ckaihatsu
10th January 2013, 21:44
The U.S. nation-state has only two sides to its schizophrenic split-personality. A Republican footing shifts the prevailing mentality to one of an extended military Keynesianism and associated warmongering, giving free reign to hawkishness while instituting a domestic bunker mentality, as with George W. Bush's administration from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina.
Now, however, with the neocons resoundingly repudiated, the country is left with its *other* personality -- one that plateaus at idealism-run-amok as the prevailing liberal types both foist-on and succumb-to ever-changing simplistic characterizations of this-or-that personage, in lieu of a genuinely democratic reviewing of the issues of the day.
From term to term the swings of the pendulum give the appearance of an activist populist will with oversight, making course corrections as needed, just as we learned in grade school.
But merely switching a national policy of more-military-destruction to one of slightly-lesser-destruction doesn't carry enough substantive weight on its own -- cosmetic changes in the official political culture are required for the sake of appearances, for the political-industry-in-common. The extent of left-populist politics, as from the Obama White House, is found in the now-banal "progressive" baby-step of going from a lockdown nationalist groupthink, to one that consciously recognizes diverse social minority 'out-crowd' groupings. Needless to say, this would be a historical step if we were still in the 1950s, but we're not. Why should the population put up with Groundhog-Day-like repetitions over the same terrain, over and over, and over again -- ?
Identity politics succumbs to idealism, by definition, since it empowers an elitism that assigns over-generalized simplistic characterizations for everyone and everything, neatly politically commodifying one and all. It stops short of looking at all minority groups' interests in common, namely the class-based one. People are allowed to feel individually and tribally empowered, as long as it remains within a landscape of cubicle-like group identity compartmentalizations.
The pendulum swung as far left as having prominent politicians like Obama and Blagojevich pay lip service to an important, though circumscribed, labor struggle at Republic Windows right after the president's initial inauguration. That moment passed and gave way to establishment politics-as-usual, with a prevailing arguably-*more*-hawkish imperialist war policy towards Afghanistan, Pakistan, and numerous other oppressed and exploited Third World countries.
[3] Ideologies & Operations -- Fundamentals
http://s6.postimage.org/cpkm723u5/3_Ideologies_Operations_Fundamentals.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/cpkm723u5/)
Now, however, with the neocons resoundingly repudiated, the country is left with its *other* personality -- one that plateaus at idealism-run-amok as the prevailing liberal types both foist-on and succumb-to ever-changing simplistic characterizations of this-or-that personage, in lieu of a genuinely democratic reviewing of the issues of the day.
From term to term the swings of the pendulum give the appearance of an activist populist will with oversight, making course corrections as needed, just as we learned in grade school.
But merely switching a national policy of more-military-destruction to one of slightly-lesser-destruction doesn't carry enough substantive weight on its own -- cosmetic changes in the official political culture are required for the sake of appearances, for the political-industry-in-common. The extent of left-populist politics, as from the Obama White House, is found in the now-banal "progressive" baby-step of going from a lockdown nationalist groupthink, to one that consciously recognizes diverse social minority 'out-crowd' groupings. Needless to say, this would be a historical step if we were still in the 1950s, but we're not. Why should the population put up with Groundhog-Day-like repetitions over the same terrain, over and over, and over again -- ?
Identity politics succumbs to idealism, by definition, since it empowers an elitism that assigns over-generalized simplistic characterizations for everyone and everything, neatly politically commodifying one and all. It stops short of looking at all minority groups' interests in common, namely the class-based one. People are allowed to feel individually and tribally empowered, as long as it remains within a landscape of cubicle-like group identity compartmentalizations.
The pendulum swung as far left as having prominent politicians like Obama and Blagojevich pay lip service to an important, though circumscribed, labor struggle at Republic Windows right after the president's initial inauguration. That moment passed and gave way to establishment politics-as-usual, with a prevailing arguably-*more*-hawkish imperialist war policy towards Afghanistan, Pakistan, and numerous other oppressed and exploited Third World countries.
[3] Ideologies & Operations -- Fundamentals
http://s6.postimage.org/cpkm723u5/3_Ideologies_Operations_Fundamentals.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/cpkm723u5/)