Barros Serrano wrote:
Yes. I was drinking it anyway...
That whole "freedom fries" period really bears discussing. It is more disturbing even than just for its idiocy. A nation which has historically ALWAYS been our ally, the one European power we've not had a war with, but when their President disagrees with a USA President on a point of foreign policy, suddenly they are the enemy, the antithesis of "freedom"?
Smacks of fascism, folks.
Yanks hated Chirac but said nothing about Berlusconi.
Whatever, I'm not giving up French wine. I like French cinema as well. Too bad the cinematic art world recently lost Eric Rohmer.
-Savant
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The economy could be Chavez's undoing. Also, it could be Obama's undoing in America.
In the case of Obama, his major domestic mistake has been in not being "leftist" enough. His taking single payer universal health care off the table, was a HUGE blunder.
When he proposed a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, he made a good move. But when Congress rejected it, Obama made another blunder in not making it an ISSUE that he would fight for.
I don't know if he could have won, but a principled stand could have gotten the moratorium (single payer also) at the center of national discourse and debate.
And the American people would have remembered that Obama FOUGHT for the moratorium instead of proposing it and then letting it disapear off the radar screen.
The sad thing is that when you read up on Obama, or even read his memoir DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, you see that as a youth Obama had very definite PROGRESSIVE associations. He was involved in progressive causes.
Had he stood firm on progressive convictions (assuming he still has them) he would no doubt have had to weather the storm of angry reaction from right wing Republicans and cowardly centrist Democrats. But he could have weathered that storm.
The Republican and Democrat right both needed to know that he wasn't afraid to FIGHT them. And the American PEOPLE need to know that Obama would fight FOR and WITH them, even if it put in at odds against the Republican Party, cowardly Democrats and corporate power.
Obama has aroused the wrath of the conservatives for being far to the left than he actually is. And he SHOULD be much further to the left than he is. But that requires extraordinary courage in America.
And that's the reason why I think that without a popular democratic movement on the ground such we had in the 1960s, 1930s, and the 1800s (under Lincoln), not much gets done even under a "liberal" adminstration.
-Savant
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Barros Serrano wrote:
Mostly. I think there are some bumpkins who are more or less rednecks and may vote Democratic (most of those vote Republican these days) who don't like France or have assimilated the standard stereotypes, but it's mostly a conservative thing.
The fear among conservative "leaders" (the higher-level corporate propagandists) is that Yanks will see how the French system actually works! Michael Moore showed some of it in "Sicko". My how they hate Michael Moore!
As he put it, the French govt actually fears the people, while the USA people fear the govt. Yet they vote for autocratic pro-corporate conservatives who obviously care nothing about the working people or anyone's welfare but the rich...
And watch them respond to this in here with the usual litany about taxes and nanny state. Flip the switch to France and they've got another set of cliches. Flip to black people, and another set. And so on...
Dittohead thinking.
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So, what's up? Rignt jerks electec in parts of Europe while leftists are elected in Latin America. And in America we have a centrist liberal black pres who, if he returned to his PROGRESSIVE roots and offered strong leadership, could actually help make the Americas the progressive and democratic place on earth.
The entire imperial project must be abandoned and empire dismantled. All empires are built on injustice, on murder and slavery, on human suffereing. They must be done away with.
And as OUR country is the sole remaining superpower, we Americans now bear a heavy burden of moral responsibility to put an end to the plague of imperialism.
Imperialism helped destroy Greek civilization; and as far back as 5th Century B.C, Thucydides notes the tension between democracy and, noting that the wily Athenian imperialist Cleon makes it clear that he understands that Empire and Democracy can not live peaceably together.
Imperialism undermined the Roman Republic. It will undermine the American Republic if we're not careful, Cornel West wrote truthfull when he identified "the dismantling of empire and the deepening of democracy" as the "great dramatic battle of the 21st Century."
-Savant
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Horst wrote:
Good Morning Savant ! Like always is it a pleasure to read what you are writing! Good Post ! One part Is realy hard , as I came first time to The US , about 1985 it shocked me to se as many poor people as there are in the US . As we got to the Getho , because at that time my in laws where living there , I was feeling like I would be in Kenia or Tansania , where I lived for about one year . And sure I started to ask questions about the system and how it could happen that the rich US has so many poor people . Further I can not believe it got not better over the years . That is bad , because there is money for wars but nothing for the people ! So your question, do we have the right system , makes totally sense to me . Thank you !
Yet visitors from other industrially advanced countries can hardly believe their eyes when they see American poverty--and learn the scale of American poverty---for the first time.
I met during the summer of 2008 a couple of Norwegian anarchist socialists at Red Emmas Cafe/Bookstore in downtown Baltimore. Many of us were almost envious of what they regard as the INADEQUACIES of Scandinavian society. One of the young Norwegian activists said to me that "Your country should be a hotbed of revolution. With all the slums and homeless people, at least social injustice is not HIDDEN. In Norway, it will be much more difficult."
I wish! My students are shocked when I mention that people don't pay such high tuitions in fees in European universities. Don't saddle themselves with twenty years of debt before they land their first job.
Or that in many European countries, employers can't simply fire any worker he pleases for any reason or no reason at all--and on the shortest notice at that.
I keep trying to tell folk that "Hey, people. Even within the limits of capitalism things don't have to be THIS bad." I ask people to check out Michael Moore's film, SICKO.
We progressives are trying, but it's an uphill battle. We make progress,but often very slowly. It's taken decades just to have the issue of health care even get this far in public DISCUSSION. And it's still not clear whether we're going to get it, or get anything that isn't watered down.
But, as FRELIMO used to say "A Luta Continua!"
-Savant
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Harrisson wrote:
Great post, Savant.
Although you and I have a differing views on the Gates/Cop affair in Cambridge, I readily agree with your comments about the authoritarian streak in our national character.
But I also have a slightly different perspective to offer as a labor union member; as someone with an activist outlook on the politics associated with working conditions on my job (which you understand why I can't discuss in detail), I often discuss labor rights with co-workers. I'm saddened to say that the U.S. Constitution might as well not even exist for many co-workers, given their limited understanding of their own rights.
To be honest, it's pretty frightening to see what they'd put up with, IF NOT FOR the intervention of union representatives who are able to step into a given situation (management vs. labor) and say "Hey! Wait a minute here!!"
The supreme irony is that the more "conservative," patriotic (flag-waving), right-wing, and pro-Bush they are, the *less* able they are (often) to instinctively understand that their Constitutional or legal rights are being abused to their own detriment.
Very weird, and many a time, I drive home just shaking my head in disbelief.
Yes, it is sad--indeed frightening--how little aware people often are of their rights. The willingness to submit to authority despite all our patriotic American chatter about self-reliance and individual freedom, is one of the most annoying inconsistencies of our culture. And you're right: Usually it's the most conservative who have the most blind respect for authority.
The same people who complain about big Government intrusions when it comes to health care, willingly accept the Patriot Act, massive government spending to maintain a HUGE military establishment (with our troops all over the world like latter day Romans), and police harrassment and coercion against minorities and dissidents.
Employees put up with all kinds of abuses from employers even when their legal rights are violated--and that's even when (aa is NOT common) they even know their rights.
Imagine folk saying that Professor Gates should have shut his mouth--in his OWN HOUSE--in deference to the authority of a badge.
That is why I said to Monsieur attai, that I'm almost envious that the French have such a deeply rooted tradition of dissent and protest--in PRACTICE--not just in words. Those cats will shut down a GOVERNMENT if you mess with them.
But Reagan taking funds from needy school children? Bush practically stealing the 2000 election? Did Americans rise up in revolt? We should have.
I don't know if social democracy is the best system possible. But I think it's superior to the system that prevails in the USA. And I think it's about as good as you get under capitalist conditions. Also keep in mind that there are reasons to have reservations about Wikeipedia (as the source itself warns), and aside from that, there are some issues with HDI itself. But all that aside, it's interesting that by HDI standards indicated in your source, Sweden and Norway are rank higher than USA. So, does France....To my surprise, so does IRELAND. And Canada....etc. Yet America is wealthier than ALL of those countries. OUr mass povertu. homelessness, even increasing HUNGER, is a national disgrace. Western European visitors are commonly surprise--even shocked--when they see our slums for the first time.
-Savant
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You're not as alone as you think. There are more humanistic and progressive people in America than you realize. But you--we--must find each other. Some of them may be your neighbor, family members or fellow students. Some may be strangers whom you don't know.
I believe that you're involved in music. There are a good number of socially conscious musicians.
You probably remember my thread entitled, PROGRESSIVE WHITE PEOPLE, WHERE ARE YOU?
I stated then, and I still believe now, that there are MILLIONS of you. But you must find each other, and other of your well meaning fellow Americans, to make your voices heard.
Consider AA Forum for a start. If people like you were never heard, only people like TruthbeTold would be visible to the reader. And what impression would that create.
If neither I nor Harrisson nor other openminded and progressive blacks made our voices heard, mainly people who see characters like "RealBrother" or other black race pimps as representative.
Remember that the Abolitionists were once a small minority, more of a minority than you're in now. Yet they became for voice of the future.
The dissident voice, especially in our country, may at times be a voice crying in the wilderness. But only if that voice remains persistent and determined with the wilderness be transformed into green and fertile land.
Do not abandon our country to the bigots and fanatics. We, and humanity, deserve better than that.
-Savant
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I understand your point, and I have the same dissatisfactions with my country. But it is precisely BECAUSE of the current state of our country that we need people like YOU to REMAIN. I think that we can create a progressive, popular democratic movement in America--as I predecessors have done many times before--an begin to reclaim our country.
But if people like you leave, then the country is left with characters like...well,....Max, Ohreally, PTWB and other political dinosaurs. If we leave (at least in large numbers) America will go to hell in a handbasket, and take half of the globe with her.
As a young, socially conscious white person, I would like to see you (and others like you)reclaim your progressive democratic traditions--traditions symbolized by Tom Paine, Wendell Philiips, and the thousands of courageous white youths who poured into Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964 in solidarity with my people's struggle for justice, freedom and human dignity.
It is largely because of white people like you that I've not given up on America. Trust me on this: America NEEDS you.
-Savant
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All three of those countries do have more democratic social legislation than we do. And the Scandinavians are among the most progressive nations on earth, with well educated populations and relatively egalitarian social, economic and political systems.
In particular, Sweden has been noted for having a higher level of tolerance and civil liberties than we do as well as social democratic economic policies.
But we'll get there, I believe. 1776 was an inspiration to the world. Our 1960s Civil Rights movement was an inspiration to the world (and I hear about it even now in every country to which I travel).
We can be an inspiration again.
-Savant
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