Thursday, November 16, 2006

The Mortgaged Left: Reasons to be Prudent (Part 1)

Alone among the regulars at Long Sunday, Jodi Dean is struggling honestly with her increasing inability to believe the Official Account of what happened on September 11th 2001. Today, at her own blog, ICite, she describes how her daughter attempted to write a story and present it to her teacher at elementary school:

"In the first version of the story, Trixie's plane crashes into the World Trade Center. The teacher told my daughter that she shouldn't write this. That it was disrespectful or something--"

Like God's name, 9/11 is awe-inspiring but mentionable (if at all) only in low tones and with suitable reverence. That carefully uninvestigated crime has long since taken on the character of a sacred founding myth, like Genesis in early mediaeval theology. This is the way it happened. This is why we have to suffer and struggle and make others suffer much more. This is the Word of God. Who dares doubt it openly? Look at the consequences of heresy!

Even when demonstrably untrue (as it is in nearly every detail), the Official Account demands to be taken seriously; it demands to be believed. Or rather: it insists that it may not be openly doubted.

Thoughts of an incipient but self-sabotaging skeptic, in academia or anywhere else. (This is not a quote from ICite, but a composite of remarks I have heard from several different people):

"Where am I if I start to doubt this openly? Where the hell am I? If I say what I think, I won't be able to work. Important people will doubt my dependability. That supercilious asshole X will snicker at me in the common-room. People will roll their eyes in the pub. How will my spouse take it? How can I possibly explain this to my kids? I won't be able to live!"

Cynthia McKinney went through this, presumably. So did David M. Griffin, presumably. Benjamin DeMott has tenure, presumably, but that doesn't make his unmealymouthed outspokenness any less exceptional or any less admirable. It just makes it slightly easier.

Everyone is frightened of a ghost.

Meanwhile, there's a War on, and Bishop Cheney tells us, plausibly, that it will not end in our lifetimes (unless, of course, our lifetimes end first).

- Here's what the mortgaged, salary-dependent, priest-ridden world purports to believe:

http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/08/coincidence-theorists-guide-to-911.html

The stink is unbearable. How long will the Alexander Cockburn/David Corn/Lenin's Tomb left carry on pretending that pretending to enjoy the taste of bullshit is a good way to end an Endless War?

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:20 PM

    The level of denial is indeed stunning. It seems to result from some kind of psychological pathology, rather than any rational evaluation of the available evidence.

    Repeated requests for evidence supporting the Official Story are ignored, as is the abundant evidence leading to the alternative conclusion.

    It may be necessary to adopt the position that serious leftists can be identified by their consciousness of who was really responsible for 9/11, as opposed to those who prefer to believe in comforting government fairy tales.

    Official Story
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  2. After at least three years of pretty regular posting, I have just been banned from Lenin's Tomb. (Thursday midnight.)

    He can't answer the most basic and simple question, and he doesn't have the honesty or the guts to admit it.

    "It seems to result from some kind of psychological pathology, "

    It's simple standard-issue moral cowardice and careerism. He'd be in big trouble with the nervously-"revolutionary" SWP if he ever had the temerity to start being honest about this topic. And I don't think his tutors at uni would be too pleased, either, if he suddenly started looking damnably unsound. Hence his helpless and increasingly wild-eyed performance in the comments thread under this post:

    http://leninology.blogspot.com/2006/11/al-qaeda-is-misunderstood_22.html

    It's sad, though, but more disgusting than saddening. 'lenin' will carry on bloviating quite happily, to thunderous applause from his pet troll 'Patrick'. He has chosen his level, and the two of them deserve each other.

    I'll stick with Thompson, McKinney, Levis, Bröckers, Meacher, Elsässer, Hecht, Parenti, Salvini and Ganser. These are people worth taking seriously.

    - warszawa

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