If The September 11 Terror Attack Is

A Threatened Nation Can React To Uncertain Dangers Solely Through Administrative Channels, To The Truly Embarrassing Situation Of Perhaps Overreacting

Technically Speaking, Since Our Complex Societies Are Highly Susceptible To Interferences And Accidents,they Certainly Offer Ideal Opportunities For A Prompt Disruption Of Normal Activities. These Disruptions Can, With Minimum Expense, Have Considerably Destructive Consequences. Global Terrorism Is Extreme Both In Its Lack Of Realistic Goals And In Its Cynical Exploitation Of The Vulnerability Of Complex Systems.

Instead Of The International Police Action We Had Hoped For During The War In Kosovo, There Are Wars Again - Conducted With State-of-the-art Technology, But Still In The Old Style

The Avant-garde Understands Itself As Invading Unknown Territory, Exposing Itself To The Dangers Of Sudden, Shocking Encounters, Conquering An As Yet Unoccupied Future ... The Avant-garde Must Find A Direction In A Landscape Into Which No One Seems To Have Yet Ventured.

The Usage Of The Words "public" And "public Sphere" Betrays A Multiplicity Of Concurrent Meanings. Their Origins Go Back To Various Historical Phases And, When Applied Synchronically To The Conditions Of A Bourgeois Society That Is Industrially Advanced And Constituted As A Social-welfare State, They Fuse Into A Clouded Amalgam. Yet The Very Conditions That Make The Inherited Language Seem Inappropriate Appear To Require These Words, However Confused Their Employment.