Dear Reader...

Andrew Garib, The i Newsletter | I feel it imperative that this Issue of The i address the issue that has immediate importance to our readers. The attack upon the United States in September and subsequent terrorist actions take obvious precedence over other news. With an unambiguous and potentially devastating threat looming overhead, North Americans feel the incessant need to know more about the news and events surrounding the terrorist acts.

Yet what is most remarkable is how little North Americans understand of the nature of the threat. Human conflict has everything to do with a lack of understanding. Why do so many hate us? Why do some wish to destroy our way of life? Our inability to answer these questions and seek effective, systematic solutions to international threat is due to an epidemic myopia common throughout North America. This short sightedness is inexorably rooted in our own pervasive culture of ignorance and apathy, and our disrespect for the importance of government action and international affairs.

First, a joke: I once asked someone why he had such a problem with ignorance and apathy. He replied, “I don’t know and I don’t give a damn.” This premise is fitting for the average North American, whose daily routine is hardly involved in community or even national – let alone international – affairs. All of this Issue’s contributors who wrote about the terrorist acts and the subsequent war made direct references to such North American attitudes. The heart of the matter is our attitude towards education, literacy, and democracy, so fundamentally flawed that the schism between the actions of government and the needs of the people is perhaps irrevocable in light of such apathy and ignorance.

This attitude is particular to states whose governments believe that the nation of masses is too diffuse in ideology, distracted, and unintelligent to form a common will to which government must adhere. And it is a sad state of affairs when we are forced to agree with this notion. These last few generations are particularly politically indifferent. Our motivations are shifted towards the entertaining, the commercial and the immediately gratifying. These distract us from both the real problems in our society and those abroad, and downplay the relations between the two.

Out of such indifference comes the cozy belief that what is important to know and read about only affects us directly. Something as distant from the general populous as a federal election elicits apathy from the voting public, since the next government will probably make and break the same promises the last government did. How then can foreign wars and political battles have any effect on our daily routine, our standard of living, and our way of life?

It is comforting to think that wars fought by our soldiers against third-world enemies are only in our best interest; that the repercussions are outweighed by the objectives; that our leaders are making the best logistical and political moves in order to see victory. Yet how many Americans truly care how many Afghans are killed in this war against terrorism? How many Americans cared about the number of enemy casualties in the Gulf war? Conversely, who truly cared about the atrocities in Rwanda in 1994, when foreign guns remained questionably silent? How much are you to blame?

The firm belief in the invulnerability and splendid isolation of the American empire should have come to a fearful end on September 11th , but to paraphrase Emily Tan, the lesson has been pushed aside to make way for an unusual mix of American jingoism and casualness. From celebrities’ off-hand remarks about “killing all our enemies,” to the remarkably violent online game “Yo Mama, Osama!”, support for the war in Afghanistan and belief in the heroism of our leaders and soldiers is unquestioned in mainstream media. The schisms in Western society not only include that between government and people, but between national and international interests. What happens halfway around the world is simply not important to our general public.

This editorial is definitely not a pacifist c ry against counter-terrorist actions. It is a call for attention to a problem that goes beyond current events into our Western way of life. Attention itself is the key. In this current political atmosphere, attention should be turned away from the drivel of hawkish banter, towards the real issues of foreign policy, public safety, war ethics, and religious fundamentalism. In general, we should take a closer look at how North Americans live their lives in the context of the global village, and how our actions and events abroad affect us all.

Our goal at The i Newsletter is what should be the driving force behind all media: an informed public and an involved democracy. A literate, informed audience is paramount. Responsible, objective media, and broad-based education for all are fundamental.

With these, we in the West may come to realize that what affects people in distant nations is important to us all. We may come to respect the fact that our wealth in this hemisphere is built upon the back of an impoverished third world. We may begin to understand that government actions at home and abroad affect us directly, and that through our democratic mechanisms in government and society, we have a direct say in these matters.

It should no longer be possible to look upon Afghanistan as we did Iraq in 1991, with a distant distain for its government and a morbid apathy towards the damage we inflict. Yet as much as the world wars, the Great Depression, the oil crisis of the late 70’s, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the downturn in East Asian economies a few years past had direct affects on our lives, it should come as no surprise that North Americans still see Western civilization in a vacuum. Irresponsible media is persistent; pacification of the populous is in full and constant effect. It is left to the informed audience – you, the reader – to instil ideas of participative democracy and global village into our fellow North Americans. You are given the chance to create a community more knowledgeable about itself and its interactions with the world. It is my sincere hope that the tragic loss of five thousand in the United States will not be a forgotten lesson on insular attitudes.

Hopefully one day “I don’t know and I don’t give a damn” will be the catch phrase for an insignificant minority. Until then, read with a critical eye, vote with a sceptical outlook, and write with an informed opinion.

Published 01.10.30 00:00:00 -0500 GMT | Posted by Andrew Garib on 01.11.01 | |

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