“When you see all the spectrum at once……what do you see…….yes……that’s bloody right……you see white light. The prisms create rainbows and they are actually beautiful. Looked at as a whole as white light or split through the prisms into rainbows, the light of information enriches us all.” Harry Heidelberg
An American who wrote this week that “It’s hard to imagine you are allowed to write the thoughtless tripe that you do”, apologised after I published her critique.
“This is Heather (Borgmann). Please forgive me for my invective. I have been reading similar stuff constantly since, and before this war began, and the lack of objective journalism really irritates me. I apologize for blowing up at you. I disagree with what you say, but that did not give me the right to throw insults your way.”
I replied:
Hi Heather. I’ve been advising readers since the war began to stay calm, and then I let fly!
The way I see it is this. The world is on the edge of a precipice. And we are all in it together. We can tear each other apart, or do our best to minimise the risk of catastrophe. I put my faith in Tony Blair to convince your government to make the Israel/Palestinian peace process work, and to allow a UN administration of Iraq. These actions would, I believe, give moderate Muslims nations and people the breathing space to stem the rush to extremism that is now occurring by showing that the west is in good faith. Otherwise, I fear the unthinkable – that Arabs and other Muslims across the world will unite to make all of our lives absolute hell. Our children deserve better.
Thank you for your email. Much appreciated. .
This is getting hard to watch and impossible to process. Pro or anti war, many of us are disoriented, recoiling from images of savagery and suffering, and deeply fearful of the future. I let my emotional distress at the war explode into anger this week in Bring our troops home. Angry people hit back at me in Reaction to ‘Bring the troops home”. There’s no hope in that discourse. None. There is limitless hope in Heather’s.
The world order, the standards by which it will operate – in every aspect – and the place of every nation in it is in play. Nothing any of us ever thought was immutable is now safe. The norms of politics, business, war, media, you name it – are on the block. The enormity of what we are witnessing is overpowering.
Ratings show many people don’t want to watch the war. Politicians report that a pall of silence has enveloped their electorates, even on non-war topics like Centrelink or Medicare. I think that as a nation, we’re in shock.
In this period, one temptation is to switch off and tend the garden rather than watch the train wreck, and to rely on John Howard to soothe anxiety through his soft sophistry. He’ll make it OK. People HAVE to believe that, and so they do, for now. Labor offers nothing for them to turn to, and denial seems a sane response, for now.
But from the ruins of the old order, a new one must emerge. With all the balls in the air, everyone has power – just a little bit – to influence an aspect, just a little bit. No-one is in control of this – no-one,including world leaders. It’s important to work out a state of mind that allows you to participate constructively. And it’s important to understand that those who disagree often do so from an equal concern for humanity’s future. It’s reach-out time.
Today, Webdiarist Hugh Driver expresses the feelings of powerlessness and frustration of many in this terrible time. Then two pieces from a man whose intelligence, generosity of spirit and curiosity about the world has long inspired me. Harry Heidelberg writes first of his reaction, as a supporter of the war, to “Bring the troops home”, and them of his thoughts on the plane back to Europe after a brief time in Sydney with his mother just after the war began. It’s a beautiful piece. Thanks, Harry.
***
Hugh Driver in Sydney
In ‘Bring Our Troops Home’ you stated:
“It’s so obvious that what Bush is doing will cause an arms race, not reduce it. No country can hope to beat the Yanks off with conventional weapons – they’ve got air, sea and land completely covered. The only recourse is chemical, biological and nuclear weapons (the Yanks used them in Vietnam, and have not ruled out using them in this war).”
I wasn’t around during the Vietnam war era, but I’ve read a reasonable amount of information on it. None mentioned nuclear weapons – although I understand dropping some on Hanoi was considered. Can you enlighten me on when the Americans used them?
Margo to Hugh
Hi Hugh. Correction now published. An accident. Am publishing a ‘reaction’ Webdiary tonight. Hot under the collar, many are.
Hugh to Margo
“Hot under the collar, many are.”
When truth is the first victim and all those other platitudes, you have to take care.
In terms of collars and heat, where does it get you? At the end of the day, for those of us whose perspective on the war almost entirely through a computer monitor and the TV, do our rants count one way or another?
I’ve seen plenty of gumpf generated about embedded media, alternate news available on the web (does more propaganda from more sources generate greater truth?) and all. Journalists are now writing about bloggers who write about journalists who write about the war. I keep clicking the links, reading different stuff, seeking new bits of information. I have vomited back up a lot of the stuff I’ve digested in discussion board posts, e-mails to friends etc.
What does all this count for? It seems to be one large orgy in which the media and the (increasingly-web-participatory) observers continue play a game separate to the ‘real’ action (ie the war). It’s interesting, but with all the concern over the people in Iraq, the troops, etc – do any of these people benefit from this soapbox sideshow? Do those in power pay attention? Does hand-wringing, pulpit preaching or moral-highground-seizing on any side of the debate have any impact on the situation being analysed? Does bad poetry make the Iraqi children sleep better at night?
Maybe it’s all just about buying off our moral consciences, as if voicing our opinions some how gives us power over a situation which we are completely removed from. What else is it about? Voicing your anger? That strikes me as terribly self-centered.
Changing opinions – as if the concrete hasn’t already set in the heads of many? If you manage to change one person’s opinion, what’s the difference? One more/less person marching on the street? Or even hundreds, or thousands? Do the marches have any impact?
Well, maybe that’s going too far. Protest marches, or lack of them, may have some impact. But there’s still a lot of froth being generated and a hell of a lot of preaching to the converted. A lot of selective reporting and one-eyed argument construction, with hypocrites exchanging accusations of bias and prejudice from their own positions of wilful blindness to inconvenient reports.
I’m not issuing a call to apathy. I’m going to keep track of what’s happening, although I have no illusions that access to truth is proportional to websites surfed, or that the web (or any other media source) guarantees even majority truth content.
I just wonder whether scouring the net, posting rants, sending e-mails, etc etc isn’t just an intellectual exercise that, at the end of the day, counts for very little outside the very, very small circles of consequence that we operate in. Is it just another form of entertainment for modern media junkies?
Some people get off on the TV explosions, combat footage etc – the “pornography of war”. Perhaps others get their kicks by feeding on war-related information flood and perhaps using it to posture and strut their intellect. We’re into it more for the articles than the pictures, right?
Yours in unstructured and possibly incoherent ranting.
Margo To Hugh
Great piece! Can I run it????
You’re right, of course. I’m so worried about the whole thing – I’ve thought for ages we’re staring at WW111 – unsure whether it’s better to have a job which concerns it, or to be away from it all, because there’s nothing any of us can do. Watching the train crash. Adele Horin’s piece made sense though – protests keep the leaders honest, sort of.
Hugh to Margo
Go for it, although I disclaim any accountability for coherence.
***
Harry Heidelberg
The reaction to “Bring our Troops Home” is not surprising. You laid your anti-American cards on the table and made a wild assertion or two. As an individual who supported this war at the outset, I actually don’t have a problem with you saying what you say.
I’m now immune to this stuff. My Italian mate said to me yesterday that the CIA was the world’s largest terrorist organisation. I have now grown weary of this sort of thing. I just smile and say “yep”, without altering my own views at all. I’m prepared to wait.
Perhaps there is such a thing as growing older and wiser. I support the Americans in a lot of what they do but I know they are deeply flawed and have made lots of mistakes. The difference is I do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If I see inconsistency in past practice, I do not leap to the conclusion that current thinking is wrong.
I also add that I do not view every aspect of every issue through the Vietnam prism. The baby boomers will always do this.
When your grandfather may have said the Japanese are a cruel race and will never change, the argument is not worth having. You accept the reason behind this perception and know it will never change. The perception is well founded in the past but perhaps not relevant to the present.
It’s the same with much of the anti-Americanism. The feelings are based on a cruel chapter of history and cannot be argued against in a rational way. It’s a waste of energy.
That said, I resent anyone who becomes overly nasty about it. If you think bringing the troops home is fine, then so be it.
Surely now is not the time to shut down debate. Surely in a grave hour, ALL should be heard.
I don’t agree with you Margo, but if there is anything that would send me wild and onto the streets, it would be if we ever reach a situation where diversity of views are not respected.
People need to stop whinging and start accepting responsibility. We are not passive morons absorbing information. We have to actively search for it and reach our own conclusions.
The information in this war is breathtaking in its openness. We have the American view, the Iraqi view, the Al Jazeera view and several things in between which verge on independence. As usual, people will pick and choose but it is a rich smorgasbord of information.
That’s the joy of a free society. You see it all. It also makes it hard. We are challenged to figure it out for ourselves.
At either end of the spectrum, by definition, you have extremes. At one end you have the “this is liberation” camp, at the other end you have the “demon, imperial America” camp. The truth lies somewhere in between.
If there is anything to celebrate in all this crap and misery, it’s that we have full access to the smorgasbord and have every bit of the spectrum analysed. That makes us fortunate indeed.
When you see all the spectrum at once……what do you see…….yes……that’s bloody right……you see white light. The prisms create rainbows and they are actually beautiful. Looked at as a whole as white light or split through the prisms into rainbows, the light of information enriches us all.
Get mad, get passionate, but never, ever try to shut off light or extinguish candles. We need every aspect of this debate fully lit.
PS: Here in middle Europe, “pace” or peace flags are being flown everywhere (bandieredipace). It started in Italy, a flag from every balcony. I think Saddam needs to be overthrown by war, but I fully appreciate these peace flags. Who can like war? Who does not want peace? But who exactly wants Saddam?
***
Flying home from home
by Harry Heidelberg
One of the great features about intercontinental air travel today is that you can tell exactly where you are from your in-seat monitor. You can also order a cappuccino to your seat and a bunch of other things.
I just noticed that the headlights went off as we crossed the border and are once again out of Afghanistan. Normally the headlights of a 747 are only used for take off and landing. For this trip though they were on throughout the part of the flight over Afghanistan. These are huge wing mounted lights, close to the fuselage, that light up the whole front of the aircraft when on.
When you fly over Afghanistan, sealed in a bubble of the highest of western high tech, a Boeing 747, you can’t help but wonder about what might be going on in the ground. More than that, you look at the map and see Bagdhad to the south and wonder how the war is going.
The aircraft now takes live updates from CNN each hour but nothing special is being reported. There’s something about loud explosions heard in Bagdhad but this news cannot be differentiated from the news a week ago. I suppose I could call someone and ask. There are phones in every seat but since I am the only one stupid enough to be awake at this ungodly hour, it would seem impolite to make a phone call.
Asymmetric warfare is taking place all over the world and it is entirely fitting because our world is so asymmetrical in so many ways. Some people can’t get water while others can’t decide which wine they would prefer.
I have just finished a discussion with a flight attendant as to why they don’t supply the proper lap top connection. It seems unfair and unreasonable. My batteries are running low and its 4.18 local time on the ground below. I’m listening to on demand music, flying at 757 kilometres per hour (we are going about 200 km/hr too slow for my liking and I just KNOW we are not going to make up that lost half hour at this rate) at 9900 metres just north of Mashhad, Iran. It’s 5 hours and 14 minutes before touch down in Zurich (4,294 kilometres to Zurich Kloten International Airport). Oh and outside it is minus 55 degrees.
Except for some uncertainty surrounding the lap to connection, I have most things at my fingertips but the map keeps reminding me that this is not a safe world, it is not a contented world. To the north, south, east and west of this aircraft’s current position are trouble spots. Places where peoples lives have been thrown into utter misery.
As an individual, there’s not much I can do about any of it, but at least I have the presence of mind to be aware of it. To be aware of how far there is to travel. To be aware of how far behind so much of humanity has been left in this very unfair journey.
All the buttons and gizmos are held by those at the front. The power seems incomparable and unchallengeable. It would be so if we lived in a world where there was some symmetry or level of comfort with the lack of it.
I’m on my way back to Europe after having been in Sydney for a couple of weeks. I never got round to writing about the war while in Sydney. I was with my mother eating a large prawn laksa at the Laksa House in QVB when the war started. We were sitting under a giant TV eating as a large crowd gathered to see the inevitable ‘Breaking News on CNN’. It’s a moment I will always remember and would have been good to get a photo of. The looks on people’s faces summed up the feeling perfectly. A feeling of tension and foreboding. Not shock, because we knew it was going to happen, but one of foreboding. Now, as we are further into the war, it seems these expressions were predictive. Not a soul of the gathered crowd at the QVB looked happy.
I read Webdiary while at home with my usual high level of interest. I read things I didn’t see elsewhere, including a report from the Russian perspective. I also read things that were reasonably predictable, but somehow comforting. I noticed David Makinson wrote a postcard to our troops. He talked about the colour of the sky in Sydney and how you don’t get it anywhere else.
When I arrived in Sydney it was mid evening and a full moon. The captain said it was a perfect night in Sydney of 21 degrees just before 8.00 pm. hen he said, ‘Cabin crew, prepare the cabin for landing in Sydney’, I had that usual feeling that I have on returning to Sydney. It’s impossible to describe. I was trying to figure out which suburb we were over and then the 747 started turning and I saw Chatswood. Then the full moon rising over a shimmering sea with the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and City below. What a place. What a place to call home.
The next day I saw the dazzling blue sky, so I know what David Makinson is talking about. There is something unique about the quality of the light in Sydney. Artists talk about it as well and you have to be deprived of it for sometime to truly appreciate it.
The war was kind of static for me in the background of my Sydney trip. I didn’t seem to have time to consider it or get into it. I had a fleeting hope that somehow it would be over quickly.
I was in Sydney for two Sundays. On that first Sunday, the Sun Herald had a picture of a soldier and a happy Iraqi. The headline was screaming Liberation. Just one week later the front page was a picture of an injured child and statistics on the mounting toll on all sides.
I’m now flying over trouble spots and back to the real world at three quarters of the speed of sound.
I still have my airline supplied face mask from the Singapore stopover, and reality is coming back to me rapidly.
It’ll soon be dawn over Europe and I’ll be back. Back physically and mentally to reality. Somehow I expect the dawn to be gloomy as we descend through the clouds. There will be no special feeling.
Sydney was great while it lasted.