Where's The Change?: A Marxist dialog with a liberal

I didn't know what else to call this except a "Marxist dialog with a liberal."

I received this a short while ago this morning as I sat down to write something on my blog.

I have been noticing signs up along Highway 61 promoting "Tea Parties." I find these "Tea Parties" to be disgusting acts of great nation chauvinism and racism.

It appears to me the rightwing is trying to make our communities along Highway 61 from the Cities up to Duluth kind of their stronghold to build a very racist movement.

I saw reports where some union folks went to a Tea Party in Tennessee thinking they would be welcome as they carried signs supporting the Employee Free Choice Act and what they found is a KKK rally minus the white sheets.

I just found this communication mind opening and so refreshing so I am sharing it with you.

I am posting the essay by Reverend Harry Cook at the beginning and at the end to make it easy to re-read in light of what Alan Maki wrote to him.

I also include the comments of some other people who responded to Reverend Cook's excellent essay.

Lisa

Since I posted this I went to Rev. Cook's website. The Rev. has some really super mind opening essays posted. I would encourage folks to check out what he has to say:

www.harrytcook.com

Lisa

Fear and Resentment

By Harry T. Cook
4/24/09

"To ignore reason and judgment and all the fine sentiments that move [people] to follow blind force ... in the hope that fear will ... make all people safe is bad practice." (Clarence Darrow, 1926)

"American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work ... who have now demonstrated ... how much political leverage can be got out of animosities and passions." (Richard Hoftsader, 1964)

There's nothing like crying "FIRE!" in a crowded circus tent to get people's attention. As events have amply shown, the likely result is a stampede, each person with his or her eye fixed on the nearest exit rather than on others who may be in the way. It is instinct at work rather than reason, with the end-product being gross disorder.

Likewise, there's nothing like the politics of resentment to excite what Hofstader called "animosities and passions." Making decisions on the basis of anger has never worked very well for the human race.

The administration of George W. Bush, now blessedly part of the past, carried this nation into a pre-emptive war against a sovereign nation not only on a partially manufactured flood-tide of post-9/11 fear but on what finally must be called bald-faced lies, viz., nonexistent WMDs and the shameful prediction of mushroom clouds.

The 2004 presidential election was prosecuted by Karl Rove & Co. using fear as an engine -- fear then not so much of WMDs as of what moral disaster would occur if gay and lesbian people were allowed to marry. The echoes of the fear campaign that drove a hapless Congress into acquiescence over Iraq joined the chorus of homophobia to put Bush back into the White House.

Now comes the aftermath of another election, and still the politics of fear are made to reverberate, this time over who will pay what taxes at what rate and for how long. The ultra-demagogic Tax Day protests -- ours in Michigan featured Joe the Plumber -- were a reminder of how inchoate fear can suddenly find focus in narrow resentment.

President Obama and congressional Democrats are on notice from the likes of Karl Rove and the editors of The Wall Street Journal that anything that resembles a hike in federal taxes for anyone for any reason (including saving the country from economic catastrophe) will be exploited in the 2010 election cycle and beyond.

The politics of resentment are what Adolf Hitler and his Nazi thugs played in Germany to great effect and success. The German people were, in fact, wronged by some of the draconian elements of the Versailles Treaty, and were ripe for a rabble rouser. Hitler showed up just in time to start a Holocaust.

The year 2009 is no time -- if ever there is a time -- for the politics of fear and resentment. Resentment is a stupid emotion.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was spot-on in that oft-quoted remark about fear in his inaugural address of March 1933 during the worst year of the Great Depression. FDR was right: Fear is to be afraid of.

Of fear a late First Century C.E. Christian philosopher wrote: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear." This "perfect love" is not some gooey thing of hugs and kisses and vapid smiles. It is an attitude of robust confidence which enables a person to step away from his or her own concerns to view them in a larger context beyond personal desire -- and to do so accepting the possibility of material diminishment of his estate.

Some significant number of people so enabled would cast out the kind of fear that poisons a nation's collective psyche, causing it to strike out blindly against perceived enemies and leaving chaos and old night in its wake.

Readers Write

Re: essay 4/17/09 The Mirror from Hell

Bonnie Smith, Traverse City, MI: Thank God, or "that which binds us together into a whole so that we don't go flying off into space," for your essays. It reassures me that I am not the only one who is very, very afraid at the direction our country has gone and appears to continue to be going when I hear the talking-heads "debating" with "sincere" looks on their faces the secession of Texas from the union, or listen to people with no rational scientific justification stating that they don't "believe" that humans have anything to do with global warming or even that there is global warming or when Sarah Palin is actually considered as a suitable potential future candidate for president of the United States. Yes, Pogo: Those of us who are not blind have seen the enemy, and most definitely, "he is us." I thought I was raising my beloved granddaughter to take my place on the streets, demonstrating for justice, but I am going to have to dust off my placards a get back out there.

Arthur Wilhelme, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: I am sorry, and I do mean sorry, for you Americans having to face the fact that your people tortured. And minutes after I read your essay ("The Mirror of Hell"), I heard your President say he didn't want to prosecute anybody over this. He has gone down quite a bit in my estimation because of that. I'm glad I don't have to look into your mirror.

Brenda M. Sullivan, Boston, MA: If our [Boston] Globe goes belly up, I guess we'll have to rely on you bloggers to keep us up to date. Re: your essay about the hellish mirror -- what will we do when there are no longer newspapers to hold up that mirror to us? I fear for democracy in this country. Keep on with your writing. We share it widely here in the land of the bean and the cod.

Theodore Farnsworth, Portland, OR: I'll bet some of the people who read your article about "The Mirror of Hell" aren't too happy with you. Well, I'm not always happy when I see my sagging jowls looking back at me out of the mirror, either. The truth hurts. By the way, I was born many years ago in Detroit on McDougall between Theodore and Farnsworth. And my maternal grandfather's name was McDougall. How about that!

Sue Mathes, Rochester Hills, MI: I also wonder why there has not been an outcry for Bush and Cheney to be held accountable for eight years of failed policies and conducting their own form of terrorism, in addition to the loss of our rights and freedoms. I only hear all the whining about the taxes being handed down to our grandchildren by the very people that never uttered a word until Obama became the president. I wonder how long before the Republican Party claims that this whole economic meltdown was the fault of the Democrats and Obama presidency? I will remind every person that I hear complaining that they need to direct their anger in the proper direction which I will gladly point out to them.

Lecture Schedule

The Thursday Forum
Birmingham Unitarian Church
38651 Woodward Ave. (at Lone Pine)
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
Admission: $10/students free

April 30
10-11:30 a.m.
President Obama at the First 100 Days: Are Things Really Changing?
Lecture: Harry T. Cook

Reverend Cook,

You quote a Richard Hoftsader, did you mean Richard Hofstadter?

I found your essay, Fear & Resentment, very interesting and a very lucid analysis of where we are at, and where we are headed.

I think Barack Obama has created the atmosphere for these “Tea Parties” to take place because he has refused to bring forward the kind of change people were anticipating when they voted for him.

The liberal, progressive, left community has refused to criticize Obama by insisting on real universal reforms aimed at solving very real problems:

- No moratoriums on home foreclosures and evictions.

- Wars in three countries rage on.

- No consideration of single-payer universal health care.

- The Democrats have backed away from the Employee Free Choice Act.

- Not a single mention of reforming the minimum wage to make it a real living wage has come from Barack Obama or the Democrats.

Without criticism and a proposed progressive agenda being pushed hard for real change, I think the right-wing is going to grow in strength way beyond what the religious right was able to accomplish.

Ironically, Obama has set-up liberals, progressives and the left for a smashing defeat; voters went to the polls expecting just the opposite from what they are getting from Barack Obama.

Where’s the change?

I think Barack Obama and the Democrats in betraying the American people--- first by acquiescing to Bush and the Republicans and now by derailing all real initiatives for real reforms that working people need and require to live and survive as capitalism collapses--- are doing more than their fair share to create “anger” in this country.

The anger is really growing out of mass confusion and disorientation surrounding who Barack Obama is and what he stands for.

The ideas expressed by Richard Hofstadter later in his life--- after 1939--- certainly aren’t going to do anything to allay fear or anger, let alone point people in the direction we need to go for real change.

Anyways, Barack Obama, in bringing forward the Wall Street agenda instead of what people expected from him has set the stage enabling an even more pernicious right-wing to make its way into power.

Like Richard Hofstadter would have done, you have critiqued the situation well; and, like him in his later years you don’t bring forward anything we can do to bring about real change… as a suggestion, you might want to check out Richard Hofstadter’s pre-World War II, depression era thinking; just a suggestion.

Something you might want to consider writing and speaking about:

The United States has over 800 military bases on foreign soil when what we need is 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States (16 in each of our 50 states) providing everyone with free health care instead.

We really need to provide the American people with an anti-capitalist/anti-imperialist ideological out look framed in a way that convinces them that what they are getting now for their tax dollars are the wrong things; while encouraging them not to fear struggling for what is right and just.

The two issues capable of uniting the people of this country are the need to end war and militarism and the need for real health care reform. Bring both issues together in a way that makes sense to people and you create a powerful bulwark against this vicious right-wing thrust taking the form of hate-mongering “Tea Parties.”

I don’t think your lucid analysis lacking a suggested alternative is going to be enough to halt the drive to the extreme right now underway.

Perhaps you have written about solutions to problems; but, like others like myself reading your essay here for the first time… any mention of solutions is missing.

I hope you take my criticism in the friendly manner intended because I appreciate and share your analysis concerning the danger from the right.

Liberals, progressives and the left allowed Barack Obama to get away without defining what kind of “change” he was talking about. Now we have the task of either letting the extreme right fill this void that has been created; or liberals, progressives and the left can vigorously challenge Obama to bring about the “change” that everyone was expecting.

I guess Obama had one idea what change consisted of and most voters had quite a different idea… I don’t think, based upon Obama’s actions, that he can be trusted to bring about the “change” we need in this country… he has a different agenda that is neither liberal nor progressive; it certainly isn’t an agenda that pre-war World War II Depression era Richard Hofstadter would have appreciated.

Albert Einstein’s very lucid thinking provides us with a better understanding of problems and lays a foundation for change more so than Richard Hofstadter’s constant, never-ending search for alternatives to capitalism did. You might want to Google up Albert Einstein’s, “Why Socialism?”

I have enclosed below something I recently sent out for people to consider.

Alan L. Maki

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell phone: 651-587-5541

E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

Check out my blog:

Thoughts From Podunk

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

The United States has 800 military bases on foreign soil...

What we need--- instead--- is 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States where people can universally access, for free, all their health care needs from pre-natal care, to general health care to eye, dental and mental care right through to burial.

Instead of moving in this progressive direction, President Barack Obama and the United States Congress are moving in a most reactionary direction towards establishing military bases in outer space as they seek to insure the profits of both the merchants of death and destruction and the profit-driven health care industries... talk about skewed priorities and your wacky ideas devoid of common sense.

In addition to these 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil, Barack Obama and the United States Congress continue funding--- with our tax-dollars--- the Israeli killing machine to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.

A network of 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States would create over four-million good-paying, decent jobs--- talk about your "economic stimulus" package!

We would be planting the seeds of socialism while helping to eradicate poverty as we keep people healthy and get them well when sick.

Think about this kind of solution in relation to what Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress and the Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers are offering the American people, and the peoples of the world... just what is the reason for bailing out the banks and AIG and maintaining more than 800 expensive U.S. military bases on foreign soil?

The Mt. Carmel Clinic in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada offers us a glimpse at what militarization and wars continue to rob us of.

The problems created by Wall Street will not be solved as long as the military-financial-industrial complex is allowed to squander human and natural resources on militarism and wars... we might just as well be dumping these resources out into the ocean... at least no one would die in wars.

These merchants of death and destruction must be stopped if humanity is to survive in a livable world.

The time has come to talk about the working class Marxist politics and economics of livelihood... capitalism has failed humanity miserably and left us a real mess.

Something for working people to think about and discuss around the dinner table... the capitalist sooth-Sayers certainly are not going to broach such solutions to the problems of working people as they hide behind the skirt of Rosy Scenario as this global capitalist economic depression intensifies.

Fear and Resentment

By Harry T. Cook
4/24/09

"To ignore reason and judgment and all the fine sentiments that move [people] to follow blind force ... in the hope that fear will ... make all people safe is bad practice." (Clarence Darrow, 1926)

"American politics has often been an arena for angry minds. In recent years we have seen angry minds at work ... who have now demonstrated ... how much political leverage can be got out of animosities and passions." (Richard Hoftsader, 1964)

There's nothing like crying "FIRE!" in a crowded circus tent to get people's attention. As events have amply shown, the likely result is a stampede, each person with his or her eye fixed on the nearest exit rather than on others who may be in the way. It is instinct at work rather than reason, with the end-product being gross disorder.

Likewise, there's nothing like the politics of resentment to excite what Hofstader called "animosities and passions." Making decisions on the basis of anger has never worked very well for the human race.

The administration of George W. Bush, now blessedly part of the past, carried this nation into a pre-emptive war against a sovereign nation not only on a partially manufactured flood-tide of post-9/11 fear but on what finally must be called bald-faced lies, viz., nonexistent WMDs and the shameful prediction of mushroom clouds.

The 2004 presidential election was prosecuted by Karl Rove & Co. using fear as an engine -- fear then not so much of WMDs as of what moral disaster would occur if gay and lesbian people were allowed to marry. The echoes of the fear campaign that drove a hapless Congress into acquiescence over Iraq joined the chorus of homophobia to put Bush back into the White House.

Now comes the aftermath of another election, and still the politics of fear are made to reverberate, this time over who will pay what taxes at what rate and for how long. The ultra-demagogic Tax Day protests -- ours in Michigan featured Joe the Plumber -- were a reminder of how inchoate fear can suddenly find focus in narrow resentment.

President Obama and congressional Democrats are on notice from the likes of Karl Rove and the editors of The Wall Street Journal that anything that resembles a hike in federal taxes for anyone for any reason (including saving the country from economic catastrophe) will be exploited in the 2010 election cycle and beyond.

The politics of resentment are what Adolf Hitler and his Nazi thugs played in Germany to great effect and success. The German people were, in fact, wronged by some of the draconian elements of the Versailles Treaty, and were ripe for a rabble rouser. Hitler showed up just in time to start a Holocaust.

The year 2009 is no time -- if ever there is a time -- for the politics of fear and resentment. Resentment is a stupid emotion.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was spot-on in that oft-quoted remark about fear in his inaugural address of March 1933 during the worst year of the Great Depression. FDR was right: Fear is to be afraid of.

Of fear a late First Century C.E. Christian philosopher wrote: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear." This "perfect love" is not some gooey thing of hugs and kisses and vapid smiles. It is an attitude of robust confidence which enables a person to step away from his or her own concerns to view them in a larger context beyond personal desire -- and to do so accepting the possibility of material diminishment of his estate.

Some significant number of people so enabled would cast out the kind of fear that poisons a nation's collective psyche, causing it to strike out blindly against perceived enemies and leaving chaos and old night in its wake.