Q: Is there any hope the US will change its approach to the rest of the world?
HZ: If there is any hope, the hope lies in the American people.
[It] lies in American people becoming resentful enough and indignant enough over what has happened to their country, over the loss of dignity in the world, over the starving of human resources in the United States, the starving of education and health, the takeover of the political mechanism by corporate power and the result this has on the everyday lives of the American people.
[There is also] the higher and higher food prices, the more and more insecurity, the sending of the young people to war.
I think all of this may very well build up into a movement of rebellion.
We have seen movements of rebellion in the past: The labour movement, the civil rights movement, the movement against the war in Vietnam.
I think we may well see, if the United States keeps heading in the same direction, a new popular movement. That is the only hope for the United States.
HZ: If there is any hope, the hope lies in the American people.
[It] lies in American people becoming resentful enough and indignant enough over what has happened to their country, over the loss of dignity in the world, over the starving of human resources in the United States, the starving of education and health, the takeover of the political mechanism by corporate power and the result this has on the everyday lives of the American people.
[There is also] the higher and higher food prices, the more and more insecurity, the sending of the young people to war.
I think all of this may very well build up into a movement of rebellion.
We have seen movements of rebellion in the past: The labour movement, the civil rights movement, the movement against the war in Vietnam.
I think we may well see, if the United States keeps heading in the same direction, a new popular movement. That is the only hope for the United States.
I agree. The positive, fundamental change that Zinn is talking about is not going to come from Obama. The Democratic Party, more than anything else, competes with the Republicans for the same corporate donations and relationships, so don't expect them to do anything the managerial class doesn't like, such as significantly slash welfare to agri-business, remove waste at the Pentagon (to say nothing of cutting expenditures) or create any help for individuals that would disrupt an industry's bottom line (I'm looking at you Aetna and friends).
And the Republicans? Are they fucking kidding? The only thing John McCain is going to change is his adult diaper a few hours after dinner. But McCain, paradoxically, in this elections really is the candidate of change. Or at least the continuation of change. Ever since Ronald Reagan, McCain's party has sought to shift more and more power into private hands that are neither responsible to or responsive of the commonwealth.
The goal might be to change a representative democracy, influenced by enlightenment thinking, into a corporate brand of feudalism, complete with an executive permitted to rule by fiat (though not indefinitely) and a legislative body drawn from and strictly beholden to an elite class, much like the early House of Lords.
Considering the incredible amount of money and energy invested in our never ending cycle of "change" and our ersatz representative government; considering that our leaders propagate elaborate lies to convince them and us that we care more about democracy than capitalism, then Zinn is right.
The only real change must come from a mass movement. But the problem is, we still like our candidates, and for now, most of us, the people who count, still have their jobs. Sure, they're making less money than they were seven years ago, but as George W Bush once suggested, holding down three jobs just to keep afloat, well that's what America is all about.
I'm afraid it's going to take a LOT more than Zinn might imagine to get us to turn off the Colbert Report, to kick us off our couches and into the streets, to get us to care enough to have a "rebellion." If the Gestapo tactics of the St. Paul police at the Republican Convention is any indication, the entrenched powers react with a hair-trigger to even the most remote demonstrations for authentic change. Be warned: those Free Speech Zone enforcers now have ray guns.
And the Republicans? Are they fucking kidding? The only thing John McCain is going to change is his adult diaper a few hours after dinner. But McCain, paradoxically, in this elections really is the candidate of change. Or at least the continuation of change. Ever since Ronald Reagan, McCain's party has sought to shift more and more power into private hands that are neither responsible to or responsive of the commonwealth.
The goal might be to change a representative democracy, influenced by enlightenment thinking, into a corporate brand of feudalism, complete with an executive permitted to rule by fiat (though not indefinitely) and a legislative body drawn from and strictly beholden to an elite class, much like the early House of Lords.
Considering the incredible amount of money and energy invested in our never ending cycle of "change" and our ersatz representative government; considering that our leaders propagate elaborate lies to convince them and us that we care more about democracy than capitalism, then Zinn is right.
The only real change must come from a mass movement. But the problem is, we still like our candidates, and for now, most of us, the people who count, still have their jobs. Sure, they're making less money than they were seven years ago, but as George W Bush once suggested, holding down three jobs just to keep afloat, well that's what America is all about.
I'm afraid it's going to take a LOT more than Zinn might imagine to get us to turn off the Colbert Report, to kick us off our couches and into the streets, to get us to care enough to have a "rebellion." If the Gestapo tactics of the St. Paul police at the Republican Convention is any indication, the entrenched powers react with a hair-trigger to even the most remote demonstrations for authentic change. Be warned: those Free Speech Zone enforcers now have ray guns.
No comments:
Post a Comment