Episteme

I worry too much about the universe, at least that's what I realized the other day. You know, my place in it, your place in it, what life is really about, blah, blah, blah. And now all this crazy news surrounding Wikipedia - what does it all mean? So when I'm gone on vacation, I've promised myself I will buy a new journal and write in it. I haven't written in one in like two years. Looking back I realize all I really missed documenting was my neurotic worry about the universe, but maybe if I really write about this stuff on a regular basis I will uncover the source of my mental...ness. Probably not. But it's worth trying. I often fantasize that a long time in the future some archaeologists will uncover my obsessive scribble and realize that maybe total mind control wasn't such a bad idea!

Posted by Dawn at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my not-so-noticeable absence can be explained by one word: disruption. I've just been disrupted the last few weeks and as I sit on my bed now looking around a room half in boxes, I realize I'm almost through it. Almost.

But I haven't stopped wondering about things, which brings me to my primary point: terrorism. I don't really understand what goes through the minds of people who want to kill bystanders and threaten the fabric of free societies, so I won't guess. I do know when I board a plane headed to Europe next weekend, I won't be able to bring any liquids me with as a consequence. It's going to be a wonderful vacation, one I've worked hard for almost a year to pay for, but nonetheless, I am - as all airline passengers are - in the drag net of terrorism. And that makes it seem a little less joyous or maybe it should be even more so. But really, I'm going to drink beer and see friends, nothing else. I'll let you know when I get back.

What I do wonder about terrorism is the existential threat it poses, or what I like to think of as an existential threat. Even the president has been thinking about existentialism, so writes Adam Gopnik. The president is said to even debated its origins with his press secretary, Tony Snow. So I laugh when I think about this, not because I believe the president lacks the intelligence to have such a discussion, but because debating implies listening and then logically countering your foes' points. That's not something the president does when making decisions about going to war.

OK, so that's a dead horse for sure and I'm straying from my primary point, which is that my thinking about the sort of abstract threat terrorism poses to counties like the United States changed when I read this story by James Fallows, who I would like to meet because his writings in technology are funny because they are filled with the sort perpetual surprise you'd find if your father was writing about computers, which I can safely say my father is not.

This is what Fallows wrote that I found so compelling:

"But the deeper and more discouraging prospect—that the United States is doomed to spend decades cowering defensively—need not come true. How can the United States regain the initiative against terrorists, as opposed to living in a permanent crouch? By recognizing the point that I heard from so many military strategists: that terrorists, through their own efforts, can damage but not destroy us. Their real destructive power, again, lies in what they can provoke us to do. While the United States can never completely control what violent groups intend and sometimes achieve, it can determine its own response. That we have this power should come as good and important news, because it switches the strategic advantage to our side."

It's true! The big blundering country with all the resources and military arms decided to invade Iraq and create a horrible mess as a response to terrorism. Fallows is very articulate on America's loss of "moral authority" by how the government has sacrificed the gravitas of what this country stands for because of seemingly endless and pointless expeditions into the Middle East that hardly acknowledge the real grievances Muslims have against the United States. People have a hard time believing in the virtue of America when they are witness to its shameless reactions to terrorism that haven't helped the problem but made it more profound.

I want to go back to Gopnik for a moments because I see a real relationship between these two articles, seeing how they both deal with an existential question. In thinking about banned liquids on airlines and disaffected young Britons, Gopnik writes: "How closely this truth touches the heart of this summer’s various horrors, or near-horrors. The bright young British Muslims, with their innocent-looking sports drinks, seem to have decided on mass murder not because they had exhausted all other possibilities but because, Meursault-like, in the madness of young men, it seemed thrilling and self-defining and glorifying—just as (the President might further reflect) the zeal of the neocon pamphleteers of summers past seems now to have come less from any strategic certainties than from the urge to some kind of muscular self-assertion, as wishfully defined as it was impossible to achieve."

That has been our response to the threat against us and the threat that is us.

Posted by Dawn at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I heard shots last night from my apartment.
It was about 12:30 am and I was already sleeping but it was right outside and I snapped awake. I realized I had been dreaming a few different dreams at once, most of them about murder and crime. I don't know if I heard a shot before that while I was sleeping and it went into my dream, or what, but when I woke up I was thinking about dead people. there were a bunch of cases, and it was like a documentary with a running commentary by...well...me.

I was saying that only a few of the cases were ever solved here in Mexico, and they were only the really obvious ones, where the person was caught red-handed. Then there were the pseudo-obvious ones, where people made it look like suicide but it wasn't. I was looking down at a man dead on the ground with his elbows crooked, his hands up by his head.

Then I was in a car with some friends and we were on a highway, but it was a side route where everyone had taillights out in the dark and there was all this red trash on the roadsides. What was happening was that the police were monitoring another highway, parallel to this one, one that was clean, with nice cars and smooth pavement. But they were too afraid to come to this one so it ended up being this mess of broken cars and trash and danger in the dark.

That's not that much of a stretch here - police do what they think is safe and easy.
And the friend I called in the middle of the night after the shots said absolutely do not talk to anyone about hearing shots. He said if the police ask you, say you didn't hear anything, because you never know if they are involved and are checking to see who knows.

So it's just different here, very different. Different assumptions about your role in a society. Laws are optional - people sort of slide through red lights if it looks safe. Maybe it's legal, but I don't think so. But the main thing I notice is the contrast between the sweetness with which people deal with one another on a daily basis, genuine sweetness, and the toughness underneath. There is potential danger everywhere.

Just like with the protests, which are still going on. On the surface it's all fun and games, peaceful protest, tables where people can paint and read to pass the time, friendly campsites in the middle of town, kids playing soccer in the middle of the street, dance classes, concerts. But there is this rage building as society divides further and further. It's just starting to bubble up, and the peaceful protest is now a threat of violence, like a game of chicken. How much money will be lost by local businesses because of lost traffic, how many extra hours will people have to spend commuting because of blocked roads, how much tourism will be deflected to other locations, before the whole thing explodes, either by way of civilian on civilian or police on protester violence? This city is a ticking time bomb.

Posted by Kim at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The federal elections court said today that there will be no vote by vote recount of all the ballot cast in the July 2 Mexican elections. For the past week people have been camping out over miles of the city's main thoroughfare in order to pressure the government to count the votes in the case that correcting fraudulent votes would reverse the 240,000 vote lead that gave Felipe Calderon an apprent win over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. That was this morning, but the campers are still there, begging the question - What the hell is going on? Something is clearly happening here, complete with nighttime partying with cover bands singing Beatles songs, with even police crowding around to listen. But what is it, exactly? It's a popular movement, it's a political coup -- no, it's.... AMLO!

Here are some of the things I am seeing and hearing, and I'll try to give all the sides I can.

- People are camped out in groups of about 30 along the Avenida Reforma, Mexico City's equivalent of the Champs Elysee or Fifth Avenue. People are clearly trying to have fun with it - I live nearby and every night I go see what's going on - there is usually salsa or some type of music starting up when I go to work about 7 am, and it's gotten to the point my boyfriend and I wanted to go out last night so we went to look for a party in the middle of the road. People were sleeping by the time we got there, but it was about 2 am. Lots of times there are kids playing soccer in the street and on Thursday I checked out a little open mike concert.
- One day last week when I was crossing the street at the camp where the band was doing Beatles covers I walked over the concrete barrier in the middle of the avenue and ended up in a camp's living room. I could feel the dirty looks as I gingerly stepped down onto their astroturf carpet and snuck across to the other side of the street. My point is that people are establishing social routines and really feeling comfortable in their camps, and it's really counterintuitive for someone who'se used to dodging taxis to get across the unrelenting stream of traffic.
- What felt at first like a public works project, sort an "If you build it they will come" type of thing, has turned into a grass rootsy kind of street fair. I keep asking myself inadvertently, where are the taco stands? I always get hungry when I go down there in what I assume is a pavlovian response to all the tents in the middle of the street, but I haven't seen any for sale yet, it's all just free for the campers.
- Which leads to the next important thing - what I'm hearing. I'm hearing that people are getting paid to come and camp out. I heard of a taxi driver being offered $500 pesos a night to camp out there, but I'm not sure if it's true. Supposedly this guy was weighing the cost of gas and his time against leaving the car at home and hanging out on Reforma and it looked pretty good. I've also heard that poor people coming from the countryside where they may not have electric lighting or nutritious meals might think it was a pretty good idea to join in. But then I've seen wealthy-looking people camping out too, so who knows?
- The camps are having a huge effect on local businesses, which I think may be able to sue the city later for lost revenue. The area's restaurants are relavtively empty, understandably since there is no traffic and the campers have their own free food.
- The police are not asking anyone to leave, which has to do with the fact that AMLO is the former mayor of Mexico City and is friends with the current mayor. They actually just seem to be hanging out and enjoying the show. Someone told me today that the government tries as hard as they can to avoid confrontations because in Mexico they can get so very violent. I've heard Fox is reluctant to bring in national troops because people would turn against the PAN when it became ugly.

So here we are, a city of campers. It's one of the funniest, most bizarre things I've ever seen, and a lot of Mexicans think so too. For now I'm just going to enjoy the free entertainment and try to snag some quesadillas or fried chicken next time I pass by.

Posted by Kim at 07:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)