|
CounterPunch
October
9, 2002
Why Is the US
Scaring Me?
by
BARUCH KIMMERLING
Although I am an Israeli academic, I have long
and deep ties to America. I have spent several years on both
coasts of the United States. American publishers have published
all of my books and most of my professional papers. Almost all
of my non-Israeli professional networks are American. Moreover,
since the very beginning of my adulthood I have been a great
admirer of your country and the American tradition of democracy
and self-government.
The writings of Alexander Hamilton, James
Madison and John Jay, despite their anachronism and incompatibility
with the Israeli situation, became a part of my personal "holy
writ." Their strong advocacy of personal freedom and their
uncompromising stance in favor of civil liberties and citizen's
rights captured my imagination much more than the collectivist
vision of the French Revolution, that was never implemented,
or the utopian (and bloody) promises of the Bolshevik Revolution.
This is not to say I became a pro-American
zealot. I was fully aware of the country's genocidal policies
against Native Americans, its unacceptable attitude toward nonwhite
races, its wild capitalism, the ineradicable stain of McCarthyism,
and the weird ideological wars waged in Korea and Vietnam. Yet,
I still adopted Alexis de Tocqueville's approach - that America
is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon whose negative aspects
are relatively negligible compared with he promises embodied
in it.
However, following the events of September
11, 2001, which were tragic and traumatic indeed, I am increasingly
disappointed by the American government and its unbearable willingness
to jettison the basic principles of American liberalism and enlightenment
both domestically and abroad. The American political system has
always included strong elements of chauvinism, militarism, arrogance
and xenophobia combined with a deep Amero-centrism. Fortunately,
these elements were usually counterbalanced by a strong belief
in the importance of constitutional government and a commitment
to liberal and humanitarian values.
After September 11, most of these counterbalancing
values collapsed and the watchdogs of American democracy, including
the printed and electronic media, surrendered their traditional
role and supported the government uncritically. Even if these
values and institutions are slowly recovering, their disappearance
during a period of crisis is a symptom of a deep-seated malaise
in the American political system. This is a cause of anxiety,
not only for the American people, but for people in the "rest
of the world," because the United States is the world's
only hegemonic superpower, a country whose military, economic,
political and cultural might shapes the lives of billions of
people.
In my position as a critic of my own
political system and culture - the Israeli one - I have always
argued that the quality of a democratic regime is measured and
tested not during routine or happy times, but mainly during periods
of crisis, stress and anxiety. Using this criterion, the American
leadership, including its political, intellectual, and moral
elites, completely failed after September 11.
My argument is not so much with the headlong
rush of the Bush administration and the military-industrial complex
to define the situation as a "War Against Evil." They
had a vested interest in inventing new enemies after the collapse
of the Soviet Union. My puzzlement and disappointment is mainly
with the famous watchdogs that are supposed to be whistle-blowers
in such situations - the mass media, academics and intellectuals
- the vast majority of whom lined up behind the Bush administration's
construction of reality with only the occasional, timid protests
being uttered. That the dissent could be so muted after September
11 is chilling.
I am not anxious about America's fate:
It will recover from this crisis with only a few minor cracks
in its self-confidence as it has several times following spasms
of national paranoia. My concern is with the rest of the world,
including my own minuscule country. Since America became the
Master of the World and leader of the "good guys" in
the supposed clash of civilizations, it has assumed a role as
the world's superego.
What America permits other countries
and regimes to do is considered not only a political act guided
by self-interest but an ultimate moral imperative. Take, for
example, President George W. Bush's long-awaited speech on June
24 about the Middle East conflict. Its rhetoric was very enlightened
and followed President Wilson's doctrine of national self-determination
by promising the establishment, at some unspecified time in the
future, of a Palestinian state with temporary borders. All these
promises were conditioned upon the removal of Yasser Arafat and
the "democratization" of the Palestinian Authority.
Actually, President Bush granted Ariel Sharon the political and
moral authorization to continue the re-occupation the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, to eliminate the Palestinian leadership and to
destroy the political identity of the Palestinian people. Assuming
this will happen, is it, as we used to ask in Israel and America,
good for the Jews? Not at all, my dear American fellow patriot.
It is very bad for the Jews. These policies will prolong the
Arab-Israeli conflict indefinitely and ultimately lead to the
destruction of the Jewish state after radioactive rain has fallen
on the entire Middle East.
After Bush's speech, a Palestinian friend
who, like me, is not an admirer of Yasser Arafat, reminded me
of an old joke. A world survey conducted by the U.N. posed the
following question: "Could you please give us your opinion
about the food shortage in the rest of the world?" This
was a huge failure due to the following reasons. In Africa, no
one knows what "food" is. In Western Europe, no one
knows what "shortage" is. In Eastern Europe no one
knows what "opinion" is. In the United States no one
knows what "rest of the world" means. Neither one of
us laughed.
Baruch Kimmerling is a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem. Among his recent books are The
Invention and Decline of Israelieness (University of
California Press) and Palestinians:
The Making of a People (The Free Press and Harvard University
Press) with Joel S. Migdal.
Yesterday's
Features
Bruce Jackson
Queen
Dershowitz
Ted Steinberg
This
One Will Kill You:
A Participant's Guide to the Death Penalty
John Stanton
When the Bullet Meets the Bone: Ari Fleischer's Single Bullet
Theory
Harry Browne
Ireland
Kicks at the Foundation of the New Europe
Dave Marsh
Talking Blues
Edward Said
Arafat the Hunted
Benjamin Shepard
Class War in the West Village
Gloria Bergen
Smash Capitalism! Stuff the Monarchy!
Philip Farruggio
Dear Junior
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned
Citizen:
a Serialized Novel
Vest, O'McCarthy, Dailey
Poets' Basement
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- How to Change the Subject: Corporate Scandal and Pension
Reform as Weapons Against Warmongering;
- Padilla's Predecessor: Court Ruling Cites 1904 War
Against Mining Union;
- Adios Hitchens: the Dorian Gray of Our Time;
- Object of Suspicion: How the FBI Watched Janis Ian
From Birth;
- First Carter, Then Clinton,
Now Sen. John Edwards:
Another "New South" Slimeball;
- Corporate Crooks: Nature or Nurture?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 4,
2002
Ahmad Faruqui
The Anvil
of War and the Ailing American Economy
Norman Madarasz
The
Truth and Violence
of a Symbolic Act
William Hughes
Political
Show Trial for
Marwan Barghouti
Ron Jacobs
The Struggle
Against
Another Oil War
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Bush War
Plan:
Blind and Improvident
Michael Schwalbe
The
Costs of American Privilege
Ralph Nader
Holding
Politicians' Feet to the Fire on Corporate Crime
Robert Buzzanco
Pacifica
Caves in to Zionist Smear Campaign
October 3,
2002
Gary Leupp
Talking
to Your Kids About Fascism
Will Youmans
The New
Anti-Apartheid Movement: The Campaign to Divest from Israel
Deb Reich
Report from a Mad World
Todd Chretien & Sue Sandlin
"It's All About Power on the
Docks"
Kurt Nimmo
Poetry
as Treason
Amiri Baraka
Somebody
Blew Up America
Alexander
Cockburn
October Surprises
October 2,
2002
Carol Wolman,
MD
Is the
President Nuts?
Diagnosing Dubya
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
Rotten in Klamath
Linda S. Heard
Might Sharon
Nuke Iraq?
Joanne Mariner
When
the Judge Says:
"I Botched It"
Peter P. Mahoney
A Vietnam
Vet Makes the
Case Against War on Iraq
Mark Engler
From the
Quarantine
Agaisnt Greed
Uri Avnery
Manufacturing
Anti-Semites
Jennifer Berkshire
Converging Against Capitalism
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|