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Prison

The U.S. loves to morally finger-wag at China regarding their “re-education camp” prisons. “How disgusting it is to take people who exist on the margins of your society, do not conform to the ideals and standards of your hegemonic socio-economic system, confine them and ‘brainwash’ them into conforming to the nation-state’s interest.” 

I believe the aspect of the system that is most perverse to the U.S. public when the Chinese penal system is presented to them, is this perspective: That it is a machine that squishes the head-rearing, truly free, libertine, individual, into a paste to be spread into the undifferentiated oriental hegemonic mass puddy of the communist populace. The individual, the monad, the person, has a true central core, that antecedes the state, and those extreme, daring individuals, those to dare TO BE, are the ones (albeit wrongfully) most in need of castigation. To Americans, since the individual precedes the state it is a gross inversion of nature for the state to intercede and firmly (re)mold an individual by its own hand. Adam making God from Eve’s rib, the son teaching the dad to fish, the daughter breastfeeding the mother. 

Hence why the U.S. penal system seemingly makes no pretenses about redefining the individual, and the sheer brutality of the experience is seen as punishment enough. A corrupt individual goes into prison because they are in their essence to the core a criminal. There is no anticipation that the state should, or even effectively could, redefine this person’s essence. And while to their core the prisoner is impure, this is a justice system so one is only punished for those transgressions on which they act on. And for every crime there is a corresponding time of punishment and misery, which balances the ledger of societies moral bank account. The wrteched-soul goes into prison, is beaten and stabbed, raped, humiliated and debased, all this of course on top of the simple fact of being isolated further from society, confined and their advancement in society-at-large not merely paused but retrograded ad-infinitum. They come out having endured hell on earth, and hopefully, this will make them think twice before transgressing societies moral code again. But the line was not crossed; the state did not attempt to transmute their soul. If there was any transformation, it would be from within the individual wholly, or perhaps by the divine grace of God.

[eatingtherich]

A Colossal Wreck

I’ve been reading through Alexander Cockburn’s A Colossal Wreck. As far as pleasure and style go, it is a great book. A concise and humorous perspective on exactly what the book presents itself to be, the American political landscape from the mid 90′s up to Cockburn’s death in 2012. The book is actually just a collection of dated journal, and very on topic; though most are his personal observations of current events, he sometimes veers into other topics such as Thanksgiving turkey recipes or the etymology of the word “troglodytes.” A staunch leftist and populist, much of the book directs its ire at the complacency of liberals in America behind the Clintons and their imperialistic goals and corporate persuasion, and the entire fault of any left movement in the U.S. There a number of places where I greatly agree with Cockburn, but then some moments where his perspectives are befuddling to say the least, and some that seen from today in Trump-America, are very odd to hear coming from such a vocal leftist. In the coming days I’ll share some passages that have most stood out to me. 

First I am going to post Cockburn’s passages on Bernie Sanders, for whom Alexander Cockburn was particularly skeptical of, as self-proclaimed Independent Socialist Democrat, but from Cockburn’s perspective was woefully complacent with Clinton’s agenda. I will say, I like Sanders, and he is still currently my preferred Presidential Candidate for the 2020 election, but critiques Cockburn raises are valid and worth looking into. Just as well, I disagree with Cockburn on some issues he raises in his book, but by and large, enjoy his writing and can’t let his faults eclipse his successes. Most of his criticisms levied against Bernie are his condoning of the wars in Serbia and Kosovo.  All quotes below come from A Colossal Wreck, by Bruce Cockburn, 2014, Verso.

August 7, 1996

A Democratic President has just destroyed a big chunk of the New Deal and not one major Democratic figure has defected because this President destroyed the tiny protections for those down on their luck, for children, for single mothers, for immigrants between jobs who have been paying taxes for maybe ten or twenty years. Donna Shalala didn't quit. Robert Reich didn't quit. Peter Edelman of HHS did [sic] quit. Marion Wright Edelman canceled a demonstration before Clinton's decision "because I didn't want want to be Sister Souljah," then issued a bitter statement, but she didn't say she was shifting her support to Ralph Nader. Ron Dellums's office was saying that he understood Clinton's need to "hold the center." Barney Frank said that Clinton had done more for the poor than Ralph Nader. (There may be a personal edge there since Nader once said publically it was disgusting of Frank to run a homosexual prostitution ring out of his congressional office.) Here, for the third time in thirty years, we have a historic opportunity for the rallying of left forces beyond the Democratic Party. It happened in 1968 with Eugene McCarthy; and in 1984 and 1988 with Jesse Jackson. Now we have another chance. And who steps forward as our public champions? Bernie Sanders, the "independent" hot-air factory from Vermont, requests everyone to vote for Bill Clinton. The Labor Party, born in Cleveland a month ago, insisted that no labor candidates be fielded for the foreseeable future, and further stipulates that no labor-affiliate field independent candidates. Prominent Labor Party folk are simultaneously on the Democratic National Committee. Unions active in promoting the Labor Party have made a deal with the Democrats that the Labor Party will do nothing impertinent or subversive, such as actually run candidates against Democrats. From day one, with all that nonsense about doing nothing till 100,000 advocates are signed up, the entire Labor Party effort has been an exercise in demobilization, achieving the miracle of a Third Party that is the wholly owned subsidiary of the party it is challenging. This leaves us with Ralph Nader, who has the public status, the knowledge and the right political instincts.

October 16, 1998

...As for B. Sanders, whose fund-raising letters this election time have once again been touting Congress’s only “independent progressive socialist,” his latest achievement has been to give the cold shoulder to delegations traveling all the way from Texas to Vermont to challenge the Conscience Complex in one of its most self-satisfied redoubts.

Sanders has been prominent among those in the North East congressional delegation on trying to export the region’s nuclear waste to a poor, largely Hispanic community in Texas, Sierra Blanca. The only merit in dumping the waste there as opposed to, say, Burlington, is that the people in Burlington are richer and have more clout. When the Sierra Blancans turned up in Vermont, Sanders put out the word that he would quit any platform graced by any of their members. If you truly like “independents” in Congress, better by far to send your money to Ron Paul, who acts upon his proclaimed beliefs, unlike Sanders.

March 31, 1999

It’s bracing to see the Germans taking part in NATO’s bombing. It lends moral tone to an operation to have the grandsons of the Third Reich willing, able and eager to drop high explosive again, in this instance on the Serbs. To add symmetry to the affair, the last time Serbs in Belgrade had high explosive dropped on them was in 1941 by the sons of the Third Reich. To bring even deeper symmetry, the German political party whose leader, Schroeder, ordered German participation in the bombing is that of the Social Democrats, whose great grandfathers enthusiastically voted credits to wage war in 1914, to the enormous disgust of Lenin, who never felt quite the same way about social democrats ever after. Whether in Germany or England or France, all social democratic parties in 1914 tossed aside previous pledges against war, thus helping produce the first great bloodletting of our century.

Today, with social democrats leading governments across Europe-Schroeder, Blair, Jospin, Prodi-all fall in behind Clinton. This is, largely, a war most earnestly supported by liberals and many so-called leftists. Bernie Sanders has voted Aye, and in London Vanessa Redgrave cheers on the NATO bombers. There’s been some patronizing talk here about the Serbs’ deep sense of “grievance” at the way history has treated them, with the implication that the Serbs are irrational in this regard. But it’s scarcely irrational to remember that Nazi Germany bombed Belgrade in World War II, or that Germany’s prime ally in the region, Croatia, ran a concentration camp a Jasenovac where tens of thousands of Serbs-along with Jews and gypsies-were liquidated. Nor is it irrational to recall that Germany in more recent years has been an unrelenting assailant of the former Yugoslav federation, encouraging Slovenia to secede and lending determined support to Croatia, in gratitude for which Croatia adopted, on independence in 1991, the German hymn, “Danke Deutschland.”

April 14, 2000

[The mention of Sanders comes late in the passage. On this date, Cockburn relates a story of how he was invited to speak at a conference held by Antiwar.com, a libertarian organization. The event coordinator, Justin Raimondo, extended his invitation to Cockburn on the grounds that this was an event in which the left and right could reach across the political divide to come together against war. Those listed in attendance: “Patrick J. Buchanan, Tom Fleming, Justin Raimondo, Kathy Kelly, Alan Bock, Rep. Ron Paul, and representatives of the Serbian Unity Congress.”]

...Their amiable hilarity at my sallies reminded me of Goldsmith’s lines in “The Deserted Village” about the pupils of the country schoolmaster: “Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee/ At all his jokes, and many a joke had he.” (How many people have read the whole of that wonderful poem, one of the most savage denunciations of free trade ever written?)

“Can we unite,” I asked the crowd, “on the anti-war platform? We have already, in the case of Kosovo for example. But where would you as libertarians want to get off the leftist bus? A leftist says ‘Capitalism leads to war. Capitalism needs war.’ But you libertarians are pro-capitalism, so you presumably have a view of capitalism as a system not inevitably producing or needing war. Lefties have always said capitalism has to maximize its profits and the only way you can maximize profits in the end is by imperial war, which was the old Lenin thesis...

“I think the old categories are gone. I see no virtue to them. I see Bernie Sanders listed as an Independent Socialist in the US Congress. I see what Bernie Sanders has supported, starting with the war in Kosovo. And then I see Ron Paul, on the other hand, writing stuff against war which could have been written by Tom Hayden in 1967.”

Driving back to Berkeley with $300 in cash in my pocket, I mentally toasted antiwar.com. Alas, not many leftists will ever want to have much to do with them.