The Strangeness of the event.
For me, there is a very strange game being played withour souls in the War against Terror. I do not mean the war being Waged by depending on your view point, the ‘Evil machevllian organisation that is Al Queada’ – or that bunch of sad kids who have got tired of all the petty abuse and rscim heur are face within our society (are we Really shocked – that the London terrorist are home Grown? Are we really helpful and good?) . No I mean the very strnge war we are waguing in ourselves and aginst ourselves – the real ‘War of Terror’. I mean here , Tragic as Thursday was (and however mucho ne genuinely feels for those involved) ,if we are absolutely honest there have been many worse terrorist outrages in London. Remember The IRA and Harrods or Machester or Warrington… When it came to the horrific body Count the IRA, with the explosive made of fertiliser were clearly far more effective that this idiotic bunch of Kids. But this is not the point. The problem now is not what the terrorists ‘achieve’ that is how many poiuntless people they murder, but rather what it provkes in us. I mean here we here the word Terroriust, bomb, and all of a sudden we are whisked away to New York and to madriud, and what has happen is lost in the prism of memory. We see London as New York and imagine 3000 people dying, and dyi g very publically – before very eyes – with all the feelings of helplessness that this provokes. One act – which in global terms (although of course not in personal terms) does not rank as a ‘great outrage’ (after all more people are killed in Iraq a day…) bring so much else back. We too the get caught up in the wwar or terror…
Now what is happening here.
I can suggest two things.
Firstly and very obviously the media have a major and absolutely represaentable role here. I mean the media faced with an event that they, caught up as they are in he Drama of the post 11/9 world, hink of as significant, and report accordingly. So we are caught up in endless (and utterly pointless0 repetion of events both in London and in Madrid and New Yotk Wethey cospire to make us endlessly revisty our misery – crying realtivs are paraded, and we all get to share the grief.Are are thereby all cuahgt up within the drama, the fear the terror – a drama that then utterly disotorts the nature of the sad, trajic thing that has happen. This process then exists of various levels. There is obviously there is the constant parade of misery, but there are more sublte levels asd well., For example there is the entire issue of attacks on Mosques and the worry about anti- Moselm vilence. Reporting that bring such violence even as it protest against it, to the fore and makes it an issue. A point of division. But even more subty there is the language used. I mean why (apart from the deep philosophical reasons) must a terrorist oiutrage be a set of events? I mean why talk about the events in London, por the events in New Ypor? And what follows on from the opoen ended nature of the event/ How does the use of s ame same ambivalent word catch us up in the same stream or trror that runs from 11/9 and threatens to bind us all within it prob;lematic embrace.
Secondly, and arising out of this point – there is avery real risk that the the War on Terror will perfom the same basic function in our society hat Foucault argued disciple did in the nineteenth century. The point of the disiplne society that Foucault was meticulously chronicled was not to manufacture normality – but rather to create a paradigm that was capabple of classifyiung abnormality. That it – it trimpumped when everyone new there place in the system, and coulod only analyse what they were, and how they felt through it. Disciple was a system to create deleiqunecy- that is to cpture woorying abnormality within a grid, and prevent it from ever actually thereatening the society.
Now it is creat that the war on terror wouldm, if we let it do the same for us. It could become the single domainat paradigm within which we arrange our lives – and express our fears and hatred. If this happens pof course we will all really be in trouble…
So for me the real war against terror is a genuine one. But is noit he war against a few sad and frankly idiotic adoolsectence who have become tired of the petty rasicism of the world. ItNoi it was a much harder and more difficult struggle against thje terror that we are being inspire to feel. A terror that will then cut hgrough us, a give us certain feeling and thoughts – so that we can only express ourselves through its prism. Thius athe real war, - and it is not to be fought against Al Queada or sad fools, but rather aginst the entire way society is conspiring to make us feel. A real war against terror itself.,