Fatal Contamination
From Mark Kingwell's review of The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama in Harpers Aug.25
"The reduction of all fines to prices and all obligations to tax burdens (for instance the requirement that all Australians must vote) shows just how comprehensive is the transactional contamination of democracy. If citizens are really consumers, forever negotiating the shoals of tax evasion, then it is rational to game the system. Smarter players will take the contest up a level and realize that you can game the system's DOMINANT MYTHS as well as it's materialist realities. From this vantage the American Dream is the biggest long con in the history of politics...."
Fukuyama has had trouble being taken seriously since his whole "End of History" bit and support for the Iraq invasion (he should run for president!) but now he wants to try small idea scholarship by writing big, serious books. Unfortunately he fails to notice the system is a political ECONOMY.
Again Kingwell's trenchant analysis: "An untenable system like democracy under capitalism colonizes aspects of our own desire and experience to stitch together a narrative of legitimation, even as it generates numerous incentives for citizen-consumers to game the system."
True believers buy the myths and narratives lock stock and barrel ( I won't mention any names) and so are not burdened by doubt. Those of us who see the veil and hope to develop more just incentives and outcomes have to answer for desire and envy and other Freudian layers. As I have been writing lately, democracy is not the magic key to the end of history and beginning of Nirvana. I just think it would be better than this carnival.
As for Libya, this also falls into the "not a perfect world" category but it is just as pathetic to see those on the left force themselves not to be happy as it is to see those on the right back away from support because it happened on Obama's watch. Yes it is a NATO intervention, yes it saved widespread death and destruction, yes it is an incomplete revolution. Just as I said months ago.
Same with Wisconsin. The recall was a bust. All radical momentum was crushed by the Democrats and the mainstream unions. Now Verizon strike is proving the final nail in the coffin of organized labor because they cling to the same myths and narratives. Just as I warned.
posted by troutsky @ 1:51 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Are you off your meds. Khadafy is buds with Chavez, Mandela and Castro.
Recognize your handmaidens and rot
in histories coffin with Marxist criminals.
Not much won in any of the revolts. That is true. This decade we'll see situations like Argentina; three presidents in a month. Capitalism can't work. It'll take time and experience, to come to the right conclusions. Nobody in February 1917 thought the Bolsheviks would take power, a few months later.
The choice in libya, is between Ghadaffy or his ex-minister of justice. The US is keeping his state apparatus intact.
The leaders of the new government were in Europe, while the masses fought the revolution. They should keep their arms.
US/NATO in Libya, is like France helping the US in the American Revolution. We'd be a French colony today, except for the French Revolution.
All of the Middle East and African revolutions, took place in countries that sold off government holdings.
Darn Blogspot. I wasn't anonymous.
Yeah Beak, take a read of the Wikileaks of McCain, Lieberman and Graham going over there to "do business".
Do you object to Mandela, Officer Strutter?
Beak, speaking of true believers, you seem more locked into the dominant myths than anyone else here.
I object to Mandela. Anybody that admires Che' Guevera is objectionable by definition.
Ren, I understand any optimism over Libya or Egypt is irrational at this time but the world is irrational..Just maybe a revolutionary impulse can take hold. My point is demonstrated by Seymour over at Leninology who is doing backflips to keep from admitting the possibility of hope.
Beak, Don't you want to throw Medea Benjamin in there, Chomsky?
One a different note, I was struck by a figure the other day; our private indebtedness has surpassed the GDP. Now, is that a bit too much or can we "grow" out of it (i.e. get enough table scrap from Kapital)?
During St. Ronnie Raygun's recession it was under 40% of GDP. We had savings and resources to get us through. This one is different.
Also look at housing. Rick Perry (R - Big hair) is touting all the amazing crap he did in Texas while maintaining low stable housing prices. Thing is, mortgage regulation in Texas is the tightest in the nation. Forget zero down, 20% is more common. As a result the bubble never happened and housing is about the lowest priced in the nation. Of course no thanks to Rick the Situation.
So here's the deal. What if "true" housing prices are really near the Texas level and we have further to fall? Deep freaking sneakers boys and girls. The middle class will be swallowed up while the Baggers will be calling for them to lose benefits and pony up more taxes. As things get worse the suckers will claim you don't want to tax the job creators (groan).
So Beak, what should we do? The capitalist engine needs consumption and folks aren't going to have anything to consume with. Sounds like we shouldn't have listened to President Goldman Sachs.
Meanwhile, back in the Middle East the Egyptian military is certainly behaving itself.
President Fraud's State Dept. is too busy green lighting the Keystone pipeline (how did State get involved?) so they may check in later.
But that's how it goes Beak. Folks stand up for the freedom and democracy stuff, take casualties and we find out who controls the oil leases, right?
Here we go again
Mandela is a far left loon who happened to have more social graces
than most. He supports brutal regimes
like the nutty Col and was a huge Arafat fan. He is and will always be tarnished by a true look at his alliances.
Funny, but the job of politicians is precisely to do business so I have zero problem with that. This is quite different than Commies arming and training armies and lending political support ala Mandela and Chavez.
Troutsky feel free to link whatever Commies I left out. I wonder why Capo Ren and yourself feign ignorance of the true nature of Jim Jones.
Alas, you should aspire to be like Prof Tarzan who is at least original and entertaining while being dreadfully wrong. Don a loin
cloth swing on vines and be like Krolic. Gravity doesn't matter when you are in a body cast.
Lets print the Krolic manifesto and combine Groucho Marxism with Tarzan. You can be the hit of any cocktail party and a legend in your own mind.
Lets all sing George of the Jungle.
Here we go again
The notion that the current mess is better in Venezuela or Cuba makes your proposition comedic. IronicallyChina has achieved progress by ditching Marxism and starting from the bottom up. One can see the progress in India similarly by dismantling Socialism.
The new job going forward is going to be having to do more with less.
The Tea Party and responsible parties want growth.
President Goldman Sachs???? Goldman Sachs is a well run company
that unlike Marxist Obama has a clue.
You can tell the difference between reality based lefties and the loons when the subject is Obama. Obama is all about big government and aiding his allies in the Bolshevik faculty lounges and big media cocktail parties.
What is the Dream act other than yet another bone tossed to big education.
The new model will be how can we achieve growth and pay for more modest safety nets.
Since you're in a chatty mood, Beak, I'd like to ask you about this obsession you have with Jim Jones.
Do you think that anyone here advocates cults?
If you are interested in utopian societies, why not look into a more rational application of socialism like the Shakers? With a little more balance people might even get the impression you think once in a while.
Duncy
Jim Jones was and remains a Communist. People like Ren knowingly and maliciously feign ignorance as to what he was.
Ren would be Jim Jones but as he lacks a work ethic he is merely the pied piper of whatever Marxist Death Cultist is fashionable. Even
Che Sponge Bob knows a fraud when he sees one.
Communism is a death cult. The Shakers were merely harmless loons.
They did not advocate treason or political criminality or stoke populist Jooooo hatred.
It is my sincerest wish that Commies emulate the model of Jim Jones and practice class genocide on themselves.
The Shakers were merely harmless loons.
----------------
Loons? My, you never fail to live down to my expectations.
Ever visited a Shaker village? There are two near me. One in Canterbury, N.H. and one in Hancock, Mass.
The huge round bard in Hancock is an example of their brilliant design skills. They were masters of practicality and efficiency.
But their designs were always engaging despite the minimalism. We could use more of that philosophy today.
The communities were prosperous and it's unlikely that you'll ever read much negative about them. Children who were adopted and lived in the villages write very glowingly about a happy community.
Loons? No, your friend Pam Geller is a loon but the Shakers were an example of a functional socialist community.
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