I was telling friends shortly after 9-11 that it was high time that we got rid of the U.S., because none of the world's problems willbe solved until we eliminate this disgusting country from the face of the planet.
<< Chuck0 >> ----------
You know, the truth is I woke up this morning and wanted to start a fight. I am sick of 9/11 and all its holiness.
See, I think Chomsky should have declined. I seriously believe Machiavelli was right. You have to choose your enemies much more carefully than your friends. Your enemies determine the scope of your battles. You just can't win anything worth winning against guys like Bennett. The only debate worth having with Bennett is, when did he stop molesting his daughter?
Chomsky needs much better opponents. This is why I was saddened by Gould's early death. He was another public intellectual who needed the best of antagonists to really shine.
On the other hand, you, Doug, Nathan and others are also right, we need to re-define this country as our own, independent of the government, media, and the pig elite. I think the deepest of this identity and its re-definition comes from grabbling with the darkest themes of American history: its slaughters and slavery, its hidebound bigotries and xenophobias, its presumptions of moral rectitude and purpose, its absurd religious hand wringing over sex/body/life, its anti-intellectualism, and its ridiculous presumption to conquer the world---because these are the themes that lead to their own antithesis, to the ideals of equality, anti-authoritarianism, comraderie, and a kind of wonderful carelessness.
On anti-americanism as a fool's anti-imperialism.
I think this is really closer to the key issue around 9/11. The lackies in public office want all the perks of Empire but they don't want to pay the price. I think this is why calling the US an Empire disturbs them so much. They are caught between choosing anti-Americanism or anti-Imperialism as the motivation for 9/11. So they eagerly choose anti-Americanism because it can be dismissed as an irrational bigotry and it caters to a superficial unity of nationalism while it conveniently leaves the rage inexplicable. But if they allow anti-Imperialism to get out as the motivation, then they become responsible as the neoliberal elite in power: blowback for their oppressions in the service of Empire.
So, then in some cultural logic I don't understand really, denying one's American roots is something like asserting an anti-Imperialist stance. I am not sure I can be an American, and be against Imperialism at the same time---not at this immediate moment in history. Not because these are intellectually interchangeable, but because of the cultural climate itself and the most gross fact of all, America is the Empire. If you ask anybody in the world, who is the evil Empire, then they might mention their own government first, but America would certainly be next on the list.
The ground work hasn't been done that is necessary to separate out a sense of non-nationalistic unity and identity as an American that would allow us to be on the UNICEF poster of Americans against the Empire.
On yet on a third hand, about the only way I can think of to reign in the megacorporate neoliberal conquest of the earth, is through the power of government. US law and government created this economic empire and all of its elites and bogus products mostly by fiat, and only US law and government can dismantle them. This is why I am ambivalent about government. It is both the means to creation and destruction of empire.
Chuck Grimes