"American Nationalism"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>   <Yoshie Furuhashi>-----
>>  military, or whatever).  This list has discussed lawsuits against
>>  Pinochet, etc., which I think may be seen as examples of once
>>  uniquely American litigiousness becoming a global phenomenon.  Here's
>>  an interesting article that gives you a glimpse of an emerging trend:
>>  "U.S. Courts Become Arbiters Of Global Rights and Wrongs."
>   -----</Yoshie Furuhashi>
>
>maybe one sees this trend in the us mostly because lawsuits are 
>common practices there. but the 'global' trend seems to me to be 
>more a focus on human rights 'without a border' (that is courts 
>recognizing that human rights have some kind of priority over state 
>sovereignty) than on litigation (for the sake of litigation).
>
>jc helary

Dependence upon litigation suggests to me that those who want "human 
rights 'without a border'" are trapped in TINA, that is, political 
conditions that make us all supplicants who petition those already in 
power, rather than aspirants for our own powers of law-making (= 
self-government).

Hardt & Negri do not think of Empire-building as a project imposed 
from above by the ruling class & the imperial elite.  In a typical 
Autonomist & post-modern fashion, they see Empire rising from below: 
"In our time this desire [for the internationalization and 
globalization of relationships, beyond national boundaries] that was 
set in motion by the multitude has been addressed (in a strange and 
perverted but nonetheless real way) by the construction of Empire. 
One might even say that the construction of Empire and its global 
networks is a _response_ to the various struggles against the modern 
machines of power, and specifically to class struggle driven by the 
multitude's desire for liberation" (_Empire_, p.43).  I beg to 
differ.  The multitude's desire for liberation has become estranged & 
perverted into the construction of Empire, because we have been 
beaten back in class struggle, unable to step beyond a multitude of 
micro-political antagonisms (e.g., Serbs & Albanians seeing one 
another as enemies, instead of fighting together against the regime 
of competitive austerity imposed by the global ruling class & 
imperial elite via the Bretton Woods institutions).

Yoshie