RETIREMENT

That word can sound kind of ominous now that I think of it.  I prefer, "riding off into the sunset."  But, when I made my decision to retire from teaching philosophy after 30 years I felt a freedom from the world like I have not felt in a long time.

My sense of spiritual freedom has not wavered and has allowed me to feel the pain of moving on from my life of 30 years of teaching.

It is wonderful scary, like being born again into a new life in the world.

See you all on the other side of the sunset.

THE HOPE OF THE PEOPLE

THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE is techno-bureaucratic centralism. It has yielded a Ruling Class empowered by incalculable financial wealth. This social class in turn exploits the force of technology, bureaucratic yes-men and a virtually hermetically sealed, bought and paid for, pseudo-Federalist government.  It’s mechanisms of threat and control of the People-- that is, those who are the locus of the living social force of love, truth and justice-- are courts of law and expensive lawyers; the unconscionable prisons; the intelligence agencies; the military; police forces; and training/propaganda institutions called ‘schools.’ 

George Orwell represented this centralism in the symbolism of “Big Brother.”  But it is realized today in a de-subjectivized mass of alienated individuals who in moments of doubt, decision and especially crisis turn toward the “leader,” the professionals, the experts, the specialists, the loudest and richest voice in the ethos. 

Long since have we lost the “sensus communis,” the felt sense of the greatest good and purpose of the whole, the community, the ethos.  Long since have we lost the intellectual capacity and honesty of the Socratic spirit.  We turn to the authority, often authoritarian, demagogic, amoral, indifferent, narcissistic, but presenting a face of comfort, trustworthiness and strength.

The ethos, consequently, devolves into one of fear, that is, of paranoia, hysteria and perversion of all sorts.  The illusion of knowing is propagated from all corners of media, institutions, religions; yet the vehicle of truth in the ongoing process of inquiry, of question and answer, comment and response, listening and speaking, studying and reflecting is lost.  It is not annihilated but distorted, deflected, disseminated, distracted in the spectacular side-show of entertainment, addictive consumption and conformity that passes as sociality.

As President George H.W. Bush so aptly put it, ‘there are a thousand points of light’ always.  Yet it cannot go unnoticed that the social body can so easily be coalesced around a central focus that is universalized and becomes the only game in town, according to the official story.  We see this in the “shutdowns” of many countries.  We see it in American history when hundreds of thousands of young people are dragged cluelessly into meaningless and hopeless wars such as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.  We see it in the ideology and successful mass propagandizing of vaccination, a harmful and mostly ineffective practice that has taken on religious proportions.  Yet those who are truly religious cannot use their religious beliefs to oppose being forcibly vaxxed. 

The true “virus” is ignorance, anger, self-righteousness and paralyzing fear—maladies that we have all fallen prey to.  The true “virus” is our own foregoing of authentic courage in the face of doubt, decision, crisis and violent force.  The true “virus” is allowing our minds and creativity, our autonomy and ethical responsibility to be expropriated and co-opted by forces tantamount to evil.

The cure is the natural immunity of health, love, joyfulness, peace, play and happiness without reason.  Have fun, work hard and support one another.  I hope I can listen to myself.

NEITHER FOR NOT AGAINST THE PROTESTS

There is a third way in understanding the recent protests against police brutality in general and the killing of George Floyd in particular.  One way is to be for the protest; and, for various reasons, the second way is to oppose the protests.  The latter reasoning is taking the form of protesting the protests anti-American or anarchistic flavor; also, there are those who see the back protesters as belly-achers who ought to "go get a job" rather that complain or simply have no reason to complain.  Such protests seem to claim that the police are just doing their job, a job that most of us wouldn't do. But this second form of opposition to the protest  undoubtedly haas racist overtones.

Of course, the killing of George Floyd was wrong in so many ways.  Even if it were the only killing of a black man in America it would be egregiously unjustified and, to say the least, reprehensible.  So this was clearly barbaric brutality.

Moreover we should be concerned about this obviously.  But to be concerned with the trees and lose sight of the forest would be an equally tragic error.  The 'trees' in this analogy is the recurrence of police brutality against blacks on the streets of America and sometimes in the homes of America.   But the forest is neither the quantity of brutality nor the racist implications nor the beatings themselves.  

The 'forest' being missed is the invisible context of distraction, distraction from the strategy of the ruling class to divide and conquer the people.  The People all have more in common with one another, even in the context of mutual distrust and/or hatred, than we have with the 1%er's the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Secretary of the Treasury Steve Minuchin, or any of the other billionaires in the U.S. Senate and in the Presidential Cabinet, etc,etc.  

The innumerable abstract divisions that the Ruling Class pit against one another are unnecessary and self-defeating.  But the divisions are many: black vs white; male vs female; straight vs gay; religious vs non-religious; all the religions against one another; educated vs uneducated; workers vs professionals; city vs country; heartland vs the coastal regions;  young vs old; republican vs democrat; conservative vs liberal; capitalist vs anti-capitalist; blue state vs red state; patriots vs traitors, workers vs welfare cheats, rich vs poor, socialist vs capitalist, etc., etc. But most recently the division is between those favoring the "Shutdown" and those favoring opening up the society to work and play and socializing.  Between those who presumably have compassion for those dying from "the Virus" and those callous son-of-a-bitches who don't care about other people.  Nevertheless another false distinction, abstract, misleading and further stoking the heat and passion of our false conflicts and dividing the People from the themselves, only to miss who the Real Opposition is and who the real conflict is really with.  These false oppositions are, in short, illusions.  They are not real.  They are apparitions of control, domination, disinformation, ideology and dependency.

These supposed oppositions do not thrive necessarily on their own.  They are exacerbated by the elitist and liberal press and often by the conservative media like Fox News.  The passions are heated; the pseudo-conflicts sharpened and the urgency to oppose the Other and identify with "one's own" is hastened.  Thus we arrive at a time such as now when we supposedly have devolved into a "tribalist" society.  This, however, is a plainly false and opportunistic diagnosis, sociologically shallow, serving only the purposes of spectacle, catchy tag lines for the press and magazine writers and all too facile 'theory' for the amateur sociologists.

The big context, the big picture, the "forest" beyond the trees is the difference between, the conflict between and the irresolvable antagonism between the miniscule but infinitely powerful Ruling Class and the People, the people divided, atomized, alienated; the people turned into a mass, a crowd, the great uneducated and unwashed who must be controlled, (mis)-led, propagandized and not educated, used and if "required" intimidated and abused just to keep them in line. 

The People against the Ruling Class: this is the primary, fundamental and finally determinative framework that shapes all conflicts, difficulties and dilemmas in America.  But we don't fight this fight.  We, the People, who simply want life, liberty and happiness, are manipuated into fighting one another in endless, unresolvable, skirmishes of ultimate futility, frustration and finally cynicism and indifference. We resign ourselves to being led, "taken care of," and exploited, but in the end only to the benefit and interest of the Ruling Class.

The people are being, on a daily basis, lulled and wooed into myopically focusing on the outrage of the day; obsessing on the immediate spectacle in front of their face; succumbing to the shallow but provocative News reports, streaming constantly without proper context, without any meaningful analysis and without any foresight with respect to strategic solutions to the decadent and dystopian backslide of our "culture."  We the People are being entertained, incited to purposeless passions and finally addicted to beliefs and prejudices that allows to believe that our ignorance, illusions and self-righteousness are really knowledge, truth and righteousness.  We lose sight of our history; we lose the capacity to think historically, thus we keep repeating it.

Consequently, the organic, harmonious and human possiblities of community, autonomy and responsibility are lost.  True social individuality is destroyed and the abilities of "sensus communis," of having a felt sense of the good of the whole that enables us to think, speak and act with a vision and compassion for the good of the "whole." 

Consequently, that is, as a consequence of not seeing the true big picture of the conflict, the war, between the Ruling Class and the People, we lose the ability, will and desire to truly think.  That is, we lose the capacity for truth, for the guidance of the purposefulness that truth guides us toward and aligns us with. "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free."  The Ruling Class wants us to believe that we are all right.  They nurture, promote and elevate the virtue of relativistic annhilation of truth a truth that we all share, the People with themselves and Humanity with a future possiblity of peace, freedom and mutual prosperity.

But this truth of peace and prosperity for all will not arise in the consciousness of the People by itself.  It must be fought for intellectually but also practically in organizing for autonomy and responsiblity at the local a regional level.  The principle of subsidiarity must prevail: that is, what can be done at home should be done at home.  Regional communities must be rebuilt relatively independently of the state and "federal governments.  All politics is local politics and democracy is to be one also at home.  How we want to live our lives must be established and realized at home.  Our values are not to be determined by corporations, centralized state governments, mass media, artificial culture created by "youth cultures," professionalization of sports and entertainment.  

We the People must awaken to the truth of life here, now in the community.  But this new community, new social individuality and de-consructed state is one that thinks globally but acts and organizes organically at the local level.  The new regionalism and central-servant state is not isolationist but open to others as immigrants, cultures, ideas and commerce.  The new populist communites and regions must grow toward a new multi-cultural melding of the gifts and flavorings of the differences among us in order at some level and in some way to make them our own.

We can have unity and harmony through difference, differences that are not trivial, abstract and meaningless.  We need not be homogenized into a manipulable mass nor atomized and alienated into a herd of wage slaves selfishly looking out for "our own interests" as if this will actually work out.  We can have 'difference' without fear, hatred, rage and prejudice. We can have differences to learn from grow from, be nurtured by.  In fact it is only through difference, friendly opposition and the experience of the other that life lives and prospers, learns, laughs and ultimately loves.

TOWARD NEO-POPULIST REVOLUTION

TOWARD A NEO-POPULIST FEDERALIST REVOLUTION

It's inadvertently good politically that Trump is turning control of the re-opening of the economy over to the states. It throws some light on the capacity of the states to take control of their own destiny and work with other states to re-empower local regions, communities and economies.

It serves the Neo-populist Federalist task of deconstructing the bureaucratic-technocratic managerial elite in Washington and in the two parties-- the New Class of managerial liberals. It's task is thereby to destroy Centralist elitist control of our democratic culture. Such de-constructive, de-centralization is the task of the revolution of the localities, regions and states, that is, the vision of the revolution of "neo-populist federalism." This revolution is based on the principle of subsidiarity, in short, meaning "what can be done at home, should be done at home." By logical extension, what an individual can do for him- or herself should be done by the same, not by the State, the 'Feds,' the specialists, experts and professionals. The re-constitution of individuality is the third task of this vision of revolution.

Neo-populism is conservative and progressive but not "left-wing" or "right-wing" in terms of the conventional usage of these relatively meaningless terms, meaningless in the sense of their uselessness in understanding and mediating progressive change.
Neo-populist Federalism is a genuine re-democratization of communities; it is thereby also the subjective re-empowerment of political ingenuity down to the level of the individual.
So, in summary, this new revolution involves three simultaneous projects: First, the de-constructive de-centralization of the Bureaucratic-Technocratic Managerial New Class elite in Washington and thereby in the two party-system. Secondly, the re-constitution of democratic control by re-appropriating state, regional and local community autonomy and self-responsibility. Thirdly it means reconstituting being a democratic citizen grounded in the primacy of local culture and community. All three of these projects are a function of the principle of subsidiarity. Democracy, autonomy, moral responsibility grows from the ground up, from local multi-cultural democratic communities.

This revolution flies in the face of mass mediated, big money dominated pseudo-democracy. It flies in the face of a two party system controlling candidate selection and platform determination. Such a system is a cancerous tumor lodged in Washington, seeded throughout the country through the blood and lymph of Republicanism and Democratism, enervating the voice, the will and the democratic confidence of the people.

Populism in its authenticity is neither left-wing socialist/communist revolutionism nor right-wing alt-right reaction. A true Populism is an organic vision of faith in the people. It aims to move beyond the wish and hope for a benign Big Brother. It gives up the hope for some Big-Other-technocratic messiah to do the work of the people from above, from outside their own local sovereignties. It seeks to transcend and thereby to enervate and destroy the hegemony of the New Class Puppet-masters pulling the strings of finance, profit, mass media ideology/ propaganda and tax parasitism, militarism and the bio-political invasion of bodily sovereignty and choice.
Neo-populist Federalism aims to de-colonize communities, the practice of democracy, the education of the people and the subjective power of individuals to create values worth living for, and a culture beyond commercialism, the mass aesthetics of Hollywood/TV/Internet, capitalist possessive individualism and a de-spiritualized relation to nature.

This revolutionary program is obviously a work in progress. But as Nietzsche insisted, we need to step outside the "city" to see how bad it is and what needs to be done. This project, vision and program intends such a comprehensive critical perspective on politics, revolution, democracy and the people.

DEMOCRACY OR AUTOCRATIC OLIGARCHY?

Trump is the sign and symptom of late capitalist moral and spiritual decadence.  He has released the crass discourse of demagoguery.   He has legitimized and normalized self-righteous anger, hatred and violence.  He has enabled the Senatorial Republican Oligarch class to turn their back on institutional integrity and the sanctity of rule of Law.  

 The Rule of Law has succumbed to the spirit of Oligarchic normativity transforming Law into an instrument of manipulation, control and domination.   Trump and his sycophants are engaged in attacking and attempting to instrumentalize the Justice Department, the Congress, the Intelligence agencies, the State Department, the Supreme Court and the Federal  Judiciary.  

 Moderates, centrists, middle-of-the-roaders are arguing for a unity in America that does not exist and under the present political and economic conditions not possible.  This appraisal is not extremism but a sharpening of the contradictions of capitalist pseudo-culture which may well now be coming to consciousness in the under-class.  What is becoming clear is that late capitalist pseudo-culture is a violent assault on liberty, equality and sociality; an assault on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

 Late capitalism is violence normalized and utilized to de-humanize and de-democratize the polity.  Not only is democracy at stake but the very spiritual and moral soul of America as that once possible shining city on a hill.

TRUTH UNDER SEIGE?

Has truth met its waterloo in TrumpWorld?  Given the fusillade of alternative "facts," the facade of relativistic rhetoric, the obscurantist sophistics of the likes of Sean Spicer?  Given the mouthpieces of Trumpworld such as Sean Spicer, Kelly Anne Conway, Steven Miller and, God forbid, Sarah Huckabee Sanders? 

Possibly never before have such scurrilous speakers of the language used political discourse to prevent language from pursuing truth, what the Greeks of Socrates' time called the "Logos."  What we see happening in TrumpWorld and manifested daily by his mouthpieces is Orwellian doublespeak literally.  Here today in American politics, fiction becomes truth, life verifies art.  

Possibly only comedy can deal with and expose the untruth of TrumpWorld.  We see much of this on late night TV.  Much of what we see obscured politically regarding real issues is complicated by the triviality of issues such as Trumps claims regarding 4-5 million illegal voters, assertion of record breaking crowds at his inaugural, accusation of Obama's illegal wiretapping at Trump tower, accusing British Intellegence of spying on the Whitehouse, quibbling over deceptive distinctions such as "literal" vs "serious" statements by the so-called President, etc., etc.  Such trivial if not eccentric claims are red meat for comedy but an anaesthesia for democratic discourse.

Of course, this superstructural obscurantism does point to some non-trivial issues such as what is implied by Trump's accusation of Obama committing a felony.  But sadly such as this is tantamount to a child not recognizing the serious implications of his words. So truth is not in sorting out the sophistries of the "reality TV light show" of Trump's lackeys and sycophants. The truth is in the infrastructural issues.  The truth of infrastructural actions is what must be attended to such as the infamous "Muslim Ban." 

The infrastructural issues point to the real issues and the truths we should be concerned with.  The real issues are these:  Firstly, the dismantling of the state department while dramatically increasing an already wasteful pentagon.  Within an ideology of Economic Nationalism, as General Mattis has warned, ‘if we disengage the state department and suspend diplomacy you will have to buy him more bullets.  So is Bannonist ideology intending military diplomacy and abandoning negotiation even though Trump claims to be the great negotiator?  Does Economic nationalism mean opportunistic military interventionism?

Secondly, will Trump pay for the medical, educational and social needs of the people, the very people who voted for him, prior to the ushering in of his promised golden age of the return of good jobs and prosperity to the homeland?  The real needs of people will not be satisfied by Economic Nationalist pipedreams.

Thirdly, will Bannonism enable the alt-right white Christian cultural vision to perpetuate the regressive culture war?  Or will the Bannon-believers wake up to the inevitable and only true populist vision for America, namely a multi-cultural reconstitution of community and local culture?  Possibly Trump could awaken to his own liberal-cultural tendencies and instincts and fire Bannon thus eliminating his insidious, obfuscating alt-right influence in the administration.

Fourthly, will the contradiction between egregiously wasteful spending on “the Wall,” and the military be reconciled with the promise to cut the deficit.  

Fifthly, can democracy be salvaged while Wall Street invades Washington in the form of Goldman Sachs populating the Trump administration and Billionaires bankrolling the expropriation of democratic politics from its local roots and lifeblood?  Can democracy be salvaged as business is conflated and confused with government and diplomacy?  Mass manipulation of an essentially under-educated populace does not a democracy make?  Trump’s base is not “deplorable” as Hillary Clinton exclaimed.  Their choices are regrettable or even lamentable.  They will themselves eventually regret and lament their choice of Trump.  They will discover that stoking the fires of white identity politics does not address their real needs and interests, nor promote their real political power which lay in uniting with “left-wing populism."

Lastly will the virulent behemoth of two-party politics finally be declared the 800 lb. gorilla in the political room.  Trump is neither conservative nor Republican.  Bernie Sanders was not really Demcratic nor liberal nor really even “socialist.”  Present party politics obscures the interests of the people and enervates their own possible political initiative.  The “revolution” required in American politics can’t be carried out while thinking in the obsolete bi-polar categories of left-right, liberal-conservative, Republican-Democrat, red state-blue state, white vs black, Christian vs Muslim, rich vs poor, people vs politicians, welfare vs workers, etc.  Obviously the supposed conflicts used to divide us are more determinative than the commonalites that unite and can harmonize us.  But Legislators are meant to harmonize the interests that unite the many rather than politicize unnecessary pseudo-conflict polarities that ultimately enrich and empower the few.  We thereby need a revolution in thought and political education in order to pursue and unconceal the real issues of truth.

Has truth met its Waterloo?  Not at all.  We must simply know where to look for it, how to articulate it and give it the light of day. The democracy needs "citizen legislators" who will reappropriate the republic and democratize the intelligence of the people. 

TRUMP BEYOND TRUTH

WHY ARE TRUTH AND FACT NOT IMPORTANT TO TRUMP?  …… It may well be that Trump just doesn’t pay attention to the facts for whatever reason whether narcissism, arrogance, ignorance.  He may not pay attention to truth because, like most people, he doesn’t see a difference between truth and facts whether those of his or others.  On the other hand, a better explanation may be that the liberal discourse generally shapes a body of fact and consequent truth that has had bad consequences for America as Trump sees it.  

He and Bannon are moving the narrative away from the validity of this discourse.  These Economic Nationalists see themselves creating a new narrative which requires a structural transformation of state and society.  It is within and as a consequence of this re-structuration that the narrative of new values will emerge.  Or possibly, as they probably see it, old values that must be renewed, a conservative culture that must be rehabilitated.   

So the globalist liberal media becomes the enemy of the people because their discourse narrates a “violence” against the re-valuation of state and society, trade and foreign relations, community and culture.  Trump’s “truths” are the values of the predominantly white working class who have not been allowed an identity politics as they perceive it.  There obviously still cling to white identity politics the regressive tendencies of racism, sexism, zenophobia and religious charvinism.  But for the Trumpists this will be tolerated in order to make the transition to a new populist polity.    

This is not my populism but the populism that won him the election and could sustain him through a second term.