that there are different cultural streams each defining a reality that leaves out the reality of what actually happens, which is the balance achieved by the balancing of the real forces of these various streams. A discourse that is inside a stream is not going to get at the "reality" of what happens, because it deals with the "reality" that fits the stream's image. So this article can be correct, but what will happen is a balance of the weak, who are not so weak, and the strong who are not so strong. But there are actually many streams flowing at the same time. Reality is all of them. ********