NP - Fighting the Forces of Invisibility

[Richard Romeo]

Rushdie's piece is right on in my opinion, and what better person to talk 
about such things as he. His last lines should be posted.

Rich


>From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: NP - Fighting the Forces of Invisibility
>Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 10:13:32 -0500
>
>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55876-2001Oct1.html
>
>Fighting the Forces of Invisibility
>
>By Salman Rushdie
>Tuesday, October 2, 2001; Page A25
>
>[...]
>Next: the question of the counterattack. Yes, we must send our
>shadow-warriors against theirs, and hope that ours prevail. But this secret
>war alone cannot bring victory. We will also need a public, political and
>diplomatic offensive whose aim must be the early resolution of some of the
>world's thorniest problems: above all the battle between Israel and the
>Palestinian people for space, dignity, recognition and survival. Better
>judgment will be required on all sides in future. No more Sudanese aspirin
>factories to be bombed, please. And now that wise American heads appear to
>have understood that it would be wrong to bomb the impoverished, oppressed
>Afghan people in retaliation for their tyrannous masters' misdeeds, they
>might apply that wisdom, retrospectively, to what was done to the
>impoverished, oppressed people of Iraq. It's time to stop making enemies 
>and
>start making friends.
>
>To say this is in no way to join in the savaging of America by sections of
>the left that has been among the most unpleasant consequences of the
>terrorists' attacks on the United States. "The problem with Americans is . 
>.
>. " -- "What America needs to understand . . . " There has been a lot of
>sanctimonious moral relativism around lately, usually prefaced by such
>phrases as these. A country which has just suffered the most devastating
>terrorist attack in history, a country in a state of deep mourning and
>horrible grief, is being told, heartlessly, that it is to blame for its own
>citizens' deaths. ("Did we deserve this, sir?" a bewildered worker at
>"ground zero" asked a visiting British journalist recently. I find the 
>grave
>courtesy of that "sir" quite astonishing.)
>
>Let's be clear about why this bien-pensant anti-American onslaught is such
>appalling rubbish. Terrorism is the murder of the innocent; this time, it
>was mass murder. To excuse such an atrocity by blaming U.S. government
>policies is to deny the basic idea of all morality: that individuals are
>responsible for their actions. Furthermore, terrorism is not the pursuit of
>legitimate complaints by illegitimate means. The terrorist wraps himself in
>the world's grievances to cloak his true motives. Whatever the killers were
>trying to achieve, it seems improbable that building a better world was 
>part
>of it.
>
>The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings.
>Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a
>multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable
>government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short
>skirts, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. These are tyrants,
>not Muslims. (Islam is tough on suicides, who are doomed to repeat their
>deaths through all eternity. However, there needs to be a thorough
>examination, by Muslims everywhere, of why it is that the faith they love
>breeds so many violent mutant strains. If the West needs to understand its
>Unabombers and McVeighs, Islam needs to face up to its bin Ladens.) United
>Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define
>ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we are against. I would
>reverse that proposition, because in the present instance what we are
>against is a no-brainer. Suicidist assassins ram wide-bodied aircraft into
>the World Trade Center and Pentagon and kill thousands of people: um, I'm
>against that. But what are we for? What will we risk our lives to defend?
>Can we unanimously concur that all the items in the above list -- yes, even
>the short skirts and dancing -- are worth dying for?
>
>The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view,
>he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic 
>indulgences.
>To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on
>what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement,
>cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable
>distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought,
>beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the
>unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them.
>
>How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your 
>life.
>Even if you are scared.
>
>
>
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