the art of pronouncing things dead, again and again

Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:43:28 +0200 (CEST)
From: H A N Speckens
Subject: Re: Re: [LNC] RE: we're not afraid
To: Language in New Capitalism
Message-ID: <24445257.1121607808544.JavaMail.www@wwinf6001>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

The creation of the National Security Service comes on the heels of other developments that are equally ominous. Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff announced this week that the 180,000 public employees in the government's largest agency would be further corralled under the central authority of the president. Invoking the pretext of "national security", Chertoff plans to appoint a few new agency chieftains (Bush loyalists) who will be tasked at consolidating the disparate groups under a model of corporate rule. The changes represent even more power for the president.

Similarly, the release of a 40 page document from the Defense Dept. states the intention of the Pentagon to "expand military activity" within the United States; a practice that has been banned since 1878 under the provisions of the Posse Comitatus Act. American's would be surprised to know that the administration is maneuvering to sidestep the existing law and deploy troops inside the country on the president's orders. Consider, for a moment, the potential for disaster if Bush is allowed to use the military as his own private resource; dispatching protestors, patrolling cities and supervising elections as happens in third world nations. The Pentagon document clearly "asserts the president's authority to deploy combat forces on US territory to intercept and defeat threats." (Washington Post)

Sounds like a military dictatorship to me.

Is there any doubt where all of this is heading?

The National Security Service, which is an autonomous, domestic spy-agency, signals a tectonic shift in the political landscape. The genesis of the Police State marks the end of American democracy; the final wooden stake to the heart of privacy, security and personal liberty. Bush's meteoric rise to power has been accompanied by a breakdown of traditional safeguards at every juncture; leaving the system vulnerable to incalculable damage. The message to citizens is clear; all of the institutions upon which democratic societies depend (the executive, the Congress, the Judiciary, the media, the military, and law enforcement) have withered beneath the Bush onslaught and been reduced to rubble. The entire system has been corrupted from top to bottom. America is a gaunt, skeletal figure; rattling around in its cage, ready to be blown over by the first brisk wind. Democracy is dead.

How odd, that those most eager to defend Democracy today, albeit from the "illiberal post-modernist dunciads" whatever that is (it sounds about as convincing as a fluffed-up version of MacNamara's, "the Cynics...are destroying our country" to me), are those who habitually equate any concern for the causes of terrorism, or desire to lay blame accordingly at the feet of war-mongering politicians, with apologies for fascism. I mean this sincerely; it's odd. Are people that desperate for a Mission, to make such obscene historical errors? I mean, how desperate do you have to be for friends, to get your life's mission only from an opportunistic frat boy cum President, with his market-tested pious slogans?

While not producing the same level of carnage as 9/11 or the Madrid train attacks,

He sounds almost sorry, doesn't he?

the London bombings of 7/7 have quickly become one of those crucial events that mark a defining point in the history of a society.

Yep, that's about where I stop reading, as it's obvious the author is a complete fucking tool.

Honestly, in what possible sense other than in a hypothetical vacuum of worldviews, a clash of ideologies taking place in some abstract desert somewhere, could terrorists, by definition themselves out-of-power, be totalitarians? Oh, but then I'm an apologist, I get it. Wow, that's really fucking clever. You'll probably sense that I'm naive; maybe I don't read the echo chamber of British pro-war apologist blogs enough? Bleh. You can keep your Derbies and Norms, and I, my Hanes and knickerbockers.

Update: Thank God for lenin, for in the absence of someone to ritually insult these douchebags, life would indeed be unbearable.