Dear Republic:
Re: "It's Dan Rather, Act Straight!," (issue 176).
The following statement was made in this article: "And the big age of the capitalists is well behind us too, memorialized in the names Carnegie, Mellon, and Rockefeller, and anything Soros, Gates, and Buffet do today is strictly derivative, is not inventive in the least."
This was followed in the next paragraph by: “. . . today the practitioners are wholly inadequate and insecure posers living off the last residuals remaining from the Great Age and not even able to think up anything as clever as philanthropy."
The juxtaposition of these two paragraphs implies to me that the practitioners Soros, Gates and Buffett do not think about or practice philanthropy. While this may be the case for many capitalists, I believe that this does not apply to these three practitioners.
—Mark Johnston
Dear Republic:
Israel a liability? Reed Eurchuk (US foreign policy derailed, issue 176) appears to share the view of John Mearscheimer and Stephen Walt that close ties to Israel damage US interests in the Middle East.
There is a rational basis for this view when we see the great hostility to Israel in the region and the difficulty this creates for governments friendly to the US.
But Israel has two advantages as an asset for the US. Precisely because of the intense hostility to Israel among its neighbours, Israel is very dependent on the US and unlikely to stray from the American camp. And because there is broad support in the Israeli population for the Israeli government it is unlikely to fall soon. By contrast, the Shah of Iran, placed in power by a CIA-planned coup in 1953, was overthrown 26 years later by a massive popular revolt. And the Saudi monarchy is just as vulnerable. It's tight political control over the Saudi population is a sign of weakness, not strength.
It might be useful to compare the Middle East with Latin America. In Latin America, the US is not saddled with a connection to a pariah state. But at the same time they lack a client state from which to invade offending countries such as Venezuela and Ecuador. (It's true they are hoping the Colombian military will help them in Venezuela).
I don't think it's too far-fetched to think that from time to time US rulers might wish they had a powerful army like Israel's in the heart of Latin America, ready, willing, and able to enforce imperialist rule.
—Ken Hiebert, Vancouver
Dear Republic:
Re: The end of culture, issue 176.
I agree with Kevin’s argument (as I nearly always do). However, I have a possible alternative to corporatized everything, and it relates to another article discussed in this issue on climate change.
People don't want to directly admit it in general, but climate change is ultimately about becoming less mobile, less technologically dependent, and buying less. The lack of materialism is the key part and it’s what corporations are increasingly focusing their power against happening. But wouldn’t corporate power be foolish to directly attack?
It's been a while but I don’t recall Al Gore talking about consuming less in "An Inconvenient Truth." It's certainly not a tenet of his climate work. He does not attack the corporation, he complies with it like a proper politician. In some ways I agree with this action, for it is a wasteful effort and could possibly cost lives. As all guerrilla fighters know, never directly attack the Empire's soldiers. Lead them out, don’t play by their rules.
Instead we should devise new strategies to deal with their power and the manufactured consumer demand that the US and much of the West is hypnotized by. This lesson came more clearly to me after reading J M Coetzee's novel "Waiting for the Barbarians." In it the protagonist awakens his consciousness until he is no longer able to live in compliance with Empire and the practice of putting the lives of some above justice and decency. This strongly resonates with me. I am just out of University in the US and have reached a point where I can no longer live in the US because I feel complicit with US Empire. Also my anger is so great in the US that I sometimes want to rush the corporate doors, something I never want to actually succumb to.
So I am now volunteering for an NGO in Kenya. There are no Westerners around me in my village. Only Easterners and a people living as sustainably and as kindly as I have ever witnessed in my life. Isn't living a lifestyle that is sustainable, non-polluting, working on the project of the Democratic Revolution the one thing that corporations cannot control? When people focus their energies on full human rights regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, income; universal health care; universal quality education; living sustainably with the planet around the world—that is, putting service at the center of their lives—amazing things happen.
Living in Kenya is demonstrative of this for me. This is a place where in the villages people emotionally take care of each other, where commerce is almost completely local, where there is no power or sewer or water lines connecting homes to any corporate structures. I get frustrated often, but people have reasons to shut down and curse daily that I still cannot comprehend even upon seeing them. Aids, poverty, lack of food, roads so horrible they give me diarrhea. But they don’t curse. They focus their energies elsewhere, on what matters more.
Western liberal intellectuals could learn much from their example, for prioritizing one's energy is of the utmost importance. I will bring it back to another Republic article from earlier this year, paraphrased "Movements of the Left Need Joy, Too." There is much to be upset about with corporate control, and we should be conscious of it. But it's not what we should focus on. We should articulate and personally manifest our vision for how society needs to change. And after I leave Kenya, it is likely that vision will be as close to a sustainable, non-materialist gay Buddhist NGO worker/journalist living in the amazing city of Vancouver as I can get.
Your paper gives me energy to persevere in seeking the truth, as well as reaffirms my belief that independent media is invaluable for society. May we all continue on the path, and not let circumstance sway us from its importance.
—Michael Nugent, Kenya
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