>>> "Dwayne Monroe"
Brushing xxxxxx and its heavy baggage aside, and digging deeper back into the past, this looks like a reawakened Augustan maneuver: - i.e., provide a pleasing explanation for your actions (in our case, the relentlessly used "security"), pay lip service to the forms and traditions of democratic government but proceed forward without regret or reflection. Augustus completely re-worked Roman government in lasting ways by doing precisely this (along with employing a complex web of threats and flatteries, rich rewards and terrible punishments).
I believe the Bush admin hopes to do the same for Washington.
Recall these words from Zizek regarding the invasion of Iraq:
<snip>
We do have here a kind of perverted Hegelian "negation of negation": in a first negation, the populist Right disturbs the aseptic liberal consensus by giving voice to passionate dissent, clearly arguing against the "foreign threat"; in a second negation, the "decent" democratic center, in the very gesture of pathetically rejecting this populist Right, integrates its message in a "civilized" way - in-between, the ENTIRE FIELD of background "unwritten rules" has already changed so much that no one even notices it and everyone is just relieved that the anti-democratic threat is over. And the true danger is that something similar will happen with the "war on terror": "extremists" like John Ashcroft will be discarded, but their legacy will remain, imperceptibly interwoven into the invisible ethical fabric of our societies. Their defeat will be their ultimate triumph: they will no longer be needed, since their message will be incorporated into the mainstream.
[...]
>From Lacan.com: "THE IRAQ WAR: WHERE IS THE TRUE DANGER?"
Link - <http://www.lacan.com/iraq.htm>
The Bush administration's Augustan Maneuver is intended, I believe, to create new norms. How do you create these norms? By laying the ideological groundwork via endless repetition of key ideas (War on Terror) and, by doing what you damn well please. You establish power, and new norms of power, through merciless use.
^^^^^ On the Augustan aspect of Bush, the" fasces" or bundle of rods in the SPQR emblem is the word root of "fascist"
In modern usage, SPQR is the motto of the city of Rome and appears in the city's coat of arms, as well as on many of the city's civic buildings and manhole covers. Benito Mussolini used it in his propaganda about the "New Roman Empire".[citation needed]
SPQR
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For the series of murder mystery novels, see SPQR series. For the board
game, see SPQR (board game).
The inscription in the Arch of Titus Modern coat of arms of Rome Manhole cover in Rome with SPQR inscriptionSPQR is an initialism from a Latin phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and the Roman People"), referring to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and used as an official signature of the government. It appears on coins, at the end of documents made public by inscription in stone or metal, in dedications of monuments and public works, and was emblazoned on the standards of the Roman legions. The phrase appears many hundreds of times in Roman political, legal and historical literature, including the speeches of Marcus Tullius Cicero and the history of Titus Livius. Since the meaning and the words never vary, except for the spelling and inflection of populus in literature, Latin dictionaries classify it as a formula.
In modern usage, SPQR is the motto of the city of Rome and appears in the city's coat of arms, as well as on many of the city's civic buildings and manhole covers. Benito Mussolini used it in his propaganda about the "New Roman Empire".
full at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPQR