<nettime> yugoslavia/nato digest 040299 [blissett, sugar, stahlman]

["nettime's_indigestive_system" <nettime@Desk.nl>]

Luther Blissett <tom9351@iperbole.bologna.it>
          Re: <nettime> Down with war criminals
sj@mrf.hu (Janos Sugar)
          y2k
Newmedia@aol.com [mark stahlman]
          World Revolution

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Date: Sat, 03 Apr 1999 03:09:10 +0200
From: Luther Blissett <tom9351@iperbole.bologna.it>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Down with war criminals

At 20.56 02/04/99 +0200, Heiko Recktenwal wrote:
>Hi,
>>Slobodan Milosevic and his cut-throats into unconvincing heroes and
>>self-styled opponents of the New World Order, leaving Serbian people with
>>no choice but siding with their dictator. Absurd: historical ignorance
>
>What ? No choice ???

OK, try this one:
"...making Serbian people feel they're left with only one choice: to side
with their dictator".
Does it sound better?
As a matter of fact most Serbs ARE taking that side, whether we like it or
not (I sure don't like it). All foreign correspondents from Belgrade are
(rather unwillingly) laying the stress on this fact. A few days ago I heard
a broadcast on Italia Radio (incidentally, a network which supports NATO)
about some Serbian dissenters living in Tuscany. These people stated that
they always were anti-Milosevic, but they'd go back to Belgrade and enlist
in the army if there really were a ground attack, because to defend their
country is the most important thing. I despise patriotism and nationalism,
but I find these reactions understandable. It is Clinton's fault if
nationalism is perceived as the only way out.
This is not psychology and we're not the only ones to notice it on nettime. 
As Joerg Koch wrote a few days ago:

>If you bomb a country ruled by a dictator, the attacked people won't rise
>up to topple the dictator. They do not associate the bombs with Milosevic
>but simply with those who drop them. What the Nato has achieved so far with
>their air attacks is a political homogenization of the Serbian political
>landscape

And Wayne wrote:

>When
>they grow up, Milosevics want to be Hitlers, and if you fuck up with
>them - as has happened with NATO and Milosevic, if you get drawn
>into the whole pure testosterone game of it all and end up locking
>yourself into attacking - and then doing it ineffectively - you always
>make them strong. 

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Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 03:59:57 +0200 (MET DST)
From: sj@mrf.hu (Janos Sugar)
Subject: y2k

milosevic is the real millenium bug

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From: Newmedia@aol.com
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 21:13:21 EST
Subject: World Revolution

Folks:

She said, reading nettime, "I don't get it . . . I thought the left was 
anti-war, isn't that what happened in Vietnam?  Why are they supporting NATO?"

He said, "No, the left isn't anti-war, they're for WORLD REVOLUTION.  In the 
1960's the North Vietnamese cause appeared to be the world revolutionary 
cause.  Now, the agent of world revolution is . . . NATO.  They're quite 
consistent.  They're for whoever is driving world revolution."

She said, "How bizarre!"

He said, "That's what it means . . . the 90's are just like the 60's, only 
turned upside down.  The pothead, anti-war-types now run the ALLIANCE.  The 
Nixon-types now run little renegade countries like Yugo/Serbia.  It's a total 
flip."

She said, "Do people understand what has happened?"

He said, "Yes, and the thoughtful people are seeing their whole lives flash 
before their eyes. Even the ones who don't think are freaking out.  They have 
to, this is the apocalypse.  No one will escape."

Mark Stahlman

 [apocalypses are a dime a dozen: they never actually arrive,
 they just pass on by, like closely watched trains. foucault
 talks a lot about how advances in rationality have a double
 face--social progress, yes, but also innovations in destruc-
 tion. the shift you're pointing out is quite real, but it's
 hardly the first. why is this time the 'real thing,' beyond
 fact that we're living through it? --tb]

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