Wednesday, 17 December, 2003

Soros and the American State. If you haven't read it yet you might want to read the article that George Soros wrote for the Atlantic this month The Bubble of American Supremacy ( Soros | The Atlantic | December 2003). Soros has created a stir by pledging a large amount of money to the presidential election for the democratic cause or anti Bush cause, depending on how you read his motivations. It's a long and somewhat thoughtful piece. If I were to try to put a short handle on it though, his controlling metaphor is the United States's current primacy, as a financial bubble. The psychology of a bubble - irrational exuberance - is at work in the minds of those influencing American Foreign policy who think they see the moment of empire at hand and see also a clear duty/opportunity step up and take the Kipling's burden of running the world. An article from about the same time AlterNet: American Apocalypse can be read in tandem with this. The Alternet article by Robert Lifton looks and some of these same impulses and phenomenon from the perspective of the Clash of Civilizations crowd, particularly the ones that put a very Ragnorok undercurrent to it. Its hard to say how many people inside the Government suscribe to these views. It is clear they encourage and pander to it. If you ever had the thought this was a bad idea this article will help you see why. Equating terrorism with blind evil and declaring that it must be eradicted essentially turns the American Nation and enterprise into a mystery cult. I try to think what reaction I would have gotten in my Navy days if I had prepared a Fleet Intelligence Graphic (aerial photo w/annotations) and handed it to my Chief Petty Officer and told him: "well, here is a Kresta II at anchor in the harbor, here are some anti aircraft missile sites, this is an airfield, and this over here is the dark shadow of satan's army of fallen angels flying over the landscape in support of the evil loving souls of communists and infidels." I think that would have earned me a trip the padded part of sickbay. But it's a new old world out there now. 11:56:40 PM    comment [];trackback []; Assorted links A number of people have noticed that David Brooks has settled down consistently to banging on Howard Dean in his weekly NYT op-ed's. That ought to count as much as a Dean victory in any one of the first wave primaries. Safire has written a somewhat surprising op-ed. in the New York Times Behind Closed Doors Looking at this administrations obsessive untoward secrecy, and rememebering how they felt about Hillary Clinton's Health care task force. Considering that not only the Sierra club, but also Judicial Watch are filing and FOIA and being Stonewalled, And that so are prominent Republican Senators. Safire decides to opt for the side of consistency and caution the Administration. US News had a nice article Keeping Secrets on this same subject this week which frames Safire's piece well. Verlyn Flieger a English professor here at Maryland appears to have put out a statement slamming the Lord of the Rings movies for being 'Poorly written and poorly acted". Seems rather uncharitable and unnecessary, But I guess she's entitled: she has written a book on LOTR. Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World. I mention this because my sisters went to see her speak on Tolkien at the Smithsonian two years ago and they liked her. 11:51:02 PM    comment [];trackback []; the Zen of Diebold An article in a local paper, the Montgomery County Gazette, that quotes from on of those e-mails that were liberated off of Diebold's server E-mail stolen from Diebold is a call to gouge Maryland (I have background links to this in an earlier post on Diebold). A diebold employee is discussing a University of Maryland Study on electronic networked voting system, and potential reactions by Maryland State legislators of the State Board of Elections. There is a possibility that some groups may move to request Diebold provide for voting receipts before their systems is turned loose on a state wide election. The employee feels that if Maryland does that [we should charge them]"out the yin-yang". 11:31:40 PM    comment [];trackback [];

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