To be responsible for such is to be responsible for the impoverishment of this world. To take away life is to take away a piece of the world. Santosh Sivan’s extraordinary film, the Terrorist (and more recently his lesser Tahaan), offers reflection on that moment of decision, that infinitesimal moment in which even the most committed partisan can nonetheless choose. One understands the logic governing such ‘asymmetric warfare’ or the extent to which an often greater violence perpetrated by the nation-state is never recognized as such and yet one finds it impossible to condone an entire economy of the same where the response of the rebel is not less terrifying, assuredly not less irresponsible. I have indeed been repelled by this model of ‘spectacular violence’ that has so many adherents in our world. This is not at all because I have ever had any sympathy with the politics of the LTTE. It is quite possibly a familial link with those who speak Tamil and to which tradition I completely belong and yet do not in equally profound ways that I felt a certain sadness at this entire turn of events. The dust seems to have settled on one of those seemingly interminable insurgencies of the contemporary world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |