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the medium: the instrument of terror



It is strange seeing the same images of a plane striking the second tower again and again, from different angles, different distances.  Looped over and over.  The same with the building collapsing.  Over and over, with shots of people running in horror, or in shock in between.   Different perspectives, different impressions, and the changing affect it all had on me over time.  I looked out my window in Chicago at the Sears Tower today half expecting it to explode and topple to the ground.  

I lately have been reading the work of French theorist Paul Virilio.  Seeing a discussion of this tragedy on this list made me think of the composition of the news footage and how these images and sounds are disseminated  into thousands of home along with the retaliatory and revenge filled rhetoric of the government unable to look at such a tragedy without seeing plain-and-simple another nations flag to point to and say 'you are the enemy that must be eradicated'.  The different channels were like different remixes.  The BBC and the Canadian channels all had a different take then CNN and Peter Jennings on ABC.  It was all so surreal.  What is the message?  A time for reflection, about sources of such unfathomable anger and why? how this could be?  A time for compassion to those who have lost loved ones?  Or a time to set to a boil racial and/or religious hatred?  A time to let hate simmer and boil over as if retribution and vengence were more virtuous then dialogue with those who view us as enemies, or even internal discussions in the U.S. about "Justice" before revenge?  TV today: different mixes different impressions.  

I fear the worst in a country whose President oversaw the state sanctioned killing of mentally retarded convicts as governer of Texas.  

The targets were perfect metaphors for wht many people see as so sinister about the U.S.:  The Pentagon: secretive center of the most technologically advanced military power, which some see as being enamored with power.  The  World Trade Center: The symbol for corporate power, globalisation, and predatory capitalism.  

The talk of war...seems akward...this is a war of information and representation at this point.  These acts of terror are more audio and visual spectacle.  The act of terror didn't just occur in New York and D.C. but is occuring electronically in homes and any place with a screen and set of speakers.

Trying to come to grips with all of this...  Hope all are safe and well.

-0-

John