Wotjek wrote:
>> Yoshie:
>> Seriously, human beings have an ancient desire for
the >> heroic mode of
>> rhetoric. The epic is the oldest genre of poetry.
> [WS:] Granted. But what if that mode undercuts the
> chances of achieving a real life success?
Actually Woj, I would say you yourself are guilty here of of succumbing to heroic rhetoric, just in inverse form.
Goff is not in a position to "undercut" anything. The narcissistic quality of the appeal is precisely how out of step it is with global realities. The United States is not well-regarded in the world. Its wars even less so. But (at least in Europe) there exists no sustained movement of opposition to the U.S. military presence in Iraq, outside of the usual fringe peace movement groups.
Reformist national chauvinist forces like the Linkspartei.PDS might have to toss a few crumbs to the party base with demagogic appeals like "Europe at the side of the United Nations, not in the shadow of the United States," but that is nothing but cynical realpolitik. It's questionable as to whether even the party base isn't hip to what an empty appeal that is.
Goff's notion of a united front against U.S. militarism would be regressive if it ever had even the faintest chance of finding a mass base in the advanced capitalist nations outside of the United States, but it simply won't.
Anti-americanism is a cultural prejudice, part of the "consensus armored in force" of the European ideological state apparatus, but world export leader Germany, through the European apparatus, will continue business as usual, sometimes at the side of the U.S., as in Afghanistan and Kosovo, sometimes sidestepping the U.S., like with Iran and Palestine, sometimes ignoring the U.S., like with the vile demonization campaigns against Russia and China in the German media.
The potential subjects capable of effecting a change in U.S. policy in an emancipatory sense exist geographically in only two places: in the Arab and Muslim world and in the United States itself. Various other state actors will indirectly hinder or assist American militarism. But it is political reactionary to exhort the left in other core capitalist countries to ally with their own respective states against the United States.
I don't think such incorrect exhortations are the product of bad faith or maliciousness. Just a result of being seriously out of the loop regarding the rest of the world.
I think what we need is something like a new international to shake people out of this national narcissism. Young American leftists would be forced to maintain an occupied cultural center in Italy, or combat Neo-Nazism in the provinces of Eastern Saxony, while French or Norwegian youth would have to hold candles at Quaker peace vigils in Indiana. :-)
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