Voices of Sanity, Wages of Fear

Stan Hister in an important addendum to Thomas Frank's analysis of the problems with contemporary liberalism:

A long time ago, as the popular image of the worker went from Tom Joad to Archie Bunker, the left stopped caring much about the plight of the working class. Identity is what came to matter: politics became increasingly personalized (and almost as niche-marketed as cable tv), while economics receded into the background. But this shift away from class was also a shift away from any challenge to the system. In the old left-wing paradigm, the fight against racism or the oppression of women was seen as integral to the fight against capitalism. But with identity politics the goal isn't revolution anymore but inclusion. Which is why identity politics has never been radical in any meaningful sense - because its goal is fundamentally conformist.
The issue of same sex marriage illustrates the larger problem: gays and lesbians want 'in' - to a reactionary institution that is collapsing all around them. Of course they should have that right and of course the right wing campaign against it should be opposed. But the problem isn't inclusion as such but making a virtue of it. Same sex marriage isn't just about spousal benefits or adoption rights (which could be accommodated outside the framework of marriage), but above all about 'acceptance'. But acceptance of what and for what? Why should gay marriage be any less "legalized prostitution" than straight marriage, why should it be any less emotionally stifling, any less prone to abuse? The larger social critique, however, all but disappears in the battle for inclusion.

Arundhati Roy in a piece adapted from a book based on an earlier speech:

If you think about it, the logic that underlies the war on terror and the logic that underlies terrorism are exactly the same. Both make ordinary citizens pay for the actions of their government. Al Qaeda made the people of the United States pay with their lives for the actions of their government in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. government has made the people of Afghanistan pay in the thousands for the actions of the Taliban and the people of Iraq pay in the hundreds of thousands for the actions of Saddam Hussein. *** One does not endorse the violence of militant groups. Neither morally nor strategically. But to condemn it without first denouncing the much greater violence perpetrated by the state would be to deny the people of these regions not just their basic human rights, but even the right to a fair hearing. People who have lived in situations of conflict know that militancy and armed struggle provokes a massive escalation of violence from the state. But living as they do, in situations of unbearable injustice, can they remain silent forever? *** Terrorism is vicious, ugly and dehumanizing for its perpetrators as well as its victims. But so is war. You could say that terrorism is the privatization of war. Terrorists are the free marketers of war. They are people who don’t believe that the state has a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence.

An interesting, if useless, statistic from William Blum, quoted in an article by Mickey Z, about the $400 billion spent annually on the U.S. military:

One year's military budget in the United States is equal to more than $20,000 per hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born.

The U.S. has 4% of the global population and accounts for 45% of global military expenditures. The U.S. military budget accounts for 51% of discretionary spending, followed by education ($55B, or 7%) and health ($49B, or 6.3%). In a true free market, capitalists would bear the full costs of security for their imperial adventures, but we know their game is to socialize costs and privatize profits while promoting ignorance, fear, and passivity through their ministry of propaganda (the mass media).

“A criminal is a person with predatory instincts who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.”
--Clarence Darrow

The current temperature is 10 degrees Fahrenheit, or 261 Kelvin. Here's a tip on overcoming frozen balls.