Rationalizations for power and the use of force

David Rees gets to the heart of the rationalizations of power and the use of military force, during this period, in this really hilarious post on Thomas Friedman.

Thomas Friedman "Suck-on-This" Anniversary Celebratory Book Excerpt

First, the video (you gotta see it to believe it):



"'Suck. On. This.' Three little words every lonely, lovelorn Middle Easterner longs to hear. What Iraqi or Iraniani or Afghanistaniani doesn't secretly hope to open their shabby, sand-caked door to find American boys and girls leaning seductively against the wall, smacking their Zionist Bubbalicious, and inviting -- demanding -- someone suck upon their flawless American private parts? Atten-SHUN!

Or was Thomas Friedman suggesting that Iraqis needed to suck on the American boys' and girls' guns? In that case, when the American boys and girls go house to house, saying 'Suck. On. This,' maybe they should stick their guns right in front of the Iraqis' mouths, pressing the cold steel against their lips, so the appropriate response is obvious. Gives new meaning to the phrase BLOWBACK, doesn't it?

But wait, sports fans! Maybe I took too many "Left-Wing Dummy Dumb-Dumb Pills" this morning, and have misinterpreted what Friedman meant! It makes more sense that Friedman wants the Iraqis to suck on the very concept of American-ness, fellating the values and heritage that make our way of life the envy of the world. Or, perhaps he thinks the Iraqis should give even more ambitious blowjobs-- and suck not only on American-ness, but also on the principles of Western Enlightenment thought, with special emphasis on free-market, representative democracy. Talk about a mouthful! (YUM!)

Of course, knowing those stubborn Iraqis, they'd probably resent being forced to suck on something so awesome. I bet they wouldn't even swallow."

It is pretty remarkable, really. The rationalizations of power and the use of force that people engage in.

It almost makes you want to cry for Robert Mugabe or Fidel Castro or Kim Jong Il or the Chinese Communist government, so hard is their job wielding force as a governing philosophy, maintaining a strong state in the face of recalcitrant citizens.

Francis Fukuyama gives the Chinese government a great big hug in his most recent blog post he so sympathizes with the need of the Communists to maintain a big, macho "Strong State."

I want to cry with folks like Francis Fukuyama and Thomas Friedman about the dilemmas of forcing the world into compliance with their greater wisdom - I mean, really, can you watch an interview like Friedman's there or read a post like Fukuyama's and doubt their greater wisdom? Come now - but then I remember all the people who have died or been imprisoned or otherwise had tragedies made of their lives in the name of that hubris.

And I, for one, am humbled.

But apparently humility is for the weak. Not big macho men like Thomas Friedman and Francis Fukuyama.

Death, destruction, and endless tragedy, apparently, only emboldens the strong amongst us to rationalize force as a governing philosophy - liberty and democratic engagement are for the weak, you see, who do not understand the genius that is embodied in power for whatever purposes they deem it necessary - against the weak, who do not know enough about their own interests to wield liberty freely without offering sufficient obedience to the strong.

So, sometimes, the strong must say, to all of us, really, not just the Iraqis:

Suck. On. This.

Otherwise, what would this world come to, really? Peace and harmony and kumbaya, you fuckin' hippie.

No. Thomas and Francis are right.

Sometimes the world just needs to learn three simple words:

Suck. On. This.

Really. It's for our own good.

"Yeah, I did"

That's why conservatives are jumping all over Scott McClellan. I kept seeing "snitch" all over conservative websites. Drudge Report. Wonkette. And I kept thinking, "Snitching about what? What was Scott saying that was not already public knowledge?"

And then I saw this interview:



"But that was a very disillusioning moment for me when I found out, uh, when the press, it initially hit the press. And we were in believe it was in North Carolina, if I remember correctly. And a reporter shouted out to the President, is it true that you authorized the secret leaking of this previously, it was classified information, but the President does have the legal authority.

Walked onto Air Force One and the President asked what was the reporter was asking.

And I said, 'He asserted that you were the one who authorized Scooter Libby leaking this information.'

And he said, 'Yeah, I did.'"

That's why the shit's hitting the fan. All of the vitriol and accusations of financial motivations for this book seemed terribly premature and overreaction by conservatives to me.

But now it all makes sense.

Power represses honest engagement and reflection.

But not forever. Only as long as people are afraid.

I'm not a big fan of snitching - in this case, the prosecutions just need to end; Scooter Libby never should have been prosecuted in the first place and notice how much more information we get from someone coming forward voluntarily rather than through that ridiculous and vindictive prosecution - but we do need more honesty to clean up politics, more people being less afraid, not more prosecution.

Prosecution, like other forms of power, tends to repress more honest engagement and reflection, no facilitate it. That's why liberal thinkers wisely advise us in the direction of greater freedom and not less, prosecuting less human folly, not more. If prosecution or power really could solve more of our problems, Nazism, Communism, theocracy, and repressive government of all kinds would all have made and make more sense. They do not. Because power undermines a more honest citizenry, and more honest efforts to address our problems, it does not facilitate it. That is what Lord Acton was getting at, if we could all just take two seconds to think on the matter.

Scott, fuck the critics. Keep speaking honestly. Congress needs to step the fuck off and let an honest discussion of this war and our dysfunctional, vindictive, and repressive political system clean things up and stop romanticizing their own power to do so.

It's the fear of snitching when people fuck up, and the exacting of harm on those who do, that undermines more honesty. Obviously there are times when we must use force to contain people or defend ourselves. But that is why it is so important to be so discriminating about when that should happen. And that is why we presume in favor of freedom. Because the rationalization of our vindictive and aggressive natures and counterproductive thinking is so tempting.

It's always everyone else who we think we need to be suspicious of, especially when it comes to power, we tell ourselves. Never us.

And that's the problem.

And that is why we presume in favor of liberty and against the notion that power will or can accomplish more than it will or can. Or that we are safe with its use because we, uniquely, favor the right causes for its use.

None of us have any final say on the right causes. And believing so is the bane of human history.

And there is much tragedy left in the wake of that tendency.

More honesty. Less repression. More freedom. Less force.

Let's make sure that George Orwell's efforts were not in vain and sacrificed on the altar of our own vanity.

More truth. Less power.

Skepticism and self-importance

Andrew Sullivan posts this terrific challenge to our self-importance.



It is a challenge to skeptics and intellectuals like Andrew and myself and all thinking people in the world, including the most thoughtful, as much as it is to those with governing power.

That's what I like about Andrew. He knows this better than most people.

We all need to know greater humility. All of us. Me especially.

The foolishness of force as a governing religious philosophy

Vatican: Excommunication for female priests

The sexism and foolishness in this decree are not difficult to understand.

We are just too stubborn to learn the lesson.

Because, sadly and strangely, too many are convinced that repression is responsible for our security, even more tragically and bizarrely, our liberty, and everything that we hold true.

And so we rationalize ugly, sexist rules like this one.

This is not difficult to understand.

We are just too stubbornly foolish to face up to our self-deception.

We are too stubbornly foolish to face up to the bullshit.

And I, for one, am tired of the bullshit.

The insanity of force as a governing philosophy

Fulbright scholarships canceled for 8 Gaza students

You've got to read this story to believe it. I can think of no other single more clearly counterproductive policy by the Israeli government than this in solidifying enmities against Israel, other than the occupation, about which Israeli conservatives seem to be digging their heels in, at this point, or the killing of innocents, which is policy for Hamas. So Hamas rationalizes killing innocents, and Israel rationalizes imprisoning Palestinians in Gaza, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad rationalize terrorizing Israeli citizens, and Israel rationalizes its occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. And on and on and on.

And innocent Israelis and Palestinians, like these students, are subjected to the killing and repression of their governments or non-governmental terrorist actors, with no way out. And these governments and terrorist groups ask them coldly, if they dare protest, "What are you going to do about it?"

The one hope that the world has amidst its ugly and repressive ways is democratic engagement - education, thought, communication, free expression, debate, discussion, freedom of choice, learning about one another, understanding, compassion, friendship, family, love, wisdom - and the Israeli government shuts all of that down for a few Gaza students who could bring all of that back with them to this godforsaken situation or work for greater understanding and peace between Israel and Palestine from outside of Gaza, if they, quite reasonably, choose not to return. The one real hope that Israel and the Palestinians have for resolving their differences honestly, decently, and peacefully - to allow their children to seek and create a better future - and Israel and Hamas choose to repress and imprison these people instead.

This is what force as a governing philosophy looks like, for those who were curious about rationalizing it in liberal democracies, by the way. We so take our freedom for granted, we often need a healthy reminder of just how poorly force and repression as a governing philosophy have served humanity for much of its existence. And what it looks like to try to kill, imprison, and leverage our problems away rather than learning how to handle them better together, as much as possible.

This is no way to govern. It is no way to live.

And it is a legacy we must end.