[Nettime-bold] FWD: Humility before anger

[Beatrice Beaubien <i2eye@mac.com>]

>From Albert, a programmer colleague:

>Lynne wrote:
>
>> Humility is good, except when you have been attacked by a bully, a bully
>> who doesn't care how many innocent civilians it slaughters to bring down
>> an enemy to its cause. Make no mistake about it, we are considered the
>> enemy of these terrorists and the countries which support and hide them.
>
>Yes. But this enemy UNDERSTANDS us very well. That's how it brilliantly
>exploited our weaknesses, and tricked our own media into being the vessels
>of their message. The images they had us create are the equivalent of the
>most powerful computer virus. The virus, in the form of those images of
>exploding and crumbling towers, will replicate across the psyches of
>Americans for hundreds of years.
>
>The terrorists chose NOT to kill the largest number of people, but to create
>the largest SPECTACLE of death ever. They know how we love TV and Hollywood,
>and they calculated cunningly that, while releasing biological weapons in
>the NYC subways would have killed more people, it would have been BAD TV,
>because there wouldn't have been any good video footage.
>
>They know how we Americans fear death, much more than they do. And they know
>how we are susceptible to media images, how we welcome them like trojan
>horses right into our living rooms, as they don't.
>
>They know of our complacency in airport security, and of our arrogance in
>thinking we've secured our high places. They know our tragic flaws, they
>know our minds, and they have exploited this knowledge to strike a
>cataclysmic blow.
>
>Yet we know nothing about them. We may know their whereabouts or their
>names, but we know nothing of them if we think that killing them will stop
>them, or that killing them is even a punishment in their minds!
>
>How silly President Bush sounds when he speaks of 'whipping' the
>perpetrators. They will only smile, as suicide bombers smile at West Bank
>checkpoints, knowing that their blood will fertilize the soil of the next
>generation of suicide bombers.
>
>To defeat any enemy, the first step is to understand them. We've got a long
>way to go.
>
>Humility is NOT wimpiness. It's not 'bleeding heart liberal'. Humility is
>the proper attitude for understanding your enemy.
>
>Humility CAN be kick-ass, Rich. Think Billy Jack. Think Albert
>Harum-Alvarez, for that matter! Some of you know my history as a substitute
>teacher in South Central LA and Watts, and in the juvenile court schools of
>LA County. I can proudly say I actually taught every day. I actually was in
>control of each class. That's not accomplished by being wimpy. I could tell
>you some other stories of me kicking ass, but that wouldn't be humble, now
>would it?
>
>And remember, I said humility BEFORE anger, not WITHOUT anger.
>
>
>--
>Albert Harum-Alvarez
>Small Company

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