Post by Dano on Dec 26, 2001 18:14:23 GMT -5
From Sam Francis's "Principalities & Powers" column in CHRONICLES MAGAZINE (Jan 2002):
...The genearal thrust of virtually all of the false explanations of the attack [on the WTC] and of the motivations of the attackers was to praise not only the United States but the kind of social order that the ruling class wants to build and govern---the very sort of transnational global "society" that is animated by Mr. Will's much-treasured "modern virtues" of "individualism, pluralism, freedom, secularism"---and the larger purpose of the rhetorical and analytical fog that was spread around the attacks was precisely to assist in the legitimization and consolidation of ruling-class hegemony and the global regime it is constructing.
Indeed, the genius of the American and, more generally, the Atlantic ruling class is that it is able to manipulate the meaning of words, symbols, and cultural icons into almost the opposite of what they really mean. It was grimly amusing to watch multinational corporations suddenly sport American flags in the wake of the attacks. A couple of years ago, when Ralph Nader's activists asked several Fortune 500 companies to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at their public loard meetings, almost all simply refused. Patriotism and nationalism---or, at least, manipulation of their symbols---can sometimes be useful, and in the weeks after the September 11 attack, the ruling class lost no opportunity to message the public mind as it pleased, mainly for the benefit of its own regime.
The sudden sprouting of Old Glory at corporate headquarters and in glossy magazine advertisements, for example, did not really signify a return to national loyalties and patriotic sentiments, nor did the constant and cloying invocation of patriotism by political leaders. On the contrary, the purpose of such exhibitions was to invest old and accepted symbols like the flag, patriotic songs, and patriotic images with the new universalist and globalist meanings that help legitimize the New World hegemons. That is why we are told constantly that not only did American die in the World Trade Center towers, but lots of people from other countries, too; that is why President Bush and other leaders kept banging the drum about how wonderful most Muslims and Arabs are and how the terrorists did not represent REAL Islam, which is part of the New World Order and the New World America. That is why there was such a studied avoidance of any serious consideration of the immigration issue---not just trivial visa security policies but actually reducing or halting the number of foreigners who are allowed to enter, roam around at will, and stay as long as they please. That is also why the constant sub-theme of the post-attack discourse was the danger of "hate" (especially from "white hate groups") and "hate crimes." The multinational dimension of the alliance---with Great Britian, ostensibly with NATO, and with various Arab or Muslim states like Aaudi Arabia and Pakistan---reemphasized the globalist scope and substance of American power. Almost every assertion of nationality, patriotism, and national security was immediately diluted or modified by counterassertions that insisted that such affirmations should not be taken as abandonments of, or distractions from, America's global mission and universal character or the transnational utopia of "modernity" that the ruling class is building.
What stands out in the response of the American ruling class to the September 11 attacks is not so much the skills of real leadership as an amazing capacity to turn the whole attack and its aftermath into an opportunity for cementing the ruling class's dominance in the United States and its larger, long-term agenda for the planet. Osama bin Laden and his friends ought to learn something from the experience: The richest irony of the most lethal attack on the United States in its history is that, so far from seriously wounding or destabilizing the American megastate, the attack actually helped to increase its power and promote the interests of its elites.
...The genearal thrust of virtually all of the false explanations of the attack [on the WTC] and of the motivations of the attackers was to praise not only the United States but the kind of social order that the ruling class wants to build and govern---the very sort of transnational global "society" that is animated by Mr. Will's much-treasured "modern virtues" of "individualism, pluralism, freedom, secularism"---and the larger purpose of the rhetorical and analytical fog that was spread around the attacks was precisely to assist in the legitimization and consolidation of ruling-class hegemony and the global regime it is constructing.
Indeed, the genius of the American and, more generally, the Atlantic ruling class is that it is able to manipulate the meaning of words, symbols, and cultural icons into almost the opposite of what they really mean. It was grimly amusing to watch multinational corporations suddenly sport American flags in the wake of the attacks. A couple of years ago, when Ralph Nader's activists asked several Fortune 500 companies to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at their public loard meetings, almost all simply refused. Patriotism and nationalism---or, at least, manipulation of their symbols---can sometimes be useful, and in the weeks after the September 11 attack, the ruling class lost no opportunity to message the public mind as it pleased, mainly for the benefit of its own regime.
The sudden sprouting of Old Glory at corporate headquarters and in glossy magazine advertisements, for example, did not really signify a return to national loyalties and patriotic sentiments, nor did the constant and cloying invocation of patriotism by political leaders. On the contrary, the purpose of such exhibitions was to invest old and accepted symbols like the flag, patriotic songs, and patriotic images with the new universalist and globalist meanings that help legitimize the New World hegemons. That is why we are told constantly that not only did American die in the World Trade Center towers, but lots of people from other countries, too; that is why President Bush and other leaders kept banging the drum about how wonderful most Muslims and Arabs are and how the terrorists did not represent REAL Islam, which is part of the New World Order and the New World America. That is why there was such a studied avoidance of any serious consideration of the immigration issue---not just trivial visa security policies but actually reducing or halting the number of foreigners who are allowed to enter, roam around at will, and stay as long as they please. That is also why the constant sub-theme of the post-attack discourse was the danger of "hate" (especially from "white hate groups") and "hate crimes." The multinational dimension of the alliance---with Great Britian, ostensibly with NATO, and with various Arab or Muslim states like Aaudi Arabia and Pakistan---reemphasized the globalist scope and substance of American power. Almost every assertion of nationality, patriotism, and national security was immediately diluted or modified by counterassertions that insisted that such affirmations should not be taken as abandonments of, or distractions from, America's global mission and universal character or the transnational utopia of "modernity" that the ruling class is building.
What stands out in the response of the American ruling class to the September 11 attacks is not so much the skills of real leadership as an amazing capacity to turn the whole attack and its aftermath into an opportunity for cementing the ruling class's dominance in the United States and its larger, long-term agenda for the planet. Osama bin Laden and his friends ought to learn something from the experience: The richest irony of the most lethal attack on the United States in its history is that, so far from seriously wounding or destabilizing the American megastate, the attack actually helped to increase its power and promote the interests of its elites.