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is a plain and unmistakable reminder that the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering.

CALAMITY, n. A more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminder that the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering. Calamities are of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune to others.

is able to raze a city, but not even open a letter, untie this knotted thread.

The cyclone can raze a city, but not even open a letter, untie this knotted thread. (valery : notebook B : 85)

is an event that is only terrifying for civilians. For the military it is simply an opportunity to justify an art of warfare.

Ecological catastrophes are only terrifying for civilians,' writes Virilio, 'For the military, they are but a simulation of chaos, an opportunity to justify an art of warfare which is all the more autonomous as the political State dies out' (Virilio Popular defenseand Ecological Struggeles 65-6).

is believed to be possible, even probable, and yet still not believed to likely happen because of a fundamental gap between knowledge and belief.

And, as Dupuy makes clear, the gap that makes these paradoxes possible is the gap between knowledge and belief: we know the catastrophe is possible, even probable, yet we do not believe it will really happen.'' (zizek 2003:160).

is, in the first world, an irruption against a normal background. In the third world, catastrophe designates the ever-present background itself.

This is the difference between the big First World catastrophes like September 11 and the dreary, permanent catastrophe of, say, Palestinians in the West Bank. The first mode of tragedy, the figure against the 'normal' background, is characteristic of the First World... while in much of the Third World, catastrophe designates the ever-present background itself' (zizek 2003:165).

is marked today by the image loop, as though only repetition could remedy the inexplicable.

As though only repetition could remedy the inexplicable, the image loop has become the signature of contemporary disasters' (Virilio 200585)

is most threatening today not material (wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides), but rather, man's own psyche. Wars and revolutions are nothing other than psychic epidemics (i.e. A madness that at any moment several million human beings become smitten with).

The gigantic catastrophes that threaten us today are not elemental happenings of a physical or biological order, but psychic events. To a quite terrifying degree we are threatened by wars and revolutions which are nothing other than psychic epidemics. At any moment several million human beings may be smitten with a new madness, and then we shall have another world war or devastating revolution. Instead of being at the mercy of wild beasts, earthquakes, landslides, and inundations, modern man is battered by the elemental forces of his own psyche. Carl Jung

is not some abrupt event, but is already this life under the shadow of permanent threat.

the true catastrophe already is this life under the shadow of the permanent threat of catastrophe' (zizek 2003:165).

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