Letters to the Editor
kenkapkk
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 13
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To reply
[Read the article: Will the real America please stand up?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To Christian Conservative,
If you had read or followed Gary Kamiya's essays in this magaine, you would have consistently seen the "enlightened. tolerant', deeply introspective viewpoint you castigate him for not displaying here. I encourage you to look in the archives and read "Sleepwalking Toward Baghdad", in my opinion the finest piece of writing and political criticism written about the war (prior to its beginning). Even opposed to the war, Kamiya expressed an even handedness and depth of perspective that was highly philosophical that went beyond nearly any other journalist's expressions of what was developing. He created one of the truly great analogies of the time in this section:
"...That the Bush administration is not willing even to try this approach (alternatives) reveals that it sees value in using its unparalleled military machine simply for the sake of using it. This approach may cow some potential rivals, but it will alienate more. Above all, it will open the ultimate Pandora's box -- war.
"September 1, 1939" is a great poem about history, a less great one about politics. This is why, in many ways, it sums up our present dangerous and ambiguous moment better than it did the aftermath of 9/11. For we have gone from being in a political moment to a historical one.
I use the words somewhat eccentrically, to distinguish between events that are simple enough to be fully explicable ("political") and those that are too complex to be defined ("historical"). The war against Afghanistan took place in what I am calling the political realm: It had a clear, limited and achievable goal, one understood by all -- and widely supported around the world. The impending war against Iraq, on the other hand, is a historical event. It cannot be explained or defined. When it comes, it will simply exist, with the opacity of history. Its outcome is not foreseeable.
The distinction also has a moral dimension. To exist in history is to have passed beyond the pieties and slogans of the political. History is tragic: politics is not. History is glorious. It is also fatal.
The two great competing ideologies of the 20th century, fascism and communism, were both self-consciously historical movements. As Czeslaw Milosz brilliantly noted in his classic study "The Captive Mind," it was precisely the abstraction of communism, its claim to have attained the summit of morality and to have incorporated into itself all possible contradictions, that made it so meticulously horrifying. In similar fashion, fascism contained a kind of blankness at its core: the self-glorifying violence of the state simultaneously concealed and revealed the emptiness of its founding concept, the national tribe.
The lesson every government should have learned from the bloody 20th century, one written in blood across the tortured soil of old, very old Europe, is very simple: Avoid history at all costs. History is too big, too abstract, too dangerous. Avoid men with Big Ideas -- especially stupid men with Big Ideas. Take care of politics: let history take care of itself. In a word, don't play God.
George Bush is a deeply religious man, and he deeply believes in the God-given mission of the United States to shed light -- Auden's "affirming flame" -- upon the world. But as we wait for the bombs to fall, we can only pray that he does not release darkness."
Written in 2003, this is incredibly prescient, isn't it?
I find it ironic that in your call for "tolerance" and Gary's "lack" of it, you spew incredible venom, of course setting up straw man arguments such as sociaism and Eastern bloc countries. And to state " I pray for all of you that you would stop being so desperate for power and influence that your willing to do or say anything..." makes me wwonder if you've been awake these last six years?
Once in a while, a journalist will express themselve emotionally, which is what happened here. Notice Kamiya didn't pull an Ann Coulter and demand the death and genocide of those she disagreed with.
And if you're looking for God's role in this, I would suggest he is already active through events like Katrina and the Foley, Haggard, and other scandals that have shown the rank hypocricy of Right Wing leaders, Christian or otherwise.
Gary has expressed eloquently my own bewilderment at America and disillusionment with my country folk. But if I lived in the McCarthy period, I would have felt the same.
Many of us "lefties" are very willing to dialogue with those whose values differ, but not when you put a boot on our throat. I suspect that your needs and desires for a life that is productive and happy are not so dissimilar from mine.
But that space has been eviscerated by the present leadership and the country has allowed it to happen. That was the point, bluntly made with the gloves off.
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Off the mark
[Read the article: The man who ended our Nixon nightmare]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in with everyone else. Whatever else the pardon of Nixon did, it set a dangerous precedent that Presidential misconduct of that extreme could be gotten away with no accountability and impunity. Would Bush so cavalierly gone to war if the prior imprisonment of a previous President had taken place? There must be a process for such egregious offenses against the Republic and humanity. No one is above the law. Mr. Shapiro is sadly misguided on this one.
Ken Kaplan
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But it won't
[Read the article: It could happen here]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes it could, but my bet is it won't. We've been through these periods before, the Red Scares of the 20's, McCarthyism, Nixon, today. America has this strange strain of neo fascism in its blood that rears its head from time to time, yet something greater within seems to always emerge. I applaud vigilence and truth telling, and this has been a chilling period, but my bet is we come out of it stronger, better, more sober.
As 9/11 has worn off, the man behind the curtian has become much clearer. Thank God for their arrogance, stupidity, and sheer incompetence. That's not going to change.