Sunday, September 11, 2011

Captives to the Logic of Violence

by Robert C. Koehler

A decade later. The abyss keeps deepening, the wars keep squandering our blood and treasure beyond all logic except the logic of violence.

What ended on Sept. 11, 2001, it sometimes seems, was human evolution.

Suddenly, an irreparable schism opened between those in power and the rest of humankind, and a decision fell into place that war for profit would never end — and there was nothing to be done about it, as the corporate media conveyed to the world with a knowing shrug. What fell into place was armed insanity as perpetual background noise, and any reach toward global community, understanding and forgiveness went on permanent hold.

“Peace, of course, is not just absent from video games. It has faded from any debate in Washington surrounding the wars.”

Thus spake the Washington Post the other day, in a dazzlingly superficial reflection on the tenth anniversary of whatever happened that day, oh yeah, terror, evil, biff, bop, pow: “A Decade After the 9/11 Attacks, Americans Live in an Era of Endless War.” I can’t remember the last time I read something so glaringly lacking in moral intelligence. It must have been intentional.

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