The real reason nothing will be done about the “illegal immigrant problem” is because for the Neo-con oligarchy now in control of America, there is no problem. Illegal immigration is another “shock crisis” providing opportunity to further disenfranchise, disorient and dumb down the workforce and what remains of the authentic impulse toward democracy.
With any luck, from the Neo-con perspective, this will give the terrorists the best possible opportunity to easily gain entry to the our country to pull off some semblance of 9/11 again, thus affording the Neo-cons sufficient reason, that is, excuse, to finish tightening the vice grip of their neo-fascist technocracy. More control from above will adequately demoralize and infantilize us. Such frightened, dumbed down pseudo-citizens, that is, human mediocrities, make for good worker bees and super-soldiers capable of carrying out orders to finalize the securing of the new “Americanized” global empire.
Moreover the infusion of Hispanic culture will not necessarily strengthen America's economic culture as the myth of the melting pot presumes. But it will serve to continue the homogenization of community, the collapse of cultural differences and any genuine re-creation of potentially new multi-cultural, neo-populist communities which can build on the traditions of the past and fulfill upon democratic self-determination.
America is being used by the Neo-con’s for nothing more than a launching pad for the new transnationalist political class. Given that nation-states are now too small to deal with international problems and too big to deal with internal issues, the New (Political) Class must dissolve national boundaries of supposed sovereignty and emulsify the particularity of indigenous peoples such that there is nothing to defend or protect, that is, identify with as homeland. We can then all be citizens of the world, interchangeable and therefore essentially exploitable if not expendable. You can belong everywhere and nowhere. If we can’t secure peace, we can thus always instrumentalize the shock of crisis and chaos. It’s a good business model.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
LIBERTARIANISM LANDS IN NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y.
The Libertarian values of personal liberty, small government and business autonomy are obviously, on the surface, attractive. Yet they are, of course, vague and leave many questions to be answered. As such one is left with the perception that the general problem is one of quantification: more liberty, less government and more autonomy for business. The qualitative questions, however, are what should interest us.
To what extent does the primacy of personal liberty take into account or presuppose the social being which determines the kind of individual personal liberty we will enact? After all we are "social individuals" before we are "individuals." Are Libertarians flip-flopping in reaction to the social engineering/social welfare model that has dominated American politics? That is, are they creating the exact opposite problem: further atomization and an alienated mass of individuals without individuality yet paraded shamelessly in the name of individual liberty? When, in other words, does individual liberty become socially irresponsible opportunism and license? Given that we now live in a mass culture that seriously threatens family and community, is the emphasis on personal liberty beside the point? The point being that continuing emphasis on the primacy and priority of the "individual" and personal freedom overlooks the continuing disintegration of social and cultural identity, belonging and purposefulness as and in community.
Moreover, rather than smaller government, possibly we should be talking about authentically representative government, and what kind of public openness, commonality of values and shared interests would assure such representation. Obviously, great leaders for the Republic do not seem to be able to rise to the top. When the people at the grass roots level are systematically excluded from real, rational democratic discourse not only at the national but especially at the local level, the moneyed interest blocs choose who will lead “us”, not the people. The likes of unabashed offering of Dan Quayle and George W. Bush as great leaders does not inspire my trust in the Republican system of government nor my faith that the best leaders will rise to the top. Such leaders as we have seen recently are dupes, mouthpieces, empty vessels for extra-political ideologists and business lobbies such as the neo-cons and Halliburton. When a democracy is gounded in mass alienation and media-constituted culture, we have neither democracy nor authentic representation let alone the kind of process in which intelligent, courageous and authentically representative leadership can emerge.
Lastly, the market is not an invisible magic wand that guarantees good and prosperous business. The “business model” that I keep hearing about is possibly not even good for business. At best, the “business model,” whatever it really is, seems to be good for business but not necessarily for people. The history of the labor movement, the practice of planned obsolescence and the militarization of industry bring the value of the “business model” into serious question. Business practice and creativity does need freedom but business itself should not become the cart that leads the horse.
Whether another party with highly questionable precepts will serve Niagara County well I don’t know. Nevertheless, it seems that we need to think beyond the party model of political organization and action and imagine what politics would be like if the community were the operating agent of poltical action. The party system will likely continue to facilitate business and ideological interests that are socially and culturally destructive and divisive. It will probably continue to mimic the model of national politics, a practice that fails to express and explore the interests of people in community. It will most likely further stimulate a discourse about pseudo-issues and more distractive talk about the bad behavior of candidates, their strategies, performance and prospects. It will lead us further into the darkness of the proceduralist democracy that we now have. We need a constitutive democracy which does not presuppose that all is well at the social, cultural and community level of American life. Why not work at building a community and region as opposed to another party that will probably play into the perversions of power politics, class elitism, and the bureaucratic centralism which is the real poltical problem in America and in New York and in Niagara County.
To what extent does the primacy of personal liberty take into account or presuppose the social being which determines the kind of individual personal liberty we will enact? After all we are "social individuals" before we are "individuals." Are Libertarians flip-flopping in reaction to the social engineering/social welfare model that has dominated American politics? That is, are they creating the exact opposite problem: further atomization and an alienated mass of individuals without individuality yet paraded shamelessly in the name of individual liberty? When, in other words, does individual liberty become socially irresponsible opportunism and license? Given that we now live in a mass culture that seriously threatens family and community, is the emphasis on personal liberty beside the point? The point being that continuing emphasis on the primacy and priority of the "individual" and personal freedom overlooks the continuing disintegration of social and cultural identity, belonging and purposefulness as and in community.
Moreover, rather than smaller government, possibly we should be talking about authentically representative government, and what kind of public openness, commonality of values and shared interests would assure such representation. Obviously, great leaders for the Republic do not seem to be able to rise to the top. When the people at the grass roots level are systematically excluded from real, rational democratic discourse not only at the national but especially at the local level, the moneyed interest blocs choose who will lead “us”, not the people. The likes of unabashed offering of Dan Quayle and George W. Bush as great leaders does not inspire my trust in the Republican system of government nor my faith that the best leaders will rise to the top. Such leaders as we have seen recently are dupes, mouthpieces, empty vessels for extra-political ideologists and business lobbies such as the neo-cons and Halliburton. When a democracy is gounded in mass alienation and media-constituted culture, we have neither democracy nor authentic representation let alone the kind of process in which intelligent, courageous and authentically representative leadership can emerge.
Lastly, the market is not an invisible magic wand that guarantees good and prosperous business. The “business model” that I keep hearing about is possibly not even good for business. At best, the “business model,” whatever it really is, seems to be good for business but not necessarily for people. The history of the labor movement, the practice of planned obsolescence and the militarization of industry bring the value of the “business model” into serious question. Business practice and creativity does need freedom but business itself should not become the cart that leads the horse.
Whether another party with highly questionable precepts will serve Niagara County well I don’t know. Nevertheless, it seems that we need to think beyond the party model of political organization and action and imagine what politics would be like if the community were the operating agent of poltical action. The party system will likely continue to facilitate business and ideological interests that are socially and culturally destructive and divisive. It will probably continue to mimic the model of national politics, a practice that fails to express and explore the interests of people in community. It will most likely further stimulate a discourse about pseudo-issues and more distractive talk about the bad behavior of candidates, their strategies, performance and prospects. It will lead us further into the darkness of the proceduralist democracy that we now have. We need a constitutive democracy which does not presuppose that all is well at the social, cultural and community level of American life. Why not work at building a community and region as opposed to another party that will probably play into the perversions of power politics, class elitism, and the bureaucratic centralism which is the real poltical problem in America and in New York and in Niagara County.
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