In an August 2, 2005 TomDispatch release, a reader wrote upon learning of the death of a friend's son in Iraq, "I broke down and cried. . . . . I found I was crying not so much for the senseless loss of a young life, or even the grief our friends would bear. As I thought about it, I was crying for our country. What have we come to?"
The next day, August 3, the New York Times published a letter in which the reader, addressing Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, the Iraq war, asserted, "[L]et's start down the road that allows Americans to be proud of who we are and what we stand for."
What have we come to? Who are we? And what do we stand for? We are dedicating this Special Issue to finding a few answers to these questions. As you should expect, the opinions are as eclectic as the assortment of contributors who express them, yet common themes emerge among these "State of the Union" addresses.
We end up with your letters (no Blips this time around), and we will publish all the rejoinders we receive regarding this current issue. Have your pens -- or keyboards -- ready!
(A short prediction about Judith Miller: It will eventually turn out that Ms. Miller was the William Laurence of the Operation Iraqi Occupation, funneling the administration's disinformation, and that the current publisher of the New York Times walked in the same steps as his grandfather in 1945. Whether 1945 or 2005 the Gray Lady has always been defending the war machine and the happy few... Liberalism at its best.)
As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans.
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Jan Baughman: Theocracy. Hypocrisy. Plutocracy.
The United States has come to be the antithesis of every slogan, fable, and legend on which it was founded; that is, with the exception of "In God We Trust," emblazoned on the almighty dollar -- our last remaining symbol of freedom. Only those with enough dollars are able to afford the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness spelled out in our Constitution. More...
Milo Clark: The Dark Side
What have we come to? Who are we? What do we stand for? Let's not delude ourselves. Torture, atrocity and massacre have long characterized American military operations. Some may add American labor relations, too. We simply pretend not to notice or enthusiastically to count the scalps, ears, and pubic skins collected. More...
Raymond Garcia: The United Corporate States of America
The question is, who are we, what have we become in the USA? An existential question for sure, yet a practical one. What do we represent, in our own eyes, who are we as a product of our actions? There are clearly many ways of approaching this question, as the current issue of Swans illustrates. For me, the closest definition that captures our essential core, in the USA, is that we are The United Corporate States of America. We are the nationalist expression of the corporate state. More...
Gilles d'Aymery: The American Experiment, Really?
What have we come to? A hyper-militarized and arch-violent nation where 100 million people -- one third of the US population -- are directly or indirectly related to the military and countless law enforcement agencies, spending on death and destruction more than the remaining of the entire world; a self-indulgent nation of buccaneers drowning in consumerism and waste without any regard for the consequences wreaked on the environment and the rest of humanity; a pitiful land gripped by fear and insecurity; a human construct based on a mixture of savage social Darwinism, an irrational, deeply conservative (in the reactionary sense), religiosity, and an absurd (and groundless) belief in an innate, god-given Goodness; and the slow but unrelenting "Third-Worldization" of the social and economic fabric of the country where even hope has been hijacked and raped. In brief, a deluded people in unreserved denial of the damages and destructions they inflict upon themselves and the world. More...
Gerard Donnelly Smith: To Hell In A Hand Basket
Whether or not you believe in an afterlife -- an afterlife of eternal rebirth back onto this suffering planet or an afterlife of either eternal damnation in a fiery hell or infinite peace in paradise -- you must agree with Sartre that "other people are hell"; in part, because "other people" support War, and wage War. More...
John Steppling: What Have We Become? Not Better -- Zombie Nation
I start with this paragraph from the journals of Bartolomé de Las Casas, the 16th century defender of Indian rights in the New World, and a witness to the devastation of the Island of Hispanola (now Cuba). I start with this because the topic phrase "What Have We Become" suggests perhaps we were once something better. Clearly, this is not so. More...
Michael Doliner: Soup Of The Evening, Beautiful Soup
In the history of Western civilization democracy has prevailed for only a few slivers of time and even then only in a few places, most notably the shining example of the fifth century in Athens and the last 300 years on and off, more or less, here and there. The complacency with which most Americans assume our democracy will continue is unjustified given democracy's brief tenure in what we can see of the last 5000 years. More...
Charles Marowitz: U.S.: A Psychological Profile
Having been requested to diagnose the Patient to determine the extent of psychic damage and render a personal opinion as to subsequent therapy, I submit the following: The Patient under consideration (Case #17762005) suffered a serious trauma circa September 11th 2001, which thoroughly shattered a certain complacency that had been in place for some forty-five years when a similar but less severe trauma had occurred in the Far East. The shock brought with it a sense of vulnerability that the Patient had never experienced heretofore and, as a consequence, a complex, combining elements of fear and perplexity, arose. More...
Deck Deckert: The Best Of Times
It is the best of times; it is the worst of times. President George W. Bush is the worst president in my long lifetime, and probably the worst in American history -- I'll leave the latter to the historians. A list of his sins of commission and omission would fill an encyclopedia -- mass murder in the shape of an immoral war, an embrace of torture, delusions of empire, financial meltdown, massive corruption, misfeasance and malfeasance, the attempted trashing of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, environmental destruction, and lies, lies, lies. More...
Audra Himes: The Corporate-Owned Ivory Tower: An Omen
Corporate-think and corporate-talk are taking over higher education in these United States. Free, critical discussions about the world of ideas are soon to be over. The Establishment has set its foot down. The Man walks amongst us. Degrees from US institutions of higher education are some of the most sought-after in the world because the world of higher education in a free society is a hotbed of ideas, theories and research that grows into real-world advancement. More...
Robert Wrubel: Where Is The Left In The U.S.?
Obviously, it is not a party, on the national level. This is too bad, because in multi-party European countries, the Left sometimes gets its positions included in a coalition agenda, and is considered a respectable political voice. It is not a movement, either, held together by a charismatic leader, or ideology, or common interest. More...
Philip Greenspan: Crisis: Depravity Of The Leaders, Obedience Of The Citizens
What has happened in the U.S. over the past several years is to my mind's eye an updated recreation of the German people's fall into Hitler's Nazi nightmare. The fear induced by 9/11 anesthetized an overwhelming number of the American people transforming them in unthinking zombies who rubber-stamped the abominable policies of an incompetent and unprincipled government! More...
Louis Proyect: Do Workers Understand Their Class Interests?
In the aftermath of George W. Bush's 2004 electoral victory, Thomas Frank became the pundit of the moment. In a New York Times article dated only 3 days after the election, Frank put forward the notion that blue-collar voters chose Bush over Kerry because culture (abortion, gay marriage, etc.) trumped economic issues... More...
Michael DeLang: The Terms Of My Surrender...
Several years ago, I sharply cut down on the time I was spending gazing at the television set. It was due to no specific conscious plan or objective. I was just finding myself with less time for it and a declining level of interest. During this time of limited viewing, I must have seen something that disgusted me so much that I just simply shut it off for the last time, convinced that if there were anything of any value at all being broadcast, it was just too insignificant for me to bother searching out. More...
Admonishing Bill Bennett and defending Bob Dylan; on the nouveau riche vs. age-old poverty; a few words from Marie Louise Berneri on utopias, fascism and poverty; and a make-over applicant mistakes Swans for Fox TV... More...
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