only book i ever read by mailer was the armies of the night, his account of a 1967 washington, d.c. protest against the u.s. war on vietnam. can’t recall anything from it now, other than that he barely mentioned sharing a cell w/ noam chomsky after they were both arrested that day. not sure if that’s indicative of the time lapse since i originally read it or reflects the (lack of) impact on self for mailer’s part, the latter of which seems likely given his ideas espoused in that 2003 article.
i question exactly what type of “democracy” this country has ever had – certainly not a participatory democracy or a system where the majority rule, i.e., a govt by, or, & for “the people”.
hell, this has never been a nation where all the people living here are treated fairly, let alone equally.
has it even ever really been a representative democracy, esp at the federal level? certainly not according to objective historical accounts.
so mailer’s acct of “losing democracy” is just another vestige of the power of mythos. cultural & national myths only perpetuate b/c of ignorance – be it from naivete, indoctrination, or self-willing delusion. work to remove the ignorance & the myths get replaced.
the u.s. was not ‘driving toward empire’ in 2003. that took place before the revolution.
as francis jennings clearly pointed out in his txt the creation of empire: through revolution to empire,

The climactic phenomena of the American Revolution evolved quite naturally, perhaps inevitably, out of the inherent stresses between the center of an empire and its peripheries. A rickety structure, tacked together in fits and starts, the British empire grew without plan except for yearnings after power and wealth. The Revolution was an episode in the history of an empire that the seceeding colonies had helped to create and with which they identified themselves. It seems necessary to understand the growth and evolution of the colonies’ places and roles in the empire.
One thing is certain: They did not oppose empire as such. From their first day of arrival, every single colonial desired and worked to expand English rule over more territory and more people. When the colonists determined to secede, they wanted to rule those territories and peoples themselves instead of acting as agents for Great Britain. When the Revolutionaries won, they organized their newly independent polity in the form and functions of a new empire. [p. 4] (emphasis in original)

“Examined from that viewpoint,” jennings states, “the American Revolution appears to be evolutionary rather than a break with tradition.” all talk of forming a democracy was just that — talk. which relied on propaganda (declaration of independence, blah blah blah).
let’s define empire as “a political unit that is large, expansionist (or with memories of an expansionist past), and which reproduces differentiation and inequality among people it incorporates” involving “the long-term incorporation of territory and people into a polity.” [1]
there is no reason to look overseas — the “saltwater fallacy” — before we start talking of the u.s. empire. just ask the indigenous americans & the mexicans – they’re very familiar w/ u.s. empire.
broaden the discussion to include the concepts of hegemony & imperialism and a much wider sample of experiences is available to learn from.
and awareness, education, and well-grounded acuity & perceptiveness are what the people of this nation need most right now to cast off the ignorance, apathy, & fatalism that permits empire to continue expanding, devouring lives, and surely guaranteeing disaster in the core. supplant the ignorance & the old myths are no longer appealing. seen for what they are — in part, tools of control over mass audiences — they can then be used to further rip back the master’s curtains.
on mailer’s remark re fascism, fascism can never be the “natural state” of modern human societies, for there is nothing much “natural” about our man-made systems. and since they are man-made, there is nothing inevitably monolithic about how they are implemented, organized, and operated.
if full-blown fascism does come to the u.s. – and hearing senator schumer on tuesday rationalize that the u.s. needs mukasey b/c times call for a strong leader sent a sharp chill down my backside – it will be b/c “the people” acquiesced their own powers to the desires & influence of a select minority.
[1] frederick cooper, colonialism in question: theory, knowledge, history, (2005) p. 27, 29

Posted by: b real | Nov 10 2007 19:02 utc | 2