Same old Same old?
Recently I've felt my ability to engage wane. I have nothing new to say on the rightwing blogs where I traditionally post. They've heard it all before, dismissed it, dissed it and frequently pissed on it. There is nothing left to say. The Haditha Massacre has also impaired my ability to remain calm when faced with the dismissive inhumanity of some Americans. Listening to people who are articulate, clever, witty and apparently loving parents, ferociously defending and justifying the indefensible, has left me feeling physically sick in recent weeks.So I find myself wondering is this the way it is? Is it naive to assume that humans can find a different way, behave differently? Should I simply throw up my hands, thank God for the good luck of my birth and leave it at that? Its tempting.
Hope though, can come from some strange quarters, and you may find this odd, but here goes:-)
One of the frequent comments from the pro war side concerns the relative humaneness of the current war effort, and this observation is not entirely without merit. If we objectively consider the invasion and occupation, the efforts made to avoid civilian casualties and the almost neligible deaths on the side of the coalition, this has been a fairly bloodless enterprise. Certainly when compared to empires and conflicts of the past.
I guess this meme can be articulated as "what other kind of global hegemony would you prefer?". I know that I prefer an American hegemony to a Soviet, Nazi German or Chinese hegemony. Imagine extrapolating those internal casualties onto the world stage? We'd be talking billions of deaths.
This does not mean that I think we live in the cliched "best of all possible worlds", but it could certainly be worse. So why all the hue and cry? Why the relentless yelling and beration? If US hegemony ain't so bad, why not accept it? The answer to that question is basic, humans yearn to be free and that desire has finally gone global. Globalisation has created global capital, and that has in turn generated an inevitable counter balance, global civil society.
Lets face it humans are upitty creatures, that frequently revolt against even benign tyrrany. The US qualifies as at least that, and in recent years has been drifting in altogether the wrong direction on the good/bad hegemony continuum.
Herein lies the hope ... our tolerance for war as a solution has been drastically reduced. We see the effects and are appalled, we insist there must be a better way, and can find an endless stream of historical examples to substantiate this view. We consider the ordered, law abiding segments of the world and we know there is a better way, we are living it. If laws work in villages, towns, cities, counties, regions, nation states and supr-national regions like the EU, why can't they work globally? The answer to this question is of course, that they can.
Basically when the apologists whine "it ain't that bad", they are, in a limited sense, right. What has changed is the global perception of such events. We see them, in record time and are appalled and rightly so. We count the cost of war, imagine what could have been created with those resources and inevitably reject the logic of violence. This same calculation is what marks the passage from child to adult. We know that there should be laws that prevent Saddam Hussein and Bush.
Now we need to take it to the next level. The facilitators of the Iraq war must to be held to account. They day we drag Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney before an international tribunal (an American one would also be welcome) and they have to account for their actions, that is day that signals the death knell for war as a mainstream and acceptable solution. It is the day that humanity finally grows up and creates a planetary society governed by law. It may be 5,10 or 20 years down the road, but it's going to happen and I'm looking forward to it, are you?
posted by bmcworldcitizen @ 6:14 a.m.
8 Comments:
Don't believe the arguments coming from the right. They are repeating talking points which are literally handed to all the mainstream media heads, which are repeated ad naseum on the air, etc. These talking points are LIES.
This is in fact an extremely bloody, inhumane, poorly run war. The right wingers will give you the sanitized version and tell you we are using smart bombs, that no one innocent is being killed, etc. I used to believe that about the first gulf war. Nothing could have prepared me for the truth later on when I learned that we killed millions of innocent people. That light, just like this one, was based on a huge pile of lies.
My advice to you would be to keep yourself properly informed by listening to Air America (online is the easiest when you don't have XM radio) or do a Google search for progressive radio station. You'll be surprised to find out how many there are now across the country.
Viewership of rightwing-run cable news and local news media outlets are dropping faster than Bush's poll numbers. People aren't as dumb as the rightwing would like to think. They "get it". They have figured out that they are being lied to and are moving on. And - thankfully - there are radio stations now that realize that there is a market audience that is finally interested in people who aren't named Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly.
Best of luck to you. And don't give up on blogging. You've got a great site.
Hey now, don't get to discuraged, go to a place like TP, recharge your hippy batteries, then get back to the conservative blogs. It's the same basic thing I have to do now and again over at places like right wing news before I can go over to TP for a few more weeks.
Hey Bushwhacker:
Have a terrific summer.
Iam a russian woman over 50 years old.Found your blog through 24stepstoliberty.Was amaised by your absolute nearsiteness in political views.It's becouse you (white englishspeaking male over forty) never lived under dictatorship governments, and never lived like israelis live -every day expecting to die from terror atacks in all forms.That's why it's easy for you to bring all this "progressive" crap and judge the american government and Israel for what they are doing.It's easy TO JUDGE not even offering anything different insted of there policy. Becouse all the "negociations and humanitarian steps" were taken already by your beloved Clinton administration and FAILD MISIRABLY don't they? I lived in former soviet union and know first hand what it's like. You are absolutly sure all these rightwingers lie to you.Are you sure though that all your progressive media is not???? Becouse what I here from you guys reminds me sooo much the kind of "information" that I've been fed back then in Russia. Keep dreaming about your utopia of how world "supposed to be", about war without casialteis and so on. My only hope is that your kind is minority of american people. Becouse if it's not - that is the end of the freedom in America as well as in the world.
BED LUCK to you, usless dreamers
It's becouse you (white englishspeaking male over forty) never lived under dictatorship governments, and never lived like israelis live -every day expecting to die from terror atacks in all forms.
You couldn't have a read very much of my blog. I noted that I lived in both South Africa and Ireland both terrorist hot spots that have largely been resolved.
It is in fact my experience of those situations that gives me hope for the future.
The reality of course is that the true utopian is the one that expects to "defeat" terrorism. This is the pipe dream. One 15 year old, a greivance and a rock are all that are required to make a terrorist. Addressing the root causes and eliminating injustice through genuine rule of law has brought peace to vast swathes of the world. Why not take the next step and do the whole thing?
bravo!!!
i am glad to see that you have not yet been banned by think progress...
your comments this afternoon have been quite good, and if i could i would tell you so on the site.
peace,
james
oh god, is that the great norwegian i see?
yikes!!!
Very nice site! » »
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