Back in the mid-1970's, outlaw political philosopher and historian Murray Bookchin advocated that Americans embrace what he called the "third American dream."
Bookchin's third American dream differed from two others (i.e., the dream of rugged individualism and the immigrant dream of endless opportunity) by stressing "community, decentralisation, self-sufficiency, mutual aid and face-to-face democracy" (Bookchin, Post-Scarcity Anarchism, 1974).
Bookchin's arguments were overwhelmingly ignored and, as one might have predicted, American political culture continues to be dominated by the powerful mythos that underlies the first two American dreams mentioned. And some of us in these United States wonder why, in election after election, the majority of those who actually bother to show up at the polls consistently vote against their own economic self-interest.
Among the American electorate, the dream of rugged individualism fuels an irrational fear of "socialism" (which I would define quite loosely as the conviction that sharing is part of good citizenship). The dream of endless opportunity encourages many members of the middle class to look the other way while Wall Street buys and sells our elected representatives. They look the other way because honest-to-God-decent middle class folk in this country actually believe that, one day, they too will own a Congressman, and then their troubles will be over. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration but, I would suggest, it is less of an exaggeration than it ought to be.
From what I've been able to glean of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt thus far, community, decentralisation, self-sufficiency, mutual aid and face-to-face democracy are already in operation on the ground. Congratulations! If the American people are unwilling or unable to embrace the "third American dream," there is absolutely no reason in the world why Tunisians and Egyptians cannot claim it for themselves.
I have no doubt that, even as I write these words, the enemies of community, decentralisation, self-sufficiency, mutual aid and face-to-face democracy are on the ground in Tunis and Cairo and several other important cities around the Arab world and are conferring among themselves how best to prevent Bookchin's third American dream from being realized anywhere on the planet.
My advice is this: do not listen to them. And when you, the Tunisian and Egyptian people, are firmly in power in your respective countries, arrest these criminals, cancel their visas, and deport them to their countries of origin.
In the meantime, stay true to your revolutionary instincts and values. Fear only those who would advise you differently.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
In Pictures: Egypt in turmoil - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
In Pictures: Egypt in turmoil - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
All hail the brave and beautiful Egyptian people!
All hail the brave and beautiful Egyptian people!
'Don't take our girls ...' - Features - Al Jazeera English
'Don't take our girls ...' - Features - Al Jazeera English
Only love will topple Israel's apartheid regime.
Only love will topple Israel's apartheid regime.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
We are beginning to see what role social media play in political revolution. Connecting people in new ways can lay the foundation, but the revolution will not be tweeted. It takes place in the streets. Rise up young lions of the United States! Learn from Tunisia and Egypt, Jordan and the Yemen what a people's revolution might look like.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Egypt, Tunisia, and the fight against US imperialism
Egypt, Tunisia, and the fight against US imperialism
No one is more frightened by the rise of the Arab Street than the Israelis and their wholly owned subsidiary, the U.S. government. Rise up young lions, and throw off your chains!
No one is more frightened by the rise of the Arab Street than the Israelis and their wholly owned subsidiary, the U.S. government. Rise up young lions, and throw off your chains!
Thursday, January 27, 2011
A Man Can Dream, Can't He?
I pray that the anti-government protests in Tunisia and Egypt spread to the United States. First Ben Ali, then Mubarak, and then, Lord willing, George W. Obama. Let the Saudis offer them all asylum. And then let the young lions of Saudi Arabia rise up and take down the House of Saud.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Audacity of Self-Delusion
I listened to the State of the Union address tonight in awe.
Contrary to the facts on the ground daily reported even in the government-compliant major media outlets, Obama proclaimed the U.S. economy robust, the Iraq and Afghan wars at an end, and that peace prevails on the planet courtesy of the U.S. military. Indeed, because of the military's great success in securing world peace, the President urged colleges and universities to open their doors to the Pentagon's recruiters. Why one would have to enlist in the military now that peace prevails is something he failed to explain.
Moreover, he declared that the United States government is in solidarity with the Tunisian revolution (after years of backing the Ben Ali regime against the Tunisian people) and that, in some mysterious, unspecified way, the United States deserves credit for the cessation of the Sudanese civil war (after years of fomenting that war through its proxies in the oil rich regions of the south).
Those are just a few of the audacious claims contained in Obama's speech: claims that the President could make only if he is clinically insane or a pathological liar. Or, perhaps, like George W. Bush, Obama is simply surrounded by ennablers who tell him what he wants to hear, so that he has no need to pick up a newspaper.
The speech was truly remarkable; I don't think I have ever heard a U.S. President better illustrate the Tacitean adage that crime once exposed must take refuge in audacity. It was a desperate gamble by a desperate administration: to offer the American people a fantasy-narrative about the state of the union and the world in the hope that the populace will stop paying attention to what little news is actually reported and simply drink the kool-aid.
I cannot help but recall the iconic photo of the Jonestown suicides, of dead bodies sprawled on the ground beneath a placard quoting George Santayana: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
We are there. Obama, in collusion with the rest of the American political class, has brought us there.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
You Say You Want A Revolution?
All Hail the Brave and Beautiful People of Tunisia!
Your demands for freedom and justice are reverberating around the world!
Sadly, the forces of reaction are gathering to ensure that your revolution will fail. At the lead is the counter-revolutionary agent of anti-democratic reaction in chief, the United States. Its allies, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and, most notably, the State of Israel are, without a doubt, conferring among themselves even now to make certain that despotism and capitalism will reign supreme once the euphoria of this "Prague Spring" has been contained and neutralized.
Somehow, some way, your fever must spread: to Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, North Dakota, West Virginia, Louisiana, New York and New Jersey...
Somehow, some way, tiny Tunisia must lead us all out of slavery.
We are praying for miracles: "Miracles are to come," wrote the wise and unflappable e.e. cummings. "With you I leave a remembrance of miracles."
Brave Tunisia! Your stubbornness and your longing have produced the first miracle: the thug has fled the Presidential palace.
Settle for nothing less than self-determination through radical democracy.
You need models, leaders with political genius. I don't know how you're going to do it, Tunisia, but somehow, some way...
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The Hypocritical Sensitivities of the Liberal Class
While I think it appropriate for Muslims (and any decent human being of any religious orientation or none) to condemn wanton acts of violence, I find the (by now ritual) expectation that Muslims must (1) condemn any act of violence alleged to have been committed by Muslims and (2) assert that Islam is a “religion of peace that is being hijacked by extremists” deeply disturbing.
What disturbs me is the double-standard applied by those who adhere to the aforementioned (by now ritual) expectation. If an analogous standard were applied to Christians, Jews, and/or U. S. citizens (regardless of religious affiliation), there would be little time in the day to do anything else but make such condemnations and assertions (about Christianity, Judaism, American patriotism and nationalism)--what with the level of routine violence that characterizes American society at home and its direct exportation to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Yemen, and the occupied territories of Palestine. Not to mention, of course, its indirect exportation (i.e., via surrogates) to India and Indonesia, to Egypt and the Sudan, to Somalia and Latin and South America, indeed, to much of the world.
It should simply be presumed that law abiding citizens of whatever nation or creed object to criminality whenever and wherever it occurs. No one should have to live under a cloud of suspicion concerning actions for which they are not responsible. No one need apologize for another person’s criminality.
Those of us who are American citizens are responsible (in theory, at least) for the actions of our government; we claim to possess a government “of, by, and for the people.” How many of us express outrage at the wanton criminality currently being carried out by the Pentagon, the CIA, and their “independent contractor” mercenaries? We underwrite their criminality with our tax dollars. Do we not bear a proportionate burden of responsibility?
Oh, but it is so much more comforting to wait for the news from the AP or Reuters of some criminal act committed in a foreign country, preferably one with a Muslim majority, so that we can hypocritically call for condemnations and assertions. It is the ritual which we practice most assiduously.
If those who claim to cherish the Sermon on the Mount did so in word and deed, this world would be a radically different place. Likewise, if those who give lip service to Muhammad as the Last Prophet adhered to his commandment to “love for your brother what you love for yourself,” this world would be a radically different place.
Let people who claim to have consciences scandalized by the daily headlines look to their own lives.
What disturbs me is the double-standard applied by those who adhere to the aforementioned (by now ritual) expectation. If an analogous standard were applied to Christians, Jews, and/or U. S. citizens (regardless of religious affiliation), there would be little time in the day to do anything else but make such condemnations and assertions (about Christianity, Judaism, American patriotism and nationalism)--what with the level of routine violence that characterizes American society at home and its direct exportation to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Yemen, and the occupied territories of Palestine. Not to mention, of course, its indirect exportation (i.e., via surrogates) to India and Indonesia, to Egypt and the Sudan, to Somalia and Latin and South America, indeed, to much of the world.
It should simply be presumed that law abiding citizens of whatever nation or creed object to criminality whenever and wherever it occurs. No one should have to live under a cloud of suspicion concerning actions for which they are not responsible. No one need apologize for another person’s criminality.
Those of us who are American citizens are responsible (in theory, at least) for the actions of our government; we claim to possess a government “of, by, and for the people.” How many of us express outrage at the wanton criminality currently being carried out by the Pentagon, the CIA, and their “independent contractor” mercenaries? We underwrite their criminality with our tax dollars. Do we not bear a proportionate burden of responsibility?
Oh, but it is so much more comforting to wait for the news from the AP or Reuters of some criminal act committed in a foreign country, preferably one with a Muslim majority, so that we can hypocritically call for condemnations and assertions. It is the ritual which we practice most assiduously.
If those who claim to cherish the Sermon on the Mount did so in word and deed, this world would be a radically different place. Likewise, if those who give lip service to Muhammad as the Last Prophet adhered to his commandment to “love for your brother what you love for yourself,” this world would be a radically different place.
Let people who claim to have consciences scandalized by the daily headlines look to their own lives.
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