The Art Scene
By Cicero | Related entries in The War On TerrorismOne of the reasons why I blog anonymously is so that I can listen to all kinds of unguarded opinions from people I know. I received an email yesterday from a very close friend of mine. We are both a part of the fine arts world, with art in galleries in New York City, Seattle and Milwaukee. My friend is a celebrity of sorts — some of you would know who he is if I revealed his name. He and I have been collaborating for years on artistic endeavors. We would both lay down our lives for each other if need be. He’s like a brother to me — I love him dearly. He’s kind, thoughtful, loyal and earnest.
Politically, I am the one who changed since 9/11. My art friend seems content to rely on the same leftist conspiracies that sustained his political thinking since the 1970s.
Yesterday I received an email from him regarding the day’s terrorist threats in England. None of what he has said is a surprise to me, but this time I thought I would share it with you here. It reads like it’s right out of Democratic Underground, Common Dreams or Daily KOS.
I am sure you’ve seen the news today of the “liquid threat” to planes from the UK. I sure don’t trust the official story. None of the coverage mentions any real evidence whatsoever. Seen any? I haven’t. Its all hearsay from the governments so far. I am sure they will trot some “evidence” out by tomorrows news cycle, but so far it all looks like it’s not what it appears to be.
Like that “plot” they found down in Florida recently that was pretty much nothing, but was trumpeted in a big way to ratchet up our fear level. This one smells similar, but it’s on a much HUGER scale. Calling out the National Guard, the timing of the “revelation” for maximum media coverage, the press conferences, the talk of Islamic Fascism, the posturing of Bush and pals, going to code “red” for the first time ever, dramatically amping up airport security etc.
And it’s right after Lieberman goes down, public opinion on Iraq is 65% against, polls show incumbents have a lot to be afraid of, and those November elections coming right up…. of course I expected Bush and Co to pull something huge to freak everyone the f-ck out before the elections. At the very least, they are jumping all over this story for political advatage. But if they are indeed escalating things so they can keep political control and keep us afraid, how much farther will it escalate beyond todays news event?
I guess I sound like ALex Jones here, sorry, but I read enough news to be able to notice how odd the coverage is of this news event. They are suddenly making all the airports change their security as if this plot just dropped on their heads this morning, when of course they woudl have been tracking this “plot” for weeks or months and there is nothing “new” or sudden about the story at all. They’ve done this a few times before where it will turned out the supposed “new” threat was really old news, but they made it public at a time that was politically advantageous to them.
And how in hell is it a revelation to them that people could make a bomb from stuff hidden in a hair gel or soft drink bottle and set it offf with an iPod or cell phone? They would have to have know this all along, so why suddenly change the security rules now, as if they just figured it out? Very weird.
This whole email leaves me feeling depressed. I love this guy. His art is ingenious. We’ve covered so much ground together, for so long. He’s one of our best and brightest. And he doesn’t get it. All problems emanate from the United States. The only thing we have to fear is ourselves, apparently. His denial of any kind of existential threat from the Islamic world is complete. I have no idea how to get through to him and I have long given up trying.
I wouldn’t mind so much if I didn’t love him, and if I didn’t think that the millions of people like him are our Achilles heal in this war. While I think it’s perfectly legitimate to be against the Iraq war for sound reasons, my friend and so many like him take such a conspiratorial view of our world that they offer little that is constructive to solving the problems of our time.
Our being featured in an art show last year in New York was really eye opening. The show was a great success. The opening night was packed with people. There was wine and cheese, and lots of posing and photos. I stood in the corner with my cocktail, watching the hip crowd impress itself. I felt that the gulf between myself and these people was epic. It’s odd that I should be considered an artist, plying art circles, and yet I feel completely alienated from the people who support the arts.
And so I remain anonymous.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 11th, 2006 and is filed under The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 11th, 2006 at 8:44 am
Your friend, just like every other leftist, is by nature a material determinist. Value can only be assigned to things that are measurable, like wealth, power and territory; whilst ephemeral, intangible qualities such as morality and free will are either a result of, or relative to, those material causes, or else completely irrelevant.
It is best illustrated in the definition of “justice” which differs between right and left. Conservatives define justice as what is morally right; the outcome ove a struggle between good and evil. Liberals describe “social justice”; which concerns the struggle between economic classes - haves vs have nots.
According to this paradigm, The wealthy classes must be the villains because they hoarde all of the wealth and resources, denying justice to the poor and downtrodden. Therefore only the rich and have the power to be the source of problems in the world.
This belief manifests itself in two ways:
1) The rich, white people or Jews are the “root causesâ€Â? of the frustration in the third world, and therefore are to be blamed for the violent response to their own “imperialism”
2) There must be some kind of super-powerful illuminatti controlling all the geopolitical strings of world events. Everything becomes a top-down conspiracy.
You artist friend simply cannot accept the true nature of mankind; that even poor, brown people can sometimes be inherently evil and cause such catastrophic destruction for ideological reaasons.
August 11th, 2006 at 8:56 am
Some people don’t survive adolescence. They become trapped in the melodrama of themselves standing up to authority (parents). They’re comfortable there because it’s a flattering way to portray themselves. And it denies them any share of responsibility. It also wonderfully insulates them from any need to recognize real threat, real danger. After all, if the only problem comes from “Dad,” life’s fairly safe.
It’s ridiculous, of course, but any effort to alter their thinking involves them accepting the responsibilities and complexities and intractabilities of adulthood. Good luck with that.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:23 am
I’ll voice the unpopular opinion here — is what he speculates really so impossible? I’m just skeptical enough of the people in charge, and of the media (who largely follow along) that I really don’t think it sounds so crazy.
And what does all that really have to do with being an artist?
August 11th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Well, gal, I’d be interested in knowing how you think it’s more plausible for tens of thousands of disconnected parties to mount a media fear campaign than for a few dozen people to decide to blow up ten planes with homemade explosives.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Don’t be too hard on your friend. His e-mail was interesting, because like most things — it contains a Kernel of Truth. Certainly, as a sensitive obverser of the Western mind, as well as, history, you wouldn’t disagree that Fear is a political propellant. Democrats use the fear of Republicans cutting Social Security to entice the votes of old people. Republicans use the fear of Democrats as being soft on national security to garner support. And in this fat, comfortable modern world “fear” (and its handmaiden “security”) has long ago eclipsed any more noble sentiment. Your friend’s angst, while perhaps not immediately supported by the facts, is justified and correct in the abstract. He is guilty of jumping-the-gun on the current “threat”, and undermining his broader position. His general regard for the media, as being willful tools, or its own donkish ignorance allowing it to be a tool, is entirely correct. On this note, I use to think the media was part of the grand “conspiracy”, but having now dealt with the media in campaigns and cases, it is my new position that the media can be used by almost anyone. As such, the media is not part of the conspiracy, but a kind of mentally-challenged politically sibling made to do stupid things.
One of my brothers, Col. Peros Grande, has just taken over command of a base in England. I plan on going to England this Christmas with the wife. This is scary shit, because I don’t want to die, particularly in the Christmas season at the hands of smelly depressed juvenile simpletons who are looking to have sex with a bunch of virgins. Look, the only way to get out of this situation is to give them our virgins. Just kidding.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:58 am
Paul, I never said it’s “more plausible.” What I was getting at was closer to the Kernel of Truth DosPeros mentions. He just put it much better than I did. :-)
August 11th, 2006 at 11:01 am
I have a feeling that agencies like the TSA are being REACTIVE instead of being PROACTIVE. A few years ago someone tried to sneak in explosives using his shoes so now we must all smell everyone’s feet because of this. Yesterday they tried using liquid explosives…so now we can’t even take water on the flights… Do you really think they will use the same tactics and the same formats? No! Today’s terrorists are extremely creative.
I think AMERICA should really be SWITCHING to proactive and preventive action. The security agencies should be increasing their HUMINT and SIGINT coordination like was suggested before…
And the REGULAR CITIZENS should be encouraged to take proactive steps to protect themselves in the event of an emergency. There are excellent tips and tools for doing this on http://www.technonllc.com
August 11th, 2006 at 11:52 am
Paul: I have two responses to you and your naive explanation to Gal:
1. 10,000 very educated people worked on the Manhatten project, and for many years after, even to this day, still most of them do not know what they were working on.
2. Recorded on tape: “We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world-government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the National autodetermination practiced in past centuries”–David Rockefeller in an address to a Trilateral Commission meeting in June of 1991.
August 11th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
To Michael,
That is the most UN-American thing I have read. The founding Fathers of our country very specifically stated that government should not be trusted ever. I won’t bother you with the volumes of quotes by the same people who have their likeness imprinted on your money.
Do you know what became of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence? Torture, death, homes burned, families separated, and death from wounds of the war. By your own words, you torched a few homes yourself, metaphorically, by attacking those who stand up to an out of control tyrannical international corporate element who has seized control our open government.
The British assessed those original rebels exactly as you describe today’s Americans who bear doubt upon the “official” US 9/11 theory -as a rag tag bunch of immature rabble rousers.
August 11th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
But wait, they have known about this for months. They also have a history of raising the alert level around politically sensitive times. I remember when they raised it for certain portions of New York and San Fran and it turned out later that was because they had found plans in Pakistan that were over a year old and didn’t even talk about an ongoing operation. Apparently they decided just finding the plans was cause to raise the alarm. Then there is the touting of capturing Al Qaeda “masterminds” when Bush was under political pressure that turned out to be foot soldiers and had already been arrested months earlier. And yeah, the recent Florida cell and even Jose Padilla, et al. turned out to have very little to do with the broader struggle.
To me Bush’s gang is the worst — they don’t really outright fabricate things like in Communism/Fascism, they just turn everything into a PR stunt. I am convinced this latest thing is far more serious and credible than most, but the trotting of administration officials in front of the TV cameras and trying to frame it in the wider context of a global struggle is identical. This administration is terrible at exaggerating everything and trying to make everything fit into the same global worldview (which I think is also the downfall of their foreign policy but that’s a different topic). When a couple of trucks become “mobile weapons labs,” a model airplane with a camera on it becomes a “military drone,” a couple of weird pseudo-christian-crazies are equated with the GWOT…well of course this is bull. And it’s sad because it’s turning a lot of people into idiots that start to see everything as bull, hence the increasing popular view that the govt caused/knew about 9/11. On the other side, you have people that recognize the terrorist threat but in order to reconcile the PR, they more or less close their eyes/ears and start saying that the President is right about everything.
It’s like everyone needs some grand worldview and in order to convert other people you try to make every single little knob fit in exactly. A bunch of right-wing sites were talking about how this latest arrest validates warrantless wire-tapping/the whole war/any action that’s been done because it reminded us there REALLY ARE evil people. On the other hand, this is the most clear cut example of great anti-terrorism in action, and the left-wing sites are dubious and saying it’s entirely a front for political gain. It’s no wonder that people (like at the Belgravia Dispatch) sound like they are so bewildered they ahve to laugh to keep their sanity. The whole environment is becoming so Orwellian where everything is losing any neutral meaning and language itself is entirely partisan. (Like Newt flat out stating that they should recast this as WWIII almost exclusively for domestic political reasons.)
August 11th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
I think the Bush administration does tend to go overboard on the PR and marketing … BUT, I also think one of the reasons they trot out government officials to put events such as yesterday’s into the greater context of the War on Terror is because so many Americans flattly refuse to believe we’re even involved in a real and important struggle.
When people like the artist quoted here insist on believing the whole threat is just a Bush political tactic, it’s no surprise that those who understand the reality of the threat would react by once again trying to make sure Americans understand the real context of such events.
Of course, the more the administration mentions the conflict, the more denialists claim there’s some Orwellian plot in the works. It’s a viscious circle really.
August 11th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Mikkel, my understanding of why they busted the ring now is that the would-be perpetrators had just bought their airline tickets. The authorities would have liked to wait a little longer to gather intelligence on the group, but they ran out of time. Presumably, the tickets were for the near future.
August 11th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Just like everything else, the reality of the situation most likely falls somewhere between “The Big One” and an Orwellian Plot. I believe that there was probably a terrorist plot uncovered. But, I don’t necessarily think that it was worth the freak out that it got. I doubt that this kind of bomb was anything brand new. It seems like something that could have (or should have) been anticipated. I mean, I can brainstorm a list of ways to blow up a plane, and I don’t even know anything about explosives or weapons. I’m sure someone that does have knowledge AND works for the gov’t has thought about this stuff. BFD.
August 11th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
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August 11th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Meredith, this type of attack was quasi-successful about 10 years ago on PAL flight 434. It is certainly something we should worry about. Ramsey Yousif was 1 row away from blowing up the center fuel tank and killing 200+ passengers. They won’t make that same mistake again. Perhaps they already succeded…
If there is one conspiracy theory that ever had legs, it would be that TWA flight 800, which blew up over manhattan in 1996, was destroyed with one of these bombs. Read Peter Lance’s timeline here for some compelling evidence on the subject. Actual FBI documents here.
August 12th, 2006 at 12:33 am
Oh I agree 100% about the timing of when they decided to bust the ring. Apparently they had excellent survelliance and I can definitely appreciate that they waited to uncover as many connections as they could. And of course you want to bust them before they actually get to the airport. What I was referring to was the panic code red alert. Since they have known about the liquid bombs on a plane plot for over 10 years, how come they haven’t banned liquids/bought better detection equipment in that time. Operationally I agree with what the Brits (and I assume we concurred) did, but in the big scheme of things, we seem to only make lots of noise when these things are uncovered. Any person could easily figure out how to make these bombs and sneak them aboard…it was only the large conspiratorial nature of the assignment that got them caught. (BTW, it seems that it was actually Pakistani intelligence that first uncovered the plot). I guess what I object to is the rhetoric of “we have made you safer” when nothing is going on and “we are still at risk” when a plot is broken up. There is an ADHD quality towards how our politicans publicly address terrorism.
August 12th, 2006 at 1:12 am
“When people like the artist quoted here insist on believing the whole threat is just a Bush political tactic, it’s no surprise that those who understand the reality of the threat would react by once again trying to make sure Americans understand the real context of such events.”
This is true and a noble goal but they are doing a terrible job. When you hit the panic button anytime something bad happens and the “this is the turning point” button anytime something good happens, of course that will make people jaded. The administration doesn’t trust the populace to have any sense of subtlety or reason. To me a much more appropriate response would be to take a measured reaction. For example, whenever Iraq had elections, Bush acted like that was magic that would cure everything and all we had to do was make sure that the people that “hated freedom” lost to the people that the people had chosen — completely obscuring the fact that lots of the strife was caused by people that were elected as well. If instead he talked about how it was an important stepping stone but there were many hallmarks of a successful democracy and listed his plan to gradually enourage each one into fruition in an even handed way, both domestic and Iraqi events may have unfolded a much different way. Instead we picked sides week to week depending on the events on the ground and focused mainly on who our “enemy of the week” was.
Or when a terrorist plot is foiled they should be much more forthcoming about the exact threat posed. Did our foreign military objectives help uncover it all — say in a captured communique that would have not been discovered any other way? What domestic improvements helped; like increased cooperation between the CIA and FBI allowed under the patriot act. How did our international diplomatic contacts come into play? Very importantly, what happens when someone is falsely accused? This is how you convince people in my book, not by parading them around and saying “trust us,” because statistically most of the time our government will be wrong. The fact of that matter is that (from public knowledge) very little of our intelligence was uncovered from traditional military power; the Patriot Act contains some provisions that are very necessary about how agencies share intel, but in practice has been used very little to help conviction of terrorist suspects while provisions aimed at terrorism have been used to target people far from it; increased international cooperation has become absolutely vital for rooting out these guys across the globe (including a lot of help from “unsavory countries”); if you are falsely accused it’s more or less a crap shoot what will happen. The Bush Administration has purposefully constructed the GWOT to become an overarching political philosophy of why they need power. If they truely took it as seriously as it is, then they would divorce it completely from politics, admit when mistakes are made, and start having a dialogue with the voters. The instant that they admit a newfound power they were given isn’t actually that useful at all and they are giving it back will be a great turning point in public perception.
August 12th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Your friend is not loony or off-base He is simply connecting the dots. Here you go:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14320452/
The Bush administration has proven that they cannot be trusted. If you believe otherwise, you are the loon.
August 13th, 2006 at 12:39 am
Mikkel and Jimmy,
Great thoughts. I think our law enforcement people can figure out various ways people might be able to sneak an explosive on a plane. Let’s just protect against everything, all at once. Security is security. Our government should do what is necessary to protect us from terrorism. It seems odd, though, that these bits of information only reach the public when something like this happens. I would just be more comfortable with a different administration. Too many issues with GW and friends . . . .
August 20th, 2006 at 7:05 am
“my friend and so many like him take such a conspiratorial view of our world that they offer little that is constructive to solving the problems of our time.”
Thank you! If you want to know why no one is really rallying against our current course of action, this is it. It’s like going to the first few war protests in NYC and seeing signed for ever friggin liberal cause in the book. Like, hello? What are you here protesting for again?
The only reason we have psycho christians running this country is because they built a group of followers using facts and logic (albeit perverted logic). Until a more liberal view starts working on the same, and stop these stupid “Bush lied, people died” dumbifications, we’ll go no where.