is it ok to be luddite?

[Otto Sell]

A L L I E D  C L E A R I N G  H O U S E  T E C H N I C A L  U N I T S
N O R T H E R N  G E R M A N Y

-----Mensaje original-----
<Look at the carnage inflicted in Serbia last year by NATO.  So... yes, I
say it is OK to be a Luddite!>


The PLO and Arafat are, I guess, on the way to legitimate themselves,
something the German RAF never will and never was able to. The situations
are too different to compare. Arafat has the support of the Palestine People
which feels the oppression of the Israeli Army - Baader-Meinhof never had
the support of wider groups of the Germans. It´s a difference between
fighting for national sovereignty and overthrowing a government which is
legally elected by at least 50% of the population.

Interesting that two of the RAF-terrorists former lawyers changed sides, but
in a totally different way.
Otto Schily´s sitting with Michael Naumann on the government bench now and
caressing the police dogs now who once have bitten him at the 80´s
anti-rocket demos. Now he´s bringing in a law allowing the police to check
every person on every German street without suspicion - which is forbidden
up to now - and thinking of installing cameras (no webcams!) in the
downtowns like it is in England.
Another one, Horst Mahler, who had changes sides from lawyer to terrorist,
had gone to jail for it, has come out again totally changed. Now he is a
neonazi (http://www.jungewelt.ipn.de/1998/04-22/017.htm - in German), last
weekend he spoke at the NPD-meeting telling 6000 other crazy baldheads (more
supporters than the RAF ever had) that Germany had been forced into two wars
this century by - guess whom - the Jews. Saw him last night on tv -
unbelievable, Almost Gothic (sth. betw. The Mummy and Frankenstein)! If the
counterforce had a rocket the
"Nibelungen Hall" at Nürnberg (or Passau or wherever in Bavaria it was)
would have been the appropriate place to
launch at last weekend . . .

on your original topic:
Thomas Pynchon wrote a nice intro to Jim Dodge´s
_Stone Junction_ where he is making a difference between outlaws and
criminals. And Luddists are Outlaws as long as they´re not throwing bombs
undifferentiated like the Unabomber (thx for the urls)


Otto
"Ordnung muss sein," sagte der Anarchist und warf die Bombe ins Rathaus.