Monday, September 06, 2004
A War Against?
Just a few thoughts on US politics.
It seems to me that the "war on terror" is a misnomer. In terms of dealing with terrorism it's an abject failure. Terrorist incidents are happening more often than before it began. Yet it is central to Bush's election campaign and seems to play well with the voters. Since the war is being lost when it comes to terrorism the real target as far as most people are concerned must be something else. The question is what?
I offer this as a suggestion rather than a certainty. It is a war against the 21st Century.
Let me explain. What Bush seems to be saying is that if he has policies that assume that things are simple, then the world will become less complicated. At least that appears to be the subtext of much of what he says. It's a call for a return to simple cold war certainties, us and them, good guys and bad guys. It's a call for a return to world war two certainties. A determined attempt to return to the days when the nation state was the sole important unit of politics, and when you could identify the enemy easily and locate them geographically.
It is a war on ideas, and the ideas it is fighting are the complicated and difficult ones that a fast changing world produces. It is a war against economic reality, against global communication and trade, it is a war against understanding, it is a war against tolerance, above all it is a war against uncertainty and doubt. Yet we don't know how our world works at the moment. We don;t know what the Internet does, we don't know what it means, we don't yet know what it has changed. We don't understand globalisation, we haven't a clue about it's long term consequences. We don't know how climate change will work, we don;t know how far and fast it will go. We can't predict how our world will be in five years time. Bush is at war with that, and his plan of campaign is to persuade people that they would be happier if it was the early 50s.
If one looks at it in those terms, and if one sees it as a war fought purely in the heads of the American electorate, then it's a war that is being won. Of course that has nothing to do with anything real, but there's another war that it's merely a battle within. That being the war on Liberalism and social concern.
Which makes it hard for a socially concerned liberal sort of person like myself. You see the President of the USA is at war with me, and I think I may be a tad outgunned.
It seems to me that the "war on terror" is a misnomer. In terms of dealing with terrorism it's an abject failure. Terrorist incidents are happening more often than before it began. Yet it is central to Bush's election campaign and seems to play well with the voters. Since the war is being lost when it comes to terrorism the real target as far as most people are concerned must be something else. The question is what?
I offer this as a suggestion rather than a certainty. It is a war against the 21st Century.
Let me explain. What Bush seems to be saying is that if he has policies that assume that things are simple, then the world will become less complicated. At least that appears to be the subtext of much of what he says. It's a call for a return to simple cold war certainties, us and them, good guys and bad guys. It's a call for a return to world war two certainties. A determined attempt to return to the days when the nation state was the sole important unit of politics, and when you could identify the enemy easily and locate them geographically.
It is a war on ideas, and the ideas it is fighting are the complicated and difficult ones that a fast changing world produces. It is a war against economic reality, against global communication and trade, it is a war against understanding, it is a war against tolerance, above all it is a war against uncertainty and doubt. Yet we don't know how our world works at the moment. We don;t know what the Internet does, we don't know what it means, we don't yet know what it has changed. We don't understand globalisation, we haven't a clue about it's long term consequences. We don't know how climate change will work, we don;t know how far and fast it will go. We can't predict how our world will be in five years time. Bush is at war with that, and his plan of campaign is to persuade people that they would be happier if it was the early 50s.
If one looks at it in those terms, and if one sees it as a war fought purely in the heads of the American electorate, then it's a war that is being won. Of course that has nothing to do with anything real, but there's another war that it's merely a battle within. That being the war on Liberalism and social concern.
Which makes it hard for a socially concerned liberal sort of person like myself. You see the President of the USA is at war with me, and I think I may be a tad outgunned.
# posted by Eric @ 5:25 PM 
