Re: Techno-Logic

In response to a comment about the increased potential for sabotage becoming
more widespread as various forces attack major centers of power, Steve
suggested this as one possibility:

<<Two, begin the process of thinking through how to produce technology and
living spaces not prone to this sort of attack (no sign of this yet, to say
the least). >>
==============

A comment:

Then again, there is the growing trend of "gated communities". At first they
were only in upscale suburban areas, but we are seeing more and more of them
in urban settings as well.......perhaps gas masks will be distributed by the
Homeowners Association........


Alan Spector

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----- Original Message -----
From: <Threehegemons@aol.com>
To: <wwagar@binghamton.edu>; <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 6:02 PM
Subject: Re: Techno-Logic


> In a message dated 2/12/2003 2:13:15 PM Eastern Standard Time,
wwagar@binghamton.edu writes:
>
> Warren--I agree with you that part of the significance of the World Trade
Center attacks lies in its demonstration of the possibility of new forms of
warfare.  I am not sure how this will hasten the decline of US hegemony.
The emergence of new forms of warfare has always been part of hegemonic
transitions.
>
> In all likelihood, states will begin the process of learning how to adjust
to these forms of warfare, based on the heightened destructive power made
possible by modern technology, medicine, warfare, etc and the high
concentrations of people (office buildings, malls).  I can imagine two ways
this'll be done.  One, turn the whole of modern society into a garrison (the
direction the US has begun to take--although I suspect its doomed to
accelerate rather than hinder the process of making society sabateur prone).
Two, begin the process of thinking through how to produce technology and
living spaces not prone to this sort of attack (no sign of this yet, to say
the least).
>
> But basically, I agree that transformations in the nature of warfare need
to be incorporated into analysis of contemporary change.
>
> Steven Sherman
>
> >   I would only add that another logic is now at play in the world,
> > which could radically compress the time needed for the United States to
> > topple and for others to take its place, perhaps to topple just as
swiftly
> > in their turn.  I refer to the logic of technology.  Not just the logic
of
> > "high tech," vastly expensive and often available only to states, but
also
> > the power that comparatively "low" technology can give any disciplined
> > individual or organized group.  The logic of the Tokyo subway gassing,
the
> > Oklahoma City bombing, the kamikaze attack on the WTC, and the Afghan
> > mujahideen.
> >
> >    It is likely that we are only in the earliest and most primitive
> > stages of a whole century of sabotage, which will be able to bring down
> > the most "powerful" states, no matter how well armed, taking advantage
of
> > the densely interlocked nature of modern economies and communication
> > networks.  There have been saboteurs and guerrillas since the beginning
of
> > time, and most of the so-called terror wreaked in the last few years has
> > come nowhere near realizing its state-busting potential.  But the fact
> > that the WTC attack, for example, did significantly deepen the
depression
> > already in progress in the U.S. is a bellwether of things
> > to come.
>