>>> Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> 01/13/00 02:04PM >>>
Charles Brown wrote:
>I am just realizing that there are a whole bunch of people on this
>list who are energetically trying to squash thinking of the normal
>and regular operations of the U.S. government
Wait a second. "Conspiracy" suggests plans concocted by a handful of people in complete secrecy. The policies of the U.S. government are the product of elite machinations, partly constrained by quasi-democratic procedures - but an elite that consists of corporate executives, financiers, ruling class intellectuals, and assorted rich people, often with divergent interests. And lots of it happens relatively openly; you can get a good idea what the state is up to by reading the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. Conspiracy theory is a vastly oversimiplified version of class analysis - too seamless, too insular, too secretive, too neat.
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CB: I am just using "conspiracy" because that is what this school of thought which counsels skepticism about "conspiracy "theories uses. In other words, to come to terms on the issue. Sometimes it is not in complete secrecy, but is somewhat open and bold. It is sort of a version of Goebbels big lie approach. The assassinations of JFK and King were to a certain extent open , obvious , bold plots, followed by an approach of telling boldface lies and carryingout boldface obvious "coverups" and stonewalling denials, until the questioners just go away. For anyone with eyes to see and a mind to think it was not that secret.
But anyway, the idea is not that EVERYTHING the bourgeoisie does politically is in secret. Only certain critical things that if done openly would ruin the image of capitalism as democratic, fair, and legitimate.
But interestingly enough, above you use the word "policy". In the classic left critique of the notion that capitalism is a conspiracy, it is phrased that capitalism is not a POLICY BUT A SYSTEM. Policies ARE arrived at and carried out in the main through "secret" sometimes termed PRIVATE meetings (afterall private property has the right to privacy if anyone does). Backroom deals in smoke filled rooms, used to be how this open secret was described. It is the systematic aspects of capitalism that are not a policy and not the result of a specific private concerted effort.
Recordation of specific bourgeois political plots does not in the least contradict the left idea that the capitalist economic system operates on the basis of classes, that the bourgeoisie have no choice but to do certain things to maximize profits, keep from being taken over by other capitalists, bust unions etc.
Think of it this way. Capitalism is an economic system within in which there are numerous specific political plots and machinations within the bourgeois state, but that doesn' t mean ALL the actions of the state are secret. The domination of elections by money is open and obvious, not a secret. The murder of a JFK or MLK must be done in secret. COINTELPRO was rather secret at the time of its operation. Isn't that obvious ? Just because COINTELPRO is secret doesn't mean that J. Edgar Hoover wasn't on television grinning like a celebrity G-man. The U.S. had the pretense that "totalitarian" systems have "secret" police and America has "open" police. And if you don't believe it, here is J Edgar Hoover having a good time in Harlem. See how open he is. He is not a totalitarian. If you believe that, you are not very critical in your thinking. The fact that the U.S. national police are secret police is a secret .
That is a great irony of the U.S. dictatorship. That the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is a dictatorship and largely secret is a secret, aggressively hidden by phony openness. Openness is the big lie of the American system, all part of the ideology of open vs closed societies. This is why the biggest secret police crimes are covered up so aggressively. It is a hangover from the myth of American innocence vis-a-vis Europe ( See Henry James, for example)
Anyway , maybe some of the confusion is the idea that everything is a plot, when it is only critically selected things that are plots, not everything. The idea that there are some plots, doesn't mean that everything the bourgeois state does is in secret. It also doesn't mean that some of the plots are not conflicts between sections of the bourgeoisie. JFK was of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie is like the Mafia. Sometimes one section hits another section. But even the Mafia doesn't do everything in secret. This is the general picture of the bourgeoisie that the left should promote. Capitalism is organized crime.
Analysis of conspiracies is anything but simple and neat. It is as complex as the most complex detective or spy story, a web of tricks , lies and deceits, spy vs spy, intelligence and counter intelligence. Lee Harvey Oswald had several identities and a Russian wife, and he was just the fall guy. That was not simple. It seems now that James Earl Ray didn't do it either, but was the fall guy. That's tricky, not simple. The complete opposite of simple.
In fact, class analysis is simpler than figuring out plots. With class analysis you just follow the money - simple. It's pretty obvious who is the capitalist and who is the worker, and who exploits whom.
CB