Note: cross posted at dKos.
Could this be an Afghani or an Iraqi speaking?
As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.
They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are `only doing their duty’, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil.
Could this be America?
An illusion can become a half-truth, a mask can alter the expression of a face. The familiar arguments to the effect that democracy is `just the same as’ or `just as bad as’ totalitarianism never take account of this fact.
All such arguments boil down to saying that half a loaf is the same as no bread. Such concepts as justice, liberty and objective truth are still believed in. They may be illusions, but they are very powerful illusions. The belief in them influences conduct, national life is different because of them. In proof of which, look about you. Where are the rubber truncheons, where is the castor oil? The sword is still in the scabbard, and while it stays there corruption cannot go beyond a certain point.
The electoral system, for instance, is an all but open fraud. In a dozen obvious ways it is gerrymandered in the interest of the moneyed class. But until some deep change has occurred in the public mind, it cannot become completely corrupt. You do not arrive at the polling booth to find men with revolvers telling you which way to vote, nor are the votes miscounted, nor is there any direct bribery.
Is this talking about America in 2005?
It follows that our democracy is less of a fraud than it sometimes appears. A foreign observer sees only the huge inequality of wealth, the unfair electoral system, the governing-class control over the press, the radio and education, and concludes that democracy is simply a polite name for dictatorship.
But this ignores the considerable agreement that does unfortunately exist between the leaders and the led. However much one may hate to admit it, it is almost certain that between 2000 and 2005 the Government represented the will of the mass of the people. It tolerated poverty, unemployment and an aggressive foreign policy. Yes, but so did public opinion. It was a stagnant period, and its natural leaders were mediocrities.
The War on Terror, the left-wing and freedom of speech, as viewed by the neo-cons?
At this moment, after a year of war, newspapers and websites abusing the Government, sympathizing with the enemy and clamouring for surrender are allowed to exist, almost without interference. And this is less from a respect for freedom of speech than from a simple perception that these things don’t matter. It is safe to let a blog like dailyKos exist, because it is certain that ninety-five per cent of the population will never want to read it. The nation is bound together by an invisible chain. At any normal time the ruling class will rob, mismanage, sabotage, lead us into the muck; but let popular opinion really make itself heard, let them get a tug from below that they cannot avoid feeling, and it is difficult for them not to respond.
The left-wing writers who denounce the whole of the ruling class as `pro-Fascist’ are grossly over-simplifying. Even among the inner clique of politicians who brought us to our present pass, it is doubtful whether there were any conscious traitors. The corruption that happens here is seldom of that kind. Nearly always it is more in the nature of self-deception, of the right hand not knowing what the left hand doeth. And being unconscious, it is limited. One sees this at its most obvious in the media. Is the media honest or dishonest? At normal times it is deeply dishonest. All the media that matter live off their advertisements, and the advertisers exercise an indirect censorship over news. Yet I do not suppose there is one media outlet in America that can be straightforwardly bribed with hard cash.
Globalization, the celebrity culture and super-rich?
The underlying fact was that the whole position of the moneyed class had long ceased to be justifiable. There they sit, at the centre of a world-wide financial network, drawing interest and profits and spending them–on what? Only half a million people, the people in the big houses, definitely benefited from the existing system. Moreover, the tendency of small businesses to merge together into large ones robbed more and more of the moneyed class of their function and turned them into mere owners, their work being done for them by salaried managers and technicians. For long past there had been an entirely functionless class, living on money that was invested they hardly knew where, the `idle rich’, the people you see in the glossy magazines and on the TV, always supposing that you want to. The existence of these people was by any standard unjustifiable. They were simply parasites, less useful to society than his fleas are to a dog.
Little Green Footballs talking about us?
The mentality of the left-wing intelligentsia can be studied in dozens of blogs. The immediately striking thing about all these sites is their generally negative, querulous attitude, their complete lack at all times of any constructive suggestion. There is little in them except the irresponsible carping of people who have never been and never expect to be in a position of power. Another marked characteristic is the emotional shallowness of people who live in a world of ideas and have little contact with physical reality.
Many of you may recognise the tone and even the essay I have adapted these quotes from. I apologize for altering the words, but I wanted to make a point by making them current.
They are from England Your England written in 1941 by George Orwell. It was written in the darkness of wartime about a society under threat and a society that does not exist anymore.
The bulk of the essay does not transfer, but it is astonishing how much can be considered still apt today.