Eutrapelian LandMinds
Letters to the Editors of Local Media Outlets
The Continued Agony of the American Left
Certainly, by now, the interested American public has developed an idea of what to expect from the incoming Obama Administration. Supporters of our nascent presidency, it could be presumed, are feeling either many quanta of solace in the selection of old-hands from the Clinton Administration for key cabinet positions, or just acres of angst, bewildered by the prospect of possibly being victimized by yet another round of the old political bait-and-switch.
Perhaps the first inkling of renewed agony for the American Left was campaign contributions; for as recent reports have illustrated , donation patterns for Obama differed very little from those of either George W. Bush or even John Kerry. In other words, the "other America" of small web-donors was trumped by the check-writing activism of both limousine liberals and corporate America, eager to curry favor with the new administration.
Given this scenarion of elite fecundation, it should come as no surprise that Clintonian personage and Bushesque domestic and foreign policy could serve to proscribe or even dash whatever audacity the American Left had hoped for from an Obama Administration.
As Theodor Adorno sagaciously noted, some sixty years ago now, "And how comfortless is the thought that the sickness of the normal does not necessarily imply the health of the sick, but that the latter usually only present, in a different way, the same disastrous pattern."
(Published in local media, 12/01/08)
The Need for Moral Clarity
"Our difficulty is not that we have conflicts; but that as modern people we have not had the courage to force the conflicts we ought to have had. Instead, we have comforted ourselves with the ideology of pluralism, forgetting that pluralism is the peace treaty left over from past wars that now benefits the victors of those wars." --Stanley Hauerwas
The results of a recent study, published by the American Psychological Association, allegedly prove that American women are increasingly less likely to suffer "mental health deficiencies" following an abortion than previously believed. What, exactly, these deficiencies are is left to one's imagination; but it would be fair to say, given these therapeutic times, that "guilt" would probably be one said deficiency. Predictably, post-press release, the pro-life arguers roundly condemned the study's results, while the pro-choice crowd lauded its "obvious virtues."
Left to the wayside of this dust-up in the ongoing culture wars was any sense of a moral narrative that either side could appeal to for suasion's sake. Whatever one might want to say regarding "fetal viability" or argue on the basis of "trimester ethics," the fact that more women may be feeling less guilt or even remorse for the possible murder of a "sentient being" that they had, in most instances, a role in co-creating, is hardly a thing to be celebrated. And for the pro-life side of the abortion debate to redefine executioners as "victims" only serves to produce even less moral clarity when more is so desperately needed.
(Published in The Rockford Register Star, 2009)
War By Another Means
It has often been said that politics is but war by another means. When addressing the Israeli re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, the reverse may be true. For Israel, the invasion is the means by which political facts are established--not for the benefit of its people--but for the American public, and even more importantly, the U.S. foreign policy establishment that sets, re-sets and guides strategy in the region. Despite what looked like a friendly face in the White House, Israeli officials nonetheless maintained an espionage network bent on currying influence with neo-conservative representatives within the Bush Administration, along with securing relevant information that might signal a shift in U.S. policy.
Needless to say, trust between two supposed allies is still in short supply, with Israeli leaders all too cognizant of how fickle the machinations of U.S. foreign policy elites can be at times, regardless of services rendered and billions invested. Establishing facts, "collateral damage" notwithstanding, is the Israeli manner of "suggesting" to the incoming Obama Administration of how its elites would like to see things proceed, with bloodshed functioning as a reminder to Mrs. Clinton and her friends that the fates of Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein are not regarded as historical anomalies, but facts bespeaking a rather pronounced and quite (real) political truth.
(NOT published by any local media outlet, despite being submitted to many. I'll let the reader speculate as to why.)
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