Kosovo & Jünger

[Gary Kern <gkern@ucr.campuscwix.net>]

Dear Jüngerites:

The recent war in Yugoslavia raises issues germane to our theme. In
particular, it has established the New World Order that President Bush
could only dream of.  The message of the American victory is this:

1. America can bomb any country in the world and that country cannot
fight back or even see the bombs coming.  America can hit any target,
scramble communications, turn off the lights and turn them back on
again.  It can also explain away accidental bombings of children, old
people, hospitals.

2. America can arbitrarily and selectively enforce its policies on any
country in the world: pro-Yeltsin, anti-Chechnya yesterday;
anti-Milosevich, pro-Kosovo today; pro-anybody, anti-anybody tomorrow.

3. America has established global domination for the 21st century:
American politics, American technology, American pop culture,
American-style conman for President.  All countries are Americanized,
all countries must play the game to America's liking or risk bombing. 
(There are exceptions: China, Korea, Cuba, but America is working on
them.)

4. There are now two worlds: the technologically superior world and
everybody else.  The first exploits the second, but with face-saving
ideology.

5. The new ideology/religion for the next century has been tried and
tested for the last 20 years: political correctness--i.e., leftist
hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness.  All countries bear a burden of guilt,
all peoples can be singled out as prejudiced, all individuals can be
castigated as racists.  The PC high priests decide.

Zamyatin & Orwell had it right for this century: totalitarianism, Big
Brother.  But Huxley and Jünger seem to have it right for the next: 
entertainment industry, bureaucratic entanglement, Titans of business
and technology.

And Jünger had the solution: Waldgänger. The best you can do is take a
book and go fishing, and hope that you're not trespassing on anybody's
land or that no idiot with a boombox and a backward baseball cap will
come by.  In fact, the Wald part of the formulation is at risk. The
individual is finished, except as a hermit, turning his hour glasses in
his secret study, if he has one.

GK

(Note new e-mail address)