tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post886821885501713673..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: Mouseketeer Roll CallDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-49639301596950059852010-08-26T14:48:36.013-07:002010-08-26T14:48:36.013-07:00Thanks for the response.Thanks for the response.The Mathmoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06296125148552532321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-86124849951039109422010-08-26T14:21:45.080-07:002010-08-26T14:21:45.080-07:00In the diorama of US foreign policy since the Monr...In the diorama of US foreign policy since the Monroe Doctrine there is little apart from Marshall Plan that does not provoke my ire and revulsion (and I have reservations about the Marshall Plan). The planetary character of both environmental crises and networked p2p-formations creates conditions in which my own, most would say utterly quixotic, desire for a democratic world federalist polity might be realized -- campaigns for more authority for various global weapons, human rights, pandemics, and weather monitoring agencies, for a popular assembly to supplement the UN GA, for democratization of palpably undemocratic and also palpably failed neoliberal post-Bretton Woods global governance agencies like the IMF and the World Bank (possibly via ILO, WHO, UNESCO, and so on) all taken together suggest the terrain on which this struggle is properly seen to be taking place. The Hilary Clinton State Department and Obama Administration's diplomatic and "soft power" emphases are, I guess, comparatively better than the Killer Clown Administration with John Bolton's spittle inflected calls for the UN Building's demolition and so on, but the remoteness of US foreign policy guiding assumptions across the board from my own multilateral multicultural pacifism and social democracy doesn't provide me much basis for discriminating between the parties, except to say that I don't hear anybody who isn't a Green or Democrat saying anything even in the ballpark of what I would want to hear ever on this topic, rare though even that seems to be.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-55809754382589731512010-08-26T12:36:45.676-07:002010-08-26T12:36:45.676-07:00I noticed that one faultline in our more or less e...I noticed that one faultline in our more or less enjoyable fits of discussion is the focus on domestic v. foreign policy. Where you underline this or that important difference and hopeful perspective on the home front, I can't help but contrast it with the situation abroad. This may be a function of having family in another country, having lived for a time in South America, having close friends who've been involved in the Middle East. My experience of talking to people on the receiving end of our multifaceted efforts at economic-cultural-military dominance made me aware of how, no matter how profoundly their life was affected by the merest nuances of US foreign policy, the change from Dem to Repub usually meant little improvement, or simply the shifting of this or that "priority" in the ongoing campaign of abuses and atrocities. <br /><br />Seeing as the basic issue driving my political engagement, human dignity at the international level, is casually tossed aside or worse, hideously distorted in the context of American two-party politics, I'm not amiable to the "pragmatic" line of argument ; I don't think HCR, DADT and other domestic issues, to say nothing of outright media distractions like the supposed Tea parties and Sarah Palin, should dominate our political discussion, to the point where we ignore our role in the funding, management, execution and legitimization of massacres, famines, collective punishments and tortures inflicted upon the world.<br /><br />Most people are not American, but most people are affected one way or another by US foreign policy. The pragmatic argument, to support Democrats in a very nuanced way, some more than others, because some Democrats better than others point toward a hopeful political future, must necessarily mean aligning oneself in the end with one of both political parties responsible for the gravest human rights abuses in recent history. This is utterly incomprehensible to people from Haiti, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Honduras, East Timor, Columbia, Palestine, Yemen, etc. And rightfully so, I feel.The Mathmoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06296125148552532321noreply@blogger.com