Sunday, December 26, 2004
The Baby and the Cross
Empires Prefer a Baby and the Cross to the Adult Jesus
From Constantine to Bush, power has needed to stifle a revolutionary message
by Giles Fraser
by Giles Fraser
Published on Friday, December 24, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Every Sunday in church, Christians recite the Nicene Creed. "Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures." It's the official summary of the Christian faith but, astonishingly, it jumps straight from birth to death, apparently indifferent to what happened in between.
Nicene Christianity is the religion of Christmas and Easter, the celebration of a Jesus who is either too young or too much in agony to shock us with his revolutionary rhetoric. The adult Christ who calls his followers to renounce wealth, power and violence is passed over in favor of the gurgling baby and the screaming victim. As such, Nicene Christianity is easily conscripted into a religion of convenience, with believers worshipping a gagged and glorified savior who has nothing to say about how we use our money or whether or not we go to war...
Every Sunday in church, Christians recite the Nicene Creed. "Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures." It's the official summary of the Christian faith but, astonishingly, it jumps straight from birth to death, apparently indifferent to what happened in between.
Nicene Christianity is the religion of Christmas and Easter, the celebration of a Jesus who is either too young or too much in agony to shock us with his revolutionary rhetoric. The adult Christ who calls his followers to renounce wealth, power and violence is passed over in favor of the gurgling baby and the screaming victim. As such, Nicene Christianity is easily conscripted into a religion of convenience, with believers worshipping a gagged and glorified savior who has nothing to say about how we use our money or whether or not we go to war...
© Copyright 2004 Guardian Newspapers
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Torture and the USA
Torture: Shock, Awe and the Human Body
by William Pfaff
Published on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 by the International Herald Tribune
A historian in the future, or a moralist, is likely to deem the Bush administration's enthusiasm for torture the most striking aspect of its war against terrorism.
This started early. Proposals to authorize torture were circulating even before there was anyone to torture. Days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration made it known that the United States was no longer bound by international treaties, or by American law and established U.S. military standards, concerning torture and the treatment of prisoners. By the end of 2001, the Justice Department had drafted memos on how to protect military and intelligence officers from eventual prosecution under existing U.S. law for their treatment of Afghan and other prisoners...
Published on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 by the International Herald Tribune
A historian in the future, or a moralist, is likely to deem the Bush administration's enthusiasm for torture the most striking aspect of its war against terrorism.
This started early. Proposals to authorize torture were circulating even before there was anyone to torture. Days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration made it known that the United States was no longer bound by international treaties, or by American law and established U.S. military standards, concerning torture and the treatment of prisoners. By the end of 2001, the Justice Department had drafted memos on how to protect military and intelligence officers from eventual prosecution under existing U.S. law for their treatment of Afghan and other prisoners...
Destroying cities and torturing prisoners are things you do when you are losing the real war, the war your enemies are fighting. They are signals of moral bankruptcy. They destroy the confidence and respect of your friends, and reinforce the credibility of the enemy.
© 2004 International Herald Tribune
A Political Christmas?
The Politics of the Christmas Story
by James Carroll
Published on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 by the Boston Globe
by James Carroll
Published on Tuesday, December 21, 2004 by the Boston Globe
The single most important fact about the birth of Jesus, as recounted in the Gospels, is one that receives almost no emphasis in the American festival of Christmas. The child who was born in Bethlehem represented a drastic political challenge to the imperial power of Rome. The nativity story is told to make the point that Rome is the enemy of God, and in Jesus, Rome's day is over...
© 2004 Boston Globe
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
For Aussies Who Believe in "Individual Freedom"
If It's Good Enough for Retirees, it's Good Enough for Rumsfeld!
Published on Monday, December 20, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Published on Monday, December 20, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Sunday's commentary from the Laura Flanders Show, December 19, 2004
Beware: the following may contain irony.
We’re in an era where security is a buzzword. Washington has a new Department of Homeland Security. Airports are run by Transportation Security officials. The war in Iraq is to supposed to ensure our National Security. There’s no shortage of tax dollars and spending for federal security-related activities… until we come to Social Security. So having heard what the President has to say on the matter, here is a different idea.
We all know Pentagon spending is driving this nation into debt. I think what we need is a little reform. Let’s privatize...
We’re in an era where security is a buzzword. Washington has a new Department of Homeland Security. Airports are run by Transportation Security officials. The war in Iraq is to supposed to ensure our National Security. There’s no shortage of tax dollars and spending for federal security-related activities… until we come to Social Security. So having heard what the President has to say on the matter, here is a different idea.
We all know Pentagon spending is driving this nation into debt. I think what we need is a little reform. Let’s privatize...
A Conspiracy Against Christmas?
[Interestingly, the events portrayed in the first few paragraphs are happening here too, with "the meeja" stirring up angst about how "we are a Christian country, but the snivel-libertariarians are stopping us from celebrating Christmas"]
The Myth of National Victimhood - All Wrapped and Delivered for Christmas
by Thom Hartmann
Published on Monday, December 20, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
It's Christmas week - Adolf Hitler's favorite season after he declared an official merger of church and state - and, ironically, conservatives are using the occasion to mount a new and bizarre attack.
They said liberals are out to destroy Christmas. Cobbling together a few anecdotes (unsupportable attacks are always anecdote-based), they managed to imply a vast anti-Christian conspiracy bubbling just under the belly of America, and pushed that frightening implication into the minds of millions of Americans just in time for the holiday season.
Conservatives must constantly attack others (and focus on "morality") to keep hidden their own true agenda, which is no less than a return to the world of Scrooge & Marley, Inc. They're working to bring about a return to Robber Baron feudalism, with a stable, rich, and powerful ruling class, and an impoverished, frightened, and politically impotent working class...
Monday, December 20, 2004
The US Gets Its Come-uppance?
Laughing Dragon, Dancing Bear
by Ray McGovern
Published on Friday, December 17, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
by Ray McGovern
Published on Friday, December 17, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
While President George W. Bush, his “neo-conservative” advisers, and centrist Democrats bask in the glow of America’s status as “the one remaining superpower in the world,” signs are mounting that other major powers do not intend to hunker down and suspend their own efforts to shape history...
Pinochet the Hero?
My Case Against Pinochet
by Francisco Letelier
Published on Friday, December 17, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
by Francisco Letelier
Published on Friday, December 17, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times
When I read that Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the 89-year-old former leader of Chile, had been placed under house arrest earlier this week and declared competent to stand trial for his many crimes, it was no abstract issue for me. This was a man, after all, who had a tremendous influence on my life, the man who robbed me of my father, who tore my family apart...
Social Security in Trouble?
[Australians who try to scare their fellows with arguments that "The Age Pension will not last" should take note]
Social Security Suicide: Loony and Bizarre
by Molly Ivins
Published on Thursday, December 16, 2004 by the Boulder Daily Camera
Relatively recent writings on Social Security convince me of two things. One is that we should be looking for maximum skepticism in our sources on this subject. And the second is that anybody who starts with dismissive, condescending and absolutist views isn't worth reading or listening to on this subject.
There's a lot of fake objectivity out there, too. I personally think the Bush proposal for privatizing Social Security is loony, radical and unnecessary, but that's not an argument, it's a conclusion. It's the people who aren't willing to make the case that you have to watch out for...
Social Security Suicide: Loony and Bizarre
by Molly Ivins
Published on Thursday, December 16, 2004 by the Boulder Daily Camera
Relatively recent writings on Social Security convince me of two things. One is that we should be looking for maximum skepticism in our sources on this subject. And the second is that anybody who starts with dismissive, condescending and absolutist views isn't worth reading or listening to on this subject.
There's a lot of fake objectivity out there, too. I personally think the Bush proposal for privatizing Social Security is loony, radical and unnecessary, but that's not an argument, it's a conclusion. It's the people who aren't willing to make the case that you have to watch out for...
The Centre is Right?
[The Australian Labor Party should also stop moving to the "centre"]
Looking out over Washington, DC, from his plush office, Al From is once again foaming at the mouth. The CEO of the corporate-sponsored Democratic Leadership Council and his wealthy cronies are in their regular postelection attack mode. Despite wins by economic populists in red states like Colorado and Montana this year, the DLC is claiming like a broken record that progressive policies are hurting the Democratic Party...
Scare-mongering on Social Security
[The conservative panic-merchants are already trying the same sare mongering here - on superannuation as well as on Social Security]
At Bush's so-called economic summit, which was more like a valley, he did what he does best: instill fear about a false threat.
And he made clear who his constituency is: the financial markets.
Even before the gathering of rightwing economists began, Bush set the tone in his weekend radio address when he said, "The system is headed toward bankruptcy down the road. If we do not act soon, Social Security will not be there for our children and grandchildren."
This is the worst kind of hype...
© 2004 the Progressive
"Workers" Become "Consumers"
[Australian workers take note]
Down and Out in Discount America
by Liza Featherstone
by Liza Featherstone
Published on Saturday, December 18, 2004 by The Nation
...From Consumers to Workers and Citizens
It is crucial that Wal-Mart's liberal and progressive critics make use of the growing public indignation at the company over sex discrimination, low pay and other workers' rights issues, but it is equally crucial to do this in ways that remind people that their power does not stop at their shopping dollars. It's admirable to drive across town and pay more for toilet paper to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart, but such a gesture is, unfortunately, not enough. As long as people identify themselves as consumers and nothing more, Wal-Mart wins.
The invention of the "consumer" identity has been an important part of a long process of eroding workers' power, and it's one reason working people now have so little power against business. According to the social historian Stuart Ewen, in the early years of mass production, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, modernizing capitalism sought to turn people who thought of themselves primarily as "workers" into "consumers." Business elites wanted people to dream not of satisfying work and egalitarian societies--as many did at that time--but of the beautiful things they could buy with their paychecks.
Business was quite successful in this project, which influenced much early advertising and continued throughout the twentieth century. In addition to replacing the "worker," the "consumer" has also effectively displaced the citizen. That's why, when most Americans hear about the Wal-Mart's worker-rights abuses, their first reaction is to feel guilty about shopping at the store. A tiny minority will respond by shopping elsewhere--and only a handful will take any further action. A worker might call her union and organize a picket. A citizen might write to her congressman or local newspaper, or galvanize her church and knitting circle to visit local management. A consumer makes an isolated, politically slight decision: to shop or not to shop. Most of the time, Wal-Mart has her exactly where it wants her, because the intelligent choice for anyone thinking as a consumer is not to make a political statement but to seek the best bargain and the greatest convenience.
To effectively battle corporate criminals like Wal-Mart, the public must be engaged as citizens, not merely as shoppers. What kind of politics could encourage that? It's not clear that our present political parties are up to the job...
It is crucial that Wal-Mart's liberal and progressive critics make use of the growing public indignation at the company over sex discrimination, low pay and other workers' rights issues, but it is equally crucial to do this in ways that remind people that their power does not stop at their shopping dollars. It's admirable to drive across town and pay more for toilet paper to avoid shopping at Wal-Mart, but such a gesture is, unfortunately, not enough. As long as people identify themselves as consumers and nothing more, Wal-Mart wins.
The invention of the "consumer" identity has been an important part of a long process of eroding workers' power, and it's one reason working people now have so little power against business. According to the social historian Stuart Ewen, in the early years of mass production, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, modernizing capitalism sought to turn people who thought of themselves primarily as "workers" into "consumers." Business elites wanted people to dream not of satisfying work and egalitarian societies--as many did at that time--but of the beautiful things they could buy with their paychecks.
Business was quite successful in this project, which influenced much early advertising and continued throughout the twentieth century. In addition to replacing the "worker," the "consumer" has also effectively displaced the citizen. That's why, when most Americans hear about the Wal-Mart's worker-rights abuses, their first reaction is to feel guilty about shopping at the store. A tiny minority will respond by shopping elsewhere--and only a handful will take any further action. A worker might call her union and organize a picket. A citizen might write to her congressman or local newspaper, or galvanize her church and knitting circle to visit local management. A consumer makes an isolated, politically slight decision: to shop or not to shop. Most of the time, Wal-Mart has her exactly where it wants her, because the intelligent choice for anyone thinking as a consumer is not to make a political statement but to seek the best bargain and the greatest convenience.
To effectively battle corporate criminals like Wal-Mart, the public must be engaged as citizens, not merely as shoppers. What kind of politics could encourage that? It's not clear that our present political parties are up to the job...
