> I really don't see what vulnerability you're talking about.
> The progress of liberal capitalist imperialism was not only
> not impeded by the attacks, within a few hours they were being
> used to advance the agenda in a great variety of ways. I
> doubt if I need to recite the details. The Left has been sadly
> divided, and has been unable to put forward even such simple,
> obvious ideas as that the attacks were a natural consequence
> of imperialism -- that after bombing and invading ten or twenty
> countries around the world as a matter of normal policy, the
> U.S. might be expected to suffer some kind of blowback. In
> fact, I risk the ire of some of the members of the CFS on this
> leftist mailing list by even mentioning the idea -- I'll be
> accused of "justifying fascist atrocities" or some such
> nonsense.
Again, I disagree. The progress of capitalist imperialism was significantly disrupted by the attacks, as everybody knows. Airports were closed for days. The airline industry had to be bailed out. There was no sports for several days and lots of people simply didn't work for several days. The stock market crashed and there were economic effects that we are still feeling today.
The only reason why I got extended unemployment benefits is because of 9-11's effect on the economy.
This was all from a horrible spectacle that killed thousands of New Yorkers, a handful of people in my city, but didn't really effect most Americans.
I think the Left has done an excellent job of responding to the attacks and the events afterwards. We calmly wrote hundreds of articles and spoke up when some of our comrades had turned tail and run for the nearest coffee outlet. The left's response was enirely appropriate and provided a vocal alternative just when millions of Americans were looking for alternatives to the official explanations.
I just looked at today's issue of the Washington Post's "Book World." Looking at the bestseller list for Washington, I see four lefties on the nonfiction lists: Barbara Ehrenreich, Gore Vidal, Noam Chomksy, and Michael Moore. Joseph Stiglitz's new book, "Globalization and its Discontents," is also on the list, but I'm not sure if we consider him to be a lefty.
I can't remember a time when four left wing authors had books on these lists at the same time. Obviously, there are many people aside from the "usual suspects" who are reading and buying these books. If we had listened to the chicken littles on the Left who spun alarmist tales about John Ashcroft, we would have missed this opportunity.
Those who say that this is a dangerous time for dissent are reading the current mood completely wrong. Americans are more polarized, but they are hungry for alternative ideas. We should be out there with new books, instead of bickering among ourselves all the time. Have we learned anything from the success of the right wing in the 1980s and 90s in getting their message into the media?
> On the whole, "war is the health of the State", including
> assymetrical war. At most, war replaces one state with
> another -- a fine outcome if one is a right-wing religious
> zealot, but not to my taste.
War can be the cancer of the state when the wars the state conduct get out of hand and sap the resources of the state. History is full of examples of failed empires. I think we're beginning to see the fall of the U.S. empire, especially if Bush continues his wars abroad.
Shit, if the U.S. can't afford those 24-hour-a-day jet patrols over major U.S. cities, then there has to be limits to what the U.S. can do.
<< Chuck0 >>
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)