Activism Change

Lessons from the WTC Catastrophe

Question:

Sorry, my website is: http://www.geocities.com/powerandelite New ways to break the power of the elite Joost van Steenis – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Lessons from the WTC Catastrophe Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn’t Fit [The social & political psychology of 9/11: a very interesting piece deserves attention especially from people in the peace movement who hope to affect real and lasting change as we react to this event and the fascist moves of the US Government against the population. Van Steenis talks about events that shake up perceptions on a wide scale, and that is what the US population must do now.-- NY Transfer] October 5, 2001 Lessons from the WTC Catastrophe by Joost van Steenis Their war is not our war, I will repeat that again and again. The coming war will not benefit the masses, only the victims shall be ours. And many hirelings will die, servants of the elite that stays behind the curtains. On the one side of the war is the American elite, on the opposite side the leaders of the Bin Laden group who belong to the Arab elite. They fight for a greater part of the power in the world. The masses are only victims and cannon fodder. They have no influence whatsoever and they will never gain any influence because of the WTC-catastrophe. History repeats itself. Do the leaders want war to sow fear? In 1989 former CIA agent Noriega was captured in Panama and many thousands of its citizens were killed. Now the USA proposes a similar action in Afghanistan. Maybe former CIA agent Bin Laden will also be captured but at the cost of how many more un-involved citizens? Let’s look at some background aspects of what happened in New York. Was it a catastrophe or merely a tragedy? According to the (mathematical) Theory of Catastrophes (see http://www.geocities.com/powerandelite/mathematicalD.htm ) a catastrophe is an important change in a complex system after a small event occurs during a long process in which some factors are constantly growing. The WTC event had indeed catastrophical characteristics because of the suddenness and the impact on our very complex world. But I doubt that it will fundamentally change the existing social order. For the victims and their relatives it was not a catastrophe but a horrific tragedy. For the minds and the life of the Bin Laden group it was without doubt a catastrophe and I will analyse how such an event could occur. For the minds and the life of the elite it was not a catastrophe. The elite was neither hurt nor targeted nor threatened, not as a group and neither as individuals. The elite will use the event to strengthen its grip on their own masses by taking measures that restrict the freedom of the masses. The elite got the possibility to advance further towards a society as described by Orwell in his book 1984. For the minds and the life of the masses it was also not a catastrophe because the masses were not involved. The WTC catastrophe was an event in the ongoing internal elitist struggle about the partition of power and wealth. The masses must stay aloof from this war, just as the masses never must allow the elite to determine their social activity. I will try to answer the following questions: How was it possible that Bin Ladens group came into existence?  What was the political climate that allowed the Bin Laden group to recruit so many people and to meet so much sympathy?  And why did they target the Towers and the Pentagon? The answer to the last question can be short. In all past wars members of hostile elites never targeted each other in person. Even in the Gulf War Saddam Hussein was not touched. So it is quite clear why the Bin Laden group chose financial and militarily symbols. The hostile elite remains unhurt and it does not interest the elite if people from the masses are hurt. The Western elite reacted as expected. It showed its military strength (power play) to extinguish the fire because it looked as if this fire threatened its living place but "forgot" to do something against the fire that continues to rage under the ground as in a peat-moor fire. Why many dissatisfied people formed a terrorist group is also not too difficult. Afghanistan is strategically important for the American elite. Direct interests are found in the wish to build oil pipelines through Afghanistan and in the drugs trade. Many American banks live from the revenues of huge amounts of drugs money, which are entering the banks and invested in the American economy. The struggle with the Soviet-elite was also important. Therefore the Americans trained a group of more or less educated young men to combat the Red Danger in Afghanistan. After the Afghan War the Americans abandoned the group because they had become superfluous. The capitalist principle that you may fire workers without any social safety net when they do not produce anything anymore changed the appreciation of the Bin Laden group of its former American employers. The hardened fighters could not return to their countries to take up jobs because jobs were not available. A same problem arose when the Vietnam veterans returned but most of them were soon accepted or submerged in psychiatric institutions. The last question is more difficult. I want to show that the WTC-catastrophe was a result of a long process that was determined by the long lasting and accumulating influence of several factors on the mind of the perpetrators. When these factors arrive at a certain point and when the situation is favourable (for example because a frustrated group is available) something special can happen, something that we can call a catastrophe. For a social catastrophe that will change our appalling world order, it is needed that not only the minds of the activists but also the minds of the leaders become involved. The WTC-action and also most mass actions must be rejected as inadequate because they do not penetrate in the minds of the leaders. Osmana bin Laden and his group did not appear out of the blue. In a period of maybe thirty years the minds of (future or possible) members of the group have been gradually changing, influenced by many strange events. The wish to do something was growing. The central factor was the continuing objectionable situation in the Third World. But I do not think that the economic situation, the hunger, the poverty, the lack of education, etc. was very prominent, because many members of the group came from more or less well-to-do families. More important is the whole spiritual, intellectual and cultural climate in which the globalisation and the growing American influence in all aspects of the Third World society is an outstanding factor. Though some people think we live in a multi-cultural society, it is in the end always the West that determines the political climate and the rest of the world is never fully accepted. Racism and lack of knowledge of other cultures often results in discrimination. The presence of many Western experts, not only industrial staff but also teachers, members of NGOs and even tourists, who all tell the population to behave in a way comparable with the situation in the superior West, increases the inferiority complex. Many people in the Third World have a love-hate relation with the West. But the hate is growing because of the arrogant Western policy. The support of cruel dictators (Pinochet, Kasavubu, the Shah, Suharto), the removal of populist leaders (Allende, Lumumba, Sukarno) or the undermining of populist leaders (Castro, probably Saddam Hussein, Kwame Nkrumah) strengthened the growing impression that the population in the Third World is inferior. Military interventions in the Third World were plentiful — Panama, Lebanon, Israel, Somalia, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Libya, Laos, Cambodia, Granada, Iraq, Iran and many more. The West was never invaded. Only the Western powers maintain everywhere military bases. The World Bank, the WTO, the IMF take measures determined by Western directors, while the United Nations mostly appears to be a political instrument that favours Western nations and is dominated by the United States. At the same time the USA pulls back when its leadership is not accepted. Kyoto, the anti-racism conference, the non-payment of UN-contributions are only recent tokens of the arrogance of the USA-elite. The demand of payment for patents that have already overfilled the purses of Western tycoons prevents that the Third World developing its own industry. That the pharmaceutical industry lowered the price of AIDS medicines by 40% after Brazil threatened to produce the medicine without paying any royalties is only an example of the many small events that accumulate in the minds of Third World people. The growing and prominent presence of American brands in the whole world, Mc Donalds, Nike, Coca-Cola etc., increase the anti-American feelings that are growing underground because the media are also dominated by Western concerns — CNN, AP, Reuters, Disney. I cannot understand why the results of the Dutch soccer competition have to be published in Thai newspapers. Imagine the reverse situation in which we read and hear more about the East than about our own countries. And because many people do not like their own police they will even like less the foreign American World Police. The miserable internal situation in the Third World countries — also due to the own corrupt and greedy elite that openly mixes with the Western elites — is only circumstantial evidence of the wrongdoings of the USA. I do not say if this is right or wrong, I just look for reasons to understand why the WTC catastrophe has happened. I only recite above a

… read more »

Response:

Lessons from the WTC Catastrophe Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn’t Fit [The social & political psychology of 9/11: a very interesting piece deserves attention especially from people in the peace movement who hope to affect real and lasting change as we react to this event and the fascist moves of the US Government against the population. Van Steenis talks about events that shake up perceptions on a wide scale, and that is what the US population must do now.-- NY Transfer] October 5, 2001 Lessons from the WTC Catastrophe by Joost van Steenis Their war is not our war, I will repeat that again and again. The coming war will not benefit the masses, only the victims shall be ours. And many hirelings will die, servants of the elite that stays behind the curtains. On the one side of the war is the American elite, on the opposite side the leaders of the Bin Laden group who belong to the Arab elite. They fight for a greater part of the power in the world. The masses are only victims and cannon fodder. They have no influence whatsoever and they will never gain any influence because of the WTC-catastrophe. History repeats itself. Do the leaders want war to sow fear? In 1989 former CIA agent Noriega was captured in Panama and many thousands of its citizens were killed. Now the USA proposes a similar action in Afghanistan. Maybe former CIA agent Bin Laden will also be captured but at the cost of how many more un-involved citizens? Let’s look at some background aspects of what happened in New York. Was it a catastrophe or merely a tragedy? According to the (mathematical) Theory of Catastrophes (see http://www.geocities.com/powerandelite/mathematicalD.htm ) a catastrophe is an important change in a complex system after a small event occurs during a long process in which some factors are constantly growing. The WTC event had indeed catastrophical characteristics because of the suddenness and the impact on our very complex world. But I doubt that it will fundamentally change the existing social order. For the victims and their relatives it was not a catastrophe but a horrific tragedy. For the minds and the life of the Bin Laden group it was without doubt a catastrophe and I will analyse how such an event could occur. For the minds and the life of the elite it was not a catastrophe. The elite was neither hurt nor targeted nor threatened, not as a group and neither as individuals. The elite will use the event to strengthen its grip on their own masses by taking measures that restrict the freedom of the masses. The elite got the possibility to advance further towards a society as described by Orwell in his book 1984. For the minds and the life of the masses it was also not a catastrophe because the masses were not involved. The WTC catastrophe was an event in the ongoing internal elitist struggle about the partition of power and wealth. The masses must stay aloof from this war, just as the masses never must allow the elite to determine their social activity. I will try to answer the following questions: How was it possible that Bin Ladens group came into existence?  What was the political climate that allowed the Bin Laden group to recruit so many people and to meet so much sympathy?  And why did they target the Towers and the Pentagon? The answer to the last question can be short. In all past wars members of hostile elites never targeted each other in person. Even in the Gulf War Saddam Hussein was not touched. So it is quite clear why the Bin Laden group chose financial and militarily symbols. The hostile elite remains unhurt and it does not interest the elite if people from the masses are hurt. The Western elite reacted as expected. It showed its military strength (power play) to extinguish the fire because it looked as if this fire threatened its living place but "forgot" to do something against the fire that continues to rage under the ground as in a peat-moor fire. Why many dissatisfied people formed a terrorist group is also not too difficult. Afghanistan is strategically important for the American elite. Direct interests are found in the wish to build oil pipelines through Afghanistan and in the drugs trade. Many American banks live from the revenues of huge amounts of drugs money, which are entering the banks and invested in the American economy. The struggle with the Soviet-elite was also important. Therefore the Americans trained a group of more or less educated young men to combat the Red Danger in Afghanistan. After the Afghan War the Americans abandoned the group because they had become superfluous. The capitalist principle that you may fire workers without any social safety net when they do not produce anything anymore changed the appreciation of the Bin Laden group of its former American employers. The hardened fighters could not return to their countries to take up jobs because jobs were not available. A same problem arose when the Vietnam veterans returned but most of them were soon accepted or submerged in psychiatric institutions. The last question is more difficult. I want to show that the WTC-catastrophe was a result of a long process that was determined by the long lasting and accumulating influence of several factors on the mind of the perpetrators. When these factors arrive at a certain point and when the situation is favourable (for example because a frustrated group is available) something special can happen, something that we can call a catastrophe. For a social catastrophe that will change our appalling world order, it is needed that not only the minds of the activists but also the minds of the leaders become involved. The WTC-action and also most mass actions must be rejected as inadequate because they do not penetrate in the minds of the leaders. Osmana bin Laden and his group did not appear out of the blue. In a period of maybe thirty years the minds of (future or possible) members of the group have been gradually changing, influenced by many strange events. The wish to do something was growing. The central factor was the continuing objectionable situation in the Third World. But I do not think that the economic situation, the hunger, the poverty, the lack of education, etc. was very prominent, because many members of the group came from more or less well-to-do families. More important is the whole spiritual, intellectual and cultural climate in which the globalisation and the growing American influence in all aspects of the Third World society is an outstanding factor. Though some people think we live in a multi-cultural society, it is in the end always the West that determines the political climate and the rest of the world is never fully accepted. Racism and lack of knowledge of other cultures often results in discrimination. The presence of many Western experts, not only industrial staff but also teachers, members of NGOs and even tourists, who all tell the population to behave in a way comparable with the situation in the superior West, increases the inferiority complex. Many people in the Third World have a love-hate relation with the West. But the hate is growing because of the arrogant Western policy. The support of cruel dictators (Pinochet, Kasavubu, the Shah, Suharto), the removal of populist leaders (Allende, Lumumba, Sukarno) or the undermining of populist leaders (Castro, probably Saddam Hussein, Kwame Nkrumah) strengthened the growing impression that the population in the Third World is inferior. Military interventions in the Third World were plentiful — Panama, Lebanon, Israel, Somalia, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Libya, Laos, Cambodia, Granada, Iraq, Iran and many more. The West was never invaded. Only the Western powers maintain everywhere military bases. The World Bank, the WTO, the IMF take measures determined by Western directors, while the United Nations mostly appears to be a political instrument that favours Western nations and is dominated by the United States. At the same time the USA pulls back when its leadership is not accepted. Kyoto, the anti-racism conference, the non-payment of UN-contributions are only recent tokens of the arrogance of the USA-elite. The demand of payment for patents that have already overfilled the purses of Western tycoons prevents that the Third World developing its own industry. That the pharmaceutical industry lowered the price of AIDS medicines by 40% after Brazil threatened to produce the medicine without paying any royalties is only an example of the many small events that accumulate in the minds of Third World people. The growing and prominent presence of American brands in the whole world, Mc Donalds, Nike, Coca-Cola etc., increase the anti-American feelings that are growing underground because the media are also dominated by Western concerns — CNN, AP, Reuters, Disney. I cannot understand why the results of the Dutch soccer competition have to be published in Thai newspapers. Imagine the reverse situation in which we read and hear more about the East than about our own countries. And because many people do not like their own police they will even like less the foreign American World Police. The miserable internal situation in the Third World countries — also due to the own corrupt and greedy elite that openly mixes with the Western elites — is only circumstantial evidence of the wrongdoings of the USA. I do not say if this is right or wrong, I just look for reasons to understand why the WTC catastrophe has happened. I only recite above a few facts. Every year new facts are added and no effort is made to turn the trend around. The Third World is left without perspective, without hope for favourable change, without hope for a better future. Because this situation does not change, new Bin Ladens are already in the making. These facts determine the minds of many Third World people. And because of globalisation, the travelling middle class can see … read more »

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Filed under: Peace movement

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