“Today, the insecurities of states and the uncertainties of civilian spaces and persons have become disturbingly intertwined, and terror, terrorism, and terrorist are where we can best see this new blurring” (Appadurai 104)
Appadurai talks about violence in the age of high globalization. He focuses specifically on the 1990’s as a period of superviolence and attributes it to three main causes: the Cold War, the spread of democratic institutions and liberal constitution and the power of the internet. This guy brings up a good point. It seems like there should be less violence today than ever. But, after class I was browsing the internet and a with a simple Google search, found some extremely disturbing pictures under the keyword Terrorism. This I suppose is part of the darker side of globalization that Appadurai discusses. Violence and terrorism has been exacerbated in the age of the internet. I don’t think this was the main subject of Appadurai’s book, but I thought it was an interesting point he made. The internet, television, news, magazines, newspapers have all increased people’s exposure to terrorism. On a daily basis we are bombarded with warnings and news briefs about terrorist acts. Most of these are about suicide bombings in far off lands. We, or maybe I should just speak for myself right now, have become immune to these acts because we hear about them so much. Another train blew up, another church was bombed. What is this world coming to?
But, have the number of terrorist act really increased in this age high globalization, or do we just hear about it a lot more often because of the internet the higher frequency and ease of communication. Appadurai would say that all these ideas have become intertwined and have increased violence and our acceptance of these acts.
This whole topic of violence and terrorism seems interesting and extremely relevant in the wake of 9/11. Terror, terrorism and terrorist have become buzz words in our vocabulary and I think it will be interesting to compare how Appadurai’s view of terrorism relates to the movie about 9.11.we are watching next week.
The media connection also makes me wonder about the impact of fictionalized depictions of torture like in 24 or in the first Bond movie starring Daniel Craig, Casino Royale. Was that the first post-9/11 Bond movie. I'd never seen torture in a Bond movie before and it somehow pulled down out the realm of harmless Cold War fantasy (if it ever actually was that) to a sense of real menace. What impact do these images have on our minds?
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