[Reader-list] "War on sharks"

[Tim Diggins]

A propos the problem of declaring "war" on an as yet unspecified enemy (or
on "evil" itself), I am reminded of an article which appeared in the
(London) Guardian in the "lull period" of August which mentioned a previous
war-declaration, whose aims were bigger than possibilities:

"[...]So when Charles Vansant was killed by a great white shark while
swimming off the New Jersey shore in July 1916, the news was met with
disbelief. Only when the same shark struck again six more times over a
12-day period - killing four people and at one point swimming 17 miles up an
inlet in search of its prey - did the horror sink in. A shocked President
Wilson ordered the coastguard to kill all the sharks off the east coast in a
"war on sharks" - an obviously impossible mission which was soon abandoned
after the rogue white shark was caught in a fishermen's net, killed and
split open to reveal the remains of its four human victims. "

-- the full story on shark hysteria, then and now:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4250650,00.html
{Melanie Cooke, Guardian, Wednesday September 5, 2001)

I've found this list very interesting and mind-expanding over the last few
weeks (that's not to say I've agreed with everything). Thanks very much!

best

Tim Diggins


-----Original Message-----
From: reader-list-admin at sarai.net [mailto:reader-list-admin at sarai.net]On
Behalf Of Monica Narula
Sent: 19 Sep 2001 12:48
To: reader-list at sarai.net
Subject: [Reader-list] Many paths


Below is a long list of urls on the Attack, and covering a wide
variety of aspects/facets such as "War", "Architecture and
Engineering", "Comment", "Background", "Maps", "Civil Liberties",
"Photo Essays", etc.

====================
Taken from RRE List <rre at lists.gseis.ucla.edu>

War

When Evil Itself Becomes the Primary Foe
("eliminating evil" is a dangerous formula for a permanent, total, futile
war)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000074971sep18.story