And the Great World Spins

The world stands in chaos today, from protestors across the Middle East, to renewed violence in Israel/Palestine (where a husband, wife and infant were stabbed to death in their beds) to rebels under attack by government forces in Yemen and Libya to continued protesters in Wisconsin and the devastating effects of the earthquake in Japan. Reading through the L.A. Times, it becomes clear that the battle between humans and nature is far from over and that people fighting for a better world will always confront strong challenges from entrenched power. Even in victory, Egypt and Tunisia stand in chaos, with increased crime, violence and unstable governments that are having trouble establishing order in the wake of revolution. Here in the U.S., floods in Ohio, protesters in Madison and battles across the country against a radical conservative agenda that seeks to undermine the power of the government and further solidify the corporate takeover of the state continue. One interesting article detailed the power of radio personalities Kobylt and Chiampou and blogger Jon Fleischman in working to enact their anti-tax agenda, even as the state stands on the brink of financial disaster.

What is at stake across the globe today? The future of democracy is clearly at the forefront as well as the future of humanity, as we continue to experience the effects of our mistreatment of the planet. And on the other side of confronting these issues stand fundamentalism and its inability or unwillingness to adopt to a changing world. While dictatorships in other parts of the world are certainly more forceful in their attempts to maintain and even expand their rule over the people, here it is ideological, anti-democratic reforms that stand at the forefront of the fight for our collective future. It is the fundamentalist belief of the increasingly powerful radical right wing that seem increasingly able to influence lawmakers and enact policies that stand in stark contradiction to addressing fundamental problems today. Even as unemployment remains far above recent levels, as poverty increases, as we continue to pollute the world and as money stands in as the greatest arbiter of decision-making at the local, state and national level, the call is simply to continue shrinking government and cutting taxes.

In California, the radical agenda seems ready to seriously undermine the education of children in our public schools, cut services that many need simply to survive, lower the status and quality of education in our world-class public university system and actually shrink the economy rather than admit that the quality of life of millions of people is more important than a deficit that largely resulted from their blockage of almost any attempt to raise taxes. Fundamentalism in all forms is dangerous, as it fails to react to a changing world. The Enlightenment attempted to confront and overcome this adherence to orthodoxy and mythology, by making science and reason the build blocks for a better world. As Adorno and Horkheimer argued in the 20th century, this faith in science and instrumental reason were themselves dialectic, failing to acknowledge the human element in decision-making and true democracy. This led to a profound critique of the new world order and its positivist predilections. Now we need to critique the most dangerous fundamentalism today. No, I'm not thinking of Islam. It is neoliberalism and its blind faith in the market and absolute skepticism toward the role of government in working to mitigate and solve social and economic problems. Rather than admitting that tax raises on the richest Americans could solve much of the budget mess we are currently suffering through, the only answer is cuts and those cuts must be in education, in undermining unions and in shrinking the size of government for the long run. And even though there is a strong case for green policies that could actually increase the revenue the federal or state governments receive (according to, among others, Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz), we continue to essentially sell the futures of our children and grandchildren down the river rather than make sacrifices for the common good. Unless we do, I believe the U.S. and globe stand in peril of destruction at the hands of those who cannot adopt to changing reality and instead rely on the unquestionable validity of received wisdom unsubstantiated by empirical reality, or even logical coherence.