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My 1933 Nightmare
The events of recent decades have been ominous.
The events of recent weeks more so.
It's not so much, I guess, the visage of obese, over-fifty, white men angrily wrecking even the tattered remnants of the democratic process in this country that is most disturbing. We've seen that before.
I think it's the willful ignorance translated into incoherent, and in fact ironically self-defeating, rage that I find most discouraging. Can we really live in a country populated by so many fools, people who can so readily, proudly and belligerently be made into tools of their own destruction? Can the greatest political, economic, cultural and military power on the world's stage possibly be so incredibly backward at its core?
Consider this passage: "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
These words were written by a person who might well now be vice-president of the United States, had the economic crash of our time come a few months later. And who, had that in fact transpired, and had one old man named McCain sometime later then met his actuarially not-improbable death, could have become the American president and leader of the free world.
So, okay, maybe that horror scenario is not so novel. After all, Nixon was in the White House for six years. And what was George W. Bush, really, other than Sarah Palin in trousers?
But what seems to me new about this moment is the political road rage, the thuggishness of masses of Americans who not only are venting about insane nonsense, not only are undermining their own interests acting as marionettes of laughing corporate predators, and not only are taking down democracy around themselves in order to do so, but are in fact also destroying the entire Enlightenment project of rationality-based management of public affairs as well. The single most frightening characteristic of this movement, to my mind, is that fact that no amount of evidence or logic could persuade these folks to abandon the lies they've attached themselves to, like a pit bull clamped to the leg of some poor SOB's pants.
What does it take to get someone to the point that they believe that the US Congress is passing a healthcare reform bill that will allow the government to exterminate seniors? What does it take for them to impute that motive to a president from the feeble Democratic Party? And, at that, one of the most Milquetoastian creatures to hit Washington since Hubert Humphrey ran for president acting like he was a guy named Hubert Humphrey? From Minnesota, no less.
What do you have to do to humans to get them so stupefied that they believe Obama's Hawaiian birth was some sort of conspiracy, replete with fake 1961 newspaper announcements? What sort of powerful drugs does one have to be on to make the argument that this rather considerably conservative president is a socialist? And then to call him a fascist in your next breath, blissfully unaware that the chasm separating the two ideologies not only makes them wholly different, but, indeed, oppositional. (You know, like in World War II. Maybe they've even heard of that.)
In fact, this is not a matter of stupidity, though there's loads of that to go around. But I bet that when it comes to finding arcane deductions to insert into their tax forms, these folks are actually quite clever. I bet a lot of them could reel off sports statistics or bible verses that would put your head in a fog. No, it's not stupidity. Something else is going on here.
It's certainly not a matter of factuality, either. It's astonishing to imagine that anyone might perceive the hopelessly flimsy Obama administration – even if it wasn't directly following the folks who brought you the Dick Cheney vision of executive power – as some sort of dictatorial Bonapartist project. Are we even talking about the same human being here? Do they really mean the Obama who keeps trying to be bipartisan while Republicans trash him viciously at every juncture (including even members of Congress questioning the legitimacy of his American birth)? Do they really mean the guy who continually defers to Congress to shape the major legislative initiatives he claims to be in favor of? Are talking about the dude who lets a handful of Blue Dog Democrats roll him at every turn? This, even after eight years of Bush, we're supposed to believe is some sort of totalitarian imperial president hell-bent on bringing fascism to America???
No, this isn't about lack of intellect or the remotest correspondence to reality. It seems pretty clear to me that this is almost entirely about fear. This is the empire crashing, and the former master class within it crashing as well. Both are falling to ordinariness and worse. They always were ordinary, of course, and always tools for exploitation by economic predators, but at least back in the day it wasn't such a struggle to be middle class. And, most importantly, they could always feel good by telling each other that at least they were better than the hated bitches, darkies and fags. Oh, and Arabs. Beating them up, literally and figuratively, was (and remains) a good way to remind yourself of that superiority.
But now even that small bit of compensation is gone. Your country can't win a war against a bunch of third world ragheads. Your boss is cutting your salary again. The womenfolk have their own source of income now, and no longer have to put up with your blundering sexual advances to keep a roof over their heads. Perverts are marrying each other left and right. And now – WTF? – there's some Harvard-educated spade in the White House, along with, even worse, his uppity-looking Harvard-educated all-superior-like even spadier woman.
Of course, this has been going on since the 1970s, as America's post-war hegemony began to erode internationally, and within the country white males were being challenged for their domestic dominance as well. These "Reagan Democrats" – i.e., consummately selfish pricks who were happy to take government largesse when it was helping to bring them into the middle class, but then immediately pulled the ladder up behind themselves afterwards, demanding tax cuts – began to lash out politically, responding to any line of crap that would harmonize with their embarrassing victimization trope by promising a feel-good response offering the muscular bludgeoning of women and dark people, both at home and abroad. In reality, of course, they were voting for a political movement that was talking tough-guy nationalism and scapegoating gays and other out-groups, but purely as a mask for further savaging the prosperity of these very idiot voters supporting their own undoing. In exchange for some cheap rhetoric and the occasional third-world war, they lost their unions, they lost their good jobs to cheap overseas (and, of course, violently non-organized) labor, they lost government benefits like inexpensive higher education, and they lost a society where the gap between the middle class and economic elites wasn't on the order of a standard-issue banana republic.
So what's different today? I think there are big differences – at least of degree – on six fronts.
First, there is a marriage of convenience today between the economic oligarchy and regressive politicians which makes the era of Dwight Eisenhower look like Sweden by comparison. I would say the single most fundamental fact of American politics in our time is that economic elites have walked away from the long-standing grand bargain of the 1930s through the 1970s. They are, simply put, no longer satisfied to be ridiculously wealthy, and now demand to be obscenely so. Instead of looking at the middle class as a source of national pride, it is for them an irritant to see even that small pittance of money in other people's hands. And, thus, they are trying (and succeeding) at reversing the basic deal that brought so much prosperity to so many American families in the mid-twentieth century, seeking a return to the good old days of Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge. Today's Republican Party has become simply an instrument of that process – all the rest is window-dressing for marketing purposes. Perhaps the best exemplar of this imperative was the (so far) unsuccessful play at privatizing Social Security. Wall Street looks at that sitting mountain range of money – within view, but just beyond reach – in sheer ball-busting frustration. It is one of the few government activities (as opposed to healthcare, military hardware, prisons, etc. etc.) that the overclass hasn't yet been able to profitize. Why should seniors have that money, they growl over brandy and cigars, when billionaires could instead? In short, the whole purpose of the political right has shifted dramatically in the past three decades. Now, it's entirely about the money.
Second, the level of deceit has grown exponentially. Americans are now being told lies of astonishing proportions, as both the ‘birther' and ‘deather' movements of recent weeks make plain. Before those it was Obama the socialist, Obama the fascist, Obama the sell-out apologist for America, Obama the secret Muslim, Obama the underminer of national security, Obama the pal of terrorists, and so on, and so on. It's to the point now that I feel sorry for satirists (including me). What can you possibly make up to top these amazing idiocies? Obama the Martian imposter of a homo sapien? Obama the JFK assassin? Obama the twentieth 9/11 hijacker? (Who secretly parachuted out at the last moment, and was picked up in the Hudson by a nuclear-powered speedboat driven by Saddam, and then transferred onto a black helicopter that landed minutes later on the roof of the UN!)
Third, the sophistication of presentation has grown dramatically. The right has really learned how to market its nonsense in a barrage that only enhances credibility from repetition. You get it on the radio, on TV, from politicians, at church, on your computer and cell phone, in your mailbox and at the school board meeting. This is a full-court press by clever people who know how to market soap flakes and the human kind as well. There are many examples of this, but one of the most clever has been the defining of wholly corporate center-right political figures like Bill Clinton or Barack Obama as extreme leftists, and the defining of the mainstream media as hopelessly biased toward liberalism. Perhaps as much as any other factors, these moves have employed framing and intimidation to effectively eliminate any real progressive ideas from the national political discourse. Bravo, boys. If it all wasn't so sickeningly pernicious, I'd have to give them a standing ovation for cleverness and, sadly, success.
Fourth, the level of credulity is breathtaking. In the past, you could understand why a few crackers in ‘Bama, third-grade education and all, could be seduced into blamin' the niggrahs for their lousy low-rent lives and joining up with the KKK. But look at the audiences today for Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and the rest of the scary monsters all over television and radio. These are giant crowds of tens of millions, especially collectively counted, and I don't think these people are watching and listening just to laugh at the bozos on the air.
Speaking of whom, what in the world are these freaks doing on the air? What in the world happened to this country such that, fifth, all this massive deceit has gone mainstream in the media and the Republi-con Party? It's astonishing today, from the perspective of prior decades, what comes out of the mouths even of leadership figures in one of America's two major political parties, and what goes unchallenged as conventional wisdom. There have always been regressive predators about in American politics, to be sure. But in years past they would have been identified as such and marginalized accordingly. Today, they are more likely to become president or Speaker of the House, and a slavishly obedient media dares not correct even the most obscene lies having the most dangerous consequences (can you say "Iraq"?).
Finally, unlike prior decades, the progressive counter-narrative has all but vanished from the mainstream. The Democratic Party is nothing more than the sorta not-Republican Party, and stands for nothing other than a quieter and more slowly-unfolding version of the GOP's crimes. Nobody ever votes Democratic anymore. They vote against the Republicans when they rise to their very most noxious worst behavior. We have a president who is supposed to be a radical leftist, and says almost nothing to combat the fascist tide of thuggery now threatening the country. Instead, he continues to seek approval from Republicans who never give it to him, game him at every turn, and repay his conciliatory efforts by asking for investigations into his birth certificate. Senator Chris Dodd responded to last week's Reichstag-burning events with this helpful bromide: "It's a challenge, no question about it, and you've got to get out there and make the case. This is not the time for the faint-hearted." After which he continued to lead the very faintest-of-heart in their deafening silence. Even supposedly liberal activist groups don't demand very much anymore, other than the protection of the status quo. For example, there is pretty much no serious player in or out of government right now talking about a single-payer system at this once-per-century occasion of momentous potential change in the American healthcare system.
The upshot of all this is a predatory-when-not-defunct political system going so far off the rails that it is now migrating from insanity to violent insanity. Just ask your (former?) local abortion provider. Just ask your congressional representative, if you can penetrate the police escort now necessary to keep these people from becoming the victims of mob rule.
This should not be taken lightly. There is huge anger out there, being stoked incessantly by those who profit from it, in one way or another. Most frightening of all, it is, as far as I can see, completely impervious to rational discourse. Suppose you could put a mountain of indisputable evidence in front of the eyes of those who believe Obama is seeking to murder seniors. Does anyone think any of these folks could actually be persuaded to abandon that shockingly absurd fallacy?
And this is, at the end of the day, the scariest aspect of all concerning the current political moment. America now possesses a massive cohort of people who have simply transcended rational discourse – the sine qua non of democracy, and the real deity worshiped by Enlightenment figures like those who founded the country. Two-and-a-half centuries later, and we're moving rapidly backwards, toward the seventeenth century, and away from democracy, rule of law and the marketplace of ideas, debated and thoughtfully considered.
Everybody talks about fascism nowadays, not least those on the right who remarkably manage to call Barack Obama a fascist in the same breath as they label him a socialist. The term has been beaten into near meaninglessness from ubiquitousness of application. (Could this be another extremely clever semantics ploy of the right-wing marketing machine, taking the term out of use now that it is legitimately applicable, by over- and ab-using it? Damn, these guys are good.)
Still, I've seen the video clips from the congressional constituent meetings last week. I saw the ones from the Sarah Palin rallies in 2008. I remember the 2000 Brooks Brothers riot, one of the most despicable acts in American history, which resulted – because of one of the most cowardly acts in American history – in shutting down vote-counting in Miami. I saw at least two purple-hearted American war heros turned into national security threats by a team of cowards who avoided war when it was their turn. None of the rabble on the right could make the Grand Canyon size leap to see that for what it plainly was. Today I see the incoherent rage, the senseless foaming at the mouth that not only doesn't fit reality, but in fact runs completely contrary to it. I see the current attempts to intimidate the government and to shut down the discussion of issues.
And I have to ask, do those people not resemble Brown Shirts more than anything else one can bring to mind?
And is our current political moment not beginning to stink of Berlin, 1933?
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223 Comments so far
Show AllGood point. I agree. Distilled well.
Define left wing. Go ahead.
Would you call most of the posters on this site, left wing, or leftish at least? Would you call the writers of the articles on this site, such as Green himself left wing? This site posts (multiple) articles bashing Obama everyday. The majority of posts on this site bash Obama. Green points out in his article that he considers Obama, and Bill Cliton, as corporate centre rightists.
My guess is that by "left wing" you mean Democrats. My guess is that by "left wing" you mean Democrat supporting sites such as DailyKos. I suggest that you are confusing "Democrats" with "left wing". Which a lot of right wingers do. One would think that the Blue Dogs have demonstrated conclusively that Democrats are NOT "left wing".
To claim that the left wing is dangerous to the constitution is hilarious. The people who have most loudly complained about constitutional violations are those on the left. Those who reject the "War on Terror". Those who reject torture. Those who reject detention without trial. Those who reject the bombing of women and children in the name of protecting democracy, civil liberties, and women's rights.
Sorry, but I don't see the right rejecting torture. I don't see the right rejecting detention without trial. I don't see the right rejecting the bombing of civilians.
Excellent article, Professor Green. We should be worried. We saw what the frightened rightwing crazies did when Clinton was president - when they couldn't find anything else to stick (e.g., Whitewater, Travelgate), they actually succeeded in IMPEACHING the Prez for lying about a blow job. Now they're 100 times more frightened - of that Muslim, antichrist, Marxist/socialist/fascist black man in the white house, the crashing economy, the threat of losing their jobs and their homes, and so on. It definitely feels like 1933. I thought it was bad under Bush, but amazingly, in some ways it's even scarier now. I don't know which is more dangerous - having the right wing psychopaths in power, or out of power, heavily armed, and threatening to bring the whole house down.
TPTB aren't afraid of Obama, they OWN him. Goldman Sachs was his largest single contributor and guess who is calling the shots on "financial reform"? Everyone is being manipulated big time. TPTB really don't care if there is a socialist or a fascist in the White House because they are all above the law in any event. This whole election business is about the margins, not about the important stuff so you have to realize that it's all THEATER. If elections actually meant anything, we wouldn't be having them.
Now, as to Dr. Green's initial question..sadly, the American people are so dumbed down and brainwashed that there really is no hope for them. How much proof do people need that Obama is not what they thought he was? No amount of proof will change some people's mind, not on the left or the right. Being a normal person, I have friends on both the left and the right and NONE of them can see the real Obama. Some on the left are starting to be a little nervous, but keep up the pretense that he just needs a little more time. Those on the right are still convinced that he's a socialist masquerading as a centrist. The healthcare debate is a shining example of people refusing to face facts. Again, some of the window-dressing might be changed, but nothing substantial is going to come out of this.
Ballerina, I agree 100%.
There will always be the Himmler, Goebels, Limbaugh to fabricate the lies and lead the unsuspecting to the trough of poison. But let's not forget the more mainstream
corporate elite and their apologists who hide behind the facade of respectability as they expand the wars in the Middle East, reinforce NAFTA, bail-out Wall Street, impoverish most of us, cave in to the drug & health insurance interests, turn local police forces into appendages of the national police state, raid-jail-deport immigrants & their families, kick the small farmer off the land, provide excuses for the corporate plunder of the planet and all its species...we could go on for days on this...but the important thing to see is that all of this is being done by the Democratic Party-Republican Party consensus...it's been going on for many years.
Use you voice and words to build anew...people truly are desperate for real solutions...but those solutions cannot come from the same hacks that have failed for so many decades.
That's why I'm a Green.
Sioux Rose
EBBORTZ: Excellent post. If you are new to the forum, welcome. Wise words you got there!
genicon
If you are just becoming aware of the stupidity and gullibility of most Americans, you haven't been paying attention.
The right wing wackos that dominate talk radio, along with Fox news can make these fools believe anything, and as Mr Green states, go against their own self interests.
The disparity in income and failing economy along with a leadership and press that has sold its soul to the 1%, make America ripe for a populist mass movement, ending in a fascist, totalitarian, police state. All that is needed is further deterioration of the economy, more foreclosures and homeless people, together with the right group taking power, Sara Palin, Jeb Bush, Lou Dobbs, are a few that come to mind.
...or another "catastrophic and catalyzing event...."
Some comments in an Op-Ed column by Charles Blow in the NY Times on Aug 10 said it all. About 6 in 10 Republicans are not sure if President Obama was born in America. That is not surprising when you recall that about 6 in 10 Republicans think the earth was created 10,000 years ago. He went on to say that this is not a party of Einsteins.
Mr. Green,
Your article woke me out of a sound >sic< sleep, and reminded me that there actually still are a few people left in America who can see beyond the media trash that is being thrown at us.
I cannot even watch the news on TV anymore without shouting about the propaganda filled crap that we are fed, and I strive to find legitimate real 'news' sites online (CD being one of the few!).
I wish we could have the real truth for once- and that the Republi-cons would be finally found to be the liars that they have become.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Mr. Green, and I look forward to reading more truths from you in Common Dreams.
This is a powerful essay, and I thank the author for having the courage and care to write it. But two further points might be made:
1) I think more and more people are fearful of their own government's lawlessness, and the injustice it can do instantly and thoughtlessly to their lives. The no-fly list is the perfect example. It is an unaccountable, uncorrectable punishment being dealt out to thousands of Americans, for unknown reasons. So, everyone becomes careful not to do something that might get their name on that list. I consider it "cruel and unusual punishment" which is forbidden by the US Constitution. Like the old Soviet Union, the USA is now a nation without rule of law, and that makes people careful, which in turn allows lack of law to accelerate, which in turn causes more fear and caution, which in turn causes lawlessness to increase, etc. When I write "lawlessness" I am not talking about common crime, I am talking about political crime done by agents of the state. Some examples are breathtaking. For example, the UN Charter was passed by the US as a treaty. The US Constitution says that treaties are the highest laws of the land. One section of the UN Charter declares that it is illegal for one nation to attack another nation, or to threaten to attack another nation. That is, threatening to attack other nations is a crime in the USA, according to US law. But, our politicians, from the President down routinely threaten to attack other nations, the current case being Iran, and every recent administration in fact has attacked other nations, the current case being Pakistan. But no one notices such disrespect for law, and certainly no one thinks to enforce such laws, since the people and agencies who should enforce the law are the very ones violating the law.
2) In the book Mein Kampf, Hitler repeatedly derogates Jews as communists and as capitalists. "Communist bankers". The easy labeling of disliked people with contradictory labels is not new. The contradictory labeling of Obama as a socialist and as a fascist is not so different from Hitler's contradictory labeling of Jews. It serves, I think, to force people to be dumb. When we read or hear such contradictions, and when we acquiesce in silence, then we agree to be dumb. Little by little, it is 1984, and we agree that 2+2=5. And we accept that the government is suspending habeas corpus in order to protect our freedoms. Many of us even cheer and are glad.
What occurs to me is some of the anger--especially regarding class issues, is justified, and FDR--even though he was "a traitor to his class" spoke to that anger. Obama poses and relates to the elites and he is remote and a world apart from the common slob.
If they couldn't have our social security they would get the slobs to foot the bill for their priviliged entitlement somehow via bailouts. Think of it as the compensation consolation prize for not yet grabbing the Social security fund. Meanwhile they will settle for everyone required to tithe to the Healthcare Insurance industry racket.
Thanks, Vern for the best analysis I've seen of where this hatred is coming from. O is a Black man who dresses and acts like one of the elite, hangs out with the elites, and clearly serves their interests. So he excites BOTH racial and class hatred. As far as promoting the growth of the extreme right, Obama is Clinton on steroids.
Sioux Rose
VERN: Excellent analysis. I, too, see the end run around Social Security just as you do. Grover Norquist is their hero. If there were such a place as Hell, it would have to add a whole new real estate sector designed JUST FOR the likes of these who so nonchalantly take from those with little, to give to those already dis-eased with too much. And many of these think their acts accord with religioius tenets of righteousness! There's a whole other sector of propaganda going on in the so-called spiritual zone(s) that acts as ideological support to the wreckage (and wrecking crews) taking apart the economy. Disaster Capitalism has come to America, and every time we think they have done it all, they lower the bar to steal/extort yet more of something vital to those in need.
Can you please elaborate on the "spiritual" propaganda going on...?
You mean like wishful thinking like the "Secret"...?
Or TJ Knight/Ramtha's "What the Bleep do we know?"
Or something more sinister...?
For a right-brained analysis of the history of philosophy and conscious spiritual evolution,
I recommend reading. "A Breif History of Everything" by Ken Wilber...
Some of the things that are scaring people into this right-wing hysteria are scary to me, too. As a former middle-class person who has sunk to the level of the working-poor, I don't see much hope for the future--especially mine. But perhaps being a progressive (pinko liberal) gives me some kind of immunity from the craziness. I hope it holds up.
I voted for Obama/Biden only because it seemed like the best way to defeat McCain/Palin. Should I end up living in a cardboard box under a bridge some day, I probably won't even remember Barack Obama when I write my Blame List.
During the inevitable political discussion at a back yard barbeque last Saturday, one guy loudly proclaimed, "America is NOT a socialist country!". Never mind the fact that he's been receiving Social Security Disability Income for at least the past couple of years (for a "bad back").
I fail to comprehend the lack of comprehension around me.
Much of what DMG says is true, of course; it's also fundamentally clueless. Lindorff (of all people) made a much better point yesterday (You can also find my erudite treatise on strategy in the comments):
We can and should learn from the spittle-blowers in those town halls. They're the only ones showing real passion or lighting politicians' toes on fire. That's what we need to be doing.
In truth, if we show up and show some passion ourselves, we'll silence the wingers and maybe even make an impression on our congresscritters.
In fact, my Rep., Peter deFazio, changed his position on impeachment (back before it was too late) after we took control of his town hall away from him. Begging and polite little demonstrations make no impression on these people at all; they're immune, because they know most of us will chicken out and vote for them anyway.
If you don't want gutless politians, don't be a gutless voter. Vote for someone that actually represents you, and damn the torpedos!
Problem is, as someone else pointed out, when they aren't ignoring us (even when we are in the millions), they punish us severely as opposed to these clueless cranks who get all the media coverage and aren't dragged out or tazered by the police. No free speech cages for them. No jail time for them.
Good question, that. Apparently some of these goons are actually pretty threatening (not what I think we should do.) Why the unequal treatment?
To be fair, the measures you describe haven't been used at Congressional "town halls," even when lefties made the noise. They would be awfully embarrassing for the Congress members involved. Sit-in protestors have been arrested, yes, that being the point; but around here, the Congressmen have learned to avoid that, too. Arresting constituents just isn't good politics. Some of us did our damnedest to get arrested in Sen. Wyden's office & failed.
In my District, some older single payer activists were threatened with arrest by the police at my Congressmans home office for simply and politely trying to deliver a Medicare birthday cake. Zero media coverage.
Dissent from the left (I mean the genuine left) is far, far more harshly treated than dissent on the right. No doubt about it.
For me it began to seriously stink of Berlin '33 back in '01.... or maybe even just Bush's "election" in 2000. Seeing that smirking puppet swagger down the ostentatious red carpet being hailed as 'so presidential' by (what drugs were they ON!!??) commentators and watching as the war-drums beat and bombing Afghanistan became the 'answer' with senators rising like puppets en masse to applaud his every sickening disingenuous statement made me sick with worry for the future of this country and world. 911 was a Reichstaag moment if there ever was one. I remember an older coworker turning to me shaking her head and commenting... 'I hate to say it, but it feels like Germany' in the bookstore where I worked in late'01 when we were trying to answer a customer's earnest questions in trying to find material to read to understand about Islam & Iraq and finding out that coworkers were afraid Tom Ridge would trace any inquiries back to them personally....such a surreal climate with such paranoia ---And seeing the fear-mongering screed being published and people actually buying the crap...then seeing the thoughtful, rational stuff sit on the shelf forever eventually got to me so much I quit my job.
Mine's not the most progressive city around, but it's not 1933 Berlin... it's a unique mix of regular folks trying to live decent lives and corporate smoke & mirrors and the 'greed is good' crowd desperately wanting to maintain and build up their dominance/acquisitions in an environment like the one we're in where it's becoming harder to deny the unsustainability of empire. For too long there's been a very sad buy-in to the fallacy that accumulation of stuff and power = happiness, or at least 'security'. This is as old as human 'civilization' itself. Meanwhile most people are NOT tuning in to hate radio or packing guns and frothing at the mouth about Obama the Antichrist but are just trying to get by and think about how their kids will be able to get by and slowly but surely paying attention to empirical evidence that 'corporate persons' can't help but be indifferent to their suffering. And hopefully, whether gainfully employed or homeless, taking it upon themselves to learn a little something about networking decently with other struggling human beings and offering and accepting help when needed....getting creative with recycling, dumpster-diving, gleaning, doubling up in ad-hoc communities of support, gardening, supporting local farmers and businesses that are truly green and not just full of greenwashing pr, and boycotting those that pursue profit at the expense of social uplift, showing up at meetings to support one another in recovering from our cultural addictions and keeping a watchful eye out for attempts to commodify the commons. Turning OFF the TV helps for the most part (though I have to say I'm partial to Amy G and some of the public programming that cuts to the chase of things) as does spending time among the trees and plants and taking time (like this week!) to watch meteor showers rather than compulsively grabbing for that bottle of beer or indulging in retail therapy to 'relax'. Hm... didn't quite mean to go on so long there.... Anyhow, good luck to us all. Try to see the good and sane in others even when they're behaving nuts... chances are they're just expressing huge anxieties and need better tools to deal with things they're going through.
Green is always right-on, but this time he pulls the last punch, one that really needs to land. The Joe-The-Plumber-Tito-the-builder-Palin-the-quitter types out there don't have a monopoly on the death of rational discourse. Before there were "birthers" and "deathers" there were "Truthers," and all of us on the left know where to find them -- everywhere we go, regardless of the topic under discussion. If "truthers" could limit themselves to the likelihood that the administration had ample evidence that 9-11 was in the offing, and either did nothing to prevent it or actively did things to make sure it wouldn't be prevented, and that independent investigation(s) into that are needed, we could be having a useful conversation. But most of them insist that a) there is overwhelming "scientific" evidence that Dick Cheney and a bunch of CIA operatives blew up the WTC buildings, landed the planes somewhere, filled them up with bombs (that weren't necessary since the buildings were rigged with explosives), put all the passengers into one plane, sent them all up in the air, launched a cruise missile at the Pentagon, and then splashed the packed-like-a-sardine-can fourth plane in Pennsylvania, and then hid all the bodies, and b) if you don't think that's plausible, you're some kind of government stooge or corporate gate-keeper, and you get shouted down every bit as loudly at gatherings as the health-care cranks have been shouting people down at town hall meetings. Lived it, folks, till I got too heartsick to go on. It's hard to organize from the left these days. Too many people of all political persuasions have lost their ability to reason, and Green is right in diagnosing fear as the cause. That's useful to organizers of the right wing, because fear and regression are their products, but harmful to the left, where we supposedly seek justice and progress, so we're living in the worst of all worlds in terms of organizing for real progress.
(Pause here for a moment to allow a dozen or more slams against this thesis, and against me personally, from the age-of-reason CD readership, laced with links to all the scientific proof, all of them hiding behind nicknames)
OK, now to move on.
If you want to form a confrontational group to match the "birthers" and "deathers" at town hall meetings, you'll be validating their fear, and don't forget that they're the demographic that's been buying all the guns. If that's your path, good luck to you. A better approach is to be where they're not, and that's lots of places. Invest your time and money into building real-world institutions and community groups. And if you want to be in the same room as right-wingers, do it productively -- by joining your local volunteer fire department, where it's unlikely they've ever met someone like you. Not to argue politics, but to respond to a huge public need that few can provide, and you learn how to keep fear from harming your ability to give quality output, through proper training, equipment, and reliance on properly trained and equipped team mates. Call loads are going up, and volunteerism is declining. You'll like it -- there's no delayed gratification in the fire department -- you know why the world needs you every time the pager goes off. While you're there, you'll learn an awful lot about how highly effective organizations are organized, trained, successfully put to tasks, and perpetuated, and you can take that home with you to organize political activism in your community.
And you might even learn something about fire behavior and emergency response communications that you can share with others on the left so that we, too, can return to reason in large numbers and stay on-topic when we hold forums on unrelated issues. Ooooops, here comes another 20 slags.
Excellent post, Steve.
Let me just follow up on your observations about irrationality on the left. I, too, got sick of hearing the "truthers" re: 9/11. Not to mention these other left-irrationalities from the Bush era:
1. Bush was constructing concentration camps for dissidents.
2. Bush was going to cancel the 2004 presidential election.
3. Bush was just days away from launching another insane misadventure, this time in Iran.
And so on....Then irrationality went in the opposite direction last year when the left just couldn't stop itself from hyperventilating with excitement over Obama.
The right-wingers are more open with irrationality but too many on the left can match them in terms of gullibility and intellectual laziness. So I'd say both ends of the political spectrum are coming unhinged.
I'm reminded of the words of Will and Ariel Durant in their "Lessons of History" (1968):
"Democracy is the most difficult of all forms of government, since it requires the widest spread of intelligence, and we forgot to make ourselves intelligent when we made ourselves sovereign."
Human Being:
You're confusing "irrationality" with warnings. The purpose of issuing a warning - say, of a potential invasion of Iran - is to prevent it. It's perfectly rational, even if, in fact, the danger doesn't come to pass: it's hard to tell, but the warnings may have saved us! As I remember, each of the examples you give came with copious evidence. They may have been wrong, but they were reality-based.
In fact, the first concerns me: is it not true that Halliburton was issued contracts to prepare large detainment facilities, supposedly for a flood of illegal immigrants? That was widely reported. Such facilities can be used for any "undesirables." The others are past, but such facilities, or the preparations for them would still exist. If you know that wasn't true, you should share your knowledge with us.
And we don't know what would have happened if it had been obvious that Kerry was going to win, do we? Nor do we know that they didn't steal the election, instead.
Yea I agree with you on the 9-11 truthers. The Bush administration was a ruthless bunch and I wouldn't have put it past them to pull a Reichstag maneuver, but for them to pull off the conspiracy that the truthers said they did, would be simply impossible.
The only possibly "conspiracy" I thought might have been plausible was that they had wind of a coming attack, and figured it would be something small, and they'd let it happen so they could exploit it to their political ends. Then when it turned out to be a huge attack they freaked out.
But my more educated guess is that what happened was a result of their incompetence that was brewed out of a stew of self delusional arrogance and ignorance of the world around them as a whole.
I am a bit old too join a fire department but I will try your advice and try to talk to my fellow N.C.ers and give them a different view of the world. I am a recent transplant from CT to rural NC and it has been a bit of a cultural eye opener. I sat there slack jawed when I first heard Rep. Virginia Foxx talk, only to find out a few weeks later that she my NC representative. (Ouch!)
Yea I have my work cut out for me down here.
That's damn yankee talk!
yawn....
Slam, nuthin': that was beautiful, insightful, helpful, and well written.
Steve, this is terrific advice.
It's great to see you posting your well-considered ideas again!!
Dave Lindorff has a somewhat different view of this today at
http://counterpunch.org/lindorff08112009.html
Thanks - Lindorff proffers an excellent case:
"ObamaCare is to health reform what bank bailouts are to financial system reform, which is to say it is the opposite of what its name implies... This isn't "reform." It's corruption, pure and simple...
The only proper approach to the wretched health care legislation currently working its way through Congress at this point is to kill it and start over. At these "town meeting" staged events, Obama and the Democrats need to hear, in no uncertain terms, that we don't want no stinkin' ObamaCare. We want Medicare for all."
I agree!
I read Lindorff's article on CounterPunch, and what he says is correct. If we are forced to buy health insurance, we will be handing over even more wealth to the already super-rich insurance companies and other companies that are part of the health industries. Then, if we can't afford health care, we will be fined 2.5% of our annual income -- that is, if we have an income. Anyway, the fine will make sure that we are even more indebted, and already, if you are in debt, jobs are off limits, requiring credit checks at application. Will they bring back the debtor prisons?
Oh, and lastly, this bill won't take effect until 2013. Or, at least, that is my understanding.
We not only want "Medicare for all," we need "Medicare for all!"
Can we really live in a country populated by so many fools, people who can so readily, proudly and belligerently be made into tools of their own destruction?
The answer obviously is yes. It has been going on for well over a generation. Thousands went to Stalin's funeral and wept for the wretched gangster who killed tens of millions, some probably members of their own family. But Stalin didn't die. He came to the United States and got a Doctor of Divinity and an MBA. He's out there now, teaching the children to play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded six shot revolver and charging them for the privilege.
Brilliant!
Another reason the nuts are impervious to facts and evidence is because then they would be forced to admit - not just that they are wrong - but that their 'leaders' are all liars.
Americans hate to admit they're wrong, ever.
Plus, most of the nuts love them their part-time religion, which is also impervious to facts and evidence.
If you can firmly believe evolution is an anti-Catholic myth, then you can easily believe POTUS plans on thinning out the elderly herd after distributing buy one/get one free abortion vouchers to kindergartners...
Some explanation for the phenomenon can be found in Bob Altemeyer's essay The Authoritarians - in his discussion of "authoritarian followers":
Psychologically these followers have personalities featuring:
1) a high degree of submission to the established, legitimate authorities in their society;
2) high levels of aggression in the name of their authorities; and
3) a high level of conventionalism.
Altemeyer, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Manitoba, has put the essay up online, and it is highly recommended for anyone wanting to get a bit more in depth on what is going on with these people.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
Thanks for the reference, and the reminder! I have run across his name, and this essay title, but I haven't had time to read it.
Are they really submissive to authority? I tend to thing just the opposite.
It seem to me the main problem is hyper-individualism, and a deep internalization of Ayn Randian Objectivism and "libertarianism" which basically makes an ideology out of sociopathic/psychopathic behavior - nothing exists but the self. Or as Michael Moore says me-me-me-me-me-me!
They are big into the strict father figure that has a black and white, good vs evil view of the world. (Grays are not allowed). So they will follow a strict god, preacher, president, tv/talk radio host who seems strict and can tell them in a simple way what is right/wrong, good/evil, and protect them in this dangerous world.
Google strict father George Lakoff. He can 'splain it better than me.
I just read The Authoritarians yesterday and second the recommendation.
Actually, I think one work we can reference is Ecce Homo written by Nietsche, where he discusses the "herd" mentality. The fact is we live in a society where some people have a hard time critically thinking, have a cursory knowledge of history, and have completely contrived political terminology into ridiculously inaccurate definitions they are not. As a result, is it any surprise that these people have obscure notions about socialism or communism? If you gave them a detailed test, could they accurately define socialism and communism? If you want to silence these people, directly challenge them by asking them to accurately define these terms. Challenge them to critically think. That is the problem, and O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, and others are acutely aware of this and exploit it.
Gracchus, what's scary is that you're describing members of my immediate family, and the majority of people in my community.
The good news is this:
OUTSIDE of Gringolandia, there IS hope.
Yesterday I found my 14-year-old Mexican nephew on his bed reading a copy he had dug out of someplace of a book by Paulo Freire that I used as a text in a Learning Strategies course for incoming freshman at one of the universities in the state of Oaxaca: THE IMPORTANCE OF READING AND THINKING CRITICALLY.
He has not finished it yet, I think--but tells me he really likes it. Why? Because "nobody teaches you anything; you have to get out there and learn it".
I cannot IMAGINE some gringo kid that age doing and saying any of that.
Or, for that matter, any gringo adults.
(No, he's not a weirdo nerd--he spends a lot of time with a PSP playing Grand Theft Auto just like other kids his age.)
Thanks for offering your observations. We must remember that for the most part, it is not "a screwed-up-world", rather it is a "screwed up Estados Unidos".
And the person who flagged this comment - no doubt because you believe the word "Gringo" is racist or something, you are also projecting USAn values onto others. The use of hatefulness behind racial slang words is a uniquely USAn concept.
Absolutely brilliant- I wanted to stand and applaud after reading. These morons are also the ones who have been arming themselves to the teeth. A lot of them have been watching "24", and like it. And, they have lots of kids and while they don't allow cussing, they have no problem with letting the kiddies watch torture porn.
They may not have a collective IQ of more than 75, but there are lot of them and they scare the hell out of me, if you want the truth.
Speaking as a Native American, I can tell you that any armed (and porned) white guy SHOULD scare the hell out of you.
Look what they--and very possibly YOU--have done to Turtle Island.
I guess you get what you pay for.
We bought the smallpox-infested blankets, and they became our coffin cloths.
"Armed and porned" your tribe was never "pacified" brother but you are on the right path. peace
It's long past time that people on the left armed themselves. It may come to that. The 2nd amendment might perversely be our salvation after all. And I've NEVER been a "gun person."
Right now I know that as an almost 40 year old male whose knees aren't what they used to be, I might not be able to either fight or flight from a fascist mob.
I know... MLK, Gandhi (read Orwell on HIM!) blah blah blah... who wants to volunteer to be the first lynched in their neighborhood? I'm sick of being a victim.
I learned in grade school that the bullying stopped when the threat that you might pop the bully square in the jaw started.
As it stands I have always been been somewhat loud and rather verbally fierce when confronted with right wingers in person, but I'm 6' tall, from a working class background and look like a skinhead. In 5 years I'm gonna look like a balding middle aged target...
Chris, I think there are a lot more well armed lefties out here than most people suspect. I have owned guns all mylife and must admit I have been stocking up on ammo the last couple of months. I call my bullets free tickets to see jesus.