That's an unexpected headline, but true just the same. Seems that the President likes the international attitude toward racism no better than his predecessor did, especially when it comes to any linkage of Zionism with racism. Obama and Secretary Clinton add a new wrinkle by deploring the conference's concern with so-called incitement to religious hatred. This is seen as an attempt by Muslims to curtail freedom of speech worldwide. You might think an international conference would be the place to make your case against such notions, but the Americans probably expect to be outvoted, so they'd rather not dignify the affair with their presence. This has irked the Congressional Black Caucus, which naturally wants this country in the middle of any global effort against racism. But the U.S. government has historically reserved the right to define racism as it pleases, regardless of any international consensus. American leaders were offended when the UN declared Zionism a form of racism in 1975, and to an extent you can understand the complaint. For many people Zionism is going to mean first and foremost the national aspirations of Jewish people. If that's racist, you might say, than so is Kurdish or Basque nationalism. The problem with any such equation, of course, is that those groups would not have to infiltrate any territory and displace a resident population to realize their national ambitions, while that was inevitably necessary for a dispersed people. There was no way Zionism was ever going to make everyone happy, and Arabs have a right to see racism in the idea that their interests have to take second place to other people's in a land that had been theirs for more than a thousand years. On the other hand, it is arguably racist, depending on the extent to which you define Judaism racially, to deny Jewish people the right to a national home, even though no one to my knowledge accuses the Spaniards of "racism" against the Basque people, nor the Iraqis or the Turks of "racism" against the Kurds. As you see, there's no easy resolution of the matter, which I suppose is why we have international conferences to talk it over. But because we won't get our way, we will ignore the event as if it isn't happening.
On the other matter I can understand American defensiveness. Christian lamentation notwithstanding, it is virtually a sacred American right to criticize religious beliefs and practices. We can't accept the premise that religion can be so deeply embedded in anyone's personal identity that criticism of it is an unendurable insult. Nor can we believe that criticizing religion is an "incitement" to any kind of bad behavior. Christians may feel persecuted sometimes, but there can't be many here who'd say that even "militant atheist" writings have led to violence or other repressive measures against them. Again, an international conference would seem to be the occasion to clarify the American position and attempt to persuade the rest of the world. But we probably fear a consensus of dictators and other authoritarians would outvote us on any question, so again we close our eyes, plug our ears and go "na na na" as the conference goes on.
I can't really endorse the American position because it seems undemocratic, on the level of nations, to refuse to accept a global consensus simply because it isn't in perfect agreement with our own beliefs, and it seems worse to refuse even to engage the rest of the world in defense of those beliefs. If there is to be a truly global civilization, it almost certainly will not be an enlarged reproduction of the United States. Americans may have to accommodate and compromise, just like every other nationality and culture. If Muslims want the rest of the world to renounce certain prerogatives, they had better do some renouncing of their own. Inevitably they will if the world survives. But if we expect them to learn to compromise, we should teach by example. Instead we're showing them how to sulk until everyone else capitulates. There has to be a better approach, but Obama and Clinton haven't figured it out yet.
18 April 2009
17 April 2009
Obama's Torturous Reasoning
Perhaps leadership is the art of pleasing nobody. This seems to be the President's approach when it comes to reckoning with his predecessor's legacy of torture. Liberals and Bushites alike are unhappy with his decision to release more memoranda detailing the country's collusion with torturing regimes while absolving the people involved of any liability for perpetrating or collaborating with torture. The reactionaries complain that exposure will make other countries less cooperative with us in the future, while the liberals are angry that there won't be trials of the purported perps. By default, Obama is steering a middle course. Is it the correct one? That depends on your standard. If you apply a moral standard, Obama is a trimmer or a coward by refusing to do justice though the heavens fall. If you apply a "realist" standard, he has probably talked too much already about things people are better off not knowing about. The President himself is most likely trying to balance principle and pragmatism. He strives to make clear that he considers torture wrong, but admits implicitly that the issue is political or more correctly partisan dynamite. The divide of opinion on the question is a partisan one, with Bushites on one side and everyone else (Democrats, liberals, libertarians, many conservatives) on the other. But Bushites remain a major force within the Republican party and are bound to say that any indictment of the Bush administration is partisan in nature. The point Obama has to consider isn't whether they're wrong, but whether any attempt to "criminalize politics" by prosecuting Bushite policymakers or perpetrators will tear the country apart along partisan lines.
Under the American Bipolarchy, partisanship distorts all political questions. It's easy for people without responsibilities to say "so what?" especially if they expect prosecutions to damage the Republican Party. But many people will believe the primary motive of any prosecution to be partisan because partisanship shapes their perceptions, and they'll never accept any verdict against their side as just. They'll see it as the other side abusing its power to oppress the opposition the way dubious leaders do around the world. If we didn't live under a Bipolarchy things would probably be different, because any leader then would represent only himself or at most a small personal faction whose complaints wouldn't matter as much as those of a great party that commands nearly half the electorate. But while the Bipolarchy prevails any attempt by one administration to prosecute its predecessor only invites the predecessor's party to plan a tit-for-tat prosecution on some pretext when they have power again. That thought probably deters Obama from doing what many would think is the right thing. In this environment the best we can do is hope for is a day when some force stands ready to prosecute people of both parties equally for offenses against the Constitution or statutory law without seeming to take a "side." Our goal should be a democratic republic whose representatives embody the nation as a whole rather than any faction or clique, and whose correction of any of their own will be seen as dispassionate, disinterested and objectively just. Until we have that, prosecuting the Bushites is likely to create at least as many problems as it solves.
Under the American Bipolarchy, partisanship distorts all political questions. It's easy for people without responsibilities to say "so what?" especially if they expect prosecutions to damage the Republican Party. But many people will believe the primary motive of any prosecution to be partisan because partisanship shapes their perceptions, and they'll never accept any verdict against their side as just. They'll see it as the other side abusing its power to oppress the opposition the way dubious leaders do around the world. If we didn't live under a Bipolarchy things would probably be different, because any leader then would represent only himself or at most a small personal faction whose complaints wouldn't matter as much as those of a great party that commands nearly half the electorate. But while the Bipolarchy prevails any attempt by one administration to prosecute its predecessor only invites the predecessor's party to plan a tit-for-tat prosecution on some pretext when they have power again. That thought probably deters Obama from doing what many would think is the right thing. In this environment the best we can do is hope for is a day when some force stands ready to prosecute people of both parties equally for offenses against the Constitution or statutory law without seeming to take a "side." Our goal should be a democratic republic whose representatives embody the nation as a whole rather than any faction or clique, and whose correction of any of their own will be seen as dispassionate, disinterested and objectively just. Until we have that, prosecuting the Bushites is likely to create at least as many problems as it solves.
15 April 2009
Images from the Albany TEA Party
As I write, thirteen video posts from the Albany TEA Party at the Corning Preserve are available on YouTube. Some are just picked up from local news, but this one is raw footage.
You may think you saw someone familiar in fleeting moments, but that gentleman in the star-spangled suit is an impostor. I work for a living.
This next bit opens with an explanation of the serpentine symbolism of the "Don't Tread On Me" flag, which was prominent at TEA parties across the country.
I suppose this knucklehead imagines himself an equivalent of the Founding Fathers for his promised defiance of authority. He also seems a little short on ambition if the most he can imagine marching on Washington are 100,000 people. I'd think the "Million Man March" would be a benchmark that any activist would want to match. But perhaps a million sounds too much like a mob for this person.
In this clip, another speaker invokes John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and while those men would have found much to despise in today's government, I think excessive spending would be but one of many outrages they'd perceive. This fellow also expresses the ruling fallacy of the occasion: that the people who actually govern are somehow not "the people." If they aren't, where they come from, and how did they convince us to vote for them?
At least it looks like the speakers maintained a fairly narrow focus on spending and budget issues. But this speaker drags the Federal Reserve into it. On the other hand, he has a healthy distrust of corporations and the Bipolarchy. Then he ruins it for me by coming out against universal health care and public education and "so-called human-caused global warming."
People like this seem honest in their fears about corporate power, but they don't trust the state power that exists in part to check it. Some of them probably think that corporate power is somehow a by-product of state power, so that if they had their way and the state were minimized, corporations would not run riot over the country. Good luck with that. He continues an increasingly reactionary diatribe with the usual paeans to "personal responsibility," i.e. every man for himself as the highest virtue, and a misplaced invocation of the Deity as the author of human rights. As I said, the occasion may not have been partisan, but it was ideological.
Here's one more clip. The soundtrack should give you an idea of the content. The song is followed by diatribes against the Federal Reserve and government in general.
Would any of these people admit to being anarchists? Well, anarchists are those who say "government is the problem," so perhaps the TEA partiers should investigate anarchism further. After all, libertarianism is going nowhere, and anarchism might attract more young people.
In all seriousness, though, I honor the form if not the content of the occasion. It could be a feeble first step toward the awakening of real "people power" in this country, though the purpose of such power is still open to debate.
You may think you saw someone familiar in fleeting moments, but that gentleman in the star-spangled suit is an impostor. I work for a living.
This next bit opens with an explanation of the serpentine symbolism of the "Don't Tread On Me" flag, which was prominent at TEA parties across the country.
I suppose this knucklehead imagines himself an equivalent of the Founding Fathers for his promised defiance of authority. He also seems a little short on ambition if the most he can imagine marching on Washington are 100,000 people. I'd think the "Million Man March" would be a benchmark that any activist would want to match. But perhaps a million sounds too much like a mob for this person.
In this clip, another speaker invokes John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and while those men would have found much to despise in today's government, I think excessive spending would be but one of many outrages they'd perceive. This fellow also expresses the ruling fallacy of the occasion: that the people who actually govern are somehow not "the people." If they aren't, where they come from, and how did they convince us to vote for them?
At least it looks like the speakers maintained a fairly narrow focus on spending and budget issues. But this speaker drags the Federal Reserve into it. On the other hand, he has a healthy distrust of corporations and the Bipolarchy. Then he ruins it for me by coming out against universal health care and public education and "so-called human-caused global warming."
People like this seem honest in their fears about corporate power, but they don't trust the state power that exists in part to check it. Some of them probably think that corporate power is somehow a by-product of state power, so that if they had their way and the state were minimized, corporations would not run riot over the country. Good luck with that. He continues an increasingly reactionary diatribe with the usual paeans to "personal responsibility," i.e. every man for himself as the highest virtue, and a misplaced invocation of the Deity as the author of human rights. As I said, the occasion may not have been partisan, but it was ideological.
Here's one more clip. The soundtrack should give you an idea of the content. The song is followed by diatribes against the Federal Reserve and government in general.
Would any of these people admit to being anarchists? Well, anarchists are those who say "government is the problem," so perhaps the TEA partiers should investigate anarchism further. After all, libertarianism is going nowhere, and anarchism might attract more young people.
In all seriousness, though, I honor the form if not the content of the occasion. It could be a feeble first step toward the awakening of real "people power" in this country, though the purpose of such power is still open to debate.
Albany Tea Party Report
One of the local papers estimates the attendance at the Albany "TEA Party" at the Corning Preserve at about 2,000 people. That's fairly impressive for the area as far as pure numbers go. As expected, speakers at the rally declared themselves non-partisan. I think they're sincere about this, but they can't help but be perceived as partisan because one of the major parties is identified, fairly or not, with the regulatory state and the taxes required to sustain it. To oppose any perceived excess of taxation will be perceived as an attack on the Democratic Party. This reporter made an effort to note points on which protesters deviated from the Republican party line, emphasizing that several speakers spoke out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq. That means libertarians and Ron Paul fans were in the house. I wonder, however, whether anyone at the Preserve spoke up for "liberalism" in any of its manifestations. Perhaps more reports, hopefully including video footage, will fill in the blanks. I will update this story as I learn more.
TEA Parties: Selective Outrage or Misrepresented?
Here's a sentence from an MSNBC web site account of today's TEA ("Taxed Enough Already") Parties commemorating the tax filing deadline.
There are two ways of looking at this sentence. The knee-jerk reaction might be to accuse the "organizers" of selective outrage, since government spending (not to mention deficit spending) had gone through the roof under a Republican president before Obama took over. But suppress the impulse long enough to note that no "organizer" is actually quoted as saying this. It is MSNBC's characterization of the organizers' attitude. As I've noted elsewhere, there is a media tendency to label the TEA Parties as partisan events, on the logic that to oppose taxes is to oppose Obama and support the Republican party. There are participants, at least, who challenge this interpretation: libertarians and other independents who indict the Bipolarchy as a whole for excessive spending and taxation. But before I go too far in exculpating the "organizers," I should note that there was every reason to hold a "tea party" at this time last year, or any year since 2001, but I know of none taking place. The timing seems to be telling. "Organizers" might argue that some things have changed dramatically since last April 15, or that they were galvanized by the Bailout controversies of last year into protesting now. But if they want to declare themselves genuinely non-partisan, they have to do more to ensure that the Republican party doesn't benefit from these demonstrations.
The most important thing is to remember recent history. Too often Americans express their displeasure at one party by choosing the other, forgetting that they had only recently thrown that party out. There is too much inclination to trust individuals to behave differently from the parties they serve, as if you couldn't predict just about every time how a Republican or a Democrat would behave. If Republicans descend upon the TEA Parties asking that everyone forget Reaganite and Bushite deficit spending and other outrages -- don't.
Organizers say they’re steamed at government spending since President Barack Obama’s administration took over.
There are two ways of looking at this sentence. The knee-jerk reaction might be to accuse the "organizers" of selective outrage, since government spending (not to mention deficit spending) had gone through the roof under a Republican president before Obama took over. But suppress the impulse long enough to note that no "organizer" is actually quoted as saying this. It is MSNBC's characterization of the organizers' attitude. As I've noted elsewhere, there is a media tendency to label the TEA Parties as partisan events, on the logic that to oppose taxes is to oppose Obama and support the Republican party. There are participants, at least, who challenge this interpretation: libertarians and other independents who indict the Bipolarchy as a whole for excessive spending and taxation. But before I go too far in exculpating the "organizers," I should note that there was every reason to hold a "tea party" at this time last year, or any year since 2001, but I know of none taking place. The timing seems to be telling. "Organizers" might argue that some things have changed dramatically since last April 15, or that they were galvanized by the Bailout controversies of last year into protesting now. But if they want to declare themselves genuinely non-partisan, they have to do more to ensure that the Republican party doesn't benefit from these demonstrations.
The most important thing is to remember recent history. Too often Americans express their displeasure at one party by choosing the other, forgetting that they had only recently thrown that party out. There is too much inclination to trust individuals to behave differently from the parties they serve, as if you couldn't predict just about every time how a Republican or a Democrat would behave. If Republicans descend upon the TEA Parties asking that everyone forget Reaganite and Bushite deficit spending and other outrages -- don't.
14 April 2009
Tedisco vs. Murphy Endgame
The special election to fill the seat for the 20th Congressional District in New York should have been over by now, but most observers now believe that a resolution is still weeks away. That's because the margin separating Scott Murphy and Jim Tedisco is so narrow that there's reason for each man to demand that every single absentee ballot be counted -- except the ones they're challenging, of course. It looks like military ballots may decide the election, but there's a problem with those. From what I've read, most election authorities recommend that ballots be sent to the military within 45 days of the deadline for counting absentee ballots for a given election. New York State law seems to allow only a 30 day window.
Tedisco has asked for an extension to allow the anticipated last few military ballots to come in. His supporters and Republican talkers and bloggers nationwide seem to think that the New York law is designed to minimize military votes and undermine Republican candidates, the perhaps-outdated assumption being that military voters lean Republican. Also, it doesn't hurt Tedisco to make this demand, because it'll allow his people to accuse the Democrats of trying to suppress the votes of the troops if Murphy's lawyers resist.
Objectively speaking, in light of the consensus of recommendations, it seems unfair that NY soldiers have comparatively limited time to return absentee ballots. But as far as I can tell, none of those recommendations have the force of law, while the state's election rules do. The election authorities would be within their rights to turn Tedisco down. But it also ought to be possible to determine whether he could realistically expect more military ballots to come in, based on the number of district natives in the military, their voting patterns, and the number of ballots already received. At the very least, if it appears that the state law imposed an unreasonable hardship on military voters, and that hardship made a difference in the outcome of the election, New Yorkers ought to consider changing the law.
Tedisco has asked for an extension to allow the anticipated last few military ballots to come in. His supporters and Republican talkers and bloggers nationwide seem to think that the New York law is designed to minimize military votes and undermine Republican candidates, the perhaps-outdated assumption being that military voters lean Republican. Also, it doesn't hurt Tedisco to make this demand, because it'll allow his people to accuse the Democrats of trying to suppress the votes of the troops if Murphy's lawyers resist.
Objectively speaking, in light of the consensus of recommendations, it seems unfair that NY soldiers have comparatively limited time to return absentee ballots. But as far as I can tell, none of those recommendations have the force of law, while the state's election rules do. The election authorities would be within their rights to turn Tedisco down. But it also ought to be possible to determine whether he could realistically expect more military ballots to come in, based on the number of district natives in the military, their voting patterns, and the number of ballots already received. At the very least, if it appears that the state law imposed an unreasonable hardship on military voters, and that hardship made a difference in the outcome of the election, New Yorkers ought to consider changing the law.
Tea Party Minus One
Albany is one of the cities across the country where allegedly non-political "tea parties" are being held tomorrow to protest high taxes and government spending. The organizers are at pains to deny that they are acting at the dictation of a political party, but their concerns seem to match one half of the Bipolarchy pretty closely. The Albany organizers claim that their idea began with a local radio talker and self-style "everyman" who then hooked up with the national organizers. They make their case here.
The partygoers may claim not to be partisan, but they are clearly ideological. Look at their complaints and you would have no idea that private business practices had anything to do with the current state of the American economy. Government, in their view, is the source of all our woe. The appeal seems designed to attract libertarians as well as Republicans, and in casting as wide a net as possible the organizers strike a hysterical note. They equate themselves with the 1773 Boston Tea Party, which was less a protest against taxation as such than it was a demonstration against British mercantilist policy, but is portrayed by the 2009 organizers as an early uprising against mounting tyranny. They see tyranny on the march today, in this country. They cite the increase of government generally as well as legislators' unresponsiveness to popular disapproval of various bailout plans. They also accuse the Democratic regime of striving to diminish personal freedom. This is the sort of talk that has provoked some people to link the Tea Party movement to the anti-government Pittsburgh cop killer, but the Tea Parties are probably as much a symptom of a broader reactionary mentality as the shooter was, rather than a cause of his violence.
We ought to restrain our assumptions about what these people want until they have a chance to speak tomorrow, but I don't expect to be surprised by what we hear. I would be surprised to see a lot of people at these events, since the people most sympathetic to their concerns are the ones most likely to dislike "mob" scenes and to prefer being "left alone." If the crowds are large, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise, even if it's in a dubious cause, because crowds would show that those people are learning, despite their own instincts or inhibitions, to act collectively in a public way.
The partygoers may claim not to be partisan, but they are clearly ideological. Look at their complaints and you would have no idea that private business practices had anything to do with the current state of the American economy. Government, in their view, is the source of all our woe. The appeal seems designed to attract libertarians as well as Republicans, and in casting as wide a net as possible the organizers strike a hysterical note. They equate themselves with the 1773 Boston Tea Party, which was less a protest against taxation as such than it was a demonstration against British mercantilist policy, but is portrayed by the 2009 organizers as an early uprising against mounting tyranny. They see tyranny on the march today, in this country. They cite the increase of government generally as well as legislators' unresponsiveness to popular disapproval of various bailout plans. They also accuse the Democratic regime of striving to diminish personal freedom. This is the sort of talk that has provoked some people to link the Tea Party movement to the anti-government Pittsburgh cop killer, but the Tea Parties are probably as much a symptom of a broader reactionary mentality as the shooter was, rather than a cause of his violence.
We ought to restrain our assumptions about what these people want until they have a chance to speak tomorrow, but I don't expect to be surprised by what we hear. I would be surprised to see a lot of people at these events, since the people most sympathetic to their concerns are the ones most likely to dislike "mob" scenes and to prefer being "left alone." If the crowds are large, I'll consider it a pleasant surprise, even if it's in a dubious cause, because crowds would show that those people are learning, despite their own instincts or inhibitions, to act collectively in a public way.
Thailand: Blood on the Streets
Two "Red Shirts" were reported killed on Monday in the streets of Bangkok as the conflict between the government and the champions of exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra escalated. According to what I read earlier in the day, the killing started when police forced demonstrators into a hostile neighborhood where the residents joined in the fight against the Red Shirts. Here's some of the day's most dramatic footage. with warnings that things could get worse.
13 April 2009
Idiots of the Week? Somali Pirates
It's only fair to include the Somali pirates themselves in this competition, alongside someone who imagines them to be chimerical performers in a drama stage-managed from Washington. The pirates earn their spot for their petulant response to the rescue of the American captain yesterday. Implicit in their outraged threats of retaliation is some wounded sense of justice, as if the Navy SEALS weren't playing by the rules when they shot down the sea-borne criminals. Their statements could be boiled down to: "No fair! We'll get you!" Perhaps this attitude is understandable coming from a culture where raiding may be considered an acceptable way of making a living, like hostage taking is in Yemen, or from people who think they have no other alternative given the state of their country. But understanding it doesn't mean we have to tolerate it.
According to some alarmed reports, we've already seen their first attempt at reprisal in the form of mortar rounds fired at a plane carrying a U.S. Congressman as it departed from Mogadishu this afternoon. If that's what it was, then the pirates' landlubber brethren should be glad that they missed. Two can play at the retaliation game, after all, and one can only imagine the consequences if those clowns had actually killed a Congressman. Well, beside a bunch of American yahoos cheering, as if the burden of government had been materially lightened, the majority of us, I expect, would want the U.S. to clean up this Somali mess once and for all. There would probably be more support for cleaning house there than there is now for staying the course in Afghanistan. That wouldn't make it right for the U.S. to invade Somalia, but my point is to show what trouble the pirates could get their country into by raising the stakes in this game.
According to some alarmed reports, we've already seen their first attempt at reprisal in the form of mortar rounds fired at a plane carrying a U.S. Congressman as it departed from Mogadishu this afternoon. If that's what it was, then the pirates' landlubber brethren should be glad that they missed. Two can play at the retaliation game, after all, and one can only imagine the consequences if those clowns had actually killed a Congressman. Well, beside a bunch of American yahoos cheering, as if the burden of government had been materially lightened, the majority of us, I expect, would want the U.S. to clean up this Somali mess once and for all. There would probably be more support for cleaning house there than there is now for staying the course in Afghanistan. That wouldn't make it right for the U.S. to invade Somalia, but my point is to show what trouble the pirates could get their country into by raising the stakes in this game.
Mr. Right: "Capitalism Isn't Fair"
Mr. Peepers came in today declaring his astonishment at a survey published last week that reported that little more than a bare majority of Americans polled preferred capitalism over socialism as an economic system. Mr. Right seemed less surprised by these results.
"It's partly because they don't teach world history in the schools anymore," he explained, "so kids don't learn that socialism has failed everywhere it's been tried. But it's also because of this obsession with fairness, when capitalism just isn't fair. It's kind of like life that way."
"I'm surprised to hear you say that," I said, "I imagine some conservatives would disagree with you."
He shrugged.
"I know I've heard or read Republicans who would say that capitalism is the only fair system there is," I continued, "or the only fair system there can be."
"The real issue is how society defines fairness," he replied. I have to agree with him on that, if not on the actual definition. It seemed to bother him, though, that the President of the United States seemed to share his viewpoint, at least superficially. "Obama has avowed on numerous occasions that capitalism is an unfair system," he said. But he said it in a way that indicated that he did not agree with Obama.
What's the difference? I suppose it's a matter of whether or not you define unfairness as a bad thing, but that only forces us back to the original question of defining fairness. It's up to each society to do so, but Mr. Right's idea of fairness would seem to be self-negating. He seems to have a problem with the idea of fairness. He's not the only one; John F. Kennedy famously said that life isn't fair, and that was before he got proof to the head. But some of us think that it's civilization's task to make life more fair, based on a reasoned consensus on what fairness should be. Others despise the whole idea, perhaps because they take it on faith that fairness can't be achieved in "this world" without treating some people "unfairly." Of course, given the way the world works, that easily becomes a self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating prophecy. In any event, Mr. Right deserves credit for his candor.
"It's partly because they don't teach world history in the schools anymore," he explained, "so kids don't learn that socialism has failed everywhere it's been tried. But it's also because of this obsession with fairness, when capitalism just isn't fair. It's kind of like life that way."
"I'm surprised to hear you say that," I said, "I imagine some conservatives would disagree with you."
He shrugged.
"I know I've heard or read Republicans who would say that capitalism is the only fair system there is," I continued, "or the only fair system there can be."
"The real issue is how society defines fairness," he replied. I have to agree with him on that, if not on the actual definition. It seemed to bother him, though, that the President of the United States seemed to share his viewpoint, at least superficially. "Obama has avowed on numerous occasions that capitalism is an unfair system," he said. But he said it in a way that indicated that he did not agree with Obama.
What's the difference? I suppose it's a matter of whether or not you define unfairness as a bad thing, but that only forces us back to the original question of defining fairness. It's up to each society to do so, but Mr. Right's idea of fairness would seem to be self-negating. He seems to have a problem with the idea of fairness. He's not the only one; John F. Kennedy famously said that life isn't fair, and that was before he got proof to the head. But some of us think that it's civilization's task to make life more fair, based on a reasoned consensus on what fairness should be. Others despise the whole idea, perhaps because they take it on faith that fairness can't be achieved in "this world" without treating some people "unfairly." Of course, given the way the world works, that easily becomes a self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating prophecy. In any event, Mr. Right deserves credit for his candor.
Idiot of the Week: Early Nomination
As you'll recall, I predicted immediately after the Pittsburgh shootings that internet lunatics would claim that it was some sort of government-generated incident (a la September 2001 as far as some are concerned) designed to further an anti-gun agenda. Little did I suspect, however, that someone would say the Maersk Alabama incident and its happy resolution were a put on. But I underestimated some people's obsessive fear of President Obama, as illustrated by this posting from the Albany Craig's List site.
The poster is not a Republican, but a conspiracy theorist. He replied to a critical comment on his original post by affirming his belief that Obama is just as much a creature of the New World Order as George W. Bush was. Anyone with power would be, from that perspective, since "power" itself is virtually a conscious entity to such people, the purpose of which is to exclude them from having power of their own. Whoever has power must be part of the conspiracy to deny power to the conspiracy theorists. I'm not saying that conspiracy theorists lust for political power, but that they crave some feeling of mastery (even if it boils down to pure autonomy), the absence of which must be the result of some malignant will. They see manifestations of that evil will everywhere, especially on the news, and any event that seems to benefit that evil will must be its own creation and part of an intricate plot to consolidate the "enslavement" of everybody else. It's probably unfair to label such insanity as idiocy, but when such people make public statements, the public has to assign them some objective value, and idiocy sounds just about right.
The poster is not a Republican, but a conspiracy theorist. He replied to a critical comment on his original post by affirming his belief that Obama is just as much a creature of the New World Order as George W. Bush was. Anyone with power would be, from that perspective, since "power" itself is virtually a conscious entity to such people, the purpose of which is to exclude them from having power of their own. Whoever has power must be part of the conspiracy to deny power to the conspiracy theorists. I'm not saying that conspiracy theorists lust for political power, but that they crave some feeling of mastery (even if it boils down to pure autonomy), the absence of which must be the result of some malignant will. They see manifestations of that evil will everywhere, especially on the news, and any event that seems to benefit that evil will must be its own creation and part of an intricate plot to consolidate the "enslavement" of everybody else. It's probably unfair to label such insanity as idiocy, but when such people make public statements, the public has to assign them some objective value, and idiocy sounds just about right.
12 April 2009
More People Power in Thailand?
The latest news from Thailand as I came home from my Easter visits was that the beleaguered government was finally taking steps to crack down on the "Red Shirt" protesters after a turbulent weekend best illustrated by this clip from an English-language al-Jazeera report.
Scenes like this leave me ambivalent. I don't think politics should come down to this kind of mob tactics as a rule, but when I see people on the streets like this, I feel more certain that those people care about the fate of their country, and that they feel some personally responsibility for the political future, than I do about most Americans. Perhaps this is unfair to my own people, and I should give more credit to individual deliberations than collective demonstrations, but my hunch is that a healthy political order has room for both and requires different emphases depending on different circumstances. There may well be times when the people have to get together, physically as well as intellectually, and make a public statement that can't be mistaken. I don't know if this is such a time in Thailand -- in fact, I have my doubts. But I'm not ready to say there can never be such a moment, either there or here. So let's keep watching and figure it out for ourselves.
Scenes like this leave me ambivalent. I don't think politics should come down to this kind of mob tactics as a rule, but when I see people on the streets like this, I feel more certain that those people care about the fate of their country, and that they feel some personally responsibility for the political future, than I do about most Americans. Perhaps this is unfair to my own people, and I should give more credit to individual deliberations than collective demonstrations, but my hunch is that a healthy political order has room for both and requires different emphases depending on different circumstances. There may well be times when the people have to get together, physically as well as intellectually, and make a public statement that can't be mistaken. I don't know if this is such a time in Thailand -- in fact, I have my doubts. But I'm not ready to say there can never be such a moment, either there or here. So let's keep watching and figure it out for ourselves.
Barack Obama is Badass!
Just the other day, Crhymethinc was asking me, "Why doesn't the U.S. just use snipers to take out the pirates surrounding the American hostage?" I thought the idea was implausible and I told him the Americans would probably be afraid of shooting the hostage or getting him killed if they didn't get all the pirates in the first volley. But today I learn that the President took advantage of intelligence of a moment of opportunity and danger and gave the order to take out the pirates. Three were killed, the fourth captured, and the American hostage was rescued unhurt. Were this the action of a Republican president, the "conservative" media would be singing that leader's praises as proof that the U.S. won't take shit from the world's rabble. It's still too soon for them to have commented on the conclusion of this little drama, so let's keep eyes and ears out for what they have to say over the next day or so.
10 April 2009
People Power in Thailand?
It wasn't that long ago that mobs seized an airport in Bangkok demanding that the country's president resign because, if I remember right, he was considered too close to the hated media mogul and former ruler Thaksin Shinawatra. Now it's the Red Shirts' turn to make a noise. Back in the 1920s and 1930s any group named for the color of their shirts was likely to be fascist. But the Red Shirts don't have the same kind of militaristic look. They're supporters of Thaksin who want the country's current government to step down. They've been protesting for a few days so far, and while they've been reported to be peaceful, they've created enough of an annoyance to force the cancellation of an Asian summit conference that was to be held in Thailand. What follows from this is anybody's guess, but here's another episode of people around the world getting out into the street to make a difference.
Pittsburgh: No ONE is to Blame
While I've amused myself over the past week watching to see if conspiracy theorists would respond to the report that the Pittsburgh shooter from last weekend was himself a conspiracy theorist by portraying him as an agent provocateur, my point has never been to blame Alex Jones or Infowars or Prison Planet specifically for the incident. I feel that I ought to emphasize this now that I've seen efforts in the Democratic media to blame the crime specifically on conservative commentators. In particular, Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin have been singled out, as if Beck's vague calls for an uprising or Malkin's promotion of the anti-Obama "Tea Party" movement were sufficient to pull the trigger in the shooter's mind.
I only know what these two people say indirectly, but I know that Keith Olbermann at MSNBC has been tiresome in his persecution of Beck for daring to dissociate himself from what happened in Pittsburgh. Olbermann is my link to that Democratic liberal mediaverse that seems capable of defining itself only in hateful opposition to the Republican "conservative" bloc. These are the people who inflate the right-wing talkers' ratings by tuning in so they can get mad, and Olbermann in particular boosts his own ratings by featuring Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh et al prominently in variations of Orwell's ten-minutes hate sessions.
This obsession with the talkers distorts the political landscape, allowing too many liberals to convince themselves that Victory will be the day that the radio blowhards shut up once and for all. If anything, the obsession seems to have gotten worse since Obama's election, as it seems that the Demophiles (pardon me for trying out neologisms today) can't stand the thought of anyone speaking ill of the new President, unless they do so themselves for any perceived "selling out" of the "progressive" agenda. The Pittsburgh shooter has become a convenient club for the GOP-phobes to beat the talkers with -- and they aren't necessarily wrong in general. The problem arises when you ascribe any one politician, talker or blogger with sufficient influence to transform a mere nut into a killer.
It would probably be more accurate, instead of saying that the Pittsburgh gunman is the product of Jones, or Beck, or Malkin, or whomever you abhor, to say that he is one of them. While all of the accused would be able to argue that the Pittsburgh suspect is too anti-Semitic for their tastes, the main point isn't whether he swears fealty to some particular ideological mentor, but that all of these people, and many more besides, espouse a reactionary, illiberal worldview that needs to be refuted, whatever the differences in nuance may be among individuals. Jones, for instance, no doubt thinks that the likes of Beck and Malkin are no less minions of the international bankers than Obama himself, while Beck and Malkin would most likely see Jones, a "9-11 truther," as a malicious crank. But they stand together in opposition to an ideal of civilization that requires government as regulators of social relations for everyone's sake while demanding more from civilization than the reactionaries' atavistic obsession with self-reliance and their every-man-for-himself ethos. There needs to be an intellectual war of ideas in this country, not more feuds among talking heads. Too many "Democraps" (to borrow a useful pejorative from Crhymethinc) seem to think that bad ideas will vanish if they can discredit the most prominent spokesmen for those ideas. I'd like to hope that the real solution goes the other way around. If we can skip the ad hominem attacks on certain talkers, and in fact immediately reduce their celebrity by ignoring them, and concentrate on changing ordinary people's minds, finding the right arguments that will break the spell of widespread anarcho-Reaganism, we might someday discover that all the blowhards are gone without anyone having raised a hand or a pitchfork against them. And we might find ourselves hearing less about mass shootings in the bargain.
I only know what these two people say indirectly, but I know that Keith Olbermann at MSNBC has been tiresome in his persecution of Beck for daring to dissociate himself from what happened in Pittsburgh. Olbermann is my link to that Democratic liberal mediaverse that seems capable of defining itself only in hateful opposition to the Republican "conservative" bloc. These are the people who inflate the right-wing talkers' ratings by tuning in so they can get mad, and Olbermann in particular boosts his own ratings by featuring Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh et al prominently in variations of Orwell's ten-minutes hate sessions.
This obsession with the talkers distorts the political landscape, allowing too many liberals to convince themselves that Victory will be the day that the radio blowhards shut up once and for all. If anything, the obsession seems to have gotten worse since Obama's election, as it seems that the Demophiles (pardon me for trying out neologisms today) can't stand the thought of anyone speaking ill of the new President, unless they do so themselves for any perceived "selling out" of the "progressive" agenda. The Pittsburgh shooter has become a convenient club for the GOP-phobes to beat the talkers with -- and they aren't necessarily wrong in general. The problem arises when you ascribe any one politician, talker or blogger with sufficient influence to transform a mere nut into a killer.
It would probably be more accurate, instead of saying that the Pittsburgh gunman is the product of Jones, or Beck, or Malkin, or whomever you abhor, to say that he is one of them. While all of the accused would be able to argue that the Pittsburgh suspect is too anti-Semitic for their tastes, the main point isn't whether he swears fealty to some particular ideological mentor, but that all of these people, and many more besides, espouse a reactionary, illiberal worldview that needs to be refuted, whatever the differences in nuance may be among individuals. Jones, for instance, no doubt thinks that the likes of Beck and Malkin are no less minions of the international bankers than Obama himself, while Beck and Malkin would most likely see Jones, a "9-11 truther," as a malicious crank. But they stand together in opposition to an ideal of civilization that requires government as regulators of social relations for everyone's sake while demanding more from civilization than the reactionaries' atavistic obsession with self-reliance and their every-man-for-himself ethos. There needs to be an intellectual war of ideas in this country, not more feuds among talking heads. Too many "Democraps" (to borrow a useful pejorative from Crhymethinc) seem to think that bad ideas will vanish if they can discredit the most prominent spokesmen for those ideas. I'd like to hope that the real solution goes the other way around. If we can skip the ad hominem attacks on certain talkers, and in fact immediately reduce their celebrity by ignoring them, and concentrate on changing ordinary people's minds, finding the right arguments that will break the spell of widespread anarcho-Reaganism, we might someday discover that all the blowhards are gone without anyone having raised a hand or a pitchfork against them. And we might find ourselves hearing less about mass shootings in the bargain.
09 April 2009
A Presidential Hunger Strike
Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, has thought up an unorthodox strategy for overriding his country's constitutional system of checks and balances. He does not control a majority in the Bolivian Senate. The opposition is thus able to block legislation that creates new political entities within existing provinces or states in areas where indigenous people form a majority of the population. Opponents predictably claim that the bill is a move by Morales, indigenous himself and allegedly impatient with a federal system that allows some parts of the country to defy him, to change the balance of power in his favor. Lacking the votes to push the bill through, Morales has decided to apply satyagraha, Mohandas Gandhi's strategy of non-violent moral intimidation. He has put himself on a hunger strike and has vowed to maintain it until the senate capitulates and empowers the indigenous people.
I have never heard of a ruler going on a hunger strike before. Usually the idea never occurs to ruling classes, but Morales rose from the bottom of Bolivian society, and is able to think outside the conventional box. Of course, I have to wonder whether he'd really put his life on the line for this bill. I'm sure the opposition will demand some independent monitoring of his condition to prevent any fakery. In any event, my hunch is that Morales hopes that the idea of his possible sacrifice will galvanize his own followers to put fresh and increased pressure on the opposition . What form that pressure might take is a mystery to me, but if that isn't the case, and Morales actually thinks that he can sway an entrenched "neoliberal" opposition by risking his health, then the naivete of simple origins is showing itself. If the opposition are the sort of oligarchs or entrepreneurs who end up opposing populist leaders like Morales, I expect that they'd be perfectly happy to watch him starve. The real question is whether the Bolivian majority will let it happen. I'll keep you posted.
I have never heard of a ruler going on a hunger strike before. Usually the idea never occurs to ruling classes, but Morales rose from the bottom of Bolivian society, and is able to think outside the conventional box. Of course, I have to wonder whether he'd really put his life on the line for this bill. I'm sure the opposition will demand some independent monitoring of his condition to prevent any fakery. In any event, my hunch is that Morales hopes that the idea of his possible sacrifice will galvanize his own followers to put fresh and increased pressure on the opposition . What form that pressure might take is a mystery to me, but if that isn't the case, and Morales actually thinks that he can sway an entrenched "neoliberal" opposition by risking his health, then the naivete of simple origins is showing itself. If the opposition are the sort of oligarchs or entrepreneurs who end up opposing populist leaders like Morales, I expect that they'd be perfectly happy to watch him starve. The real question is whether the Bolivian majority will let it happen. I'll keep you posted.
08 April 2009
Against Humanitarian Intervention
Saviors and Survivors is a new book by Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani that argues against a rush to judgment on the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. He places himself at odds with a "Save Darfur" lobby based in the United States that has portrayed the conflict in Darfur as a genocidal war waged by the Sudanese government and its "janjaweed" auxiliaries against a group allegedly perceived as inferior "Africans" by the so-called "Arab" aggressors. Mamdani claims that the lobby has ignored both a decline in violence in Darfur over the past five years and the realities of ethnicity in Sudan that make the genocide charge a spurious one. He goes through the history of Sudan and its precursor states, noting that tribal animosities have their root, as seems often to be the case in Africa, in the colonial power's divide-and-rule strategy of favoring certain tribes or ethnicities over others and suppressing the development of a truly national consciousness. The Belgians did the same thing in Rwanda, with awful consequences in the 1990s. The Darfur conflict is a clash over land and dwindling resources rather than a race war; the desertification of grazing land is forcing horse and camel nomads onto farmlands where they aren't welcome. The apparent aggression of the nomads (including the janjaweed) is a reaction to a denial of rights to groups that had been denied the same tribal privileges as farmers. The conflict grew extremely violent because the region had become militarized during the Cold War, when Darfur was a staging area for factions struggling for control of neighboring Chad, including proxies of the U.S. and Libya.
Mamdani seems to be offering an objective account of the story. He takes no sides, as far as I can tell, and that might immediately offend people who automatically see the "Africans" of Darfur as the good guys. But Mamdani doesn't believe in the sort of good guy-bad guy dichotomies that enthrall Americans. That's part of the reason why he opposes any armed "humanitarian intervention" by foreigners in Sudan. As far as he's concerned, all sides have legitimate interests and grievances that need to be hashed out in a deliberate reconciliation process. He prefers the South African concept of "truth and reconciliation" to the "victors' justice" exemplified by the Nuremberg trials. His refusal to moralize the Darfur issue will probably lead some to say he's an apologist for Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese dictator whom the lobby blames (incorrectly, Mamdani says) for the conflict. This is a clash of sensibilities. For Mamdani politics is a perpetual negotiation process of permanent interest groups, the ideal object being that no one should lose. For others, including Americans, politics is more like a zero-sum game involving factions (parties) rather than interests, usually in the form of elections, where the winner takes all and the losers are marginalized as much as possible. From that perspective, Sudan's problems won't look like they're solved until Bashir is gone and the janjaweed are crushed. But Mamdani insists vehemently that African independence depends on the other perspective prevailing.
Mamdani isn't the first writer I've seen criticize the humanitarian intervention principle. His criticism resembles that of Slavoj Zizek and other intellectuals. Their view is that the West's declaration of rights for people in other countries, and its self-appointment as guarantor of foreigners' rights, actually strips people in other countries of responsibility for their own governments and reduces them to a quasi-colonial dependence on the old colonial powers (plus the U.S.).When the developed world decides, however benevolently, what the rights are of people elsewhere, those people implicitly lose the right to decide for themselves what their rights are. The insistence on war-crimes tribunals on the Nuremberg principle, enshrined however hypocritically in the International Criminal Court, turns what should be a political process conducted by the people themselves in any given country into a legal process imposed from outside. Mamdani describes this as the transformation of people into "consumers" of rights instead of sovereign citizens. Such a viewpoint begs the question of whether the people of any country are better off sovereign when that means a sovereign is crushing them underfoot, but that question doesn't fully answer Mamdani's point. If he means to say that it's up to the people of each country to put their own house in order, and that it's wrong in some way to deny them that responsibility even if leaving it with them means years of bloodshed and suffering, I have to agree -- to an extent. My agreement ends once anyone assumes that national sovereignty puts a limit on global progress for all time. It's more likely that a time will come when we all have to interfere in one another's affairs -- as long as everyone and every nation has an equal opportunity to make a difference, and the object is everyone's well-being. Nations will probably fall by the wayside some day -- only not right away, most likely. For now, Mamdani's book is a cautionary tale that policy makers should read with care.
Mamdani seems to be offering an objective account of the story. He takes no sides, as far as I can tell, and that might immediately offend people who automatically see the "Africans" of Darfur as the good guys. But Mamdani doesn't believe in the sort of good guy-bad guy dichotomies that enthrall Americans. That's part of the reason why he opposes any armed "humanitarian intervention" by foreigners in Sudan. As far as he's concerned, all sides have legitimate interests and grievances that need to be hashed out in a deliberate reconciliation process. He prefers the South African concept of "truth and reconciliation" to the "victors' justice" exemplified by the Nuremberg trials. His refusal to moralize the Darfur issue will probably lead some to say he's an apologist for Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese dictator whom the lobby blames (incorrectly, Mamdani says) for the conflict. This is a clash of sensibilities. For Mamdani politics is a perpetual negotiation process of permanent interest groups, the ideal object being that no one should lose. For others, including Americans, politics is more like a zero-sum game involving factions (parties) rather than interests, usually in the form of elections, where the winner takes all and the losers are marginalized as much as possible. From that perspective, Sudan's problems won't look like they're solved until Bashir is gone and the janjaweed are crushed. But Mamdani insists vehemently that African independence depends on the other perspective prevailing.
Mamdani isn't the first writer I've seen criticize the humanitarian intervention principle. His criticism resembles that of Slavoj Zizek and other intellectuals. Their view is that the West's declaration of rights for people in other countries, and its self-appointment as guarantor of foreigners' rights, actually strips people in other countries of responsibility for their own governments and reduces them to a quasi-colonial dependence on the old colonial powers (plus the U.S.).When the developed world decides, however benevolently, what the rights are of people elsewhere, those people implicitly lose the right to decide for themselves what their rights are. The insistence on war-crimes tribunals on the Nuremberg principle, enshrined however hypocritically in the International Criminal Court, turns what should be a political process conducted by the people themselves in any given country into a legal process imposed from outside. Mamdani describes this as the transformation of people into "consumers" of rights instead of sovereign citizens. Such a viewpoint begs the question of whether the people of any country are better off sovereign when that means a sovereign is crushing them underfoot, but that question doesn't fully answer Mamdani's point. If he means to say that it's up to the people of each country to put their own house in order, and that it's wrong in some way to deny them that responsibility even if leaving it with them means years of bloodshed and suffering, I have to agree -- to an extent. My agreement ends once anyone assumes that national sovereignty puts a limit on global progress for all time. It's more likely that a time will come when we all have to interfere in one another's affairs -- as long as everyone and every nation has an equal opportunity to make a difference, and the object is everyone's well-being. Nations will probably fall by the wayside some day -- only not right away, most likely. For now, Mamdani's book is a cautionary tale that policy makers should read with care.
Idiot of the Week? Conspiracy Edition
It takes a few days for some of the more paranoid conspiracy theorists to get their brain cells working on fresh information, but their responses to the Binghamton and Pittsburgh shootings are starting to come out of the woodwork. Here is an anonymous poster to the Albany Craig's List site from yesterday. His subject head is exactly the sort of comment I've been expecting, but he never really pushes that assertion in the body of his post. Instead, you get a pretty sweeping account of the current preoccupations of some of the pathological individualists in this country. You know you're dealing with a special case when the writer accuses the National Rifle Association of being in bed with the allegedly gun-hating government. I doubt any further comments from me could do it justice, since I'm not a psychologist. I feel pretty certain, however, that the statements expressed should be seen as symptoms, not opinions.
Piracy: This is a Test
As I write, the breaking news on the MSNBC web site is that Pentagon sources are claiming that the American crew of the cargo ship seized by Somali pirates may have reclaimed control of the Kenya-bound vessel. If this proves true, it will preempt the point of this post, which is that this might prove to be the first real foreign-policy test for the Obama administration. If the pirates continue to hold the ship, we should expect to hear American commentators pressure the President into taking decisive action to rescue the Americans and punish the pirates. Because these are supposedly Somali pirates, from the land of "Black Hawk Down," Obama's critics will scrutinize his every move in this matter for signs of "weakness" that could "embolden" anti-American elements in the same way that President Clinton's withdrawal from Somalia following the Mogadishu battle supposedly emboldened Osama bin Laden. The same critics are likely to blame Obama for the recent wave of anti-Shiite bombings in Baghdad, if they haven't started already, on the premise that "the terrorists" are emboldened by the President's reaffirmed commitment to quitting Iraq. That kind of criticism, however, presumes that Iraqis don't do anything without making some rational calculation about what the U.S. might or might not do about it. As for Somalia and its oceanic neighborhood, I had better wait for more current news before speculating further.
Update: the latest as of 2:00 p.m. is that the crew has control of the ship, but that the pirates have the ship's captain as a hostage in a lifeboat. Details remain sketchy but the USA Today blog page promises constant updates on the situation.
Update: the latest as of 2:00 p.m. is that the crew has control of the ship, but that the pirates have the ship's captain as a hostage in a lifeboat. Details remain sketchy but the USA Today blog page promises constant updates on the situation.
07 April 2009
People Power in Moldova?
The Communist Party won an apparent slim majority over the past weekend in elections held in Moldova, reputedly the poorest country in Europe. Inevitably, a lot of people are pissed. Perhaps just as inevitably, a lot of those people think the election was rigged. Election observers apparently report otherwise, but a hard core of "anti-comunist youth" doesn't buy it. Today they staged the first act of what they probably envision as their own version of one of the "color" revolutions of purported people power that have driven Communist or pro-Communist regimes on the run elsewhere. Here is raw footage from the scene.
Do they have a case? Are they sore losers? Do they hope they'll get American attention and an automatic benefit of the doubt because they oppose Communism? It depends. I only learned about these extraordinary scenes when I got home from work -- in a newspaper office. So I think this is all happening under the American radar so far. But I'm going to keep an eye on it just the same.
Do they have a case? Are they sore losers? Do they hope they'll get American attention and an automatic benefit of the doubt because they oppose Communism? It depends. I only learned about these extraordinary scenes when I got home from work -- in a newspaper office. So I think this is all happening under the American radar so far. But I'm going to keep an eye on it just the same.
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