Talk by Naomi Wolf - The End of America
this talk is about 48 minutes long, but is well worth it. ms. wolf provides an excellent historical context to restrictions on democracy, and her comment about not feeling safe presenting public speeches the day that she sees somebody who she considers a peer deemed an enemy combatant is chilling. some of what ms. wolf says is covered in excellent detail in "the power of nightmares", and there is a related article here.
this "warning" of sorts is worthwhile and important to be aware of, but i sometimes feel that much of this sort of "we're going down the road to a autocracy or a fascist state, etc." is blown out of proportion, mainly because i probably have too much confidence in the american public to catch itself before it falls too far. that being said, i doubt the level of general apathy has ever been higher, and a public that is uninformed, and worse, doesn't care about being legitimately informed or is ignorant of their ignorance, is brutally subject to the whim of those who are in power.
this gets at something we've talked about a lot on this blog, and i'm glad we've done it because it is a complicated issue to address, which is the question of how to create actual change on the ground? how to enact change in people's minds? can it change today with a presidential election? is the cultural inertia so great in modern america that we can trust it to self-adjust and stay on the general democratic path? i don't think so -- most of the presidential candidates, with the notable exception of rep. kucinich seem to be beat the war drum, maybe at a different rhythm but just as loudly as past presidents -- but i don't know what we can do when there is so much knee-jerk, petty, but reactionism at all scales of public life.
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this "warning" of sorts is worthwhile and important to be aware of, but i sometimes feel that much of this sort of "we're going down the road to a autocracy or a fascist state, etc." is blown out of proportion, mainly because i probably have too much confidence in the american public to catch itself before it falls too far. that being said, i doubt the level of general apathy has ever been higher, and a public that is uninformed, and worse, doesn't care about being legitimately informed or is ignorant of their ignorance, is brutally subject to the whim of those who are in power.
this gets at something we've talked about a lot on this blog, and i'm glad we've done it because it is a complicated issue to address, which is the question of how to create actual change on the ground? how to enact change in people's minds? can it change today with a presidential election? is the cultural inertia so great in modern america that we can trust it to self-adjust and stay on the general democratic path? i don't think so -- most of the presidential candidates, with the notable exception of rep. kucinich seem to be beat the war drum, maybe at a different rhythm but just as loudly as past presidents -- but i don't know what we can do when there is so much knee-jerk, petty, but reactionism at all scales of public life.
i get worked up about this stuff. i could be a street-fighting man if the state continues to degrade in the fashion ms. wolf predicts. who is with me?
4 comments:
related article: http://www.newstarget.com/022308.html
The blog on Nader I posted above is related to this, and I hope you all get a chance to watch the documentary. Anyhow, thanks for posting Wolf's lecture. I watched it and it's interesting, but I'm not sure that any current American leaders (even a Giuliani type) would ever be so bold as to kill or abuse protesters or dissidents, which is what Wolf is ultimately suggesting I think. Rather, and as Chomsky might say, the system of restraint here, which is something like drowning out dissident voices with massive doses of "normal" voices, seems to be much more affective at curbing protest than state violence. A subtler form of restraint. But maybe part of Wolf's argument is that as U.S. leaders get dumber and forget that last point, they'll resort to state violence. . . .
In which case, I'm with you in the streets Jamo. BTW, did we just make a terroristic threat?
PS, why can't I edit my comment? Please change "the system of restraint here" to "the system of restraint in the U.S." and "affective" to "effective."
Thank you.
unfortunately editing comments is impossible once they're published. the best you can do is to copy and paste into a new comment, edit it, and delete your earlier comment. :-(
good point about leaders only needing to keep the rabble in line, not necessarily execute/excommunicate them. but, i do think she's saying that we're on that path to a fascist society where state-sponsored violence against its own citizens is a reality. and, like you, i have reservations about whether we're on that trajectory, no matter how far away it is, but i do feel that a lot of policy has been put in place by bush that subsequent presidents may not be eager to repeal.
i caught some of the nader documentary on tv as well. really good stuff. right in line with ms. wolf's presentation, pat buchanan at one point says what we have is not a democracy and something to the effect of, "anybody who is in the game knows this isn't a democracy."
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