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Re: [microsound] [ot] what is worse?



let me first begin by extending my sympathy to anyone affected by these attacks and unequivocally condemning the loss of innocent life in any context and any nation. lets never forget that perhaps tens of thousands of people have been killed here. all our abstrct philosophizing has to start with an acknowledgement of that and a commitment to honour their memories.

>...we've always done.  Sell.  We will drink coffee
>made from beans picked by kids for next to no wages.
>buy our laptops made in south east asia with cheap
>labour.

people must go on.  you cannot blame people for buying
what is on the market. most people don't even realize
what they're buying.

it's not so much a question of blame, but a question of pointing out that global capitalism constitutes a brutal attack on over half the planet's population, and that brutal attack continues almost relentlessly in the wake of the brutal attacks on U$ soil. there is injustice in that. that was graeme's point (or do i misunderstand you, g?) whether or not people "realize" what theyre buying, the injustice is real.


while i think it's necessary to
be conscientious, i can also understand the attitude
of the consumer who doesn't have the time nor the
energy to pay attention to these sorts of things.
i am a little disturbed at your apathetic attitude,

you totally missed the boat man. graeme is *criticizing* the apathy of people who will carry on with "bizness as usual" in the wake of these attacks. and as for the "consumer" who doesnt have the "time or the energy", i cant accept that as an excuse. once one becomes at least marginally aware of the structure of global capitalism, there is no excuse for not at least *trying* to make more ethical purchases or confronting the system in some way. the "time and energy" that we find so precious over here is bought at the expense of millions of people in the so-called "third world". our whole "way of life" is totally parastical. that may be part of the motivation behind the attacks we've seen, as reprehensible as they are.


and for what it's worth, i don't think it's the time
to criticize the marketplace.

whose interests are served by this attitude? not those of the innocent victims. not those in the third world who are about to become innocent victims, as in afghanistan.


right now should be a
quiet time to figure out what's next, and to say
goodbye to what's past.

grame has already figured out what's next. that was the point.

i agree that we need to be extremely sensitive and cautious after what we've seen this week, but i dont think thats an excuse to avoid confronting unjust structures of power. for me, the best thing we can do to honour the memory of innocent victims is to confront *all facets of* the structures that victimized them.

phil

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