The Phantom Left
Chris Hedges
Barack Obama as a socialist and used by the liberal class to justify its
complacency and lethargy. It diverts attention from corporate power. It
perpetuates the myth of a democratic system that is influenced by the votes
of citizens, political platforms and the work of legislators. It keeps the
world neatly divided into a left and a right. The phantom left functions as
a convenient scapegoat. The right wing blames it for moral degeneration and
fiscal chaos. The liberal class uses it to call for "moderation." And while
we waste our time talking nonsense, the engines of corporate power-masked,
ruthless and unexamined-happily devour the state.
The loss of a radical left in American politics has been catastrophic. The
left once harbored militant anarchist and communist labor unions, an
independent, alternative press, social movements and politicians not
tethered to corporate benefactors. But its disappearance, the result of long
witch hunts for communists, post-industrialization and the silencing of
those who did not sign on for the utopian vision of globalization, means
that there is no counterforce to halt our slide into corporate neofeudalism.
This harsh reality, however, is not palatable. So the corporations that
control mass communications conjure up the phantom of a left. They blame the
phantom for our debacle. And they get us to speak in absurdities.
The phantom left took a central role on the mall this weekend in Washington.
It had performed admirably for Glenn Beck, who used it in his own rally as a
lightning rod to instill anger and fear. And the phantom left proved equally
useful for the comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who spoke to the
crowd wearing red-white-and-blue costumes. The two comics evoked the phantom
left, as the liberal class always does, in defense of moderation, which
might better be described as apathy. If the right wing is crazy and if the
left wing is crazy, the argument goes, then we moderates will be reasonable.
We will be nice. Exxon and Goldman Sachs, along with predatory banks and the
arms industry, may be ripping the guts out of the country, our
rights-including habeas corpus-may have been revoked, but don't get mad. Don't
be shrill. Don't be like the crazies on the left.
"Why would you work with Marxists actively subverting our Constitution or
racists and homophobes who see no one's humanity but their own?" Stewart
asked. "We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is-on the brink
of catastrophe-torn by polarizing hate, and how it's a shame that we can't
work together to get things done. But the truth is we do. We work together
to get things done every damn day. The only place we don't is here [in
Washington] or on cable TV."
The rally delivered a political message devoid of reality or content. The
corruption of electoral politics by corporate funds and lobbyists, the naive
belief that we can somehow vote ourselves back to democracy, was ignored for
emotional catharsis. The right hates. The liberals laugh. And the country is
taken hostage.
The Rally to Restore Sanity, held in Washington's National Mall, was yet
another sad footnote to the death of the liberal class. It was as innocuous
as a Boy Scout jamboree. It ridiculed followers of the tea party without
acknowledging that the pain and suffering expressed by many who support the
movement are not only real but legitimate. It made fun of the buffoons who
are rising up out of moral swamps to take over the Republican Party without
accepting that their supporters were sold out by a liberal class, and
especially a Democratic Party, which turned its back on the working class
for corporate money.
Fox News' Beck and his allies on the far right can use hatred as a
mobilizing force because there are tens of millions of Americans who have
very good reason to hate. They have been betrayed by the elite who run the
corporate state, by the two main political parties and by the liberal
apologists, including those given public platforms on television, who keep
counseling moderation as jobs disappear, wages drop and unemployment
insurance runs out. As long as the liberal class speaks in the dead voice of
moderation it will continue to fuel the right-wing backlash. Only when it
appropriates this rage as its own, only when it stands up to established
systems of power, including the Democratic Party, will we have any hope of
holding off the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party.
Wall Street's looting of the Treasury, the curtailing of our civil
liberties, the millions of fraudulent foreclosures, the long-term
unemployment, the bankruptcies from medical bills, the endless wars in the
Middle East and the amassing of trillions in debt that can never be repaid
are pushing us toward a Hobbesian world of internal collapse. Being nice and
moderate will not help. These are corporate forces that are intent on
reconfiguring the United States into a system of neofeudalism. These
corporate forces will not be halted by funny signs, comics dressed up like
Captain America or nice words.
The liberal class wants to inhabit a political center to remain morally and
politically disengaged. As long as there is a phantom left, one that is as
ridiculous and stunted as the right wing, the liberal class can remain
uncommitted. If the liberal class concedes that power has been wrested from
us it will be forced, if it wants to act, to build movements outside the
political system. This would require the liberal class to demand acts of
resistance, including civil disobedience, to attempt to salvage what is left
of our anemic democratic state. But this type of political activity, as
costly as it is difficult, is too unpalatable to a bankrupt liberal
establishment that has sold its soul to corporate interests. And so the
phantom left will be with us for a long time.
Politics in America has become spectacle. It is another form of show
business. The crowd in Washington, well trained by television, was
conditioned to play its role before the cameras. The signs -"The Rant is Too
Damn High," "Real Patriots Can Handle a Difference of Opinion" or "I
Masturbate and I Vote"-reflected the hollowness of current political
discourse and television's perverse epistemology. The rally spoke
exclusively in the impoverished iconography and language of television. It
was filled with meaningless political pieties, music and jokes. It was like
any television variety program. Personalities were being sold, not political
platforms. And this is what the society of spectacle is about.
The modern spectacle, as the theorist Guy Debord pointed out, is a potent
tool for pacification and depoliticization. It is a "permanent opium war"
which stupefies its viewers and disconnects them from the forces that
control their lives. The spectacle diverts anger toward phantoms and away
from the perpetrators of exploitation and injustice. It manufactures
feelings of euphoria. It allows participants to confuse the spectacle itself
with political action.
The celebrities from Comedy Central and the trash talk show hosts on Fox are
in the same business. They are entertainers. They provide the empty,
emotionally laden material that propels endless chatter back and forth on
supposed left- and right-wing television programs. It is a national Punch
and Judy show. But don't be fooled. It is not politics. It is entertainment.
It is spectacle. All national debate on the airwaves is driven by the same
empty gossip, the same absurd trivia, the same celebrity meltdowns and the
same ridiculous posturing. It is presented with a different spin. But none
of it is about ideas or truth. None of it is about being informed. It caters
to emotions. It makes us confuse how we are made to feel with knowledge. And
in the end, for those who serve up this drivel, the game is about money in
the form of ratings and advertising. Beck, Colbert and Stewart all serve
the same masters. And it is not us.
Chris Hedges, who writes every Monday for Truthdig, is the author of the new
book "Death of the Liberal Class."
Jim_Higgins
> OT babble
This relates to coins-how?
--
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs
and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the
great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best,
knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly.
T.R. April 10, 1899
Jud
<Political rant snipped>
You are a day late, the election was yesterday. Save your blather for
another couple years, drag it out, and bore us with it then.
Arizona Resistance
the next in line for president.
Jim_Higgins
> Its going to be safe to take out Obama and Bidine now that Bohner will
> be the next in line for president.
>
Making threats like yours *will* bring you to the immediate attention of
the Secret Service.
Zapp Brannigan
"Jim_Higgins" <gordi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:iau5jh$er1$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> Arizona Resistance wrote:
>> Its going to be safe to take out Obama and Bidine now that Bohner will be the
>> next in line for president.
>>
>
> Making threats like yours *will* bring you to the immediate attention of the
> Secret Service.
As well they should.
Obama is a terrible POTUS, not worse than Dubya though.
He's aloof, condescending and arrogant.
He will serve his one term and then be gone, possibly he may not even be the
Democrat's nominee in 2012.
The American people have absolutely lost their faith in his "hope & change",
which I always thought was just pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking anyway.
Meanwhile, the FED is inflating the currency at an unbelievable rate and the
price of gold jumped $30 today and silver is almost $26.
It's just a matter of time until the shit hits the fan and hyperinflation sets
in, if the FED is not reined in.
Bremick
"Zapp Brannigan" <ju...@one.more> wrote in message
news:kuzAo.8715$lL3....@newsfe08.iad...
But, hey, our silver and gold is sure looking good. Beyond that, the
secret may simply be to adjust the speed and direction of the fan so the
shit won't hit you. And in case of hyperinflation we can blow into a paper
bag.
I do have to agree that Obama has appeared aloof and maybe even arrogant.
Whenever a vocal majority stands firmly against what he's proposing, he
seems to scold them for not understanding. On the other hand, I don't
believe that very many voters entered the booth wondering what Tea Party'ers
would suggest. I do believe most voters know who and what they like and
don't like without a network of marchers and protesters supposing to speak
for them. I think it's somewhat presumptuous for Tea Party'ers to assume
credit for every incumbent that lost.
Zapp Brannigan
"Bremick" <rem...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:iauij8$blq$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
I have always been a slow but steady buyer of gold and silver over the years and
I couldn't be happier with the direction of PMs now.
Now that the Dems control the Senate and the White House and the Reps the House,
I don't anticpate much will get accomplished in Foggy Bottom, so the current
trends should continue.
Bremick
"Zapp Brannigan" <ju...@one.more> wrote in message
I hope so. I moved into silver fairly "big time" less than a year ago at
$18.20, simply hoping to beat CD interest rates. I've been pleasantly
surprised so far, not yet having to deal with giving Sam a big bite of the
profits. But then I guess it was Sam's doing that helped me make that
profit, so maybe he does deserve a piece of it.
Jerry Dennis
> "Zapp Brannigan" <j...@one.more> wrote in message
>
> news:kuzAo.8715$lL3....@newsfe08.iad...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > "Jim_Higgins" <gordian...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> - Show quoted text -
Man, I am disappointed. It sure seems you guys have missed the point
completely. Read the subject line again, the put it into
perspective...
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Phantom has left the building!"
Jerry
Disfusing a potentially warm rebuttal.
Richard L. Hall
them won. I could do better than that by throwing darts at an election map.
My favorite was Joe Miller, Republican Senate Candidate from Alaska who had
the endorsement of the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and lost to "None of the
above!"
--
Richard
http://www.richlh.com
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
a pretty and well preserved body. Rather, it's to skid in broadside,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "WOW! What a
Ride!" - Albert 'Skip' Rizzo (1954 - )
Jerry Dennis
> "Bremick" <rem...@cox.net> wrote in message
>
> news:iauij8$blq$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>
>
>
>
>
> >news:kuzAo.8715$lL3....@newsfe08.iad...
>
> >> "Jim_Higgins" <gordian...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
> a pretty and well preserved body. Rather, it's to skid in broadside,
> thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "WOW! What a
>
> - Show quoted text -
Actually, he lost to the "Write In" candidate.
Jerry
Politicians, what a waste of oxygen.
Bremick
"Jerry Dennis" <JDen...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:7701781c-4593-40ca...@f20g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
_________________
Personally, I thought he looked a little too much like John Dillinger
anyway.
Richard L. Hall
voters did. They rejected the candidates listed and chose someone else.
--
Richard
Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be
disappointed" -- the ninth beatitude.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
-
Jerry Dennis
as his signature line:
> Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be
> disappointed" -- the ninth beatitude.
> Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
>
>
> - Show quoted text -
Corollary, "Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall have it in
abundance." - Unknown
Jerry
Ken Barr
"Richard L. Hall" <richl...@comcast.net> wrote:
[snip]
> >> My favorite was Joe Miller, Republican Senate Candidate from Alaska who
> >> had
> >> the endorsement of the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and lost to "None of the
> >> above!"
> >>
> >> --
> >> Richardhttp://www.richlh.com
> >> Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely
> >> in
> >> a pretty and well preserved body. Rather, it's to skid in broadside,
> >> thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "WOW! What a
> >> Ride!" - Albert 'Skip' Rizzo (1954 - )- Hide quoted text -
> >>
> >> - Show quoted text -
> >
> > Actually, he lost to the "Write In" candidate.
> >
> "None of the above" sounds a lot better and it seems to me that's what the
> voters did. They rejected the candidates listed and chose someone else.
The state of Nevada actually lists "None Of These Candidates" as
an option for all of their national and state races.
"None Of These" finished second in the Democratic Senate primary
(behind Reid, but ahead of three other candidates). "None of These"
finished sixth (out of thirteen) in the Republican Senate primary.
In the general election last week, "None Of These" finished third,
well behind Reid and Angle, but well ahead of all six third-party
candidates ...
--
Ken Barr Numismatics � � � �email: �k...@kenbarr.com
P. O. Box 32541 � � � � � � website: �http://www.kenbarr.com
San Jose, CA �95152 � � Coins, currency, exonumia, souvenir cards, etc.
408-272-3247 � � � � �NEXT SHOW: Peninsula CC (Naperdak Hall, San Jose), Nov 11