Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

Land of hope and duress

In the small print of recent reportage of the Moussaoui trial is a stunning revelation of US government agency foreknowledge of 9-11:

'FBI agents acknowledged under cross-examination that the bureau knew years before Sept. 11 that al-Qaida had plans to use planes as missiles to destroy prominent buildings.

They also acknowledged numerous missed opportunities in the months before Sept. 11 to catch two of the hijackers with terrorist links known to the government, even though the pair frequently used their own names in the U.S. to rent cars, buy plane tickets and even, once, to file a police report after one got mugged.'

A small fact with huge potential to cascade; one of many facts that may cause Tony Blair's dissent-disparaging pronouncement today that 'Anti-Americanism is madness' to be percieved as reality-based as the Italian President's claim that 'communists eat babies'; (itself a contemporary echo of the 'Huns with babies on their bayonets' propaganda of WW1 - and a timely, if less than factual, slander when opposed by Communist candidates in his next election.)

As the writer (and former US military officer) William Blum recently observed:

'There was never any such animal as the International Communist Conspiracy. There were, as there still are, people living in misery, rising up in protest against their condition, against an oppressive government, a government usually supported by the United States.'

Meanwhile The Globe and Mail opimistically (and perhaps imperialistically) writes that

'English is to language as capitalism is to economics. It is the language of laissez-faire, of enterprise -- and, beyond all argument, of hope.'

How it is a singularly economic 'language of hope' for Australian workers who today are finding their working conditions shockingly and unilaterally axed might take some explanation. As one concerned lawyer writes for the SMH:

'Then there are these new agreements. I can't say don't sign them, because "sign this or you're sacked" which any court would otherwise find to be duress, is specifically declared not to be "duress" by the legislation.'

The ability of legislation to redefine words of longstanding common use seems to be at odds with notions of 'democracy'. After all, 'duress' is definitely a concept that Bush, Blair, and Howard are familiar with.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 3:42 pm ::