Lost threads found? Reading Empire

In the same way as 'Video killed the radio star', avalanches of info-bytes have buried the informed, critical political opinion. Our calendars have mutated into reminders of shopping triggers such as Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day or Easter, all seamlessly connected. No time to rest from getting ahead in the slow-moving checkout line at Walmart. Between commuter trips to alienating, transitional jobs and the rush to pack necessary chores, personal relationships, some fun and even perhaps meaningfulness into the imagined quality and leisure time on the weekends, cholesterol rises and heartbeats can skip. Certainly many folks find time for reading. But can anybody say with honest conviction that most reading is much more that consuming produced experiences in printed form? How often will the bonanza of new releases provide politically insightful and relevant information?

There seems to be a gradual shift in how to answer such questions can be answered ever since September 2001. Not since the Vietnam War has the printed media in the US been reporting on "foreign affairs" in such a quantity. Well-stocked "War and Terrorism" bookshelves in stores offer a large variety of books but regrettably rarely with the depth needed to understand political relations and realities from an outside, non-US perspective. These perspectives mostly fall short of accurately explaining the murderous conflict between competing interpretations of and engaging in terror, namely of the US-regime and of the geographically unrecognisable, networked militant religious fanatics.

For anyone who reads regularly, whether as a pastime or for educational purposes, there is no way to ignore the best-selling theme titled "terrorism". Before 9/11, mainstreamed USA citizens, apart from the exploration of travel trivia, could avoid taking note of events on foreign places. Today even the 'Kentucky Tribune' or the 'Idaho Herald' must cover international events. And since there is no way of avoiding it, they stick with the devil they know, the homegrown perspectives on misunderstood worlds far away, from Kentucky or Idaho that is. The aggressive steps of the Bush-regime out of the isolationist 'homeland' into open imperial spaces have forced the general public to register international events. To date registering what is happening has yet to translate into realizing complicity and responsibility for the results of this aggressiveness in any politically significant manner.

If they like it or not, are informed or not, Jack and Jill in Missouri, Bill and Ethel in Wichita, must take some sort of stand on world affairs. Making sense of it all is hard, and is perhaps way too far beyond the intellectual capacity of average Joe from the extreme make-over show to understand. But ignoring the political course his government has taken beyond the shores of Delaware and Seattle is no longer an option. Not since Susie and Jason's 20-year old kid has been shipped back home in a body bag along with some desert storm sand. This is the time to ask questions, to read as much as one can, to look for views and perspectives from the outside, in the hope of being able to understand why the desert sand comes along with, vehemently denied imperial ambitions.

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