The Patriot vs. The Chickenhawk...,
2003-03-28 09:47:57
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How not to win at hearts, Example 1...,
2003-03-28 14:09:28
Bushes and Benitos:
If Joshua Marshall and others who have become convinced that the Bush administration seriously intends, hell
or highwater, to follow the neo-con blueprint for world empire are right - and I'm not convinced that they can make it politically viable but I don't doubt that they'll try - then what it amounts to is the clash of civillizations Bush has had the sense to insist that this entire ordeal isn't. Though it isn't the clash of civillizations that the minority ultra-nationalist gunnutter crowd on the right wants - the Anne Coulteresque proselytization campaign against Islam - but America vs. The World.
That's a pretty goddam dumb idea, and I don't like it because then I have to stop telling the "Bush is a Nazi" folks to shut their goddam traps. I'm pretty far off into left field and all, but "radical" politics is no excuse for tunnel vision. At the same time such an American policy, however unmotivated by base racisms it might be and even with the existing democratic institutions we have, would amount to something akin to politically correct fascism. There's a certain amount of relativity in such thinking, but the doctrine of political supremacy inherent in promoting "American-style democracy" - rather than just, say, "popular government" or "democratic reform" (which we could use quite a bit of ourselves) - isn't that far removed from more authoritarian doctrines. The major distinction here is supra-nationalism, since this doesn't involve dictatoral control over the local government but the world.
What does it take? Military adventurism: check. Cultural imperialism: check. Ultra-nationalist worldview if not rhetoric: check. Fusion of the corporation and state, so what if it's effective corporate control of the state instead of visa-versa: check. Censorship: not necessary. Political terror: anywhere but here. Dictatoral control over 80% of the world's population: check back later.
I'm not going to call an apple an orange, but it would be getting close to oranges and grapefruits.
