[Oe List ...] Andrew Bachevich's "The Limits to Power"

Mon Sep 29 02:10:52 EDT 2008

"There is no Messiah, and you are it"...

At 05:06 29/09/2008, you wrote:
>Thanks also from me, Jack.  And thanks for Randy's comments.
>
>I'm not an isolationist in my approach to international diplomacy, 
>unlike Gore Vidal (but I do like listening to his descriptions of 
>"this is not a democracy, it's an (imperial) republic").  I recall 
>comemnts about Australia's role in the Pacific having a 
>colonial/imperial edge to it.
>
>The "leader fetish" is universal.  We have had it in Australia, 
>where Kevin Rudd, rather than the Labor government, is supposed to 
>solve all ills - NOW!  A good example of "the Messiah complex".  We 
>had that when Gough Whitlam swept to power in 1972, after years of 
>Liberal/Country Party government.  Then Malcolm Fraser was the 
>Messiah for those wanting to get rid of Whitlam. And so on for the 
>following government and opposition leaders.  And ditto at state level.
>
>I remember, and use, a phrase from the early '70s: "There is no 
>Messiah, and I am He".
>
>I'm interested in a re-articulation of the middle ground you speak 
>of, Randy.  I remember school students being taught in the early 
>'70s, and at other times, that "Australia has a mixed 
>economy".  Then the Chicago school of economics took hold, and 
>Reagan, Thatcher and so on became the fashion.  It was like an 
>implicit conspiracy.  The proponents would brook no argument.  It 
>was if this approach was "God's will".  And I'm sure that for the 
>Christian Right it was.
>
>Parallelling this has been the notion that since Gorbachev, the fall 
>of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of "the grey bloc on the map of 
>Europe", all things of the political left, all tehories and actions 
>of the political left, and any analyses that use terms that may or 
>may not have been used by Marx and his descendants - that this is 
>all wrong.  Sloppy thinking!  Typical propaganda from the extreme Right!
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>We need only to look at the way "spin doctoring" has taken over the 
>public pronouncements in the public arena - George Orwell would be 
>chuckling.  In South Australia, our premier Mike Rann is sometimes 
>known as "Media Mike" (he has a background as a press officer in the 
>60s/70s).  But it's across the political board.  And it's bland, 
>bland, bland.  And people feel manipulated.
>
>Create the reality by what you say.  But it's not real Reality.
>
>Maybe this is not new, but it's now more insidious.  Even Murdoch 
>has been known to speak of the media "creating the agenda".  No 
>wonder the Right opposes media education in schools.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>A good book on is Economics by Hugh Stretton.  An introductory 
>textbook, it has an historical perspective, something that Stretton 
>alleges is missing from most economics courses.  He poses scenarios, 
>asks the reader to suggest alternative actions, based on 
>alternatives he's suggested, then tells us what actually 
>happened.  Although a democratic socialist, he is not an 
>ideologue.  He does emphasise that economic theories and programs 
>are based on value judgements.  You may have to search to find it, 
>although the internet has many good reviews of it, and some 
>outrageous criticisms.
>
>Stretton was an historian by trade.  Jonathan Barker tells me that 
>his lectures were always overflowing.  After a brief stint as 
>professor of the department (in Australia that means department 
>head) he quit to go back to being a scholar and teacher.  His 1970s 
>book Ideas for Australian Cities was rejected by publishers - "no 
>market for this stuff!" - so he published it himself.  Then a new 
>small publisher, Sun Books, too over.  They were bought out by 
>Penguin, and it re-published as a Pelican.  "No market" ??
>
>He was also active with the SA Housing Trust, now Housing SA, a 
>state government body which provided housing for workers in 
>expanding industrial areas.  It now provides housing for 
>disadvantaged people, the disabled, for those thrown around and 
>around by personal and economic circumstances etc.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Cheers
>
>Frank Bremner
>
>
>----------
>
>Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:28:09 -0700
>From: rcwmbw at yahoo.com
>To: oe at wedgeblade.net; dialogue-request at wedgeblade.net; 
>springboard at wedgeblade.net
>Subject: [Oe List ...] Andrew Bachevich's "The Limits to Power"
>
>
>I am grateful to Jack Gilles for calling to our attention Bill 
>Moyer's interview with Andrew Bachevich.  I read the transcript and 
>agree with Jack, it is absolutely essential reading.  I can't wait 
>to get his book The Limits to Power.
>
>I share these thoughts which came to mind as I read.  Maybe former 
>senator Phil Gramm was right.  We Americans have become a nation of 
>whiners, complaining that the rest of the world will not do their 
>part to see that we get what we want and have convinced ourselves we 
>deserve.  Democratic capitalism with its radical overemphasis on the 
>individual has run its course.  The solution is not the opposite 
>extreme of socialism but a middle ground that holds the tension 
>between individualism and collectivism.  In the interview Bachevich 
>says, "The (U.S) congress no longer is able to articulate a vision 
>of what is the common good."  (My emphasis.)  There are 
>articulations of what is meant by "the common good" that state in 
>other ways that "all the earth belongs to all the people" as we once 
>poetically said it.
>
>Bacevich identifies the "imperial presidency," and the fact that 
>congress has allowed it, as a basic contradiction.  It's not just an 
>imperial presidency, but imperial CEOs (hence the financial crisis), 
>imperial supervisors, imperialism in virtually all leadership 
>roles.  Imperialism has become the dominant paradigm for effective 
>leadership in America--the leader articulates the vision and 
>develops the strategic plan for achieving it, while directing us to 
>be obedient.  The problem is, we the people go along.  As a nation 
>we require leaders who will think for us and act for us.  The 
>messiah we await is one who can think and act in a way that will 
>fulfill our wants, which Bacevich identifies as "this continuing 
>flow of very cheap consumer goods"..
>
>Jack is right.  Obama is not the messiah we await (who is not 
>coming), but his insight that "we are the ones we've been waiting 
>for" may be key.  "The change that is needed" is a participatory 
>democracy that makes it incumbent upon every citizen to work for the 
>common good, not only of the US, but of the planet for now and 
>future generations, which is really the only "common" good there 
>is.  It is my hope that as a nation we Americans will take the look 
>in the mirror that Bacevich suggests.  Maybe the most important 
>thing the new American president, or any leader, can do is to call 
>us to that confrontation with ourselves.
>
>Randy Williams
>
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