tisdag 25 september 2007

Something worth reading and considering...

Read Arthur Silber in his essay "Let's Make It About You: Can We Stop the Slaughter Now?"

“Considering the subject matter of this post, I must severely criticize myself in advance. Given the point I will try to make, my own perspective is utterly unimportant. To mention my despair and the sense of bleak futility that pervades my view of my own writing is the height of self-indulgence. But I will mention these factors very briefly, if only to explain in part why my writing now occurs in fits and starts.

I have written repeatedly on certain themes for several years now. I try to present my central ideas in new ways, to offer additional historical evidence for my contentions, and to make connections between seemingly disparate phenomena that I have not addressed earlier. But no matter what I attempt to do here, I make no headway whatsoever. It seems to me that my writing has no effect at all. That certainly has been true with regard to the likely
coming conflict with Iran, which is the single greatest catastrophe that lies before us. But my essays have had no discernible effect in connection with any of the threats that hang over our heads. It often seems to me that to continue writing about foreign policy and the destruction of constitutional government in the United States is only my own brand of narcissism. Forces are in play that are far beyond the ability of any of us to influence, short of a massive national strike that continues for a long period of time. To expect complacent, ignorant, self-satisfied Americans to undertake such a project in anything close to the required numbers is a fool's dream.

I mention narcissism because that is our subject here. I've written about the national and nationalistic narcissism that suffuses American government and the American populace generally a number of times. This self-absorption springs from our conviction of "American exceptionalism," and our unshakeable belief that we are "the Good Guys" in a way that no other people ever has been, or ever can be. But as I noted in
an earlier essay…”

Yes, what is ones writing about? Plain narcissism? Does anything changes? Is it possible to change anything? Yes, what forces are in play actually??

See this interview with Naomi Klein... Where she says:
"In Iraq I was shocked by level of resistance on the part of Iraqis to the privatization of factories. I quote one worker in my book who worked in a vegetable factory: "We will either burn it down or blow ourselves up inside it. We will not be privatized." It's a measure of just how wrong the occupation forces were that the Iraqis would be so shocked that they'd be easy to marshal from point A to point B."
It wasn't as easy as they thought to "win this fight". But now this resistance shall be struck down?? By exhaustion if necessary?? (is this like Vietnam??)

Also see this interview about why they aren't speaking as much about Klein's book in USA as we do in Europe (do we here in Sweden, and why not I ask ironically??).

And the most recent review about the tactics in USA to privatize the Public Sector (which they are trying with here in Sweden now). And this about "Every Catastrophe is an Opportunity" (horrible!!).

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