Still A Democracy? – Moon of Alabama

January 25, 2005

Still A Democracy?

In its recent issue ‘Die Zeit’, my favorite German weekly, published an essay by Paolo Flores D’Arcais, an Italian philosopher, asking:

Is America Still a Democracy?
In the United States the majorities populism is threatening freedom

(Researching on D’Arcais I found parts of the essay already translated by DowneastDem at DailyKos and I have copied from his work)

D’Arcais argues against a Jacobinian absolute rule of the majority.

The constitution is the chain of power. It limits the influence of the majority and grants the individual right, which no representative and no majority may hurt, even if its size is crushing.

As premises of such a constitution based democracy he names secularity, free, equal and uninfluenced elections, a non-partisan system of information and an independent judiciary. A relative equality of wealth is needed to prevent seduction and voluntary thralldom.

On all points he finds serious inconsistencies with the reality in the United States. Thereby, he says, the US is endangered to divert from the constitution based democracy. What he further sees developing:

When the demons of populism are "called to arms" the weapon of choice is often a war. Every populist movement requires an enemy in order the exorcise the liberal logic of the system and transform internal opponents into ‘traitors’. War closes the antidemocratic circle of populism and glorifies its components: the community is heralded as ‘one big family’ (or even company) with the father at the head. Populism instills the logic of obedience. Dissent – the basis for democratic coexistence – is criminalized and conformism is the great virtue.

This conformism is now spreading throughout rural America. It is dangerous because its moral values have totalitarian features and minority groups are becoming marginalized, if not demonized. The individual is pressured into obedience; he must not stand out from the ‘herd’. It is precisely his self-knowledge as an individual that is so suspect to the majority. And here it should be stated: those who degrade a nation into a huge ‘army’ and believe they can prevail by relying on the slogan "God is on our side", they have subverted the ideals of the Founding Fathers and transformed the spirit of the constitution into its opposite.

So more often than not the states that we call democracies are actually democracies in decline. And it’s not just a bad dream to think that nations – East and West – are almost imperceptibly moving in the direction of a new political model: capitalism without democracy. China and Russia – each in its own way – are quite openly heading down this path. The America of the fundamentalists and the oil magnate Bush (not to mention little Italy, with it Berlusconi regime) are following in a less overt way."

Posted by b on January 25, 2005 at 15:35 UTC | Permalink

Comments

My question would be – when WAS it a democracy? Or could we calculate a fractional value of democracy, from 0 to 1, and chart its rise and fall over the course of time?
It was Martin Luther King’s holiday recently here in the U.S. – in his “I have a dream speech” the dream was that America would implement its dream. There are times when it seemed to me to be going in that general direction – now, on the other hand, we seem to be heading the wrong way.

Posted by: mistah charley | Jan 25 2005 16:57 utc | 1

The previous thread discusses the dissolution of the state. The USA after WWII sought to manipulate the world as a super nation-state. This enshrined rationality, secularism and cooperation as the goals of the US government. James Wolcott discusses this rationality at a personal level in his obituary for Johnny Carson. The ultimate flowering of this real-politick was the Kosova War where the US defeated Serbia without one soldier’s death.
But, there has been a counter revolution in the US centered on abortion, but spreading out to include the ban teaching of evolution and shutting down of the UN. As the rural economy soured and wealth and influence centered on costal cities, the GOP has made a Faustian bargain with the Red States to regain power. The GOP has brought back tribal nationalism to the United States and started a Holy War against the Muslim Religion in the Middle East.
Besides the external war against Muslims, the USA is fighting a Cultural Civil War here at home at this very moment. As in any War, the only chance rational secular humanists have for survival is to know their enemy and develop a strategic vision for victory over the forces of hate, bigotry and fundamentalist religion.

Posted by: Jim S | Jan 25 2005 16:57 utc | 2

The argument does not really strike me as new; it has often been put forward: You need an other to define the self, and the same is true for in-groups and out-groups, a ‘nation’ and its foreign/alien other.
There seems to be a dialectic here, between the homogenizing tendencies for the sake of power that can be exerted over a group that imagines itself a community on the one hand and pluralistic, post-industrial, globalizing societies on the other. What Bushco may have managed – via a very focused campaign over the last thirty years or so – is a new and frightening degree of homogenous power discourses, disseminated through the media ‘they’ control, and a thorough knowledge about which performances you have to deliver in order to trigger the patriotic nerve of many US-citizens. This situation in the most powerful nation on earth is indeed frightening, but the mechanism itself is nothing new. Having not been to the US for a while, I cannot judge whether the homogenizing impulse is really as strong as some (European) writers want us to believe. The ‘almost civil war’-scenario is brought up frequently, but perhaps that’s just another topos of US public rhetoric. Our American friends are more fit to answer those questions than I am (or, perhaps, Mr. D’Arcais).

Posted by: teuton | Jan 25 2005 17:08 utc | 3

Whatever Paolo Flores’ fortes may be, knowledge of the U.S. seems not to be one of them.
Case in point: This conformism is now spreading throughout rural America. It is dangerous because its moral values have totalitarian features and minority groups are becoming marginalized, if not demonized. The individual is pressured into obedience; he must not stand out from the ‘herd’. It is precisely his self-knowledge as an individual that is so suspect to the majority. And here it should be stated: those who degrade a nation into a huge ‘army’ and believe they can prevail by relying on the slogan “God is on our side”, they have subverted the ideals of the Founding Fathers and transformed the spirit of the constitution into its opposite.
Apart from the fact that this is basically mumbo jumbo, it doesn’t resemble any part of rural America that I have ever seen. It fits nicely with the “European intellectual’s” fantasy of rural America if one absolutely must make sweeping generalizations.
I think there are quite enough specifics to criticize in the American government without resorting to murky intellectualism.

Posted by: Guillaume | Jan 25 2005 17:13 utc | 4

Guillaume,
I wonder what parts of rural US you are seeing. I have seen the little flags and those stupid yellow ribbons everywhere. You have to have one or you will stand out.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 25 2005 17:23 utc | 5

‘Democracy,’ in the United States rhetoric refers to a system of governance in which elite elements based in the business community control the state by virtue of their dominance of the private society, while the population observes quietly. So understood, democracy is a system of elite decision and public ratification, as in the United States itself. Correspondingly, popular involvement in the formation of public policy is considered a serious threat. It is not a step towards democracy; rather it constitutes a ‘crisis of democracy’ that must be overcome.
Noam Chomsky, noted American dissident and professor at MIT in On Power and Ideology (1987)

Posted by: marbit | Jan 25 2005 17:25 utc | 6

I really have to disagree with the equating of populism to what is taking place in the US currently. The situation we are in now is a passive fascist state. Populism as in the American tradition ask for more democracy and greater rights for the masses and curtailing of elite power (wealth re-distribution).
The writer thinks the red state phenom is populism but it authoritarian, fascist state politics that claims popular support. I really think he needs to look at his political philosophy. The great leader, domination by corporations, and attacks on labor is well documented in fascist analysis ( study Italy under Musollini). Fascism plays to populist tension on racial and social issues but has the opposite effects.
The current situation in the US in rural areas is dis-allusionment with what is happening, the disintegration of some jobs such as woods jobs (it takes very few people to harvest wood and saw mills require few laborers these days) farmers feel their way of life attacked by corporations and gun laws, lack of any price increases because of foriegn farm goods (the price of a bushel of wheat hasn’t changed for years), but have relyed on the wrong party for answers. I could go on and on about whats going on. But this era is no different than the great awakening in the 1800s and the prohibition movement in the early 1900s. It will fade when the country go’s into depression and economic and political elites get the blame they deserve.
We need good old American progressive populism to curtail the power elites and corporations. Grass roots campaigns will save the US, but I hope the racism of the late 1800s populism will be a thing of the past. But with the repub media machines racial tensions will be sturred if it looks like populism is rising to keep the sheeple in line.

Posted by: jdp | Jan 25 2005 17:44 utc | 7

What the hell does Chomsky mean by “the United States rhetoric”? To what bizarre phenomenon does he refer this aimlessly garbled noun-phrase, with its monolithic, monostatic, and monopolizing definite article? In what little tidal-pool of a nineteenth-century backwater does this, our high-minded and self-regarding “anarchist” merrily splash away? Because the term “democracy” is incoherently promiscuous.– a slippery linchpin for rhetorics without number. Here’s just one instance–but is it linguistic? sociological? economic? political? religious? geographical?–and it has to do with language: the United States is now a bi-lingual country, and in times to come will be more than just bi-lingual. The force of this development can be seen in the urgency with which American political operators busily try to compensate for it by propagating English all over the globe. This country is a real mess, it’s always been a mess and always will be, and Chomsky can’t stand the sight of a mess. I think the poor man’s toilet training must have been hell on earth.

Posted by: alabama | Jan 25 2005 17:48 utc | 8

good interview w/ gore vidal on democracy now today on the rhetoric of the bush speech & the general state of the u.s. makes it clear that america is not a democracy, never has been, was never intended to be one. the founding fathers abhored democracy & nowhere in the founding documents is it mentioned.

Posted by: b real | Jan 25 2005 17:56 utc | 9

DOS,
Several East Coast States and more recently, Arizona, California and Nevada. Yes, in the West, I did see very many flags in trucks and in front of houses. Many houses and trucks however did not have “patriotic markings” without any discernible stigma attached.
I guess my broader point is that I don’t like the level of generalization (“rural America”) which in this case leads to xenophobic reasoning.

Posted by: Guillaume | Jan 25 2005 18:04 utc | 10

alabama
What’s your beef w/ elite theory? Assiduous thinkers should avoid reductionism, sure, but analysis of social problems through the lens of elite interests is a powerful tool. In the end of state thread, looked at from the view of the capitalist class, the end-state thesis doesn’t hold up. Similarly, wrt democracy, we should ask at some point: how does “democracy” benefit elite accumulation? Of course, the answer is elaborate, but the baseline is probably: constitutional rights strategically divorced private power from regulation. I could go on for a long time merely showinmg how 1st Amendment jurisprudence has facilitated elite accumulation.
All to say: elite theory works well both analytically and normatively.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 25 2005 18:28 utc | 11

jdp:
In an european setting “populism” refers to a playing on popular but false notions that the politician knows are false (“it is all the immigrants fault”). As the writer is Italian I would guess this is what he means by populism.
As you clearly state the word has a different definition in the US political culture. This word not rarely causes confusion in cross-atlantic political discussions.

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Jan 25 2005 18:32 utc | 12

Newsweek with an America critic piece Dream On America
Subline:
The U.S. Model: For years, much of the world did aspire to the American way of life. But today countries are finding more appealing systems in their own backyards.

For many in the world, the president’s rhetoric confirmed their worst fears of an imperial America relentlessly pursuing its narrow national interests. But the greater danger may be a delusional America—one that believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the American Dream lives on, that America remains a model for the world, one whose mission is to spread the word.

And here is fun:
This would probably be a good self reflection read for some Americans. But Newsweek puts the piece into the international Newsweek edition and I fail to find in the national Newsweek edition.
No delusion for America please…

Posted by: b | Jan 25 2005 18:37 utc | 13

But Newsweek puts the piece into the international Newsweek edition and I fail to find in the national Newsweek edition. oh that is painfully funny and totally typical B.
even the biggest US media are curiously parochial. I think it’s true of all Imperial media, it’s a symptom of the social condition of Empire.

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 25 2005 18:44 utc | 14

Yes, democracy in America is dead. A good friend of mine is a fairly big league lobbyist who had clients in town for the Inaugeration. We were talking about how they had tickets to this, tickets to that, all for purposes of lobbying lawmakers to help their business. I asked her, “Is democracy in America totally corrupted?” Her unhesitating answer was “Yes.” Money has always had a big influence on American politics, but I don’t think it has ever been (1) this dominant, and (2) so totally committed to one party.
With respect to the new mood in America, d’Arcais’s terminology is confusing, in the way jdp notes. Populism in America has always been progressive and anti-money. We are seeing a new climate of nationalism and intolerance, especially in semi-rural America. My parents live part of the time in Northwest Georgia, an area that two decades ago was solidly Democratic. Now, they say, the few Democrats left are literally afraid to express their political views, and communicate with each other by e-mail. Similarly, their other home, Nassau County, Florida, is so Republican that they literally don’t know any other Democrats. As for myself, my Congressional district is so Republican that they might as well not hold elections, although this is actually starting to change because the district has become extremely prosperous, and so looks more like the Northeast than the South.
One final point on the emerging authoritarianism of the masses. I had mentioned before the censorship of songs on the radio that I have been hearing unexpurgated for years. Freedom of speech means, apparently, the speech the Republicans want you to hear.
Maybe this is why I’ve been singing “The Guns of Brixton” to myself a lot lately.

Posted by: Aigin | Jan 25 2005 19:23 utc | 15

slothrop, if a thinker isn’t assiduous about his premises, then none of his analysis will be powerful–not of social problems, economic problems or political problems. Chomsky is utterly tone-deaf and color-blind when it comes to the problems posed by the very word “democracy”. And no, this is not a resistance on my part to “elite theory” (I cut my teeth, as it were, on C. Wright Mills). The forming of elites, the warring of elites, and the erasing of elites is something of an American spectator sport. I find it rather mysterious, and it may even turn out to be “democratic” in some perverse way that I haven’t figured out yet.

Posted by: alabama | Jan 25 2005 19:40 utc | 16

Corporate States of America

Posted by: Jérôme | Jan 25 2005 19:50 utc | 17

The Strange Death of American Democracy: Endgame in Ohio
by Michael Keefer, 24 jan. 2005.
Global Res.
Get over it !!: Kerry would have won, and by a very impressive margin, had the election been fair.
What has to be faced is not the ‘decline of democracy’, the ‘moral majority’, ‘rising populism’, ‘social issues trumping politics’, etc.
For ex.:
People in the US don’t care about abortion. When in the US has anyone that people here know personally tried to seriously stop someone having an abortion? When has anyone, even the very religiously minded, refrained from having an abortion if circumstances seemed to favor that solution?
Americans believe in technocratic medecine, in science, in rational family planning, in contraception, and they are very tolerant of individual decisions – it’s your life, your opinion, your thing.
Abortions have been steadily decreasing in the US, as in all Western countries. Teen pregnancies are sinking as I write. Doctors and advisors do a good job. Abortion is accepted in daily life.
Naturally, speaking out against abortion continues, rightly so – other means of preventing unwanted births are preferable. Many cultures do this, in various ways. (Not sure of what is going on in Yemen right now.)
Of course, amongst the many millions, some nuts will shoot abortionists, demonstrate in front of clinics, etc. and this is regrettable, when harm is done, life is lost. Others (polygamous Mormons, for example) will have as many children as possible by any means.
Statistically, they are in a tiny minority. (Tot up the numbers, question what is reported in the press and why…)
No doubt, many examples of crazed anti-abortionists could be quoted. Sure. So what? Here we have tree huggers who die, mountain enthusiasts who take on the wildest bets with a quasi political stance – and die; protestors who immolate themselves in parks -die- for freedom in Nepal. Others shoot Gvmt. officials because they feel they were badly done by. Some strangle their pregant girl friends.
The left is being hoodwinked. Thrown into disarray with a lot of trivia. Sucked into toeing the line, accepting the issues put on the agenda by others. They are suppposed to swallow the excuse of the loss of (now several!) elections because there is a supposed moral majority out there. It doesn’t exist.
Participating in these myths, accepting them, does nothing but reinforce the grip of a neo-facsist Gvmt, as a simulacrum of opposition and debate can be publicly spun.
The leaders know it and the halls are echoing with snickering laughter.
Get over it: the election was stolen, and abortionists and their opponents (for example) are but candy floss tossed out to blind.
P.S. re. Flores dArcais, first name Paolo (old noble family), he is an ass. Guillaume wrote: “…It fits nicely with the European intellectuals fantasy of rural America if one absolutely must make sweeping generalizations.” Yes.
(riled up tonite, big time..just came from a pol. meeting. interesting discussion, thanks..)

Posted by: Blackie | Jan 25 2005 19:58 utc | 18

I think Keefer takes too rosy — or “Roe-sy” — a view. Abortion is de facto if not de jure unavailable to millions of American women as pointed out by Kaminker:

Because of anti-choice terrorism and political action, thousands of doctors have stopped providing abortions and thousands of towns have stopped leasing space to abortion providers. Right now, nearly 80% of American women live in a county with no abortion provider. Obtaining an abortion often means traveling long distances, which in turn means finding child care and transportation, and even more funds. Imagine if the state also has a mandatory waiting period, so the entire trip has to be made twice. A baby should not be born because a woman could not afford the price of a bus ticket or had no one to watch her children.
When Roe is overturned, I will mourn. But in a very real sense, Roe is already history and has been for a long time. Without access, legal abortion is meaningless.

Abortion rights exist in America, like many other “rights”, as class privileges rather than social contractual guarantees. Roe may be on the books still, but in practise only those with money and mobility can obtain a termination — though somewhat more vulgarised the situation is reverting to what it was pre-Roe, when rich men’s daughters or wives disappeared for mysterious “rest cures” to distant and exclusive facilities for discreet medical interventions, and anyone lower on the social order just bore their unwanted offspring into whatever harsh circumstances prevailed. It’s all more cannon fodder. Never doubt the linkage between aggressive pronatalism and aggressive/militarist foreign policy…

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 25 2005 20:23 utc | 19

This place (and time) called “rural America”–where do we find it, and when is it really “rural” (as opposed, for example, to “metropolitan”)? I live in a place that was somewhat “rural” fifty years ago; by the standards of that time, it’s become a metropolitan area, if not a cosmopolitan one (complete with farms and farmers, I’ll agree). Our country may not exactly be young, or even very new, but isn’t it, at least, very, very recent? Even immature, perhaps? As if it qualified for a “learner’s permit,” but not for a “driver’s license”. Giving it a “driver’s license” is not a good idea….

Posted by: alabama | Jan 25 2005 20:27 utc | 20

b,
Funny that should be, that the article is not to be found in the domestic edition. I’m going with the theory that whats happening in the US now is a replay of pre civil-war America, where the South, in spite of their political dominance (controlled by an arisocratic bred elite) developed a fantastic & mighty hubris grounded in “self”-righteousness and manifest destiny — as a counter to the erosion of their (largely) cultural position. It’s basically the same now, with this qusai religious red-neck revolution with all its pop fascist, nationalistic garbage of bringing “freedom” and “liberty” to a world oppressed by tyranny. Problem is then (the north), like now(theUS), nobody is buying — and as the rejection grows ever more apparent (like the changes taking place in Latin America,europe,etc), so must the offensive grow, and we now witness this reaction in the malignant growth of all that would feed our denial. Metaphorically, it is the US, like the South, that has not only fallen behind and out of step with with the world, but has also called to the front all of its worst characteristics, in an attempt to evade this fact.

Posted by: anna missed | Jan 25 2005 20:34 utc | 21

As for the rural comment, I am certainly no intellectual by any stretch of the imagination. I have however lived in rural US and I have lived in provincial Italy. My own observations are that most people I meet in Europe are far more sophisticated than my own countrymen. I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated I was when I first returned to my home after spending time in Thailand, Panama, Germany, Spain, and Italy. I wanted to tell my friends about what I had seen and done. They couldn’t have cared less and quickly changed the subject to sports and the weather.
What is more troubling to me is that this dumbness is now seen as something positive, the pointy headed intellectuals are to be scorned and ridiculed. A guy who can’t put 2 words together to make a sentence is hailed as a great leader and powerful speaker. WTF?
As alabama says, we just barely qualify for a learner’s permit, that we are driving around in a very fast and powerful car must scare the living hell out of just about everybody.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 25 2005 20:49 utc | 22

@dan I once compared living in the US to being a passenger in a Lincoln Continental being driven at 80 mph through a residential area by a drunken teenage boy… the metaphor seems to have occurred to many of us spontaneously… perhaps a self-evident meme given America’s public culture of adolescent braggadocio and automophilia…

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 25 2005 20:58 utc | 23

… and I should note that the metaphor holds up in that no matter how scared we are inside the car, the pedestrians and cyclists, pets and plants outside the car are the ones being crushed in large numbers. we fear a crash, but compared to our victims outside the car we are heavily protected by airbags, seatbelts, plate steel, shatterproof glass.

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 25 2005 21:01 utc | 24

alabama
Honestly, I see nothing wrong w/ chomsky’s constant exposure of contradictions in America’s democratic idealism.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 25 2005 21:07 utc | 25

Nietzsche said that democracy is where Something strange is to be reduced to something familiar. I’d rather say that capitalism and not democracy is what levels all values. But, this may be wishful thinking on my part.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 25 2005 21:12 utc | 26

I live in rural outstate Michigan 45 miles from the nearest expressway and 235 miles north of Detroit. I am in the sticks. My favorite thing to do over a beer is challenge redneck logic. These people don’t scare me a bit because most of them know I am a democrat liberal redneck who argues back and would punch their lights out if I had to. What I beleive many liberals don’t understand is sometimes you have to deal with neanderthals on a neander level. They are anti-intellectual and don’t care about your logic. I didn’t hang a flag on my house after Sept 11th, I won’t waste my money on one of those car ribbons and tell everyone who will listen that Bushie is a joke and a liar. I had an enegineer from a firm in our state talk to me for an hour about the war.
Repubs are more than willing to namecall and use stereotypical Rush Limbaugh ways of discribing liberals. Most of these people wouldn’t be calling themselved repubs if they had an economic brain, but the intentional dumbing down of the US population is having it’s effect.
Plainly said, I just won’t take their shit. What is really amazing though is the auto industry retirees that are moving into the area and turning things more dem. Outstate Michigan county boards had more dems elected than anytime in 25-30 years. Dems even took over some boards in that bastion of repubs, Oakland County. The grass roots groundswell has started, the progressive grass roots revolution is coming. As can be seen on Kos and TPM the grass roots is making a comeback. The Washington Dems have lost their way, but the locals will rise again.
Is democracy dead in the US. On the federal level yes. On the local, county and state level, no. There is more democracy than ever. I work in local government and I have personally gathered support from other communities, lobbyed the governor, killed bills and got bills passed by writing logical editorials that passed the smell test.
On the federal level, public financing of campaigns is the only way out of the mess the US is in.

Posted by: jdp | Jan 25 2005 21:33 utc | 27

Another trial ballon for the Balkanisation of Iraq.

Dawn Brancati, a visiting scholar at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, says federalism offers a viable possibility for preventing ethnic conflict and secession and establishing a stable democracy.
“[T]he fact that religious and ethnic cleavages in Iraq are indeed crosscutting could help moderate behavior and even help develop political parties across religious and ethnic lines — this is, as long as it is within the proper federal structure,” she wrote in an article, “Can Federalism Stabilize Iraq,” published in the spring 2004 edition of Washington Quarterly.
Two scholars at Miami University, Adeed Dawisha and Karen Dawisha, say that federalism has not always satisfied the aspirations of groups bent on independence — as demonstrated by the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Chechnya. But they say it has contributed to dampening separatist tensions in Scotland, Montenegro and other ethnic republics of Russia.

Bet we will be hearing “ethnic cleavages” quite a lot from now on.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 25 2005 21:40 utc | 28

being an open enemy of professor karl popper & all his mendacious children – whoever & whatever they are – in this time of ours – i am reminded as always of benjamin’s dictum that hidden in every act of culture exists an act of barbarism
mills, bell, giddens – the end of ideologists & their gang. old fukayama – all the dull students of hedegger including ms arendt – are for me nothing but ash
their notion of societies, of democracies, are for me made a mockery of by the lived realites of the vast number of people; at best it is a conceit – at worst it is a crime
i know in our community, here – i am the only one to hold this opinion – i do not expect or want conversions – but i know my cojntempt for all trhe social theories that have spilled out of the twentieth century universities in the western world & especially in england & america are not worth the time i have wasted upon them. they are for me – worthless. utterly worthless. they understand nothing. they transform nothing
where i work – on the ground amongst the disinherited – it is unquestionably worse today for them than it was ten years ago – the generations of people who have been neglected by societies that are neither capable to educate or even house these people. their destinies have been trampled on from the cradle to the grave – the open society was never particularly open to them – not here & certainly not in america
i remember in spending a part of my youth in australia in the mid 70’s – that there were 1.3% of children at universities who were the children of skilled & non skilled workers – there were no aboriginal student at any university, at all. that fact – to not offer real equlality of education – was a national shame – it was a disgrace – that in 2005 – that situation has only changed perip^herally – leaves me feeling only disgust – at the lies they tell about the ‘ideal state’
in france – we do a little better – but not much – whole swathes of the population are in essence disenfranchised in a very real sense & that disenfranchisement will continue & get worse & then they are suprprised that these people spit in the face of civic duty. i try to teach that duty through culture & creation but it is a hard hard battle – what evidence do i have of a caring or even of a functioning society. it is incomparably worse in all the isles of britain – for all the spit & dribble they spill over their success. only john pilger chronicles the real story. & as cloned poster is making me see – even journals like the guardian & observor are only quantitativement different from murdochs piles of shit
the elites are only the scum which rise to the top. it was true in the 19th century – it is true today. even in scholarly terms the visionaries have almost always been exclusively marginal – whether they were a niels bohr or edward said
i am tired of the liberal pretence at knowledge they convert into careers & a knowledge that never transforms from a doctoral thesis to life – that thesis is the first nail in t(he coffin of any culture, unfortunately. & only the obsessives, the madly marginal convert that knowledge into living acts
i have watched my generation in france, in sweden, in italy, in australia & in canada turn their capacity to combat into a concatenation of cowardice. their cowardice has led to fools like bush & blair & for that matter sarkozy
what makes me deeply sad – that these functionaries of forgetting are not even competent or efficace – they are all of a kind & their kind does not interest me at all
having followed diligently fflasharry’s guidance on the book armageddon – i am saddened by its stupidity & its capacity to crowd its history with nonentities. it is a metaphor for these notions of ‘democracy’ – of ‘open societies’ – that all the allied armies were led by good but incompetent men – with nobility in their hearts protecting the notion of ‘society’ against the hordes & the russians were of course ‘fanatic’, ‘uncouth’ & ‘savage’ yet had only competent men & women leading their armies – hastings understands nothing at all about the russian people & about history itself. but it is being llauded today because it tells well the lie of democracy. that we are weak but noble. the opposite is the truth. we are strong & venal. & that venality is now turning against us as it did against the fascists of germany italy & france
what world do these hiostorians imagine – aushwitz taught them nothing at all other than to systemitise death which was carried on forever onwards until iraq through colonisations, interventionss, destabilisations, coups & mass murder
who the fuck did popper & his disciples think they were defending except some ‘noble’ teachers at cambridge or georgetown. for me they are like phillip larkins family – all they did was – to fuck us up & now we skirt the rim of hell as our thanks
“ô mon cher guide, toi qui plus de sept fois
m’as rendu la sécurité et m’as tiré
des terribles dangers qui me menaçaient,
ne me laisse pas, lui dis-je, si défait ;
et s’il est interdit d’aller plus loin,
revenons vite ensemble sur nos pas” dante, enfer, viii 97-102

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 25 2005 21:43 utc | 29

As to the image of the US as an adolescent who should not get a driving licence: This is a strange verdict about a country with some of the world’s best universities and scientific community (including humanities, if not unqualified), a country with (allegedly) the most cunning politicians (ha!) and the most successful businesses (thin ice here). If I had to choose, I’d go for an inexperienced but well-meaning (!) teenager rather than for an old fart with a smug seen-it-all-before attitude (which is the most unfriendly image of Europe I can come up with at the moment).
Face it, Amis: At the end of the day, many of those cheesy Euros still desperately want to like your country. And talking to you and learning from you on this blog is, at least sometimes, sheer pleasure. As a friend of mine recently put it: “If it would make them sane again, I’d be willing to wear an orange suit on Cuba for a week or so.” (Of course, “them” does not refer to US citizens at MoA and many others. We shall divide the deserving from the non-deserving, because it is our goddess-given authority to do so.)

Posted by: teuton | Jan 25 2005 21:47 utc | 30

rgiap
c’mon, mills is cool. The democracy of the elite theorists (pareto, dewey, mills, schumpeter) is cultural access and the distribution of the power of expression leading to better deliberation in the struggle over the sign. Such theory inevitably involves analysis of modes of production and social relations.
Those guys are cool.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 25 2005 21:59 utc | 31

Thanks teuton,
I have seen this in my travels. I went to Egypt about a year ago and was quite apprehensive about being right in the middle of what most Americans consider unfriendly territory. The Egyptians I spoke to (at the resort hotel I must add) soon discovered that I was an American. They did not automatically hate me, they really hated Bush to be sure but they looked at me as something interesting from a strange place. There is still a lot of fascination for the US in the world and many are quite willing to overlook a lot of unpleasant shit that we do.
I do believe that this idea got started years ago when there was a lot of poverty in Europe and America was still wide open with opportunity. You could really go from rags to riches in America. I think that it is slightly different now that Europe is much more prosperous and the US has, I think anyway, fewer opportunities.
Perhaps it is also because we tend to remember pleasant things and push the unpleasant memories out. One does see a lot of fantastic things about the US in film and this seems to stick with us longer than those dreadful documentaries about homeless people and Indian reservations.

Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 25 2005 22:11 utc | 32

ô slothrop
my dear friend, i am young yet so old – i am tired of these men & men of their ilk. i’ve been around the waterfront for some time & have seen these figures just drop into the shallo waters of their fundamental absence of knowledge
when i want knowledge i will go to vico, to bruno, to hegel, to marx – i will go to lenin & i will go to gramsci & i will go to lukacs
bit to protect me from this sea of shit i wil read & reread walter benjamin & louis althusser & i will reread poulantzes
i will turn from time to time to a husserl, a berson, a merleu ponty & even a sartre – sometimes i will go humbly to the door of the gentle derrida & the still coleric baudrillard
when i weep i will go to wittgenstein but above all i will go to the poets & i will go to the singers because they know my breath as i know theirs
the rest you can toss into the adriatic with the complete works of envar hoxha

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 25 2005 22:27 utc | 33

Mills was le flâneur too.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 25 2005 22:37 utc | 34

To: rgiap-
From: the strange bedfellows dept:
Leo Strauss also hated Karl Popper and blocked his appointment to a position at the Univ. of Chicago.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 25 2005 22:43 utc | 35

“mentre ch’i rovinava in basso loco,
dinanzi a li occhi mi si fu offerto
chi per lungo silenzio parca fioco
tandis que je glissais vers le bas lieu
une figure s’offrit à mes regards,
qu’un long silence avait tout affaiblie”
dante, enfer i, 61-63

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 25 2005 22:44 utc | 36

fauxreal
there have been strangerbedfellows
ms arendt/herr heidegger come to mind
also edward teller sucking ronald reagans cock somewhere in the bowels of the pentagon
chalabi & douglass feith – attorneys at law out of law
endless & infinite configurations
i stress – mine is not a party line – but one weathered by events & their exceptions

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 25 2005 22:48 utc | 37

I recently heard one of those rural folk quoting Chomsky the other day, though he didn’t know he was quoting. His version was:
“America lives by the golden rule. Whoever has the gold, rules.”
fwiw- although most here would tend to think of populism as a left phenomena, populism comes in left and right flavors. Geo. Wallace is an example of the right of center version.
I also think elite theory best defines representative democracy thus far, as we have known it.
Slavery as an economic institution is the original sin of America’s founders. This overemphasis on property rights has always skewed “democracy” as a exercise among elites that trickles down as the masses demand it in uncomfortable ways for the elites.
On the other hand, elites have often been more supportive of Constitutional rights (as in voter rights, civil rights…especially during the Civil Rights era) than the general population. The abolitionists were also part of the educated elite.
There are different groups of elites…business, intelligensia, banks, trustfund babies…
But since Reagan made it patriotic to be a selfish asshole (not to mention his thigh rubbing with Nazis), the elite seem to have forgotten their role in “civilizing the rabble.”
No coincidence either that Reagan’s administration was the first with a significant neocon presence.
rgiap- Chalabi studied at the U. of Chicago and Wolfowitz, etc. expected to be able to install his group as the new and improved brand of U.S. controlled strong man.
…They’ve had to settle for Allawi, especially after that little issue of the Iranian advisor to Chalabi leak, courtesy of people in the intelligence community who aren’t neocons.
Arendt, btw, was also propositioned by Strauss and it seems she’d learned a thing or two since her student days and turned him down..and told him the world his philosophy expoused would have no place for Jews. So far, another mistake, though the theocons are waiting for the mass conversion or annihilation of their non-Christian friends come the apocalypse.
teuton- most people I know who are liberal would like to get the hell out of here if they reasonably could because they really don’t want civil war…but don’t claim what’s going on now as “their country.”
There is wide-spread alienation. How this will play out…who knows. The draft will bring people out into the streets, without a doubt. Also no doubt why Bush has avoided the issue thus far.
Still can’t fathom why he also failed to supply body and vehicle armor to the troops he has, though. Sadistic selfish fuck is as sadistic selfish fuck does, I suppose.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 26 2005 1:25 utc | 38

Benjamin had amiable relationship w/ Strauss in prewar Germany.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 26 2005 1:45 utc | 39

For that matter, Benjamin and Strauss both had amiable relationships with Carl Schmitt. As with Heidegger and Arendt and so many others, they all emerged from the agony of the Great War.

Posted by: alabama | Jan 26 2005 1:52 utc | 40

The Los Angeles Times reports that the latest wave of documents released by the ACLU disclose multiple cases of horrific abuse at Adhamiya Palace, where U.S. guards allegedly “sodomized a disabled man and killed his brother, whose dying body was tossed into a cell, atop his sister.” (cursor.org summary today).
well that could be right out of Shirer’s Delivered from Evil. Paxton notes that the unruly, thuggish elements of the Fascist parties may be dispatched to the colonies where they can exercise their brutality on Untermenschen without let or hindrance, and the ugliness they wreak will be hidden from general public view.
except that now we have the digicam, the internet, the human rights NGOs… we can tell the public all about it. but what diff does it make if we cannot make them care?

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 26 2005 2:01 utc | 41

From the L.A. Times article you mention, De.
The documents, obtained in a lawsuit against the federal government by the American Civil Liberties Union, suggest for the first time that numerous detainees were abused at Adhamiya Palace, one of Saddam Hussein’s villas in eastern Baghdad that was used by his son Uday. Previous cases of abuse of Iraqi prisoners have focused mainly on Abu Ghraib prison.
A government contractor who was interviewed by U.S. investigators said that as many as 90 incidents of possible abuse took place at the palace, but only a few were detailed in the hundreds of pages of documents released Monday.
The documents also touch on alleged abuses in other U.S.-run lockups in Iraq. The papers include investigative reports linking some abuses to ultrasecret Pentagon counter-terrorism units.
…might that be part of Rumsfeld’s “secret spy” group?
In a Nov. 14, 2003, statement, a U.S. soldier said he “saw what I think were war crimes” while assigned to a Baghdad facility known as Camp Red. In the statement, the soldier reported seeing U.S. troops assault detainees at the camp and the use of prolonged hooding, exposure to heat and cold and excessive restraints.
“In my mind,” the soldier said, “my chain of command did nothing to stop these war crimes, and allowed them to happen.”
Despite the soldier’s testimony, the investigation was closed due to “insufficient evidence.”

Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 26 2005 4:18 utc | 42

More good news

Posted by: Jérôme | Jan 26 2005 9:39 utc | 43

More good news from the world’s “greatest democracy”(sorry for the mis-post):
Secret US Air Force on Iran (that’s from me, I posted at Kos, there are just too many stories around and this is one is worth spreading around a little bit)
US meatpacking industry under fire

The meatpacking industry in the US came under attack yesterday for “systemic human rights violations”.
A report by Human Rights Watch accused beef, pork and poultry companies of fostering unsafe work conditions, blocking compensation for job-related injuries, spying on workers who try to form unions and exploiting immigrant labour.
The report described an environment of “constant fear and risk” among workers routinely faced with “extraordinarily high rates of injury” in slaughterhouses across the country.

Posted by: Jérôme | Jan 26 2005 9:42 utc | 44

Oh, r’giap, such anger in one so young.
Powerfully written, as ever, moving, as ever, and profoundly without hope.
What’s your solution? What should I do? What perfect system will replace our flawed democracies and capitalisms? Will Lenin lead me into a perfect world? Will Marx do more than tell me what is wrong with capitalism?

Posted by: Colman | Jan 26 2005 10:23 utc | 45

“The Los Angeles Times reports that the latest wave of documents released by the ACLU disclose multiple cases of horrific abuse at Adhamiya Palace, where U.S. guards allegedly “sodomized a disabled man and killed his brother, whose dying body was tossed into a cell, atop his sister.” (cursor.org summary today).
well that could be right out of Shirer’s Delivered from Evil. Paxton notes that the unruly, thuggish elements of the Fascist parties may be dispatched to the colonies where they can exercise their brutality on Untermenschen without let or hindrance, and the ugliness they wreak will be hidden from general public view.”
Let me add this story I heard from a woman who fled a US torture state in Latin America. During her imprisonment she was brutally tortured – electroshock, rape, on and on. Into the room during this savagery walked the Am. Ambassador, or one of his representatives (i forget which). The thugs continue while Mr. Ambassador, rep. of the Pinnacle of Civilization gets on the phone in the corner & says “Of course, darling, I’ll stop on the way home to pick up some milk.”
Didn’t Hannah Arendt say something about this!!!! Have we decided how far this is from the current situation. And if the Negropontes, Elliot Abrams are different from those doing the dirty work that Paxton mentions? I guess it is qualitatively different that the Ego of the Elite is now carrying out & publicly defending the torture, and the A.G nominee has sanctioned it, but it seems a very small step.
Does anyone remember the Tipper Gore – Frank Zappa Senate Hearings in the earlyish 80’s debating whether to put warning labels on rock music ‘cuz it had gotten so obscene & violent? At the time I thght. they were both wrong. The hearings should have been held by the Foreign Relations Committee because they should have been the ones debating the propriety of teaching the mass of youth to eroticize Am. foreign policy. (It would be fascinating if Larry Flynt, or someone, would commission a study w/anonymity guaranteed, of the private sexual practices of powerful men – prob. more commonly acted out w/their mistresses/prostitutes. I strongly suspect they’d parallel practices now being enacted throughtout America’s Gulag.
I can’t help comparing this degeneration to the widespread torture carried on by the Church during the waning years of it’s tyranny. Does anyone know of any good books elaborating upon this.

Posted by: jj | Jan 27 2005 9:35 utc | 46

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