A Postmodernist and 9-11

Baudrillard on 9/11

"The horror for the 4,000 victims of dying in those towers was inseparable from the horror of living in them - the horror of living and working in sarcophagi of concrete and steel

By the grace of terrorism, the World Trade Centre has become the world’s most beautiful building - the eighth wonder of the world

Terrorism merely … puts the finishing touches to the orgy of power, liberation, flows and calculation which the twin towers embodied … So, at Ground Zero, in the rubble of global power, we can only, despairingly, find our own image."

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Right. Let's take this slowly shall we?

The horror of the people dying in the towers is inseperable from the horror of living in them? Is it just me, or is that not obviously the kind of line we should expect from someone who has skipped taking some very necessary medication?

Just so I'm clear, Baudrillard is suggesting that the horror of those who lept to their deaths from 30 stories up rather than perish in a blazing inferno is 'inseperable' from the soul killing ennui of the common office worker?

Yup - that's just f*cked. But wait, this Po-Mo whackjob is on a roll...

'By the grace of terrorism the WTC has become the world’s most beautiful building - the eighth wonder of the world'

Uh, no. Sorry Jean, but the 'grace' that terrorism brought to the WTC was that of a smoldering crater, thousands of lives lost, and nightmares of horror and violence for everyone who saw the footage and possessed a beating heart. Indeed, I have trouble with the use of the word 'grace' in this context at all.

But then, language was always a problem for the po-mo crowd. Notice how the towers are now 'beautiful' for Beaudrillard? Doesn't that strike you as a gross abuse of the word?

But he isn't done yet! No, he still hasn't used any symbolic elements to make the case that the WTC is a sign or sygil rather than just a building with, you know, people in it...

'Terrorism merely … puts the finishing touches to the orgy of power, liberation, flows and calculation which the twin towers embodied'

To which I can only say, that is biggest steaming pile of po-mo BS I have encountered in quite some time, and I say this having actually read his book of essays 'Screened Out'.

"So, at Ground Zero, in the rubble of global power, we can only, despairingly, find our own image."

I take it by the 'rubble of global power' we mean 'globalization' - but that hardly stopped for a beat before it resumed again, despite the fact it was in 'rubble' according to Baudrillard.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good axe to grind though.

Finally and fortunately, I do not find that I see my own image (or that of humanity) when I look at the wreckage of 9-11 - I see only madness.

As if inspiring the two sequels to the Matrix wasn't bad enough, when I read the po-mo view of 9-11 provided by our man Jean, we encounter that madness again in a written form.

Somebody, please, make him stop. He's giving philosophers a bad name.