sanctuary

Thursday, December 14, 2017

The Seduction of Mein Kampf



People who shut their eyes to reality simple invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.
(James Baldwin)

Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf? Haven't these subjects been analyzed over the years ad nauseam? Well yes, but....

The Dublin Review of Books recently published an essay by Albrecht Koschorke entitled On Hitler's Mein Kampf: The Poetics of National Socialism. Koschorke himself almost offers a timid apology for bringing up the subject and even mentions “Godwin's Law,” which states, according to the Urban Dictionary, that the longer an online argument goes on and becomes more and more heated, the more likely someone will bring up Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The person invoking these names effectively forfeits the argument..

But Koschorke, a German literary critic, offers a compelling examination of the subject because of what he calls the “mounting radicalization” in our own time.

Here, in the United States for example, we could draw up a list of worrisome changes that are taking hold of American society. Some might include:

  1. Politicization of everyday life
  2. A disregard for the importance of 'truth”
  3. Devaluing of intellectual excellence
  4. Knowingly accepting outright lies from our leaders
  5. Vulgarization of society in general
  6. Scapegoating, immigrants for example, and Muslims in particular.
  7. Tribalism

You could argue that many of these conditions have reared their head in the United States before, It's true. You could also say that some of these conditions have been with us from the very beginnings of the country, which Alexis de Tocqueville, among others, pointed out in the early 19th century. True enough.

Yet it is also true that they are collectively growing and spreading across America in 2017 and they are reasons to be concerned if we are at all interested in equity and a viable democratic republic (recognizing that some people aren't remotely interested). The intriguing—and important question—is always why did it happen and why does it continue to happen.

Koschorke states that it is important to understand 'the confluence of circumstances” that made national socialism in Germany possible in the 1930s.

Mein Kampf was published in 1924. Academic readers at the time considered it unoriginal, ludicrous, poorly written and simply rabid. It is all of these things and more. In college I managed to get through about 50 pages or so before tossing it into the wastebasket. The point, however, is that Hitler's intended audience was never academics. This was not his constituency.

Koschorke says of the book, “A menacing vacuum emanates from Mein Kampf—a license for adherents to react with a 'Just you wait' that bristles with lustful sadism.” For Koschorke, it is not that most people didn't read Mein Kampf or finished it, but that those who chose to wade though it entered into a kind of “secret society.” Perhaps most important in this closed circle was the nature of power. It was power that was contemptuous of any engagement with its opponents. Ultimately it was irrelevant whether one believed in Hitler's “literary” rants or more important in his far more mesmerizing public ranting and ravings. His followers knew what they wanted.

But who was Hitler's constituency according to Koschorke? Well, it wasn't the “scarcely literate or lower order of society.” For Hitler it was those with limited education and those who could be called the “failed” or “faltering.” Koschorke defines Hitler's constituency as those people who lived in a condition of existence “without predictability or security,” which in turn affected material or psychological well being. It was easier as time went by to blame the Jewish “conspiracy” and the Social Democrats for the failure of democratic institutions in Germany. By the mid-1930s it mattered little what anyone thought.

Numerous books have been written on the the rise of Fascism and Nazism, along with the assorted dictators that took power in the 1920s and 1930s. But certainly a loss of confidence in democratic institutions was a factor, a factor that can be seen spreading across the globe today.

Once you get beyond nationalism and making “holy mother Russia” great again, it's by in large a thug state, a kleptocracy. China, supposedly the new superpower is, as someone once described it, “capitalism in a Leninist cage.” Dismal as one can imagine. You can today go across the globe from India and Turkey to right wing nationalism in Europe and realize that democratic institutions and beliefs are under assault, exactly what occurred in Europe more than 80 years ago.

Here in the United States the slow unraveling leading to inequality and authoritarianism has been going on for a good thirty years. There is no guarantee this time for a “happy” ending.










Monday, November 27, 2017

Dare We Must: Yeah We Must Call It Treason


Some may remember a Stephen Schwarzman back in 2010. He was and is the billionaire CEO of perhaps the largest private equity firm in the country. He became hysterical over Obama's attempt to make some “very slight” changes to the carried interest charges. He compared it to “Hitler invading Poland in 1939.” Just more nonsense from the privileged class.

No, carried interest charges is not something that most of us need to worry about. It was devised by and for the very rich, sort of like the tax havens across the globe that have been in the news lately. It also remains in the “tax overhaul” plan the Republican cult wants to get passed as fast as possible this week. Of course, if we actually closed all these assorted welfare programs for our pampered parasite class we probably wouldn't have to screw the vast majority of Americans ... or at least as badly as what might very well happen.

While we have been distracted by the degenerate, half-bright sociopath in the White House, the Republican Congress has been crawling frantically through their own swamp desperate to appease their overseers. After all, they have been told in no uncertain terms—no 19th century, no more campaign contributions, from us, the kleptocracy.

No, no, possible collusion with a foreign power, conflict of interests, failure to disclose income tax returns, environmental degradation, unqualified nominees, health and safety, growing inequality, gutting of health insurance, third world U.S. infrastructure repairs, corporate personhood etc, etc and etc is not the priority. The Republican Congress is counting on an electorate unable to tear itself away from the latest distraction on social media, television and talk radio.

The Republicans will give the one-percent over one-fifth of the tax cuts, while the top 5-percent will get just under half of the tax cuts. Oh and they will have to be paid for, not by some fanciful economic expansion or trickle down nonsense, but by all the rest of us. The holy grail for the parasite class is of course Social Security and Medicare. But the millennials have not been forgotten. Well, they actually have, been forgotten, actually.

There will be no American dream for the overwhelming majority. For that 40 to 60 year old group, well, work is good for you. Stay healthy. Don't waste time on vacations. You may even win the lottery. That's the definition of Libertarianism: FREEDOM to be unemployed, under educated, sick and powerless to do anything about it. Oh, and we haven't even talked about net neutrality. But it's too complicated for most Americans anyway. The Democratic Party? Well, we don't have time right now. They're still deciding on who they are.

Oh, speaking of Libertarians, at least the rich ones. Many of them don't believe in a lot of the childlike nonsense they yap about. They just don't give a damn about the “democracy” thing. Regardless, at this point we have only a fig leaf of a democratic republic anyway. Yeah, I'm inclined to think we're dealing with treason; we have been betrayed. Sorry, I forgot to mention the “chained CPI tax hike.” Look it up.














Thursday, October 12, 2017

The "Unmelanated" Myth of America

Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect.
(Norman Maclean, “A River Runs Through It and Other Stories”)

I returned recently from Montana and Wyoming, where I hiked in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone, two national treasures I'd not seen before and which represents the very best in public policy legislation in the United States ... at least for the majority of Americans I suspect.

But there was something else besides the state's natural beauty and its wildlife that caught my attention, as my son and I drove from Bozeman, Montana to Glacier National Park near the Canadian border. It was both something seen and something sensed as we traveled toward our destination. It was to me the Caucasian myth (my words) of the discovery of America writ large.

We can thank President Theodore Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century for the national park system, but we can also begin with the naturalist John Muir who, in the 1870s, realized that European-Americans (and others) would likely slaughter all the wildlife and possibly harm the region's natural beauty in what is now Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming if an area was not set aside as a “preserve” for every Americans to enjoy in perpetuity.

This—make no mistake about it—is a bone of contention for some Americans, especially among many folks that live in the western states. Even when John Muir raised the issue more than 150 years ago about setting aside wilderness for “public” use (I prefer “Public Trust”), a number of Americans claimed it was, well, sort of un-American. This manifested itself two years ago when Bundy and his white terrorist supporters occupied and trashed the Mahleur Bird Sanctuary in Oregon because the government had “no right” to own the land.

The state of Montana is breath taking in its natural landscape and sheer immensity. It is the 4th largest state in terms of square miles. At the same time, with approximately one million people, it is the 44th most populous state. (Wyoming is the second most sparsely populated state). Montana is also the least “black” state in the country.

It is as well the home of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, some 1.5 million acres located east of Glacier National Park. Montana contains a number of Indian reservations, including the Crow, the Cheyenne, as well as the Little Big Horn Battlefield where General Armstrong Custer, an example of military incompetence and arrogance, met his fate.

Bozeman, Montana, a college town, has a population of some 45,000 people, It is the fourth largest city in the state, upscale, prosperous, diverse—and it's “blue,” at least compared to the very, very conservative state that surrounds it, a not unfamiliar picture in much of what we call “red state” America, the stereotypical city-rural divide and growing wider.

It is when you leave a place like Bozeman that you begin to sense a very different world and perhaps a different time. It is a land of few people but vast space along with a great many cattle, Black Angus being a breed that I saw a lot of. Supposedly there are three head of cattle for every human in
Montana.

There is also poverty, a lot of it from what I could tell. Not the 19th century “sod buster's” house or the lonely log cabin but a small, rusty looking trailer parked on the side of a hill and perhaps a couple of “ne'er-do-well” vehicles near by. I suspect opiod addiction has also struck rural Montana hard. We passed one broken down shed along the side of the road where on the roof was the word “OPIOD.” On the other side of the roof, which you could see coming from the opposite direction, was the word “DO NOT.”

You see this man? His name is One Stab. He's a venerated elder of the Cree nation. He's counted coup in hundreds of his enemies. He is our friend, and he is thirsty.
(Tristen, in the movie “Legends of the Fall”)

We unmelanated * Americans have been fortunate, in the sense that the United States has not been occupied since the war of 1812 and then only briefly. We have never really been forced to question our essential beliefs, our history or the myths that have guided us for so long. This has now, however, in the present day, become a festering sore that won't go away anytime soon.

The actual Caucasian history of the United States is a story of European genocide, slavery and predatory capitalism. Possibly it was destined to implode all along, at some point. It obviously did not begin with cowboys in Montana, nor the likes of Richard Spencer, a “white” nationalist and apologist for neo-nazis, who happens to be from Montana, a state with perhaps the largest known number of militia groups in the country.

As good a beginning as any would be Christopher Columbus, the European who had the blessing of the Spanish court. We learned in grade school that “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.” He actually landed in Hispaniola in what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Columbus met the Taino people in Hispaniola and was impressed by their peacefulness and generosity. But in letters to the king and queen of Spain he remarked about how easy it would be the make them all slaves. “With fifty men, we could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want,” Columbus informed the Spanish court.

Less one think that this attitude was universal at the time, the Chinese in 1405, almost a hundred years before, with an immense armada and traveling in ships far larger than anything the Europeans possessed, began their exploration that lasted some three decades, spanning areas in Africa, the Indian ocean and Southeast Asia.

China did not leave behind the predation, destruction and genocidal intent like the Europeans did. The question is why? This is a story unto itself, but one well worth thinking about, especially in this day and age. For a good beginning read The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History for Humanity's Search for Meaning by Jeremy Lent. The rest is as they say European history and later European-American history.

The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.
(Chief Joseph, 1879)

The recent Las Vegas shooting where some 59 people were murdered was horrible and the most recent mass gun atrocity in the United States. It has been called the worst mass shooting in American history. It is not by any means, but it says a great deal about our collective historical amnesia and historical literacy.

A few examples: In 1864 the U.S. Cavalry massacred over 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians who were living on their own land in Colorado. In 1873 at least 150 African-Americans were murdered by white supremacists in Colfax, Louisiana. In 1890 300 Lakota Indians were murdered by the U.S. 7th cavalry at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. There are more examples, including those massacres that occurred in the 20th century.

The winning of the West, as I have written about before, is one of the greatest unmelanated fairy tales we have. The reality is not all about some goofy“libertarianism,” subduing empty spaces, respecting the land, the wildlife and, oh yeah, the native folks. It is not about doing “without government” or the endless tales of “little house” on the prairie and the survival of all those devout immigrants arriving from Scandinavia. What is most often left out in the usual and insipid Chamber of Commerce speeches is the actual uncensored truth.

Once more:

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.... Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow....
(President Abraham Lincoln, 1864)

All eyes turned westward at the end of the Civil War. Time to get rich, save souls and civilize the West. Certainly, an especially egregious brand of Christian evangelism proclaimed that “their book” told then they had dominion over damn near everything, which included the land, the wildlife and of course the “savages.”

What was called the Gilded Age was the beginning of government and corporate collusion on a massive scale. It was about scratching each others back, getting rich any way one could and where the ends always justified the means and where nothing was especially sacred except making more money.

It was an era of imperialism, white supremacy, racism, and the collapse of promises of equality after the Civil War. It was about the deliberate removal and murder of the Indians; it was about the slaughter of wildlife; it was about the disrespect and destruction of the land. It set the stage for the twentieth and twenty-first century and where we have arrived at the present time.

For anyone interested in a detailed account of the age, Railroaded by the historian Richard White is excellent. It is full of facts about the part the railroad played in shaping the West for both good and for bad. It also discusses the cattle barons and the depth of corruption and thuggery they wallowed in and how they still have considerable influence today.

Another excellent book, perhaps less academic than White's book, is Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 by Jack Beatty. To know and understand America today it's important to understand the history of the late 19th century.

Who currently resides in the White House is for me a national disgrace and represents a seriously dysfunctional country. The president's cabinet with few exceptions are a collection of rich mediocrities and political hacks, including Ryan Zinke the Interior Secretary (now under investigation) and former congressman from Montana. He is no true friend of national parks and wildlife. But so much is at stake and so much to protect and preserve ... text book conservatism I know. Forget your self pity, depression and disillusionment.

In my ideal world I would like to see more land in many western states set aside as national preserves. Sure, I would be happy to have the livestock industry shrink considerably, both for the sake of the environment and the animals being killed, domestic and well as those in the wild. For that matter, I would like to see the Second Amendment amended in order to reflect the reality of the 21st century, not the 18th. Oh yes, if Montana gets two senators why can't California get maybe four senators. The difference between 1 million and 39 million is a lot. Yet, what would be the consequences for a state like Montana?

No, the above is not going to happen anytime soon and that is why we have to work with the reality we currently have for the benefit of all of us—like it or not.

Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth?
(Tecumseh, 1768-1813)

While in Bozeman I bought a book entitled Conservation Heroes of the American Heartland: Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman, by Miriam Horn. It tells the story of five individuals in different parts of the United States, including a rancher near Choteau, Montana where Glacier National Park is located, who have made a commitment to preserve a way of life yet intend to respect and protect an environment challenged by a twenty-first century world.

These are stories about people willing to engage in different points of view, sometimes radically different. It's about a willingness to listen, to learn how to preserve as well as how to live in a rapidly changing world and ultimately have the patience to gather people in small groups to find common ground. No one is claiming it is remotely easy but it is the one thing we all must do.

This is the lesson: We can not wait for some “other” to do it. We can not just “hope” it will get better. It is not as exciting as waving a banner or shouting out slogans. It requires that we ourselves become thoroughly informed or know where to go when we aren't.

Finally, while knowing the past is critical, dwelling in it will keep us there forever. This is the lesson. I want my children and my grandchildren to blink several times when they stare up at the mountain, watch a pack of wolves saunter across the land or see a grizzly stand up on its hind legs....

We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountains.
(Thinking Like a Mountain, by Aldo Leopold)

*NOTE: The word “unmelanated” is not mine, I came across it in an essay by Michael Harriot, a writer for the online magazine The Root. I wish I could say that I had invented it. Melanin is of course dark brown to black pigment occurring in the hair, skin and iris.








Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Unmanaged pain

A caricature is putting the face of a joke on the body of a truth.
(Victory, by Joseph Conrad)

What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands, In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.
(Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, 1835)

2016

I can't say I'm unhappy about seeing the end of 2016 even though 2017 holds promises of being much worse. In October of 2016 my dearest friend was murdered in her home. It was brutal and violent and has changed my life forever.

In December of 2016 I was diagnosed with moderate osteoarthritis in my right knee, hardly earth shaking, uncommon nor remotely unexpected. It has, however, become a permanent and irritating reminder of my physical self. But “irritating” is the operating word, not chronic, debilitating pain that can control a person's life in so many ways.

Increasing the pain in America

Angus Deaton, the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, published a study along with his wife Anne Case, about a segment of white America, which has proven to be eye opening and startling in its conclusions.

The two economists analyzed various information on working class whites, 45 to 54 years of age, with less than a college education. They discovered a 22% rise in death rates from 1999 to 2013, largely due to alcohol, drug abuse and suicide. (See white America). Deaton and Case concluded that this was a community engulfed by pain, which is both chronic and persistent physical and emotional pain. The researchers have suggested that possibly one-half million people are dead who should not be.

A people's dream died at the Battle of Wounded Knee.
(Black Elk, Lakota holy man)

A pain perspective

Frantz Fanon, the French psychiatrist, achieved near cult status in the 1960s among the global Left. Fanon, the author of Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, explored the relationship between racism, colonialism, mental illness and freedom while serving as a psychiatrist during the Algerian War of Independence against France. Fanon himself was born in the Caribbean island of Martinique to descendants of free black cocoa farmers.

Frantz Fanon was most interested in the psychological injuries, particularly the “shame and self contempt” it spreads among its victims. He also noted that both the oppressed and the oppressors were locked together and the chains could not be broken until those that were oppressed chose to struggle for their own independence.

Today, the American Psychological Association states that “pain has biological, psychological and emotional factors.” It is not purely a physical sensation. We know now that chronic pain can certainly cause feelings such as hopelessness, sadness, anxiety and most definitely anger.

An American dystopia

No, the death rates in general among African-Americans is still greater than rates for white Americans, but for a particular segment of white America—in the millions—there is a backward trend, unlike any other group in the developed world at the present time. It likely began in the early 1980s.

Yes, it is an oftentimes unspoken belief and feeling that this is the group that has provided the racist ground troops, the neo-Nazis, the xenophobia and the bottomless ignorance that has allowed the American kleptocracy to manipulate and exploit the so called white working class.

After all, wasn't it “Johnny Reb” in 1860, barefoot and penniless, that marched off to defend a vile, racist plantocracy? And yes, is this not the group that is about to put Donald Trump in the White House?

Of course the element of truth is there. But the pain, physical and psychological is real. And who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor? Can it sometimes be one and the same?

The painful cause

The truth may not always set you free but it has always been visible if you are ever so willing to actually study your surroundings. Frantz Fanon was right. It really is a matter of the oppressed finally deciding to be free.

Right now a significant percentage of the rich and the powerful in the United States is gleefully ready to gut American health care (among so many other things), which includes critically important mental health services. No one will be arriving in the nick of time to save us.

For an interesting example of our “free market” health care system go to Inside the WestVirginia prescription painkiller epidemic.