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

[kelber at mindspring.com]

No, you're not an asshole. We're all soul-sick. It's hard to know what to say or do.

LK
-----Original Message-----

From: David Kilroy 

Sent: Nov 14, 2015 1:24 PM

To: Steven Koteff 

Cc: Mark Thibodeau , pynchon -l 

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



I'm an asshole.  My sincerest apologies.

Just soulsick of hearing the 9/11 brand applied as a referent for everything terrible that happens in the world is all.  Wasn't intended as personal.

-David

On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 12:38 PM, Steven Koteff <steviekoteff at gmail.com> wrote:
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.

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