Re-Entering Modernity: From The ‘End of History’ To ‘The New World Order’ 1

Abstract

Silence begins in the channels of communication. Certain political leaders, institutions, and priests attempt to denounce what is happening, but are unable to establish contact with the population. The silence begins with a strong odor. People sniff the suicides [the deaths], but it eludes them. Then silence finds another ally: solitude. People fear suicides Ideaths] as they fear madmen [read Hussein and Bush]. And the person who wants to fight senses his [her] solitude and is frightened. Whereupon the silence reverts to patriotism. Fear finds its great moral revelation in patriotism, with its indubitable capacity for justification, its climate of glory and sacrifice (Jacob0 Timerman 1982: 52).*