RICHARD DAWKINS WRITES:

“Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from.”

ERIC S. NYGREN WRITES:

“One of the best ways Americans could express atriotism right now would be to trade in their SUVs for high-mileage hybrid cars. (Or get trade in cars

for bikes, buy a buss pass, etc.)

“There is an almost direct line of causality between America’s gluttonous reliance on foreign oil and our current woes. It’s been noted that the catalyst that started Osama bin Laden on his current path was coming home to Saudi Arabia to find a huge contingent of U.S. troops, who were there in preparation for the invasion of Iraq, which Bush pere felt we needed to invade because of… well, you get the idea. It doesn’t take much intellectual candlepower to connect the dots, but that’s apparently more than our current political leadership seems to have.

“America has been on notice since the 1973 oil crisis that we need more prudent policies to foster energy conservation, alternatives and independence. Discussion of such policies has been precisely nowhere in evidence amongst the current din and clamor, which shows just how little we’ve learned over the last 30 years.”

AN EMAIL CORRESPONDENT suggested I look up September 1, 1939, a poem by W.H. Auden about the reactions he witnessed in NYC to the outbreak of WWII in Europe:

“All I have is a voice

To undo the folded lie,

The romantic lie in the brain

Of the sensual man-in-the-street

And the lie of Authority

Whose buildings grope the sky:

There is no such thing as the State

And no one exists alone;

Hunger allows no choice

To the citizen or the police;

We must love one another or die.”

AN ONLINE PETITION to Bush has been started in Germany. It calls for “deliberativeness instead of acts of revenge,” and proclaims:

“Probably, military escalation is EXACTLY what the ones behind these terrorist acts intend to provoke. Do you want these criminals to triumph by getting trapped into their diabolic reasoning?

“We say NO!”

ANOTHER ONLINE PETITION makes the following pleas:

“We beg that the President maintain the civil liberties of all U.S. residents, protect the human rights of all people at home AND ABROAD, and guarantee that this attempted attack on the principles and freedoms of the United States will not succeed.

“We plead for a thorough investigation of the terrorist events BEFORE ANY RETALIATION.

“We call for PEACE and JUSTICE, not revenge.”

EDWARD SAID WRITES:

“Rational understanding of the situation is what is needed now, not more drum-beating. George Bush and his team clearly want the latter, not the former. Yet to most people in the Islamic and Arab worlds the official US is synonymous with arrogant power, known for its sanctimoniously munificent support not only of Israel but of numerous repressive Arab regimes, and its inattentiveness even to the possibility of dialogue with secular movements and people who have real grievances. Anti-Americanism in this context is not based on a hatred of modernity or technology-envy: it is based on a narrative of concrete interventions…

“…Demonisation of the Other is not a sufficient basis for any kind of decent politics, certainly not now when the roots of terror in injustice can be addressed, and the terrorists isolated, deterred or put out of business. It takes patience and education, but is more worth the investment than still greater levels of large-scale violence and suffering.”

I, for one, refuse to become obsessed with worst-possible scenarios. Not just because it’s bad for the soul, but because I believe it’s realistic to think there won’t be an all-out global war with nukes and biological weapons turning the Earth into a desolate piece of rock–from which, 20,000 years later, a new race of fantasy-novel wizards and elves might emerge. (Yes, even in discussing why I won’t buy into it, I can’t help but scoff.)

Nor do I buy into the theory, currently spreading in some Christian-conservative circles, that this is the start of the global Apocalypse, originally believed to have been scheduled for Y2K but merely delayed due to inaccuracies in the human calendar.

You see, such an Armaggedon would require the willing participation of a helluva lot more players than just one elected-with-an-asterisk President and one or two small, impoverished dictatorships. The (presumably) wiser, cooler minds of Europe, Canada, Asia, and those Muslim states with dependencies upon the Western economy will, I predict, bring some relative sanity to the current war-bluster. One can at least imagine some Japanese and Germans who’d rather not see another huge intercontinental blow-up.

But a lot of icky things far short of all-out doom could still happen.

The worst of what I consider the plausible scenarios is for this to become an excuse for a Gulf War II–a drawn-out war of old-fashioned territorial conquest, whose ultimate, unofficial purpose would be to install oil-company-friendly regimes in Iraq and elsewhere. That would lead, among other things, to division in North America and Europe, bringing back so many of the worst aspects of the ’60s.

Another likely scenario is an attempted War on Terrorists operated just like the War on Drugs–a punitive, corrosive, futile, top-down militarized response to a diffuse, decentralized, stateless opponent. And since there is no one single unified terrorist organization (just like there was never really one “Mafia”), the U.S. warmongers would be able to keep this war going indefinitely, perhaps against a different devil-du-jour every year or two.

If the bombings were done by the type of gang the FBI currently claims did them, it’s less of an army and more of an informal association of self-styled crusaders; some with closer ties to like-minded warriors, others acting largely on their own. It can’t be completely neutralized. It can only fade away, with its pieces gathering fewer recruits and dwindling financial support.

And what might cause such a subculture to fade away? A dwidling sense of relevance, which could occur if nations (including Middle East nations and their respective sponsors) could somehow learn to stop fighting and start helping one another.

Peace really is the answer. An active, working peace, that is. The kind of peace that can be more difficult than war, because it’s tougher to conceive (or to conceive of).

PHIL AGRE WRITES:

“In an infrastructural world, security cannot be a force, something exerted from the outside, a lid kept down or a shield put up.

“…The important thing is to draw a distinction between military action, as the exercise within a framework of international law of the power of a legitimate democratic state, and war, as the imposition of a total social order that is the antithesis of democracy, and that, in the current technological conditions of war, has no end in sight.”

IRA CHERNUS WRITES:

“To ask about our share of responsibility does not in any way condone the evil. It does not lessen by one whit the responsibility of those who actually did the deed. In death as in life, they remain fully responsible for their own heinous choices.

“But pacifists cast the net of responsibility more widely because that is the only way to end the cycle of violence. If we go on putting all the blame on others, and thereby justifying vengeance, we simply perpetuate the suffering and anger that led to the violence.”

NAOMI KLEIN WRITES:

“The era of the video game war in which the U.S. is always at the controls has produced a blinding rage in many parts of the world, a rage at the persistent asymmetry of suffering. This is the context in which twisted revenge seekers make no other demand than that American citizens share their pain.

“…The illusion of war without casualties has been forever shattered. A blinking message is up on our collective video game console: Game Over.”

ROBERT FISK WRITES:

“Retaliation is a trap. In a world that was supposed to have learnt that the rule of law comes above revenge, President Bush appears to be heading for the very disaster that Osama bin Laden has laid down for him.”

AND LAWRENCE FREEDMAN WRITES:

“The first step is to agree a realistic description of the objective. The eradication of terrorism as a global phenomenon does not meet this test, because not only is the definition contested in many instances but also the phenomenon’s existence is bound up with numerous conflicts, many beyond immediate resolution.”

A UGANDA-BASED relief site offers a list of “Ways to Help America.”

AN EMAIL CORRESPONDENT passed along a quotation from David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest, concerning things one can learn in rehab:

“No single moment is in and of itself unendurable.”

P-I COLUMNIST ANTHONY ROBINSON WRITES:

“In the longer term, nobility and morality shall be found in restraint rather than in simply unleashing American power and violence in retaliation or retribution.”

OFFICIAL NOTICE: As of Monday, it’s officially OK to complain about Bush again.

PHOTO-REPORTAGE DEPT.: At Friday’s bombing memorial at Westlake, a man made and brought a matchstick model of the towers…

…while a woman took a ball-point pen to the manila envelope she was holding, and made an impromptu sign reading “AN EYE FOR AN EYE WILL MAKE THE WORLD BLIND.”

Later that afternoon, a bagpiper serenaded the people placing flowers at Alki Beach’s Statue of Liberty replica…

…where someone had left a desktop-published plea to “move forward and live well.”

At the firefighters’ memorial in Pioneer Square, more flowers honor the fallen NYC firefighters.

At the memorial floral display in the Seattle Center International Fountain, where hundreds brought flowers and displays, someone placed a homemade flag with the American Airlines logo…

…while a chalk artist made a plea to move beyond calls for vengeance.

RICH WEBB WRITES:

“…Now we have bin Laden set up to be our straw man. Hell, he might even actually be guilty. But I can’t help but think that we jump to this conclusion at our peril. Yet there will be calls to bomb his compounds, to seize his assets, to have him assassinated.”

SEATTLE WEEKLY CONTRIBUTOR GEOV PARRISH WRITES:

“Tuesday was a day of complete horror in the history of the United States; and the American public as well as its leaders will demand retribution. Let’s not forget, however, how we got to this day.”

SEUMAS MILNE writes in the British daily The Guardian:

“[Americans] can’t see why they are hated… Already, the Bush administration is assembling an international coalition for an Israeli-style war against terrorism, as if such counter-productive acts of outrage had an existence separate from the social conditions out of which they arise. But for every ‘terror network’ that is rooted out, another will emerge – until the injustices and inequalities that produce them are addressed.”

EVEN THE NAKED NEWS anchorladies are being serious. Chief MC Victoria Sinclair wears a plain black dress (and keeps it on) while reading her summary of the eastern U.S. grimness. Only after moving on to other topics do she and her Toronto-based colleagues return to celebrating the flesh (in their standing-up-straight, plain-speaking, non-lurid way).

CAPITOL HILL began to return to its normal rituals Thursday. The coffeehouse and bar chatter was again about interpersonal issues, money worries, and least-favorite bands, as well as that one overriding topic.

At Six Arms last night, a young woman came up to me bearing a big smile and intense blue eyes. She held my hand, looked compassionately into my eyes, and told me she could see that I, like a lot of people these past few days, are doing far too much worrying for our own good. She said we all need to stop fretting and replaying old fears; and to start giving love instead.

Then she tried to sell me on the Landmark Forum, the self-improvement course derived from Werner Erhard’s old “est.”

But even if her primary purpose with me was solicitacious, not altruistic, the first part of her message still holds. As some ’70s self-help book said, “Love is letting go of fear.”

Spread the love to all around you on these days of sorrow and remembrance, freely and unconditionally, without asking for anything back (including self-improvement-course signups).

JON CARROLL WRITES:

“There will be pressure to suspend our freedoms, to allow the government to invade our privacy and control our speech as part of the glossy new war. If terrorists force America to give up its freedoms, then they will have won.”

SCRIPTING NEWS quotes an email posted from a Seattle hotel room by John Perry Barlow, a pro-corporate Libertarian with whom I often disagree, but who here has a salient warning:

“…Nothing could serve those who believe that American “safety” is more important than American liberty better than something like this. Control freaks will dine on this day for the rest of our lives.

“Within a few hours, we will see beginning the most vigorous efforts to end what remains of freedom in America. Those of who are willing to sacrifice a little – largely illusory – safety in order to maintain our faith in the original ideals of America will have to fight for those ideals just as vigorously.

“I beg you to begin NOW to do whatever you can – whether writing your public officials, joining the ACLU or EFF [note: Electronic Frontiers Foundation, a group opposing Net censorship], taking to the streets, or living visibly free and fearless lives – to prevent the spasm of control mania from destroying the dreams that far more have died for over the last two hundred twenty five years than died this morning.

“Don’t let the terrorists or (their natural allies) the fascists win. Remember that the goal of terrorism is to create increasingly paralytic totalitarianism in the government it attacks. Don’t give them the satisfaction.

“Fear nothing. Live free.”

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW site quotes David McReynolds of the War Resisters League:

“We urge Congress and George Bush

that whatever response or policy the U.S. develops it will be clear that

this nation will no longer target civilians, or accept any policy by any

nation which targets civilians. This would mean an end to the sanctions

against Iraq, which have caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of

civilians. It would mean not only a condemnation of terrorism by

Palestinians but also the policy of assassination against the Palestinian

leadership by Israel, and the ruthless repression of the Palestinian

population and the continuing occupation by Israel of the West Bank and

Gaza. The policies of militarism pursued by the United States have resulted

in millions of deaths, from the historic tragedy of the Indochina war,

through the funding of death squads in Central America and Colombia, to the

sanctions and air strikes against Iraq. This nation is the largest supplier

of “conventional weapons” in the world – and those weapons fuel the starkest

kind of terrorism from Indonesia to Africa. The early policy of support for

armed resistance in Afghanistan resulted in the victory of the Taliban – and

the creation of Osama Bin Laden.

“Other nations have also engaged in these policies. We have, in years past,

condemned the actions of the Russian government in areas such as Chechnya,

the violence on both sides in the Middle East, and in the Balkans. But our

nation must take responsibility for its own actions. Up until now we have

felt safe within our borders. To wake on a clear cool day to find our

largest city under siege reminds us that in a violent world, none are safe.

“Let us seek an end of the militarism which has characterized this nation for

decades. Let us seek a world in which security is gained through

disarmament, international cooperation, and social justice – not through

escalation and retaliation. We condemn without reservation attacks such as

those which occurred, which strike at thousands of civilians. May these

profound tragedies remind us of the impact U.S. policies have had on other

civilians in other lands. We are particularly aware of the fear which many

people of Middle Eastern descent, living in this country, may feel at this

time and urge special consideration for this community.

“We are one world. We shall live in a state of fear and terror or we shall

move toward a future in which we seek peaceful alternatives to conflict and

a more just distribution of the world’s resources. As we mourn the many

lives lost, our hearts call out for reconciliation, not revenge.”

PHOTO-REPORTAGE DEPT.: This closure sign at Toys In Babeland expresses the mood on Capitol Hill this evening. In the coffeehouses and bars, everybody’s reading the Times and P-I afternoon street extras, making the same kinds of probably futile speculations you’re probably making, and feeling very quiet and concerned.

A lone protester in Westlake Park chats with passersby, trying to persuade them not to rush to blame the attack on the Afghans, the Iraqis, or Muslims in general. (Right-wing religious radio stations were reportedly spreading the totally untrue idea that Muslims believe they can’t get into Heaven unless they’ve killed an unbeliever.) The other side of the protester’s sign read, “Muslim People Are Good.”

Later that day, some people who’d already been planning a “Peace Day in Seattle” for Sept. 19 held a small rally at Westlake, of about 50-60 people.

A window at the evacuated Bon Marche, displaying the store’s school-fashion promotion and a retro T-shirt bearing a 1945 headline, inadvertantly say what I wish to say to you now.

Gotta have it. Peace.

I LIKE FAST FOOD. Wanna make something of it?

Many do. (Want to make something of it, that is.)

Eric Schlosser’s new book Fast Food Nation is only the most recent example.

Schlosser’s tirade states, essentially, that all of America except for the Enlightened Few such as himself (and presumably his readers) are mindless sheep, being led to a metaphorica slaughter of obesity and cholesterol by greedy mega-corporations, callously out to rake in billions off of lethal meals at home and then to export this monolithic Americulture to the world.

At best, these arguments are misguided. At worst, they display a classist basis.

I like fast food (although I know it’s a pleasure best enjoyed, like so many other pleasures, in moderation). It’s cheap, tasty, unpretentious, and gets you back to your busy day. Feeding doesn’t have to be sit-down and from-scratch, any more than sex has to always involve a whole weekend at one of those dungeon B&Bs.

And fast food doesn’t necessarily have to be huge and corporate. Look at those tasty burger and gyros booths at street fairs, or at the feisty local drive-ins and hot-dog stands in most cities and towns.

And it sure doesn’t have to be a symbol of American cultural imperialism. Look at the feisty taco wagons of White Center and South Park, or the teriyaki and bento stands that are a modern fixture of most Northwest urban neighborhoods.

Fast food, or something like it, exists in nearly every society big enough to have urban dwellers on the go. (Although many of U.S. ethnic-restaurant favorites were actually invented here, by clever immigrant chefs.)

So get off your exclusionary-tribalist purity trip and have a fry. Or a spicy chicken bowl. Or a falafel-on-a-stick. Or some flying morning glory on fire.

IN OTHER NEWS: Had the privilege of meeting Floyd Schmoe, patriarch of the Seattle Quaker church and longtime peace activist, in 1991, around the time he started the Seattle Peace Park across from the Quaker center in the U District. He was in his mid-90s then, still alert and still a devout activist for pacifism. If I live as long as he (passing this week at age 105), I can only hope to have achieved half the good works he did.

NEXT: Images full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

ELSEWHERE:

• Advertising’s latest whipping boy: Modern art….
• The last gender taboo: Women who admit to actually liking men (found by New Pages)….

YESTERDAY, we riffed on a vision of sexual liberation for a post-corporate era.

That, of course, presumes that such an era is imminent, or at least that one can imagine it to be imminent.

I know I’m far from the only observer who’d like the current socio-economic-political zeitgeist to change. And I can’t think of a better way to help it happen than by making positive affirmations that it already has.

In that spirit, let’s imagine the components of the ’90s nostalgia craze, sure to hit just as soon as the rest of the nation realizes how over the era is.

• That boring ol’ Helvetica typeface. Only a freak of nature (in the form of a once-hot piece of graphic-design software called Kai’s Power Tools) could have rehabilitated a blase font designed for Swiss chemical-company annual reports (and made even further unhip by its use as the text face in the Penthouse magazines).
• Those ugg-ly clothes. I mean, paying $50 or more just to become a walking billboard? Overblown golf jackets repurposed as “casual Friday” office garb? And let’s not even talk about male butt-cleavage.
• The commercial pop music. After a promising start early in the decade, things devolved into–well, I needn’t tell you.
• Virtual reality, “morphing,” hyperrealistic video games, et al.
• Not just ostentatious displays of wealth, but deliberately obscene such displays. As one loyal reader recently noted, “I still see a lot of ’97 Porsches in downtown Seattle. I don’t see any new Porsches.”
• Techno-optimism. At the decade’s start, certain rave-dance promoters liked to claim the would would be a better place if it became more “tribal.” Then came Rwanda, Chechnya, Kosovo, East Timor, Nigeria, Congo, and the continuation of messes in the Mideast and Northern Ireland–all of which can be considered tribal wars of one sort or another.

  And as for that other form of techno-optimism, that John Perry Barlow-propagated idea that we should just let big businesses run everything (in the name of the Internet Revolution) took a rather substantial dip in credibility around late ’99 and early ’00.

• Silly-dilly financial speculation. It’s as if all the boys who came of age in the late ’80s hoarding comic books failed to learn from that bubble and invested real money on the same faulty premise.
• “X-treme” sports as a marketing tool. “Show the world you’re an individual, a risk-taker, a devil-may-care stunt fool–drink our soda pop!”

Of course, my having listed these trends under the “nostalgia” rubric implies they’re not just going away, but will roar back with a vengeance. And with the ever-shortening revival cycles, you can expect them back sooner rather than later, ensconced with all layers of hip-ironic sensibility.

Consider yourself warned.

NEXT: The wrong way to turn an Internet startup into an established respectable firm.

ELSEWHERE:

• Can’t tell your Papa Roach from your Matchbox 20? Billboard now offers three-minute online highlights from many top-selling CDs…