The Current Tragedies

[gabriella Modan]

Peter Patrick commented on British media reporting of the attacks.  I've
actually found reading the BBC reports kind of a reprieve from the
onslaught of American media discourse about "freedom" and "democracy" and
NPR reports with people singing "God Bless America" in the background. I
have to say that my horror at what happened is matched by my disgust at the
way that U.S. media and government discourse has co-opted the terms
"freedom" and "democracy", completely obscuring the issues of U.S. economic
imperialism and the Bush administration's rather hands-off policy towards
the middle-east.  As Paul Chilton mentioned, I think it's extremely
counterproductive to ignore growing anti-American sentiment and the reasons
underlying it in an analysis of this recent terrorism.  I'm also disturbed
by the commentaries I've heard about the U.S.'s "age of innocence" being
over, how we all felt safe and now that feeling of safety has been
shattered.  Has everyone forgotten about the metal detectors in schools
across the country, gated communities popping up with abandon, the scores
of people who are afraid to go into American cities?  I'm disturbed at the
way the current discourse sets the stage to obscure the very serious
problems of poverty and inequality in this country and elsewhere in the
name of increasing the defense budget to "protect freedom, democracy, and
the American way of life".  But there seems to be no place in the discourse
to question what Colin Powell or Dan Rather are signifying -- and obscuring
-- with these terms.  I've also noticed that the quotes I've read from
people who were celebrating the attacks are chillingly similar to things
I've heard in American and Israeli discourse justifying Israeli military
actions -- things like, "violence is the only thing that Americans
understand".  But there seems to be no place in U.S. public discourse to
point out such similarities, without being branded as unfeeling or
crazy.  So I am at a loss as to how we as linguistic anthropologists can
have any kind of public impact.  In a state (Ohio) where every retail
establishment has sold out of flags, I really can't think of an effective
way to discuss the current discourse in my classes.  As discourse analysts
we know of course that it's crucial to analyze discourse in its context,
but I think in this case the discourse *also* has to be separated from the
event, so that a critique of the discourse is not seen as an approval of
the event; but that's a separation that I just don't see a lot of people
amenable to making.  I would be interested to know of any U.S. alternative
media sources which are addressing some of these issues.

Galey Modan