You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Politics’ tag.
The people of Europe can see the neo-liberal cavalcade of crap coming a mile away. While we here in North America shrug our shoulders, remain disengaged and accept the dictates of our wealthy classes with a heavy sigh.
“Austerity is the other name for it. Confronting massive deficits and fearful of losing investor confidence, European governments are pulverising budgets and shutting down public services. The plan by England’s new Tory government is considered among the most painful, if not draconian. It is justified as being absolutely necessary.
This view is being challenged in the realm of ideas and with a growing spasm of street protests rocking European cities.”
People challenging what is “good for the market” with the idea of what is “good for the people”? It is a meme virtually unheard of on this side of the Atlantic. Our thoughts have been thoroughly disciplined.
“At a time when most people are saying the path out of the financial crisis and European debt problem is for individuals and governments around the world to cut back, the American economist Paul Krugman wants us to spend, spend, spend.
What is behind the fervour for austerity, he asks? “The answer is” he writes, “to reassure the markets – because the markets supposedly won’t believe in the willingness of governments to engage in long-run fiscal reform unless they inflict pointless pain right now.”
This argument has moved off the op-ed pages and into the streets. These protests conjuring up a revival of the class war confrontations of the 1930’s are erupting as the Eurozone is fracturing. The marches are becoming more militant and bitter, as clashes between the police and angry protesters grow in intensity marked by scattered violence.”
I’m tired of reassuring the markets. The markets are a part of any nation, but should not be the only concern of the people. Although, we need to look no farther than the US to see how economic compromise works, if it is more socialism for the rich, then it is a go, otherwise forget it.
“In the United States, a Republican-dominated Congress– swept into power on the backs of right wing Tea Party activism spurred by Fox News and other fear-driven conservative media– promises to roll back government programs even as it “compromises” with Democrats to keep tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
So far, there has been little street activism in the United States. Perhaps it is because of the Christmas shopping season, the inundation of entertainment shows and sporting events or just so little oppositional leadership, especially among Democrats unwilling to challenge a Democratic President who has just negotiated a compromise deal with Republican tax cutters.”
The hope and change I feel emanating from down south is truly inspiring. So again, we have to look to Europe to see what democracy really looks like, to see people fight for their interests, to actually see people be involved in society past the feckless auspices of mere consumption. Ahh, let us revel in our atomized state of and bemoan our politicians for being corrupt and ineffective. Just do not actually do anything, for that might actually bring change and according to those who run our society we are doing great right now.
The books we read define who we are. The books we choose inform our world view and how we look at the events in the world. The dissident viewpoint is not particularly fun or easy to hold as every point must be scrupulously backed up with ample evidence to be even considered in conversations and debate. This list, as the title says, is not complete nor will it probably ever be as education and learning never stops during a lifetime.
This post serves also to provide insight into the how and why I talk about issues and the positions I take while debating.
The first, and probably most important work to my education as a rational human being would have to be the grand tomb by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky – Manufacturing Consent. It is an acutely precise documented look at the American Media. Manufacturing Consent also offers a propaganda model to assist in analyzing and understanding how the media works, the reason for the prevalent rightward bias, and why that bias exists.
MC really started my adult education, as it caused me to become skeptical of what I had been taught in school and question the assumptions and point of view of how most my classes where taught.
I should mention Hegemony or Survival and The Fateful Triangle and Year 501: The Conquest Continues as well. They all brought clarity to the questions about how the world works and more importantly the structures in place that work against justice, egalitarianism and freedom.
I have read more Chomsky, particularly to understand the Vietnam War but I would single out these four works as being particularly important.
Howard Zinn is another major figure in my interpretation of history. It was his A People’s History of the United States that really reinforced the idea of history being written by the victor and how important alternate narratives are in understanding history. Out of the rest of his works, I have read War and Terrorism, which I also recommend as it is also very informative and illuminating.
In a similar vein, Major General Smedley Butler‘s work War is a Racket also ranks prominently in my readings of Western History because he simply tells it like it was for him, as a member of the United States Armed forces. His prescient observations are ever more true today.
I came upon Chris Harman’s book A People’s History of the World, like Zinn’s work it is a depressingly good read. I have only read it once, but it is coming back into rotation as is a valuable reference and starting point for further historical analysis.
It sits beside my copy of Zinn’s work as part of the spine of my history collection.
A fiery excerpt from one of his speeches.
War Talk, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy, and Taraq Ali’s Pirates Of The
Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006), Bush in Babylon (2003), and Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002). Both Roy and Ali provide external analysis of our situation in the West and how we are viewed by the rest of the world. Ali is a powerful speaker and I had the opportunity to listen to him when he came to the University in 2008. His eloquence and arguments made for an evening to remember. External points of view are necessary, but sometimes a homegrown view is necessary to provide more perspective on the important issues of our time.
The Canadian Naomi Klein and her works fits nicely into the puzzle giving a Canadian view of the world as it. I did not enjoy NoLogo very much but found The Shock Doctrine to be a necessary and informative read about how the elites do what they must to rule the world. The Shock Doctrine explains how countries are jolted into submission before neoliberal reforms are forced on them. Again, file under good but depressing reading.
I almost forgot one of the most important works of history that I have read. It is called The Great War for Civilization by Robert Fisk. It is a huge work spanning most of Fisk’s journalistic career. It is history close up, a punch in the nose of a wake up call as for what trouble with Middle East and ‘civilizing influence’ there.
This list is a longer than I first expected, as even after 500 words I have covered only a couple of areas of the literature that informs my view and opinion on the world (in retrospect, probably a good thing). I will cover other areas of my interests in future posts.
There are certain things you do not see coming. The Spanish Inquisition, rogue asteroids, Sarah Palin and other unfortunate occurrences that interfere with humanity in significant ways. But this, this ladies and gentlemen, this is something that eclipses the awesome of finding a hidden tub of caramel mocha ice-cream in your freezer.
We have this!
Mr.Laraque, once responsible for chasing a rubber disk, but mostly in beating other people into goo, is now one of two deputy leaders of Canada’s Green Party. The CBC intones:
“The federal Green Party is hoping a former NHL tough guy will help beef up the party’s presence in Quebec.
Green Leader Elizabeth May on Saturday named Georges Laraque as a deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada.”
Wow.
Mr.Laraque will certainly have his hands full, although I have no doubt Georges will rise to the occasion. He is a very social individual, even hosting a radio show here in Edmonton while he played for the Edmonton Oilers. I think he probably has the charisma to do well in politics. I’m curious as to see how other politicians react when they debate Mr.Laraque as I am sure they know that in his former occupation he role was to apply his fists to other peoples noses.
Mr.Laraque has no skeletons that might haunt him, unlike NDP candidates of past that have said bad things on the intertoobz, but Mr.Laraque has engaged in at least what I would term questionable product sponsorship.
Carboned Water Beer Replacement Beverage? Blech.
It could be worse. Good Luck Green Party!
I never write posts during the week, but I saw this and had to get it up it is Robert Fowler’s speech to the Canada 150 conference. What he says is what most people want to have happen in the middle east; at least until politics happens
Robert Fowler’s speech to the Canada 150 conference.
I was surprised when I saw this video up at the AJ news page. It was a legitimate story on the Teabag Party and how they were going to hold a convention. The convention failed as tickets to attend were said to be priced at $500 a head. AJ also says the Teabag Party was instrumental in getting Scott Brown elected in the US senate.
As I watched the video, they had the footage of some of their signs. Painting Obama as a Adolf Hitler, misidentifying him as a socialist. For the record, National Socialism has nothing to do with Socialism, it is quite the opposite.
What I see is people who feel like they are cut off from the system rallying hysterically against strawmen and caricatures they have little understanding of. I believe it is symptomatic of the increasingly fragmented body politic in the US. People are beginning to realize that neither established party is serving their needs.
I’m reading a piece in Harper’s right now by Naomi Klein titled “Minority Death March: Jews, blacks and the “post-racial” presidency. This article is chock full of blog fodder, from US/Israeli obstructionism in the UN to the denial of racism and responsibility of the ‘first’ world. One section caught my eye as it focused on Mr.Obama and the job he is doing as president of the US. The article references what one Juan Santos wrote in an open letter to Mr.Obama. You can find the whole post here.
Barack Obama is the living symbol of our silence. He is our silence writ large.
He is our Silence running for president –
With respect to Black interests, Obama would be a silenced Black ruler: A muzzled Black emperor. A Black man at the head of the White Amerikkkan State – one who’s unwilling to speak truth to power, but more than willing, like a Condi Rice or a Colin Powell, to become that power and to launch wars of aggression against other people of color.
In Obama’s case the targets will be Iran (which he has threatened with “surgical” missile strikes) and Pakistan, rather than Iraq. That’s the only difference between Obama and Rice and Powell, or Bush, for that matter.
Between the Harper’s article and Mr.Santos’s own denunciation of Obama and what he stands for, it seems like the current president of the US is in a fair bit of trouble. Where is the reform promised by his campaign? It was my first impression that Obama was taking his time being conservative in his governance as to size up his opposition and his own capacities. The more I read the more it seems that Obama is not about hope and change, but rather maintain and remain the same (maintaining the status quo of the last 8 years is reprehensible) .
I hope that Obama begins to move in a genuine progressive way soon. He is at risk of losing his base of people who genuinely thought he would fight for change.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…