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A Few Extra Remarks |
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14. l e n b r a c k e n
beyond dispute), but also in Bonn, Milan, Madrid, Dower,
Rome, Berkeley, New York, West Berlin, Frankfurt, Santiago,
Vancouver and a dozen other cities around the world.
THE SPIES FOR PEACE (a spoof on the Atoms for Peace
campaign), who represented one of the "new forms of action"
in the essay containing the "reversible coherence of the
world" quote (they raided a secret government bomb
shelter), are also mentioned in the Misery of Student Life.
What was once a "decisive contribution" in the struggle
against the idea of nuclear hibernation and secrets in
general, a contribution that the SI wanted to extend to
other countries with their "Destruction of R.S.G. 6"
protest in Denmark, was later criticized in Misery of
Student Life not having a truly radical, but only a partial
critique centered on an anti-bomb perspective which, in
part, would account for the group's isolation - it didn't
link up with the working class or press for the revolution
of everyday life. This hardening of position on the part of
the SI, by insisting on a totalizing critique, is perhaps a
minor point, but it is indicative of a trend that is part
of the real history of the group. In any case, it
apparently needs to be said that The Spies for Peace
weren't Nazis or in any way like Nazis; nor were the
students of Strasbourg Nazis!
IN HIS RESPONSE to my footnote, Marcus included this
excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle (July 23, 1997):
"I have a conversation...that I find I have a connection
to. Tales abound of close encounters with Cunanan in bars
and discos and at tony dinner parties, and many gay men
have expressed shock and distress at just how widely known
- and popular - the suspected killer appears to have been.
'Cunanan is the Patient Zero of serial killers,' said San
Francisco writer David Israels. 'Patient Zero was
supposedly everywhere and connected to everyone, and this
guy was also everywhere and connected to everyone. He's
been seen in more places than Elvis.' The case also taps
into the darkest nightmare of many gay men - that the sexy,
affable guy they chatted up in the bar was not at all what
he seemed. And it explodes the stereotype that most people,
including gay men, have of serial killers as visibly
disturbed loners."
THIS EXCERPT ALMOST DEFIES commentary. My first reaction
is to point out that the Patient Zero hypothesis has been
thoroughly discredited: because the guy in question had
traveled a great deal and had had many sexual contacts, he
was arbitrarily chosen to be Patient 0 in the Center for
Disease Control numbering system, and then unfairly
characterized in the media as the main disease vector.
Patient Zero is just more spectacular disinformation. What
can be said about Cunanan, except to underscore the reality. . .
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