"No-Bama" Versus "Tea-Party Blues."

December 21, 2010 at 9:22 A.M. "Errors" were inserted in this text that had been left alone for a while. I will do my best to make corrections of this work, again.

December 16, 2010 at 7:33 P.M. A telephone call was received from 800-950-4695, allegedly from "800 Service."

November 13, 2010 at 12:04 P.M. It is no longer possible to sign out of my blog without my computer being shut off. No scans can be run. No images can be posted at my blogs. I will continue to struggle. To paraphrase the old blues standard: "Is you is or is you ain't" a fascist, Mr. Menendez?

November 6, 2010 at 8:19 A.M. "Errors" inserted overnight will now be corrected.

November 5, 2010 at 10:33 A.M. "Errors" were inserted in this essay overnight as further interference with my cable signal resulted in shutting off my computer. ("Fidel Castro's 'History Will Absolve Me'" and "Cubanazos Pose a Threat to National Security.")

November 4, 2010 at 10:57 P.M. My computer was shut off, again, because of a mysterious blocking of my cable signal. I surmise that Cuban-American Right-wingers and their friends in New Jersey are encouraged by the election of Mr. Rubio and may feel "untouchable." They may be right. I will write from public computers tomorrow. Unfortunately, this means that I cannot work on philosophical essays or literary texts, but I can continue to focus on New Jersey corruption. ("What is it like to be censored in America?" and "More Censorship and Cybercrime.")

November 4, 2010 at 7:10 P.M. I notice that the cable signal to my computer was blocked, again. This resulted in shutting off my computer. I was required to reboot my computer for the third or fourth time today. Perhaps this is only a coincidence. ("Jennifer Velez is a 'Dyke Magnet!'" and "New Jersey's Nasty Lesbian Love-Fest!")

I also notice that there was a shortage of crank calls today from "800" numbers or from "Albany." I can only hope that the Jersey Boys will not give up so easily. I will continue to write from public computers tomorrow.

November 4, 2010 at 2:10 P.M. Again, the cable signal to my computer was blocked. This made it necessary to reboot my computer, once more today. Intense attacks against my computer, efforts to use frustration tactics and computer crime usually means that additional arrests are forthcoming in New Jersey or that a new scandal is brewing. I will make use of more public computers during the days ahead. Perhaps federal authorities are unable or unwilling to control this situation.

November 4, 2010 at 11:47 A.M. An attempt to use my computer and run emergency security scans resulted in my cable signal being cut off. I was forced to reboot my computer. I will try, once more, to run normal security scans of my computer. I cannot say how many writings have been altered or defaced today. I will do my best to make corrections of any inserted "errors" as quickly as possible. I can never be sure of returning to these blogs after one of these attacks. ("More Censorship and Cybercrime.")

November 4, 2010 at 8:50 A.M. One letter deleted from a title overnight has now been restored to the text.

November 3, 2010 at 2:05 P.M. My cable signal to my computer was blocked. This caused my computer to shut off during a security scan. I will try again later. This is one of the ways that power in our postmodernist megacapitalist society suppresses and controls the conversational options in what purports to be a "democracy." Cutting off discussion, conversation, silencing dissidents, trivializing and ignoring criminal violations of the rights of "unpersons" preserves the status quo. Raping, assaulting, stealing from a person who can be damaged financially to the point of starvation may also be helpful in the process of disconfirming identity, ideally psychosis may be induced or even suicide through denials of opportunities for self-expression or creativity. ("Corruption in New Jersey's Teachers' Union" and "Morality Tale" then "Terry Tuchin, Diana Lisa Riccioli, and New Jersey's Agency of Torture.")

The usual pattern involves multiple defacements of this text in an effort to maximize the infliction of psychological harm as I make identical repairs and corrections many times. ("How Censorship Works in America" and "What is it like to be plagiarized?" then "Roberto Unger's Revolutionary Legal Theory.")

I. "No-Bama" and The Disloyal Opposition.

After casting my vote yesterday, I went for a stroll through Manhattan. I noticed that a death-like mood had settled into my working class and poor neighborhood in the city. Turnout at the voting booths was light and uninspired. If there was little excitement about Mr. Obama in this neck of the woods, then it is likely that most of the country would not favor Democrats in this interim election. Part of the problem voters experienced was to find some real Democrats as opposed to persons calling themselves Democrats. I voted for several Democrats, one Republican, and a Socialist Workers' Party candidate on the basis of individual qualities and beliefs. Many states had fewer options on the ballot than New York.

How does one account for the rapid decline in Mr. Obama's fortunes? Obama's troubles may be associated with the mysterious survival of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's equally indestructible political career, something which mystifies the experts. Despite efforts to depict both powerful Democrats as "racists," neither Pelosi nor Reid has been hurt in minority communities and, indeed, it was minorities who prevented a loss by Mr. Reid. This is because poor people -- especially, minorities -- understand the health care debate and the achievement of national health insurance. Latinos and African-Americans, along with poor whites, will not forget who made this happen in Congress. Jeff Zeleny, "Reid Is Re-elected and Keeps Leader's Job," in The New York Times, November 3, 2010, at p. A1. (A letter is removed from this title on a regular basis.)

People know that Pelosi and Reid are progressives (don't say, "liberals"!) and experience no difficulty in placing both politicians on a philosophical map. On the other hand, Mr. Obama seems to have become a blurry image on that map -- after his election to the presidency -- a moving target aiming to seize part of the center of the political spectrum while hanging on to the Left as well as liberals. If you plan to be "everywhere" in America's political landscape, chances are "you ain't going to be nowhere." This is something for Mr. Romney (Hillary Clinton?) to bear in mind. It is very dangerous to play political twister in the midst of fighting a war. In case anyone fails to know or perceive this fact, I am a "democratic socialist" and an independent in terms of America's two dominant political parties.

America's first African-American president cannot preside over the slavery and torture of brown people in concentration camp-like settings and hope to be reelected nor to hold on to respect in the world community even if he is reelected. We cannot imprison or kill people without affording them due process of law and be taken seriously when we speak of the rights of dissidents in other nations, like China or Cuba. The President of the United States of America cannot make a public commitment to close the Guantanamo prison "within one year" of his election only to fail to keep that promise while explaining that he "tried." Public censorship, suppressions of speech, and psychological torture of a person (like me) undermines our protests for Liu Xiaobo or any other opposition figure in the world. ("Time to End the Embargo Against Cuba.")

"Polls show that close to 20 percent of Americans believe that Obama is a 'secret' Muslim and that this makes him an unfit president. Rather than challenge the racist assumptions of his accusers, Obama has chosen instead to emphasize his Christian credentials. This posture only strengthens the right and gives credence to the notion that there is something wrong with being Muslim. In short, with few exceptions such as Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, the arguments coming from the 'liberal' Democratic Party pandered to the Right."

Deepa Kumar, "The Rise of Anti-Muslim Hate," in International Socialist Review, November-December, 2010, at pp 13-19, esp. pp. 14-15. (emphasis added!)

For Mr. Obama to commit himself and his office to abide by core Constitutional principles, whatever the cost or difficulties of doing so and never to sacrifice "principles for expediency," only to make highly visible compromises that border on the betrayal of those principles, is unseemly at best. The effort to stem the Republican tide was doomed to fail when voters could not explain how Mr. Obama differed from the Right-wing barbarians.

Public censorship at these blogs, again, will damage America's prestige and credibility in the world, Mr. Holder. ("How Censorship Works in America" and "What is it like to be censored in America?")

The humiliating defeat for America at the UN concerning the Cuban embargo is symbolic of where we stand in the world. There has been no effort to address the problem of anti-Americanism with a global attempt at self-definition beginning with a speech by, say, the Vice President of the United States of America at the United Nations General Assembly. Computer wars make it difficult for me to write a suggested or model draft of such a speech or to argue with a straight face that we are still in favor of freedom of speech in America. ("Psychological Torture in the American Legal System" and "What is it like to be tortured?")

Passionate anti-Americanism is not a trivial issue, but an international mood that translates into the loss of billions of dollars for the American economy and generates recruits for Al Qaeda as well as allied movements that are still gaining ground in the Middle East and elsewhere. I expected such a speech immediately after the election of Mr. Obama. Silence on this issue is the worst option.

Bloody bombings in a Christian church in Baghdad and several new incidents in other battlefields -- like Pakistan and Afghanistan -- make it very clear that our wars are not over and our mission is unaccomplished. Increasing economic meltdown as a result of the Bush/Cheney legacy and the quicksand in the Middle East will produce even more unemployment and a "recovery" that fizzles out as we plunge into another recession. Motoko Rich, "Jobless Rate Rises to 9.8% In Blow to Recovery Hopes," in The New York Times, December 4, 2010, at p. A1. (Merry Christmas, boys and girls.)

If America's status and the welfare of its citizens is to be ensured during the second half of what appears to be China's century, then necessary reforms requiring the cooperation of BOTH parties must be taken now. Paralysis motivated by selfish political considerations is suicide for America:

"Anticipating a big win on Tuesday, leading Republicans haven't been talking about substance, only more obstructionism. [Any more "errors" to be inserted in this essay?] Mr. Boehmer said the other day that the president was welcome to support Republican programs. But as for Mr. Obama's agenda, he said, 'We're going to do everything -- and I mean everything we can do -- to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.' ..."

"Election 2010," (Editorial) in The New York Times, November 3, 2010, at p. A26.

Does this include shutting-down the government, Mr. Boehner? In October, 2013 it appears that no tactic is off limits -- regardless of the harm to America -- provided that it yields some partisan benefit to Republicans.

This sounds very much like the 'Cubanoids" and New Jersey's policy of obstructions as regards writings by me. Tolerated obstructions and computer crimes by a state government seeking to suppress disfavored dissident opinions was once deemed unconstitutional in America.

Mr. Obama's caving-in on Republican tax cuts, which everyone knows we cannot afford, and a host of other issues to appease Republicans will yield nothing from his political enemies except disdain for his "weakness." Mr. Obama must begin to "kick some ass." It is not acceptable political reprisal or critique to, allegedly, embarrass the American Secretary of State, publicly, in an international setting ("Reset Button") or to "arrange" for an "accidental" elbow to the face of the U.S. President to indicate political disagreement. Insulting and threatening me is not a refutation of my views. Disdain for U.S. copyright laws that we ask others to obey and disregard for the First Amendment to the United States Constitution dishonors America's service men and women. ("Manifesto for the Unfinished American Revolution.")

Computer crimes, censorship, suppressions of speech may be acceptable "tactics" among the locals in Miami, Florida or Union City, New Jersey, but it is not a good idea when the eyes of the Internet world are on the communicative efforts of a tortured dissident writing on-line. ("What is it like to be tortured?" and "What is it like to be censored in America?" then, again, "How Censorship Works in America.")

Inserting "errors" in my writings will not convince observers of our commitment to freedom of speech, Mr. Rubio and Mr. Menendez. Among the nations voting against the U.S. concerning the embargo against Cuba are: China, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and the African states. The election of Mr. Rubio does not bode well for the Cuban-American community's perception in Latin America or anywhere. Mr. Rubio's "not ready for prime time" persona is indicative of current developments, despite his two-hundred-dollar haircut. ("Havana Nights and C.I.A. Tapes.")

Government by America's behind-the-scenes big money figures making use of photogenic ethnic or racial figures able to inspire loyalty and enthusiasm in minority communities is a formula for Republican success. The trick for money men and women is to find puppets who will never figure out that they are puppets. Mr. Rubio seems to fit the bill nicely as, indeed, does Ms. Iliana Ross-Lehtinen. Bob Menendez may be below the level of those two Florida politicians. ("Does Senator Menendez have mafia friends?")

Thank goodness for Mr. Cuomo's election in New York. Maybe, some day, I will finally have the chance to vote for "Cuomo for President."

II. Jurgen Habermas on "Leadership and Leitkultur."

Jurgen Habermas is the inheritor of the mantle of the Frankfurt School for Social Research and probably the greatest living representative of the German philosophical tradition. Professor Habermas serves as the political conscience of Germany. We have no such figure in American politics where philosophers and intellectuals are relegated to irrelevance by our much celebrated "pragmatism." The closest comparison to Habermas in America is Cornel West.

In a recent Op-Ed piece, Professor Habermas tactily associates worrisome developments in Germany to events in America. Jurgen Habermas, "Leadership and Leitkultur," in The New York Times, October 29, 2010, at p. A31.

Association of the national politics and cultures of these countries is meant to indicate the thinking among intelligentsia in Europe, where nations such as France and Italy are facing similar difficulties regarding immigrants and national identity. Habermas points to hard evidence of deep hostility to the "Muslim population in Germany. ... discrimination against minorities [based upon] intelligence research [leads to] biological conclusions that have gained unusually wide publicity." (emphasis added)

The history of Germany makes these developments quite disturbing. The idea that there are persons within the nation's borders -- especially after the unification of Germany -- who are seen as not really a part of the German volk or kultur, some of whom have been "Germans" for generations, is countered by suggestions on the Left that " ... not only Christianity and Judaism but 'Islam also belongs in Germany.' ..." ("'The Reader': A Movie Review.")

Are such non-Germans "inferior" to their fellow citizens because of their religion? The analogy to anti-immigrant policies and America's genocidal history with Native-Americans is obvious. More worrisome is our increasing and somewhat justified paranoia and hostility to Muslims -- or persons who "look like" Muslims -- in airports and other public settings emerging from a strong feeling that America is endangered and not very well defended. ("'In Time': A Movie Review.")

I recently put my daughter on a bus going to her college in New England and wondered whether the vehicle would be hijacked to Cuba. More frightening is the thought that the bus would be hijacked to Miami. Mr. Rubio's concerns about such security issues "fuels" his support for the out-of-control military budget. ("American Hypocrisy and Luis Posada Carriles.")

There are indeed dangers to America's security posed by millions in the Islamic world that are worsened by the anti-Americanism that I mentioned as well as many of our failed efforts to enhance security under Bush/Cheney. Torture will not only make us less safe, it will also create new and more resourceful enemies for America. Habermas contends that judgments about moral and political questions can be rationally grounded, resolved objectively and truly, including the thorny issue of balancing freedom with security:

"Lukes concentrates on the 'model of the suppression of generalisable interests' [sic.] sketched by Habermas in Legitimation Crisis. The central insight of this model, according to Lukes, is the idea that in order to determine the legitimacy of social norms one must engage in a complex thought-experiment and reason counterfactually about how actors would interpret their needs, etc., if they were to do so autonomously, [Kant] that is, under conditions of undistorted communication."

John B. Thompson & David Held, eds., Including "A Reply to My Critics" by Jurgen Habermas, Habermas : Critical Debates (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982), at p. 15. ("John Rawls and Justice.")

At the center of the controversies and passions determining elections everywhere today is this accurate sense of endangered nationalism in a globalized economy and culture. If you were to stroll over to a neighbor's backyard barbecue where locals are gathered, it would be difficult to explain to the people present that among the invisible guests at that shin-dig are billions of persons in the world whose lives and (often) sufferings are paying for, or contributing to, the affluence enjoyed by the good folks in smalltown America seemingly "minding their own business."

Our comforts and wealth are paid for with the pains of others, sometimes with their lives. ("What is it like to be tortured?" and "America's Holocaust" then "The Experiments in Guatemala.")

"That dispute was already stimulated by the feeling of an endangered national culture, which had to assert itself as the leitkultur that all newcomers must follow. Yet the controversy of the 1990s [in Germany] was also driven by the fact that Germany had recently reunited and had reached the final stage in an arduous path toward a mentality that provides the necessary underpinning of a liberal understanding of the Constitution."

Notice the next point:

"To the present day the idea of the leitkultur" -- national cultural identity that becomes transnational and multiethnic -- "depends on the misconception that the liberal state should demand more of its immigrants than learning the language of the country and accepting the principles of the Constitution. We had, and apparently still have, to overcome the view that immigrants are supposed to assimilate the 'values' of the majority culture and its 'customs.' ..."

Habermas settles into a deeper meditation:

"That we are experiencing a relapse into this ethnic understanding of our liberal constitution is bad enough. It doesn't make things any better that today leitkultur is defined not by 'German culture' but by religion. With an arrogant appropriation of Judaism [irony?] -- and an incredible disregard for the fate the Jews suffered in Germany -- the apologists of the leitkultur now appeal to the 'Judeo Christian tradition,' which distinguishes 'us' from the foreigners."

This identification with the "German Judeo-Christian tradition" as the center of a new folk-identity and "calling" by history to the German people (Gunther Grass?), implicitly directed against Muslim immigrants and "others," means that the German state is poised to consolidate and exclude those who do not fit the bill. Arizona and the Tea-Party appear to be mild developments by comparison:

"The motivations underlying each of the three phenomena -- the fear of immigrants, [Arizona, Texas, California, Florida,] attraction to charismatic nonpoliticians [Marco Rubio, Christine O'Donnell,] and the grass-roots rebellion in Stuttgart [the Tea-Party] -- are different. But they meet in the cumulative effect of a growing uneasiness when faced with a self-enclosed and ever more helpless political system. The more the scope for action by national governments shrinks and the more meekly politics submits to what appear to be inevitable economic imperatives, the more people's trust in a resigned political class dimishes."

We are living in interesting times.

Supplemental Readings:

It is important for readers to appreciate the conditions under which this essay has been written. It is crucial to indicate the number of attacks and defacements of this work in order to have a sense of the importance of the discussion which needs to take place in America and the extent of our descent into krystallnacht-like violence in the electronic public square. Several of the ideas in this essay have already been plagiarized even as my text is disfigured and suppressed. I expect further alterations of this work. I will try to make corrections from some location after each defacement of the essay. There was a time when such tactics were illegal and not used in America. Reviewed at a public computer on November 5, 2010 at 1:20 P.M.

Noam Cohen, "Web Attackers Point to Cause In Wikileaks," in The New York Times, December 10, 2010, at p. A1. (Patricia Cohen? Manohla Dargis? Jean-Paul Rathbone? Really? "Noam Cohen?" All of these "identities," perhaps, have been used by the same "faction" as bylines in the Times.)

Primary Sources:

Jurgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975). (T. McCarthy, translation.)
Jurgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Twelve Lectures (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991). (Frederick G. Lawrence, translation.)

Secondary Sources:

Andrew Bowie, Introduction to German Philosophy: From Kant to Habermas (London: Polity, 2003), entirety.
David Held, The Idea of a Critical Theory (California: Berkeley, 1980).
Thomas McCarthy, The Critical Theory of Jurgen Habermas (Cambridge: MIT Press 1978).
Rick Roderick, Habermas and the Foundations of Critical Theory (New York: St. Martins, 1986), excellent on the Marxist foundations of Habermasian theory. Discussion of a key work in Habermas' corpus Legitimation Crisis, pp. 19-20, pp. 102-104, suggests strong analogies to America's current predicament.
John B. Thompson & David Held, eds., Habermas: Critical Debates (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1982). (Including "A Reply to My Critics," by Jurgen Habermas.)