nationalism & imperialism (jim o'connor)

[Barbara Laurence]

Justin,
good! ButŠ..
1.	Know-Nothingism, et al. are not useful as legitimating ideologies
for US expansionism and imperialism.  Individualism, self-help, land of
opportunity, etc. are.  Check out the first and last chapters in
Accumulation Crisis.  Also, Know-Nothingism, et al. should also be seen as
racism - the most important theme in US history.
2.	"strong strains of skepticism about America's imperial roleŠ"
definitely, see my other post on the subject.  America Firsters were either
facsistic (Lindberg) or  (the thinking ones) believed that the world even
LA wasn't yet ripe enough to fall into the US's lap (Monroe doctrine).
3.	I don't believe in Marx's simple ideology critique in German
Ideology.  That the ideas of the dominant class are the dominant ideas.  I
believe in Marx's mature ideology theory in capital, where ideology is seen
as a certain practice, a way of life, not just a belief.  Again see AC from
start to finish, concerned with this issue.
4.	The French took care of lots of Vichyists.  Shorn them or shot
them.  Took all their property (which is how France wound up owning so many
industries after WWII).  The Germans have truly gone through a period of
national shame, which of course might not be enough to prevent a repeat of
evil.  The Japanese are a different kettle of fish.  They've been defending
their islands against Chinese invasion attempts for maybe 700-800 years,
hence maybe think the Chinese owe them an apology.  I'm exaggerating a
little.  The Japanese are more attuned to shame than most other peoples,
and had felt plenty of shame for their militarism/imperialism.  They just
don't like to make this kind of thing public (again an oversimplification).
5.	Guilt and shame are not the same thing.  Guilt is a concept, the
feeling associated with which is pain and fear combined.  Shame is a
profound, very profound sadness and introspection.
6.	As an agitator against US aggression against Vietnam (and how many
times do you hear it put this way, the correct way, in even the progressive
media?) from start to finish, I can assure you that the issue wasn't mainly
immortality (exceptions, again, e.g., Quakers) but body bags and media
images.  This of course our imperialist military establishment has learned
well, and ever since the media has played dead when the Pentagon tells
them, this zone is forbidden;  these images are forbidden.   No soldier
will die in a war.  Yet sometimes images escape, e.g., the wicked image of
dozens of trucks and tanks and hundreds of bodies blasted away for no
reason by the US airforce, at the end of the War of Aggression against
Iraq, in the name of a bunch of lazy motherf'er sheiks.
7.	  Yes the unions say "American works best when we say union yes,"
which is my point.   Everything else is crap.  Trade unionists have to act
like trade unionists to keep their jobs, period.  Check out Dana Frank's (a
colleague and friend of ours here in SC) new book on Buy American.
8.	Hey, good luck as a union lawyer!  Both my sons are lawyers, with a
radical analysis of society drilled into their heads from an early age.  I
figured it was one thing a father like me could do well, and should do.
One is a public defender in Marin County, and loves to tangle with local
DAs, cops, etc., tending more to the anarchist side of things; the other,
more socialist, is developing a niche for himself working for a small bond
broker, showing how school districts, water districts, housing orgs, etc.
locally can write their bonds, present themselves, in ways where they get
more favorable than normal terms.  Both doing practical and paid work.  You
three would have lots to talk about, no doubt.
Jim O'Connor