RHIZOME_RAW: Not my country

Nov. 4, 2004

Type: discussion

I'm subbed to the <underfire> list as well – this post is kinda chilling,
about the death of reason:

———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 18:08:06 -0500
From: Gena Gbenga <[email protected]>
Reply-To: a forum on the organization and representation of contemporary armed
conflict <[email protected]>
To: a forum on the organization and representation of contemporary armed
conflict <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: <underfire> some reflextions

I am thinking of that recent New York Times article that Paul Edwards cited.

The author, Ron Suskind, is describing his encounter with a senior aide to
Bush. He writes:

"The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based
community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge
from your judicious study of discernable reality.' I nodded and murmured
something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off.
'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're
an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're
studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again,
creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things
will sort out. We're history's actors… and you, all of you, will be left
to just study what we do.'"

I am sick of being left out here in the "reality-based community" and forced
to do the mop-up job in the aftermath of Bush.

As Ana Valdez wrote, Are we not hostages of a rhetorical trap that needs us
to cover up a hollowness?

For all our focus on reason we underestimated the role of religious issues
in the rallying of the faithful in the reelection of Bush, and the role of
the dreams and imaginaries that his administration and the media provide.
Are we ready, as critics, to confront the death of reason in America?

What is to be our agenda now?

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