Difference between revisions of "The Desert of the Real"
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=Is this the end of fantasy?= | =Is this the end of fantasy?= | ||
<p>Christopher Isherwood, an Englishman who became an American, once | <p>Christopher Isherwood, an Englishman who became an American, once | ||
− | + | gave | |
expression to the unreality of American daily life, exemplified in | expression to the unreality of American daily life, exemplified in | ||
− | + | the motel room: “American motels are unreal! … They are deliberately | |
− | + | designed to be unreal. … The Europeans hate us because we’ve retired | |
− | + | to live inside our advertisements, like hermits going into caves to | |
− | + | contemplate.” | |
− | + | </p><p></p> | |
− | + | <p> The Wachowski brothers’ 1999 hit film The Matrix brought this | |
− | + | logic to its extreme climax: The material reality we all experience | |
− | + | and see around us is a virtual one, generated and coordinated by | |
− | + | a gigantic mega-computer to which we are all attached. When the | |
− | + | hero, played by Keanu Reeves, awakens into the “real reality,” he | |
− | + | sees a desolate landscape littered with burned ruins—what remained | |
− | + | of Chicago after a global war. The resistance leader Morpheus utters | |
− | + | the ironic greeting: “Welcome to the desert of the real.”</p> | |
− | + | <p> Was it not something of a similar order that took place in New | |
− | + | York on September 11? As we were introduced to the “desert of the | |
− | + | real,” the landscape and the shots we saw of the collapsing towers | |
− | + | could only remind us of the most breathtaking scenes from innumerable | |
− | + | Hollywood disaster movies. The unthinkable had been the object of | |
− | + | fantasy. In a way, America got what it fantasized about, and this | |
− | + | was the greatest surprise.</p> | |
− | + | <p> It is precisely now, when we are dealing with the raw reality | |
− | + | of a catastrophe, that we should bear in mind the ideological and | |
− | + | fantasmatic coordinates that determine its perception. If there | |
− | + | is any symbolism in the collapse of the World Trade Center, it is | |
− | + | not that the Twin Towers stood for capitalism per se, but of virtual | |
− | + | capitalism, of financial speculations disconnected from the sphere | |
− | + | of material production. The towers symbolized, ultimately, the stark | |
− | + | separation between the digitized First World and the Third World’s | |
− | + | “desert of the real.”</p> | |
− | + | <p> The American sphere of safety is now experienced by its citizens | |
− | + | as being under threat from an Outside of terrorist attackers who | |
− | + | are ruthlessly self-sacrificing and cowards, cunningly intelligent | |
− | + | and primitive barbarians. Whenever we encounter such a purely evil | |
− | + | Outside, we should gather the courage to remember the Hegelian lesson: | |
− | + | In this evil Outside, we should recognize the distilled version | |
− | + | of our own essence. For the past five centuries, the (relative) | |
− | + | prosperity and peace of the “civilized” West was bought by the export | |
− | + | of ruthless violence and destruction to the “savage” Outside. It’s | |
− | + | a long story, from the conquest of America to the slaughter in Congo.</p> | |
− | + | <p> Cruel and indifferent as it may sound, we should also, now more | |
− | + | than ever, bear in mind that the actual effect of these attacks | |
− | + | is much more symbolic: In Africa, every single day more people die | |
− | + | of AIDS than all the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center | |
− | + | and the Pentagon, and their deaths can and could have been easily | |
− | + | minimized with relatively small financial means. The United States | |
− | + | got a taste of what goes on around the world on a daily basis, from | |
− | + | Sarajevo to Grozny, from Rwanda and Congo to Sierra Leone. If one | |
− | + | adds to the situation in New York rape gangs and a dozen or so snipers | |
− | + | blindly targeting people who walk along the streets, one gets an | |
− | + | idea of what Sarajevo was like a decade ago.</p> | |
− | + | <p> Now, we are forced to strike back, to deal with real enemies in | |
− | + | the real world … but whom to strike? Whatever the response, it | |
− | + | will never hit the right target, bringing us full satisfaction. | |
− | + | The spectacle of America attacking Afghanistan would be just that: | |
− | + | If the greatest power in the world were to destroy one of the poorest | |
− | + | countries, where peasants barely survive on barren hills, would | |
− | + | this not be the ultimate case of the impotent acting out? Afghanistan | |
− | + | is already reduced to rubble, destroyed by continuous war during | |
− | + | the past two decades. The impending attack brings to mind the anecdote | |
− | + | about the madman who searches for his lost key beneath a street | |
− | + | light; asked why he searches there, when he actually lost the key | |
− | + | in a dark corner, he answers: “But it is easier to search under | |
− | + | strong light!” Is it not the ultimate irony that Kabul already looks | |
− | + | like downtown Manhattan?</p> | |
− | + | <p> To succumb to the urge to retaliate now means precisely to avoid | |
− | + | confronting the true dimensions of what occurred on September 11—it | |
− | + | means an act whose true aim is to lull us into the secure conviction | |
− | + | that nothing has really changed. The true long-term threats are | |
− | + | further acts of mass terror in comparison to which the memory of | |
− | + | the World Trade Center collapse will pale—acts less spectacular, | |
− | + | but much more horrifying. What about biological warfare, the use | |
− | + | of lethal gas or the prospect of DNA terrorism—the development | |
− | + | of poisons that will affect only people who share a determinate | |
− | + | genome? Instead of a quick acting out, one should confront these | |
− | + | difficult questions: What will “war” mean in the 21st century? Who | |
− | + | will be “them”?</p> | |
− | + | <p> There is a partial truth in the notion of a “clash of civilizations” | |
− | + | attested here. Witness the surprise of the average American: “How | |
− | + | is it possible that these people display and practice such a disregard | |
− | + | for their own lives?” Is the obverse of this surprise not the rather | |
− | + | sad fact that we, in the First World countries, find it more and | |
− | + | more difficult even to imagine a public or universal cause for which | |
− | + | one would be ready to sacrifice one’s life?</p> | |
− | + | <p> But a brief look at the comparative history of Islam and Christianity | |
− | + | tells us that the “human rights record” (to use an anachronistic | |
− | + | term) of Islam is much better than that of Christianity: In past | |
− | + | centuries, Islam was significantly more tolerant toward other religions | |
− | + | than Christianity. It was through the Arabs that, in the Middle | |
− | + | Ages, Western Europeans regained access to the ancient Greek legacy. | |
− | + | We are not dealing with a feature inscribed into Islam as such, | |
− | + | but with the outcome of modern socio-political conditions. This | |
− | + | notion of the “clash of civilizations” has to be thoroughly rejected: | |
− | + | What we are witnessing today are rather clashes within each civilization.</p> | |
− | + | <p> Indeed, every feature attributed to the Outside is already present | |
− | + | in the very heart of the United States. Murderous fanaticism? What | |
− | + | about the rightist, populist “fundamentalists” who also practice | |
− | + | a terror of their own, legitimized by (their understanding of) Christianity? | |
− | + | Since America is in a way “harboring” them, should the U.S. Army | |
− | + | have punished its own country after the Oklahoma City bombing? And | |
− | + | what about the way Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson reacted to the | |
− | + | attacks on September 11, perceiving them as a sign that God had | |
− | + | lifted his protection because of the sinful lives of Americans, | |
− | + | putting the blame on hedonist materialism, liberalism and rampant | |
− | + | sexuality, and claiming that America got what it deserved?</p> | |
− | + | <p> It is still too early to tell how the events of September 11 will | |
− | + | be symbolized or what acts they will be evoked to justify. Even | |
− | + | now, in these moments of utmost tension, this link is not automatic | |
− | + | but contingent. We already see the first bad omens, like the sudden | |
− | + | resurrection, in the public discourse, of the old Cold War term | |
− | + | “free world”: The struggle is now the one between the “free world” | |
− | + | and the forces of darkness and terror. The question to be asked | |
− | + | here is: Who then belongs to the unfree world? Are, say, China or | |
− | + | Egypt part of this free world?</p> | |
− | + | <p> The day after the attacks, I got a message from a journal that | |
− | + | was just about to publish a longer text of mine on Lenin, telling | |
− | + | me that they decided to postpone its publication—they considered | |
− | + | it inopportune to publish a text on Lenin immediately after the | |
− | + | terrorist attacks. Does this point toward ominous ideological rearticulations | |
− | + | to come, with a new Berufsverbot (prohibition to employ radicals) | |
− | + | much stronger and more widespread than the one in the Germany of | |
− | + | the ’70s? </p> | |
− | + | <p> These days, one often hears the phrase that the struggle is now | |
− | + | the one for democracy—true, but not quite in the way this phrase | |
− | + | is usually meant. Already, some leftist friends of mine have written | |
− | + | me that, in these difficult moments, we had better keep our heads | |
− | + | down and not push forward with our agenda. Against this temptation | |
− | + | to duck out the crisis, one should insist that now the left should | |
− | + | provide a better analysis. To not do so is to concede in advance | |
− | + | the left’s political and ethical defeat in the face of acts of quite | |
− | + | genuine heroism on the part of ordinary people—like the passengers | |
− | + | who, in a model of rational ethical action, apparently overtook | |
− | + | the hijackers and provoked the early crash of the fourth plane over | |
− | + | Pennsylvania.</p> | |
− | + | <p> So what about the phrase that reverberates everywhere, “Nothing | |
− | + | will be the same after September 11”? Significantly, this phrase | |
− | + | is never further elaborated—it’s just an empty gesture of saying | |
− | + | something “deep” without really knowing what we want to say. So | |
− | + | our reaction to this phrase should be: Really? Or is it rather that | |
− | + | the only thing effectively changed was that America was forced to | |
− | + | realize the kind of world it is part of?</p> | |
− | + | <p> Such changes in perception are never without consequences, since | |
− | + | the way we perceive our situation determines the way we act in it. | |
− | + | Recall the processes of collapse of a political regime—say, | |
− | + | the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe. At a certain | |
− | + | moment, people all of a sudden became aware that the game was over, | |
− | + | that the Communists had lost. The break was purely symbolic, nothing | |
− | + | changed “in reality”—and, nonetheless, from that moment on, | |
− | + | the final collapse of the regime was just a question of days.</p> | |
− | + | <p> What if something of the same order did occur on September 11? | |
− | + | We don’t yet know what consequences in economy, ideology, politics | |
− | + | and war this event will have, but one thing is sure: The United | |
− | + | States, which, until now, perceived itself as an island exempted | |
− | + | from this kind of violence, witnessing these kind of things only | |
− | + | from the safe distance of a TV screen, is now directly involved. | |
− | + | So the question is: Will Americans decide to further fortify their | |
− | + | sphere, or risk stepping out of it? America has two choices. It | |
− | + | can persist in or even amplify its deeply immoral attitude of “Why | |
− | + | should this happen to us? Things like this don’t happen here,” leading | |
− | + | to even more aggression toward the Outside—just like a paranoiac | |
− | + | acting out. Or America can finally risk stepping through the fantasmatic | |
− | + | screen separating it from the Outside world, accepting its arrival | |
− | + | into the desert of the real—and thus make the long-overdue | |
− | + | move from “A thing like this should not happen here” to “A thing | |
− | + | like this should not happen anywhere!”</p> | |
− | + | <p> Therein resides the true lesson of the attacks: The only way to | |
− | + | ensure that it will not happen here again is to prevent it from | |
− | + | going on anywhere else. America should learn to humbly accept its | |
− | + | own vulnerability as part of this world, enacting the punishment | |
− | + | of those responsible as a sad duty, not as an exhilarating retaliation. | |
− | + | Even though America’s peace was bought by the catastrophes going | |
− | + | on elsewhere, the predominant point of view remains that of an innocent | |
− | + | gaze confronting unspeakable evil that struck from the Outside. | |
− | + | One needs to gather the courage to recognize that the seed of evil | |
− | + | is within us too.</p> | |
− | + | <p> In his campaign for the presidency, George W. Bush named Jesus | |
− | + | Christ as the most important person in his life. Now he has a unique | |
− | + | chance to prove that he meant it seriously. For him, as for all | |
− | + | Americans today, “Love thy neighbor” means “Love the Muslims.” Or | |
− | + | it means nothing at all. | |
==Source== | ==Source== |
Revision as of 14:55, 12 November 2006
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