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Leamington Letters #46: On terror

22/4/2013

18 Comments

 
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This time last week, I watched the Patriots’ Day game and, the Sox having then completed a series against each of their American League East rivals, returned to my computer to give you my thoughts on those first dozen games.

I had barely written the first sentence when the breaking news banner on my screen brought the news of the Boylston bombings. With millions of others, I watched the news feed on BBC24 with horror and helplessness, appalled by the event itself, humbled by the bravery and kindness of strangers.

I have, in the past, stood in that place, at that time, on that day, to watch the runners complete the marathon, an event which helps to define Boston and Bostonians in particular and, because it is held on the anniversary of the first battles of the Revolutionary War, the US as a whole.

The bombing was an attack on the very best traditions of America, the founding traditions. And it was a terrorist attack. Whatever we subsequently learn about the motives of the brothers involved, it is their actions which are terrorist in the true sense: the use of violence to achieve a political end.

I have long debated this policy, with friends, comrades and myself.  I have studied Robespierre and Danton, the architects of the Reign of Terror in 1793. I have read a great many self-exculpatory essays and memoirs. I am working on a fiction which addresses the actions of the Weather Underground in the US and the Baader-Meinhof Group in Germany. It becomes increasingly relevant each day.

Robespierre said: “If  the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government in a revolution is both virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless.”

Mark Rudd said: “We have to be like Captain Ahab. We have to become monomaniacal and take the harpoon of righteousness and kill the white whale of imperialism.”

These statements are separated by nearly two centuries. One is from the state, the other against the state. But they have a great deal in common.

Both start from the premise that the speaker is right. Absolutely. 100%. No doubts. And certainly not self-doubt.

And from that position, the logic and the progression is inexorable. And so is the high and the self-justification. Andreas Baader spoke of “the wild glory of terror”, and Ulrike Meinhof said: “If one sets one car on fire, that is a criminal offence. If one sets hundreds of cars on fire, that is political action.”

I am aware that there are differences of degree involved here: that the Boylston bombings (and 9/11 and Oklahoma amongst others) were aimed indiscriminately at people, whereas Weathermen and the Red Army Faction made (most of the time) institutions their targets.

But I am not convinced that there is a significant distinction between any individual, group or government which adopts violence for political ends, or those who fill their rhetoric with images of death.

And I would remind them all of a conclusion of Bill Ayers, with whose objectives I agreed once, but who wrote in his memoir Fugitive Days:

“We had devolved from freedom fighters into criminals, from political radicals to minor technicians of illicit crafts ...”

Today's listening: Bizarrely, you might think and might be right, the Steve Miller Band. But early stuff - Sailor and Brave New World. 

18 Comments
Paul
22/4/2013 05:43:51

Where to start? No mention of Blair, Bush. No mention of jihad. No mention of al-quaida. No mention of right wing extremism. And no use of the word fundamentalism. You might also have referred back to "fanatics have their dreams". There is a resonance and a parallel here.

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Max
23/4/2013 02:47:36

All true. I allow myself only c. 500 words and half an hour for these posts and what was intended as a tribute to the city and people of Boston developed into something more. Too much perhaps for this blog.

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Carl
22/4/2013 06:09:23

'Conviction' politics. Thatcher used the phrase to justify her actions. Blair refused to accept evidence to the contrary and his self-belief cost thousands of lives and is to this day. SDS and RAF and 2nd of June Movement etc etc were responding like for like to the hegemony of 'conviction' governments, based on racism and class. I'm with Bob: I used to care, but things have changed.

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Max
23/4/2013 02:51:15

Fair enough. This is too complex a subject to be addressed properly here. I still care, but it is true that things have changed. What may have been appropriate then may not be now.

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Don
22/4/2013 06:46:30

Agree with what I think you're trying to say. That there is a parallel between these individuals and groups and governments which engage in similar activity. Agree also that you need to be totally convinced of the righteousness of the cause to embark on such activity. Was Blair? Was Bush? Churchill was.the Boston brothers were. The 9/11 guys were. But does this justify anything? 1939 to 1945 perhaps. But Iraq? The Falklands? Afghanistan?

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max
23/4/2013 02:53:56

See above. I did not think this through sufficiently. In my defence, this is a blog rather than an academic journal.

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CJ
22/4/2013 07:06:21

I remember when you were not so opposed to what was then Termed 'the armed struggle' or 'revolutionary acts' or 'praxis'. But to the music, which I have made mine own. Steve Miller? Not so bad, and don't forget No 5. After that, schmaltzy, kitschy, crap.

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Max
23/4/2013 02:56:34

I think my position was akin to that of Sartre, that there has to be an "echo' in a given society. This is what he tried and failed to argue in his meeting with Baader. Steve Miller? Already moved on. (Thea Gilmore, since you ask.)

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Jiminy
23/4/2013 01:43:01

I'm with you Max. Obviously anyone, from prime ministers to jihadists, who justifies their acts with "God wanted me to do it" is a dangerous loony. But you can see the appeal. People love all-encompassing philosophies that appear to answer all the questions. It must be something close to the religious impulse that drives the conspiracy theorists, the racists, the DaliyMailists, the "US is always wrong"-ists, and the politically dogmatic of all stripes. It's a chaotic world and people cling onto ideas that seem to show a clear path. Even if the ideas aren't particularly hopeful or uplifting. This is fine, I guess, until you get to the 100% bit. If you are not at least a little bit open to doubt, or to changing your mind, you quickly become a bore, at best. Lethal at worst.

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Max
23/4/2013 03:06:15

Thanks. This is pretty close to what I attempted to say. I am, these days, full of doubts. To see both sides of a quarrel is to judge without hate or love. But I've looked at life from both sides now and I really don't know life at all.

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GeoffS
23/4/2013 03:56:29

Danton: "the state must be terrible in order to prevent the people from being so."

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Max
29/4/2013 01:07:40

Good one. Had forgotten that. Thanks.

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KateW
24/4/2013 05:02:50

I am intrigued by the suggestion that this kingdom indiscriminate slaughter is designed to 'achieve a political end'. Has terrorism ever succeeded in this? Your examples suggest otherwise. Robespierre lost his head on the guillotine. The Weather Underground have come up overground full of remorse. And the RAF. Their suicide was an admission of their failure.

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Max
29/4/2013 01:09:03

True. My fiction is tentatively entitled "History to the Defeated" (which may say alas, but cannot help or pardon).

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Daniel McDonald
24/4/2013 07:54:11

Didn't know the Mark Rudd quote but heard somewhere that Moby Dick was the favourite reading of Weather and RAF. In this case, it's a metaphor which is at once simplistic and illuminating. Conviction, no. Obsession, too right.

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Sean
1/5/2013 07:36:02

Three things came to my mind:
One, horrible, tragic waste of life and another affront to freedom. An appalling act carried out by delusional idiots.
Two, the ridiculous over-reporting of the event because it happened in America. Dozens, hundreds even, are blown up every week all over the world due in no small part to the US policing of the world.
Three, how willing to put their hands in their pockets would Bostonians be the next time IRA fundraisers enter their bars and shops with buckets in hand?

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Rick Hough
7/5/2013 14:30:55

" The spanking imparts to its recipient the understanding that conflict can be met with violence, which turns out to be great news for defense contractors." - J. Rashly

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Max
8/5/2013 01:12:40

Like the sound of your man Rashly. Look forward to seeing him soon.

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    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

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