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Seven deadly absurdities
facing the
It has been said and repeated
ad nauseam that President-elect Barack Obama has his work cut out for
him like no one since Franklin D. Roosevelt way back in 1933.
A true understatement, if one is willing
to unveil the current state of affairs, one that would make FDR’s
problems seem almost manageable, mostly economy-focused, not dealing
with peace or international affairs; at least not during his first term.
Obama, in contrast, in order to take the
right path to “remake” the world’s view of
Followers of the Abraham
tradition have acknowledged for millennia, in whatever form, the
existence of seven deadly sins, or vices; while at the same time
acknowledging seven forms of virtue to counter them.
In like manner, Americans end
the year facing seven deadly absurdities, but they also have the
knowledge in how to overcome them.
Yet, it is likely that they will end 2009
holding on to the same absurdities which they now face as 2008 comes to
a close; as they succumb to “more of the same” instead of adopting, once
and for all, change.
The seven absurdities, alphabetically and not in
order of priority, relate to:
Afghanistan –
It’s more than likely that
Obama’s administration in an effort to cater to bipartisanship – which
implies inclusion of militarists and ad hawk imperialists – will trade
exit from Iraq with a gift to warrior-America by escalating belligerence
in the land where America is hated not just by the Taliban, but by
people of other traditions who might accept change by way of outside
measured influences, but never through forced adoption of what to them
are foreign ways.
American military presence,
even with the addition of Special Forces and other troops, perhaps as
many as 30,000 to 50,000, and reluctant but enabling NATO contingents,
will do little more than maintain a cordon of “Western security” around
Kabul, propping up a government that more than national, it’s municipal;
with Hamid Karzai, less a president of the country and more a
controversial “mayor of Kabul” at America’s beck and call… at least in
the mind of most Afghans.
The Russians, with perhaps a less corrupt
and more humane approach, including a more trusty system of
political/public relations, still failed miserably; yet, Americans are
ready to throw unaffordable tens of billions of dollars borrowed from
Capitalism –
Americans are just
beginning to acknowledge, if not accept, the dismal state of the
economy, and the fact that prospects for a recovery, a return to the
“good old ways,” is unlikely to be in the cards. Their trust in
politicians, the Fed, and capitalism as a system is slowly melting away
as they feel deceived by a predatory ruling class.
Being in the early stages of a depression,
they’re still unwilling to listen to the prophets of doom – even if in
this case “doom” is but obvious truth – who are claiming a far worse
situation than economists in the payroll of government or industry are
willing to admit; such as Lawrence Yun, NAR Senior Economist who hasn’t
been right once on housing in the past three years, providing only
“industry-hopeful” forecasts totally out of whack.
It has become patently clear
that neither government, nor the Fed, nor anyone in a position of public
trust, will tell American people the truth, whether they are ignorant of
it, or whether their preference is not to be emissaries of unpleasant or
catastrophic news.
Obama, even in his early moments of
popular acceptability and glory, won’t dare tell American people the
truth: that their standard of consumption – not to be confused with
standard of living – will permanently decrease from 20 to 30 percent;
and he will be advised by his political circle against telling Americans
that such a thing may actually be more coherent and relevant to their
overall health, as well as that of the rest of the planet.
Unfortunately, politicians’ efforts to
stimulate spending and burden future generations with the cost of unfair
and long term inefficient bailouts will prove American-style capitalism
to work not for the many, but for the few.
A quest for America to export
democracy to the world has become nothing short of self-mockery as
exports have been relegated to poisonous warmongering and toxic
made-in-America capitalism waving creative, worthless, financial
instruments and thieving pyramid schemes, a la Maddox’.
A deadly absurdity promoting predatory
capitalism!
Exceptionalism –
It is Americans’ belief in
this condition of uniqueness… that the
Ignorance –
As it happens with
exceptionalism, Americans do not challenge what they are being told by a
wimp corporate press more interested in its economic survival than in
bringing truth and open discussion to a clueless mainstream of their own
creation.
This is one absurdity in
Impasse –
If there is a cause
célèbre in American foreign policy it is America’s unfair treatment of
Palestinians because of wantonly pressure from Israel, its powerful
lobby, AIPAC, and an American Jewry that exerts great power and
influence over every aspect of American life (academic, business,
cultural, political and professional).
If Obama is personally unable to break
this political-diplomatic stranglehold, and impasse continues, it will
affect any trust the
Politics –
As Republicans and
Democrats keep intact the entrenched monopoly of the right, little will
change politically in the
Religion –
Perhaps the greatest
absurdity that confronts
Absurdities, like vices, may be overcome, but are
Americans willing to so do?
Ben Tanosborn
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