Brian Holmes: Disappearance
Just to jump into this interesting thread, I'd suggest that on the one hand, there are the facts, and on the other, their public recognition within institutional frameworks of human rights and democratic governance. What really "disappears" is the public recognition. Take global warming in the US: it has been visible for at least a decade, it has recently even become visible to the US military and the CIA, but it is still not recognized in a way that would demand drawing the consequences. It disappears from the logic of the so-called democratic state, it is excluded from consideration by the institutional mechanisms that would otherwise be required to address it, assess its effects, and intervene.
Consider, for instance, the way the massive loss of life and destruction of poor people's property entailed by the invasion of Panama City in 1989 were for all practical purposes "disappeared." 24 US soldiers were killed, the Pentagon reports 314 deaths among the Panamanian military, and the new Panamanian Ministry of Health reported 201 civilian deaths; while independent estimates range from 1,000 to 4,000. The facts remain partially unknown; their causes remain entirely unrecognized; no consequences have been drawn. The US is said to have invaded Panama for a "Just Cause."
This situation is comparable, in kind if not degree, to the one in Argentina during the late 1970s. The people assassinated by the dictatorship were referred to as the "disappeared." That many thousands of people had died was known by a majority of the population. However it was not permissible to speak of it in public. The extraordinary thing done by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was to bring portraits of the disappeared into the public space, and demand their "appearance with life." What reappeared was not the life of those who had been assassinated, but the life of Argentina as a possible democracy: and this entailed, not just public visibility of the facts of murder, but also legal procedures to draw the consequences (which were only partially completed, with a great many trials having been reopened very recently).
The idea of walking around the US with a picture of a murdered Iraqi is worth considering. I say considering, this is not yet a proposal for action. The question of how to make state murder appear in public is fundamental. And it involves a strauggle against other forms of visibility. Notice, for example, that the US Defense Department is currently funding highly visible studies for computer-driven vehicles:
"Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Grand Challenge competition was created to answer a congressional mandate to convert one-third of military vehicles to driverless, computer-driven mode by 2015. The objective of the competition is to have teams design a completely autonomous vehicle with no human assistance that can maneuver through an urban setting while avoiding obstacles. The technology developed for the race will help DARPA reach its goal of having the autonomous vehicles perform missions that currently put military personnel in harm’s way."
source: www.physorg.com/news82917173.html also see: www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge
The future DARPA vehicle is already more than just visible: it's research and development phase is being celebrated with a popular track race, used as a biopolitical tool to generate excitement, cooperation and team pride, leading to new inventions that spring directly from the public realm. However, when the vehicle moves into military production and then deployment, its lack of human eyes will contribute to the disappearance of those whom it murders. When American lives are not lost, when Americans are not placed before the ethical dilemma of killing or not killing, the possibility of "disappearing" acts of murder becomes immeasurably greater.
"Appearance with life" is the fundamental demand of our times.
> Brian Holmes
Consider, for instance, the way the massive loss of life and destruction of poor people's property entailed by the invasion of Panama City in 1989 were for all practical purposes "disappeared." 24 US soldiers were killed, the Pentagon reports 314 deaths among the Panamanian military, and the new Panamanian Ministry of Health reported 201 civilian deaths; while independent estimates range from 1,000 to 4,000. The facts remain partially unknown; their causes remain entirely unrecognized; no consequences have been drawn. The US is said to have invaded Panama for a "Just Cause."
This situation is comparable, in kind if not degree, to the one in Argentina during the late 1970s. The people assassinated by the dictatorship were referred to as the "disappeared." That many thousands of people had died was known by a majority of the population. However it was not permissible to speak of it in public. The extraordinary thing done by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was to bring portraits of the disappeared into the public space, and demand their "appearance with life." What reappeared was not the life of those who had been assassinated, but the life of Argentina as a possible democracy: and this entailed, not just public visibility of the facts of murder, but also legal procedures to draw the consequences (which were only partially completed, with a great many trials having been reopened very recently).
The idea of walking around the US with a picture of a murdered Iraqi is worth considering. I say considering, this is not yet a proposal for action. The question of how to make state murder appear in public is fundamental. And it involves a strauggle against other forms of visibility. Notice, for example, that the US Defense Department is currently funding highly visible studies for computer-driven vehicles:
"Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Grand Challenge competition was created to answer a congressional mandate to convert one-third of military vehicles to driverless, computer-driven mode by 2015. The objective of the competition is to have teams design a completely autonomous vehicle with no human assistance that can maneuver through an urban setting while avoiding obstacles. The technology developed for the race will help DARPA reach its goal of having the autonomous vehicles perform missions that currently put military personnel in harm’s way."
source: www.physorg.com/news82917173.html also see: www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge
The future DARPA vehicle is already more than just visible: it's research and development phase is being celebrated with a popular track race, used as a biopolitical tool to generate excitement, cooperation and team pride, leading to new inventions that spring directly from the public realm. However, when the vehicle moves into military production and then deployment, its lack of human eyes will contribute to the disappearance of those whom it murders. When American lives are not lost, when Americans are not placed before the ethical dilemma of killing or not killing, the possibility of "disappearing" acts of murder becomes immeasurably greater.
"Appearance with life" is the fundamental demand of our times.
> Brian Holmes