State of Our World: Open_Notes 27

the terrorists of Palestine, the Zionists, became to be called in the mid-1940s, "freedom fighters" - Menachem Begin "wanted posters" -- Arafat called by the great sage's of journalism, "chief terrorist", and now a "statesman" seeking peace -- in 1985 the Mujaheddin visited Reagan in the White House, and he claimed them "the moral equivalent of our Founding Father's" and now Bin Laden, terrorist enemy #1, a Mujaheddin -- the matter of terrorism is complicated - the terrorist of yesterday is the hero of today - the constant changing images; inconsistency evades definition, terrorism is defined in emotion not intelligence; SAGE-establishment quasi-definitions: 1. a modern barbarism 2. a form of political violence 3. a threat to western civilization4. a menace to western moral values -- definitions presuppose an analysis, some norms of consistency; the absence of definition does not prevent globalization, and the use of violence, with no geographical limits to counter "terrorism" -- the claims of power are not only global but omniscient -- causation denied by the SAGE -- the moral revulsion is selective, official disapproval, ie., the Contras, [manufactured consent, the media] - the media aids the dominant view of terrorism - the SAGE approach excludes from consideration the terror of "friendly" governments, ie., Pinochet, etc.

1:100,000 the ratio of terrorist groups to state terrorism in violence; the dominant groups receive the attention by the media - historical terrorism overlooked, ie., the North American genocide vs. the "Indians" - only when a "Custer" is killed is the genocide brought to attention, but then only in sympathy to the perpetrators -- What is terrorism ?? - we have to define it !!Websters: terror is an intense, overpowering fear, the use terrorizing methods of governing, or resisting governments; coercive violence, violence used illegally, extra-constitutional force; motivation [just, unjust] is left out of the definition; motives differ !! -- 5 types of Terror: 1 state 2. religious, sacred 3. crime, mafia 4. pathological, sick 5. political terror,oppositional terror, private terror - these options can converge, convergence -- the SAGE-media concentrate on those who cause the highest cost to them, the political; 2nd highest cost is religious terror; crime next, next pathology - state terrorism mostly unreported, complicit causation unexamined.

State of Our World: Open_Notes 27