[PEN-L:30158] self-censorship

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Email is a public space and people have learned to be very careful, but on
the anniversary of Sept 11, I was struck by an interview on CNN with an
activist from the anti-segregation struggle.

He gave as an example of self censorship how he felt he had not been able
to mention how overwhelmingly white the New York fire department appears to
be. How, in wanting to pay respect to great bravery and great losses, he
had felt constrained not to observe that there has clearly been a commonly
recognised pattern of uneven recruitment to this service.

Today when also in Britain we get the impact of the anniversary
commemorations, it looks as if this is turning into a globalised human
tragedy like death of Diana. Already in London we are shown the images of
the vigils and the candles.

Great acts of violence create a splitting: one side is totally good,
another is totally evil. This is also one of the aims of terrorism. Now the
emotion is the logic. There is not a clear discussion about a
multi-dimensional way of containing the risk of terrorism, rather a drive
to action, which sows dragons teeth across the earth.

If we must go to war again to be decisive because Iraq is getting  "weapons
of mass destruction, would it not be more logical to have  a preemptive
strike on North Korea first? When are "we" going to threaten regime change
in Israel to force it to give up its weapons of mass destruction? And what
about a decisive attack on India, and Pakistan for having become nuclear
powers. Or is this not all getting muddled up with the war against
terrorism, certainly in the case of the latter?

Hopefully from tomorrow, after the understandable commemorations today,
people can promote a more integrated perspective for containing terrorism.
Terror has been a part of conflict for millenia, not least from
governments.  Conflict and cooperation are fundamental to human society. We
need to find ways of getting out of the self-censorship.

Chris Burford

London

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