Totalitarianism Today

TOTALITARIANISM TODAY

Sunday, March 9, 2003

A pin that made me grin.

Sunday, March 9, 2003

Eli Pariser makes The New York Times.

George Packer writes:

On the day after Sept. 11, Pariser, who was living outside Boston at the time, sent an e-mail message to a group of friends that urged them to contact elected officials and to advocate a restrained response to the terror attacks -- a police action in the framework of international law. War, Pariser believed, was the wrong answer; it would only slaughter more innocents and create more terrorists. Friends passed his letter on to more friends, it replicated exponentially, as things tend to do on the Internet, and Pariser woke one morning to find 300 e-mail messages in his in-box. A journalist called him from Romania. "I've received this from five different people," he said. "Who are you?"

I moved to Boston the January following September 11th. My reasons for moving included a general frustration with the politepolitik of DC, where I had been residing, as well as the need to rethink my political commitment to libertarianism. (There was also a "romantic" relationship involved. As for many during the post-Sept. 11th period, questions of human mortality and happiness grew paramount.)

My initial distaste for the war only grew in proportion to the Bush administration's public statements. The man in my life did not support the war, but being a half-hearted, easily-distracted fellow, he never took much interest in my antiwar internet activities and concerns. Eli and his newsletter network brightened my every week. For a little while, I even contributed as a volunteer research aid for the newsletter. In retrospect, I am ashamed to say that even big-mouthed Alina did not do enough.

My admiration for Eli continues. We all contribute what we can to the antiwar effort. Eli just so happens to have contributed more than anyone else I know. Hats off to a true political sage.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Color me smug.

Finally, someone said it.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Can we posit a "good" kind of nationalism?

Writing for Dissent, Jim Sleeper rouses the civic nationalism often espoused by what remains of the American Left for closer examination.

"The great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for right," Martin Luther King, Jr. had said twelve years before. And the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas marveled at the "constitutional patriotism" of Americans who drew their strength to confront the state not from nationalist fantasies of racial and ethnic destiny but from a civic-nationalist commingling of religious passion and Enlightenment principle. But could a republic relying so heavily on civic virtue, borne by such crosscurrents, endure? Before sixties' nostalgia clouds the answer, let me complicate it by suggesting that constitutional patriots might include civilly disobedient but peaceful anti-abortion activists who believe that life is a continuous, sacred thread, not to be broken by the state or by individuals exercising their "rights." You may loathe these activists as conservatives did those who opposed the Vietnam War. But the test of constitutional patriotism is whether you can respect those who accept legal punishment to strengthen their dissent.

Civic discipline like that may seem dowdy or foolish to champions of higher materialist or salvific truths and to their writerly cheerleaders, radiant mainly with a desire to be radiant. But there are strains of Hebrew prophecy and obligation to law in these humbler acts of witness, as well as Enlightenment wisdom about individuality and liberty, and a dose of realpolitik. This civic patriotism has freed more people in the past century than all exclusively ideological and religious crusades combined. The confessional nationalism of Polish Solidarity liberated more people than had any progressive passion for justice alone or any conservative passion for honor alone. More than a few of us have missed this, too, by misconstruing the religious dimensions of civic nationalism.

The "left" and the "right" are no longer vessels of hope. That became obvious in the 2000 presidential primaries as conservative flag-wavers scrambled to discredit an American war hero who charged that their global capitalist "iron triangle" of big money, bad lobbyists, and undemocratic legislation was debasing the country. Liberals and some leftists cast shy, admiring glances at John McCain's insurgency, which seemed to confirm what the philosopher Richard Rorty had insisted on a few years before: national pride is as vital as individual self-respect to winning social justice. The left, Rorty argued, has forgotten how to keep American pride on the sound footing set by Eugene V. Debs, A. Philip Randolph, and others who were anything but conservatives. They found the United States exceptional not because it is racially superior or divinely blessed but because it enhances democratic prospects by mixing Puritan moral passion with Enlightenment principle.

Sleeper's friendly approach to civic nationalism does not completely convince me, however. While civic nationalism does avoid the bloody pitfalls of ethnic nationalism, it is still bound by the government (or system of governance) it is assumed to support. Anarchists cannot be civic nationalists. Though the converse does not necessarily follow, it seems genuine skeptical protest is more difficult for those who insist on glorifying the form of government (i.e. American democracy) even as it fails to live up to its promises.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Love, armed with some lines from a poem by Paul Celan.

Go. Come.
Love blots out its name: to
you it ascribes itself.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Nip it in the bud: Protest in the EU.

New EU laws set up to deal with hackers have the potential to make internet protest a crime. The European justice ministers came to an agreement last week which obliges all 15 member states to adopt a new criminal offense: illegal access to, and illegal interference with an information system.

For violation of this criminal law, national courts are expected to impose jail terms of at least two years in serious cases. Legal critics claim the agreement makes no legal distinction between an online protester and the terrorists, hackers and spreaders of computer viruses that the new laws are intended to trap. Let's hope Bush doesn't get any ideas..

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Robert Scheer on lies, secrecy, and a lamentable resignation.

Contributing editor for The Nation Robert Scheer calls the Bush bluff on Iraq. Most salient in this article, however, is the quote from John Brady Kiesling, the Foreign Service officer who resigned from his post to protest the administration's foreign policy hubris.

"We have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of the American people, since the war in Vietnam," wrote John Brady Kiesling, a twenty-year veteran of the US Foreign Service in his letter of resignation last week to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Kiesling, who was political counselor in US embassies throughout the Mideast, added that "until this Administration, it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my President, I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer."

Kiesling exemplifies good statesmanship at its apex.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Aristotle explains the structure of tragedy.

Tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves, and these—thought and character—are the two natural causes from which actions spring, and on actions again all success or failure depends. Hence, the Plot is the imitation of the action: for by plot I here mean the arrangement of the incidents. By Character I mean that in virtue of which we ascribe certain qualities to the agents. Thought is required wherever a statement is proved, or, it may be, a general truth enunciated. Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Character, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Song. Two of the parts constitute the medium of imitation, one the manner, and three the objects of imitation. And these complete the list. These elements have been employed, we may say, by the poets to a man; in fact, every play contains Spectacular elements as well as Character, Plot, Diction, Song, and Thought.

But most important of all is the structure of the incidents. For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality. Now character determines men's qualities, but it is by their actions that they are happy or the reverse. Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. Hence the incidents and the plot are the end of a tragedy; and the end is the chief thing of all.

Again, without action there cannot be a tragedy; there may be without character. The tragedies of most of our modern poets fail in the rendering of character; and of poets in general this is often true. It is the same in painting; and here lies the difference between Zeuxis and Polygnotus. Polygnotus delineates character well: the style of Zeuxis is devoid of ethical quality. Again, if you string together a set of speeches expressive of character, and well finished in point of diction and thought, you will not produce thc essential tragic effect nearly so well as with a play which, however deficient in these respects, yet has a plot and artistically constructed incidents. Besides which, the most powerful elements of emotional: interest in Tragedy Peripeteia or Reversal of the Situation, and Recognition scenes—are parts of the plot. A further proof is, that novices in the art attain to finish: of diction and precision of portraiture before they can construct the plot. It is the same with almost all the early poets.

The Plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy: Character holds the second place. A similar fact is seen in painting. The most beautiful colours, laid on confusedly, will not give as much pleasure as the chalk outline of a portrait. Thus Tragedy is the imitation of an action, and of the agents mainly with a view to the action.

The full text of Aristotle's Poetics is now available online to those eager enough to avail themselves.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

5 things you should know.

Find out why....
1. Saddam suddenly loves Madonna.
2. This war with Iraq will be anything but "a war of liberation".
3. One in four people suffers from some sort of "mental defect" in our overly-therapeutic society.
4. One in 20 women thinks she has been raped. I'll drop a hint here-- the key lies in the evolving standard of consent.
5. The heat is on Tony Blair.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

To whom do you pledge your allegiance?

A poll from Kuro5hin:

I pledge allegiance to:
'God' 9%
Graven images 5%
White rule 4%
My country 6%
National symbols 0%
Mammon 4%
Liberty 29%
Other 39%

Votes: 1145

Ok, I admit, the %4 white rule result is scary. I'm just hoping it is a joke.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Your first marriage as training wheels.

Kristin Marcum introduces the "starter marriage". Honestly, I would rather raise a child alone than marry and divorce by the time the child turns five. No man is worth being dragged through the gutter called American family court.

I'll take my chances with the solo ride until the right man comes along. Hell, if he's the "right man", we won't even need a legal decree like marriage to make it work. Alas, the eternal optimist in me rears her hope-filled head. Or perhaps 'tis the eternal romantic that I can't seem to stifle...

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Hope by Ovidiu Tabacaru.

When my eyes first set on this photo, I recognized it as one of the seating rooms in the Bran castle, located in Transylvania. For those who don't keep up with the medieval horror stories, the Romanian government books the Bran castle as the home of Dracula, although Vlad Tepes only lived here for a short time. All the nights that my cousin Filip and I snuck into the Bran castle to spend the night, in the hopes of encountering Dracula's ghost. Some of the most beautiful moments of my late childhood and early adulthood were spent in Bran. I am always seeking an excuse to return.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

Revolving doors not just a problem for the defense industry.

John Dunbar of the Center for Public Integrity bemoans the "FCC's rapidly revolving door". At issue is the hiring of former chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, Dorothy Attwood, who played an crucial role in shaping policies governing local telephone competition.

Attwood is now a senior vice president for federal regulatory strategy for SBC Communications, helping the telecom giant reshape the rules that she, herself, helped draft during her time as FCC bureau chief.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

The "New Europe" and "anti-Americanism".

Laura Secor describes Central Europeans as "the anti-anti-Americans", noting the extent to which their support of Bush's policy towards Iraq has divided the NATO alliance.

Something is different about the Central European countries-Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic-that have already joined NATO and whose leaders now back the Bush administration's threat to disarm Iraq by force. It's not just that anti-Americanism hasn't put down roots there. It's that when push comes to shove, when forced to choose between loyalties to the United States and Europe, these countries cast their lot with the United States. Opposition to the threatened war in Iraq may be pervasive-82 percent in Hungary, 75 percent in Poland, 67 percent in the Czech Republic-but it is conditional and cautious. What's more, opposition to the war has little to do with fears, common among protesters in the United States and Western Europe, of an increasingly unbridled American lust for empire.

Central and Eastern European friends who refuse to get involved in the antiwar movement argue that Iraq is a totalitarian country. As such, it is the historical responsibility of postcommunist states to support the Bush mandate to liberate the Iraqi people. This is a tough conversation to conduct with friends who have lived through the worst moments of Ceausescu's regime. I find myself listening more than speaking.

Friday, March 7, 2003

Color me incredulous.

In Russia, the Miss Army competition evaluates its contestants for beauty and bravery. As the friend who sent this link to me noted, "I suppose it does qualify as an improvement".

The courage of Russian women is not just tested in contests anymore-- the rising number of female bodyguards raises a few eyebrows. If only a few of the tragicomic fluff-brains populating MTV's Sorority Life 2 were pursuing goals as self-edifying as self-defense. The first rule to a good defense is intelligent threat evaluation. Drop the enviro-friendly hairspray and leave the hellish environment of a sorority-house, where every conversation is a back-stab, and the "dues" shelled out for "friends" or "sisters" buys you sweet-talking, envious enemies instead. I find these girls disgusting, obnoxious, and yet hilarious. Are these floozies for real?

Friday, March 7, 2003

Make way for the American troops!

Kuwaitis are being pushed out of certain geographical areas to make room for Western troops. According to a report in The Guardian, the Kuwaiti government has drawn a line from the south-western corner of Kuwait to the coast, essentially slicing Kuwait in half, declaring the northern part off limits to its own people and giving Washington and London carte blanche to manoeuvre an armed horde there which is estimated to comprise about a quarter of a million men and women.

The situation along the coast in Romania is similar, as reported by a few Romanian PHD candidates over dinner last night. Apparently, the beach resorts near Constanta have been closed to the public, as the American troops require use of all the luxury hotels situated along the coastline. Hmmm... call me cynical, but it seems that at least the human trafficking networks will be booming as a result of this takeover. Prostitutes will certainly flock to hotels filled with American servicemen. Consider this a little friendly trade boon to Romanian prostitutes, courtesy of the liberating US armed forces.

Friday, March 7, 2003

Opinions on the Bush approach.

Susan Estrich thinks "Bush would be a great peacemaker, if only he weren't so determined to go to war".

BBC World Affairs Correspondent Paul Reynolds points a wagging finger at neoconservatives for the Bush administration's reckless, headlong slide into war. The time for ignorance about The Project for a New American Century has passed.

Hats off to Gene Healy, who supports his argument for why Hussein will not give WMD to al Quaeda with a combination of facts and incisive foreign policy analysis.

Friday, March 7, 2003

Lyrics from Leonard Cohen songs.

From "Stories of the Street", with Dr. Ryan Wallace in mind.

"And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?
Why are the armies marching still that were coming home to me?
O lady with your legs so fine O stranger at your wheel,
You are locked into your suffering and your pleasures are the seal.

The age of lust is giving birth, and both the parents ask
the nurse to tell them fairy tales on both sides of the glass.
And now the infant with his cord is hauled in like a kite,
and one eye filled with blueprints, one eye filled with night..."

From "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong", with no one in particular in mind.

An Eskimo showed me a movie
he'd recently taken of you:
the poor man could hardly stop shivering,
his lips and his fingers were blue.
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
and I guess he just never got warm.
But you stand there so nice, in your blizzard of ice,
oh please let me come into the storm.

From "The Old Revolution", for anyones who needs the invitation.

Yes, you who are broken by power,
you who are absent all day,
you who are kings for the sake of your children's story,
the hand of your beggar is burdened down with money,
the hand of your lover is clay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture...

CASTIGAT RIDENDO MORES.