Nervous Witness of Struggle

The disposition of Canada’s “nervous culture” resides in its ­political ­mandates towards terror, distinguishing it from the “paranoid ­culture” manifest most pertinently in the U.S.A./U.K. The Canadian military ­operates primarily as a peacekeeping force, as opposed to the ­interventionist policies of the American and British armed forces, which are used primarily to forge borders between nations.

Paranoid culture can be understood as a set of post 9/11 ­sensibilities resulting from the seismic shift and subsequent reshaping of global ­communication, economic, surveillance, security, and transport ­networks. These transformations are not brought to bear by the U.S.A./ U.K.’s ­decision to invade Iraq alone, but reside in a more encompassing logic of economic and social control of which the invasion of Iraq is the most visible component. Paranoid culture is constructed from an integrated fear of an unknown and unidentifiable enemy, a psychological economy manifesting itself in the collective anxiety over the “sleeper cell.” This new formation of terrorism is defined by its aim to go beyond merely ­integrating itself into the fabric of everyday life. The sleeper cell resituates the terrorist ­paradigm by becoming a valued member of a community. Camouflaging his/her operations in earned responsibilities causes society at large to question its most basic systems of relationship building and social ­hierarchies when the cell activates.