Comments on: How to Get More Frequent Flyer Miles for Your Zombie

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:35:37 +0000

Well put, and that is a good comparison as well. The two fields that have probably been most torn up by their participation in this “war on terror” appear to be psychology and anthropology, with parallel protests, dissent, and organizing by critics within each of the respective professional associations representing these fields.

Now we also hear of military doctors participating in the torture sessions, giving the green light to continue bludgeoning a detainee, or threatening to have soldiers insert IVs, then doing so at great pain to the detainees. So far, I have not heard anything from the American Medical Association, and whether ideals inspired by the Hippocratic Oath are being seriously violated, not to mention turning malpractice itself into the very practice of a doctor.

By: wagelaborer

wagelaborer — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:02:17 +0000

Thank you very much for this deconstruction of the paean in the Progressive. I knew nothing of the HTS, but am glad to hear your view.

It’s like the psychologists who participated in the torture sessions claiming that their presence made things better. Such hubris, to think that your individual wonderfulness will overcome your participation in a vicious imperial project.

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:43:59 +0000

That was very well put, an important, enlightening, and enjoyable improvement. Initially I began this unplanned series with the Obama as bokor theme, since the metaphor seemed to work on that level. However, as it went further, clearly your approach which leaves behind Haitian ethnology and utilizes Hollywood mythology is the much more appropriate one. Now that you mention this, it is not the first time that I have seen such constructions as the quote you singled out above — of prior doubts and misgivings yielding to some new realization about HTS.

In the article by Robert Willey in Boston Magazine (http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_theory_and_practice_of_war/page6), I noticed the lone comment posted there. The writer admits to not having known about HTS before. Now that he is read this inspiring story about the heroism and sacrifice of Bhatia, he has been bitten: he is grateful for HTS.

By: Sisyphus Chancre

Sisyphus Chancre — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:33:44 +0000

You are correct that there are HTS zombies roaming the earth, but you are mistaken in thinking these are Haitian voodoo zombies following the commands of a bokor. No. These are Hollywood zombies like the ones in the Living Dead movies, they propagate by biting the flesh of the living, who then become zombified by a virus. This article in The Progressive shows that the author, Paula Loyd’s friend, was bitten by the death of a HTS zombie and she became one of HTS’s thoughtless living dead. There is no bokor master, there are only zombie drives that make no sense to the living. Consider the line in the Progressive article where the zombie writer admits: “Some academics say anthropologists have no business working for the military and have denounced the Human Terrain Team as ‘mercenary anthropology.’ At an academic level, maybe I would have once thought the same thing.” She is recalling a time before she became a thoughtless zombie and through the fog of the living dead can remember that “maybe I would have once thought the same thing,” just as all Night of the Living Dead-type zombies have foggy memories that once they would have been repulsed at the thought of eating their child’s fresh spleen.