Letters to the Editor
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anwaya
You may be correct about Heidegger's limited direct function for the Nazis - but my "slander" is actually intended more towards that philosophical tradition that he's an arch-example of: muttering inanely from introspection with almost no direct connection with empirical reality. Give me Searle any day over Foucault.
Nietzche might be forgiven, as a poet trying to form a philosophical context for the industrial and postindustrial world. But once we had Nietzche, we don't need him again - the rest of that sort of nonsense just undermines rationality's underpinnings in the material world. Idealism is the father of monsters.
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Just read what they write and listen to what they say
When I talk about "Zionists" I don't mean people who are vaguely "pro-Israel," or who think in principle Jews should have their own State. I mean the heavy hitters: the ones who write op-eds, raise funds, work for the Israeli government, lobby and advocate in Congress, donate vast sums etc. I would be surprised if even a tiny fraction of these people are non-Jewish. I'll admit that lately the Christian Right has become pro-Israel in a big way and possibly they pull more weight than I'm giving them credit for. Still, Zionism is Jewish nationalism and Israel is the Jewish State. I don't think it's racist to point out that there's a pretty strong link between Zionism and Jews.
Now as for the neocons: if you think their Jewishness is somehow irrelevant, you're highly mistaken. Read their books and articles. Kristol is a good place to start. The man may have been a Trotskyist once, but when he turned rabid rightwing his Jewish identity and Zionism became very important to him. It's all there in black and white, I don't have to insinuate anything.
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Sure he will
Bush will step down in 09
For the simple reason he is too lazy to deal with Congressional oversight.
Unless, of course, there is another terrorist attack. Public Law 109-364, passed in October 2006, changes the Insurrection Act of 1807 and posse comitatus to make it easier for the president to impose martial law and to take over the National Guard without the premission of state governors.
And what Congressional oversight? US Constitution, Article II, Section 3: "he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper". You may think that this does not clearly give the president the power to adjourn Congress (to such time as he shall think proper), but if so then you haven't been reading the opinions of John Yoo.
How lazy Bush is doesn't enter into it. He is not the one who has created the unitary executive and those who have are not going to be willing to give it all up because of some silly election.
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A wierd theology
It's all of a piece with the descent of the Republican Party into political occultism and magical thinking.
The aggregate conforms to the three axioms of occultism that were identified by Henri Constant:
1) doctrine of an Astral Plane, upon which all Knowledge resides and the initiate needs merely to access.
Here the Fount Of All Wisdom is believed to be the British Empire and British rulers/politicians (excluding Disraeli, of course). The route of access is "God".
'Evangelization' of this doctrine was also the core Republican campaign theme of the 2000 elections.
2) doctrine of Omnipotence of the Trained Will.
We've heard the endless bleating about 'determination' and 'willpower' out of Bush and Cheney for close to three years.
This belief creates a pseudo-intellectual environment with contempt for reality and rigorous thought. Any true initiate/practitioner ought to be equal to any situation that arises- all s/he has to do is apply desire unrestrained by consideration of reality, and It Happens. Thus, plans that doubt success are always signifiers of failure and symptoms of loss of inner power and loss of faith.
'Evangelization' around this doctrine was the core Republican campaign theme of 2004. Have a look at the Republican Convention speeches- and their effect on The Faithful.
3) doctrine of Analogy of Above and Below.
This is the stuff where enemies become absolutized, all becomes an issue of black/white Right/Wrong Evil/Good. In pressing things into analogy, their reality gets lost. I.e. Saddam Hussein becomes "another Hitler" and necessarily in a mind-meld with Osama bin Laden. Democrats become Communists. 90% of what you hear alleged on Fox News Channel conforms to the doctrine of Analogy of Above and Below. George Bush Jr. is "a man of God" resembling Jesus of Nazareth, brown people are all savages and in alliance with the Black demiurge, etc. All becomes Manichaean.
'Evangelization' around this doctrine was the Republican campaign theme of 2002.
There is a 4), a corollary of the above three. When reality crushes and bleeds out belief in the above doctrines, there is a retreat to the implicit definitions of the mythology- being a group initiated into a True Faith in an absolute warfare with a relentless Enemy for absolute stakes, but near defeat. 4) is the retreat into an apocalyptist selfdefinition...which was also the starting point of the Faith.
That is the present Republican doctrine, and it pretty much defined the 2006 campaign. It's there in this dinner- a Coueist review of the Faith. It's in the Republican assertion that withdrawal from Iraq leads to a Manichaean battle with 'the terrorists' in North America.
Of course, to look at the Republican 'base' is to see an alliance of all the various popular occultisms in currency in the country. There are the blatant social caste and religious occultists, the Christian Right and Moonies and such. There are the gun-centered occultists, the economic occultists ('supply siders'), the racial occultists, the colonial rule occultists ('pro-business'/'anti-Communist'), Holocaust occultists, sexual occultism (the 'for procreation only' crowd).
The problem with occultisms is their bedrock- a belief that God and Death are inseparables. That is why doomed or catastrophically damaged societies and movements embrace occultization. And that is the unbearable aspect of this age- its domination by a spectre of Death. The pre-Modern world is dying away in a terrible way.
Of course, the Bible prohibits embracing this belief- 'Choose life, not death' is a charge to the inner life. Divinity worth dedication takes the form of Life.