Debates
04 Apr 07
04 Apr 07
Originally posted by shavixmirIf memory serves me, the attack in Japan was sarin.
Viral terrorism? You mean that one attack in Japan many years ago?
As far as I know, very few terrorist attacks have ever used virusses.
Well, except Anthrax in the US, but that came from US government labs...
IRA, ETA, PLO, ANC... all terrorist organisations which "embodied" nationhood.
Many Islamic terrorist organisations also make claim to terri ...[text shortened]... val of the West from territory).
And the military tactics are quite often similar as well.
04 Apr 07
Originally posted by Bosse de NageDude. I'm stoneder than the average touring funk band and I'm sweating wine.
It's not about using viruses as weapons. Think about viral marketing...or just read this:
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=296
I'm having trouble breathing, never mind reading about viral marketing!!!
04 Apr 07
Originally posted by Bosse de NageRelevant excerpt:
It's not about using viruses as weapons. Think about viral marketing...or just read this:
http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=296
"The terrorism of the new age of viral power has these symbolic qualities:
It is a micro-power, not a superpower.
It is low tech, not high tech--and thus invisible to the optical scanners of the ruling technological regime. Paradoxically, the (technological) weakness of viral power is its strength.
It is subterranean, secretive--driven by a crusading spirit equal to the religious zeal of the Middle Ages. Breaking the rules of publicity culture, it claims no responsibility and thus speaks clearly to the cultural imagination of the suppressed and powerless everywhere.
It is a matter of biological violence, not physics. Flowing invisibly through the rhetorical screen of the 'anti-ballistic missile system,' viral power adopts the strategy of the attacking parasite: invading the body of the host (the American homeland), bleeding its tactical intelligence (those flight schools in Florida), circulating in its commercial bloodstream (American airlines), and imploding in a violent fatal metastasis that has as its aim the infiltration of the mediascape through its apocalyptic effects. Viral power avoids conflict with the real military assests of the host nation because its actual intention is a strategic media strike. Viral power is understandable only in the language of the media: the twin spectacles of sadness and terror; the doubled language of fascination and dread. In the days ahead, the media spectacle will shift to the viral language of rage and revenge. "