And a prophet of another sort....

Lacanian-Marxist philosopher, Slavoj Zizek, from Slovenia, is the subject of a profile by Rebeccca Mead in The New Yorker, on sale now. Three quotes bear repeating here (transcribed by hand):

"You probably saw the movie 'Minority Report,' in which people are arrested before they commit the crime," [Zizek] said. "Why does this sound familiar? This is the new model for international relations. The U.S. knows in advance who will attack you."

Like, I suspect, many of Zizek's quotes, this works both in the facetious sense, and--judging from the information Bush is trying to suppress in the 9/11 report--the factual sense.

Then, invoking the manipulation inherent in the "war on terror":

"The terrorist attack is taken for granted, but endlessly postponed," he said. "The true catastrophe is that we are living under a permanent threat of catastrophe."

Finally, in reference to what he calls the "creeping social change" this has brought about, illustrated by, among other things, the fact that "torture has become a legitimate subject of conversation," Zizek observed,

"It is not that the ends justify the means; the end is the means themselves."

Very interesting guy. But you've got to buy or borrow the magazine to read more.