Europe having its own 9/11 right now. Turn on the news.

[Steven Koteff]

Oh I dunno. I mean it kind of seems to me like interpreting the suffering
of others via our own closer experience of it is probably foundational to
the phenomenon of empathy. Right? I mean isn't that one of the nobler
applications of our fundamental tendency toward self-centeredness? Yes, I
can see how doing so via labelling an act of terror a different (and
therefore maybe by definition lesser) version of some original (in this
case 9/11) might seem not the absolute most sensitive/aware of all possible
avenues for talking about this.

But, like, as a follower but infrequent participant of this list, I was
very moved by the instinctive collectivization of grief and love for Dave
Monroe yesterday.

When I read about the Paris shit, I instantly thought of this list. Because
one can see, instantly, the horrible potential long-term ripples (like,
military ripples, international ripples, historical ripples) of something
like this. Which made me feel kind of worried about the way the French and
the world would respond/change. And made me feel inadequate to really
understand the situation. But then it made me feel good to think of this
community. Made me feel like there was a transnational space in which love
permeated such membranes as country et al. And in which there were people
who could communicate in any variety of ways about extremely difficult
shit, all toward some better end (or none at all, unlike[...]).

Being sensitive/empathetic in the wrong way is maybe not the most deserving
(or productive) victim of our scorn today. [My humble opining.]

I would like to express a lot of sadness for The Paris Shit. I visited
there for the first time in the fall and while that shouldn't increase
one's personal grief for something like this, especially in light of all
the other countries experiencing their own version of The Shit, it does,
and did for me. But then also I do not mean to imply that I am more
impacted than anyone else; I'm not. I would like anyone who is impacted to
know that they have my sympathy and love and, if they want it, my
attention--and in doing so I might think it wise to express that I was sort
of witness to a massive and unjustifiable and horrifying act of terror in
my own country (but don't mean to diminish what's going on in theirs, or to
them). Etc. Suddenly I'm more focused on qualifying my love and support and
grief than feeling it. Or, Jesus, enacting it.

On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 11:03 AM, David Kilroy <thesaintgodard at gmail.com>
wrote:

> To parse the tragedy at Bataclan as It Happened To America First is
> crass. We know what you meant, but the american branding of crisis
> isn't applicable, particularly in re: Europe, which has suffered
> zealotry far harder than americans have any emotional metric for. I'm
> sure a couple of Londoners thought 7-7 but even a Hackney crackhead
> has more class than to say Ich Bin Ein Berliner about this madness.
> Sept 11th is a measure for naval gazing, not catastrophe.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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