by Bodwyn Wook
THE Following ‘link’ is to an article by Michael Lind, in openDemocracy. In it he points out that both progressive internationalists and kissingeresque diplomacy-realists at present unite in criticising the overheated neo-conservative day-dream of ‘stopping history’ at some hypothetical peak of indefinite US global-hegemony.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_power/US_world/US_foreign_policy
THE Great difficulty one has with Mr Lind’s proposed synthesis is that, effectively, neo-conservatism is, precisely, whiggery; and, it stands in a direct descent-line from Wilsonianism. Hence, a jamming and oiling-together of conservative Realpolitik and ‘ethical realism’ bids fair to be but more of the same old salvationist soup; only now the more watered-down, to accomodate the larger number of non-historical theorists and ‘policy professionals’, now heaving away at the trough of public opinion
Mind you, one has no objection to non-historicism; where there is intellectual honesty on all sides, that sort of historiographical error may be addressed by the competent historical thinker; and, indeed, in an educative way.
It is when historical thinkers dive head-long into non-historical phantasy that of course one takes alarm.
The great failure, in this context, of specifically late-modern neo-conservative rapture is that it is anachronistic in these first decades of the thus-far inadequately-called post-modern age. And, the great question is, now, eighteen years after the collapse of communism and the pulling down of messrs Reagen’s and Gorbachev’s wall in Berlin:
WHAT Be the actual state of american power in the world, to-day?
[Emmett R Smith all rights reserved 23 September 2007]
Doesn’t anybody have a clue? Nobody at my school (Augsburg) cares about two party politics except for a few people who are kinda sorta, well, well looked down on by everybody and despised. They are just way not kewl, politics I mean or the people who like them. I know that means that in the future a handful of creeps will run every thing by default while all the rest of us will go bleat-bleat, and take lots of prescriptions like you old people. That’s the way it is already and you can count me out. None for me, thanks, Me!
I meant “doesn’t anybody have a _klew_” like in old detective stories. Being klewless is not kewl. Dig? (haha…yuk)
“What be the actual state of American power in the world today?”
Declining rapidly, thanks to the hubristic folly of your pisspoor leaders.
Power abhors a vacuum. The only interesting question is what is going to replace the past half-century’s US world dominance?
The 21st century looks like being a very bumpy ride.
I think you meant to call this New Bottles? Because the saying is a scornful one about trying to pass off the same old wine, only disguised in new bottles. Do you see now another advantage of Islam and Sufi studies? I hope so, because it is namely that one simply does know a lot about it all, even though there is not supposed to be any actual wine-drinking, or acting-out generally. This is a good example of the fact that various “wise sayings” and proverbs are only so in context. As far as the saying “who tastes, knows” goes, then, that doesn’t apply in this case — and so the operator is spared a bad experience with an inferior vintage! At that, the people in Eagle Lake, Minnesota, where /si’/ Smit’, er, Smeeth is from, have a much more succinct way of putting it. Whenever one tries to lie to somebody there, they all tug on their feedcaps and say, “Oh, I get it…some MORE of your BS!” At least this much is so, I think, that if only all Americans were as sensible as the southern Minnesotans, there perhaps would be different problems confronting us today than the ones we have now.
NEJMI, I stand corrected….
INTERESTINGLY, Mrs Bill Clinton last week in a nearly-flawless manner revealed a projected healthcare plan that bids fair to be all things to all people. It is far-reaching enough to satisfy the state-liberalist professional classes who will collects loads of cash and prestige thereby. Yet it is nuanced and subtle enough to defuse much “wonk” technical criticism.
BUT There remains the role of the US Senate, originally conceived as a brake on stampeding democracy.
THAT House is become, today, the last-ditch of what in these evermore un-United States passes for “conservatism.”.
The neo-conservative quacks — two-faced fans indeed of both overdone “Big Government” and “social engineering” abroad! — are nonetheless, albeit hypocritically, true-to-form in their sowlike domestic resistance to anything to do with the nation-state fantasy of the wellbeing of “the people.”
For a fact, so-called “conservatives” do not want any successful social legislation that will in any way, shape or form revive Americans’ confidence in New Deal-style social fantasies. It was in the name of this false-libertarian selfish bellyaching that the senatorial possessor-whiners torpedoed national health-care in 1996. And it is most certainly NOT “freedom” now, that drives with the whiphand of porcine terror the Senate Republicans as a gang. These gentry are simply in a coma of dread, of sharing anything whatsoever of the goods of this Earth, even be it with their own fellow citizens.
So, criminally and suicidally, Senate Republicans now are utterly intransigent about any Democrat party-proposals, to ameliorate the hideous difficulties of a wrong and stupid, historically ignorant, war. They have to be. It all is desperately necessary just in order to hold the dike against the black mud of occult programs and “entitlement.” So we are stuck abroad indeed, in the Iraqi quagmire. The cause is the Israel-and-oil tar-baby.
But the purpose is to retain party-power.
And, so, America sinks altogether from power and even view in the World.
We are now trapped in the wrong place, at the wrong time and against the wrong foe. Nevertheless, these “conservative” hogs /dare/ not yield a single point on their idiotic war now — to do so inexorably will open the door again, to social legislation and attempts at amelioration from on high of the public daily life, and private needs that cannot be met with seven-dollars-per-hour Wal Mart work.
That is what fear is and does — /and that is how great is the burden on us all, of “conservative” fear, their dark horror of their fellow citizens/.
THIS All is as plain as a porno flick.
WHAT Is not yet clear is whether Americans in sufficient numbers will yet trip to the plainly un-patriotic and objectively treasonous shenanigans, of the neo-conservatives and their unwilling Republican power-allies in both House and Senate. Or whether, if they do, enough Americans will overcome their entirely-legitimate distrust of the hooting and jackass braying of the overcrowded and nonproductive, all-subsidized, professional classes that infest everywhere, do no good and, altogether, suck away as much of our wealth and treasure as the greedy corporate-internationalist CEOs. IF ordinary Americans can see just what a load and lot of filth the Republican hypocrisy is, they may resolve to vote the liars all out.
But, there will yet remain the problem and the burden of the nation-state.
YA, Nejmi, sallam alaykum:
YOUR Point is well-taken, and as you can see I’ve changed the title of this from /Old/ to /New Bottles/.
ALLAH Salamak,
el-Wook