The World According to Zakaria (and other matters)

When I commented on Obama's foreign policy appointments, among others, over at Dreaming Up Daily, I forgot to mention this Newsweek article by Fareed Zakaria, which takes a broad look at America's place in the world and Obama's considerable foreign policy challenges. It's well worth reading it all, but here at least is his conclusion:

"President-elect Obama has powers of his own, too. I will not exaggerate the importance of a single personality, but Obama has become a global symbol like none I can recall in my lifetime. Were he to go to Tehran, for example, he would probably draw a crowd of millions, far larger than any mullah could dream of. Were his administration to demonstrate in its day-to-day conduct a genuine understanding of other countries' perspectives and an empathy for the aspirations of people around the world, it could change America's reputation in lasting ways.

This is a rare moment in history. A more responsive America, better attuned to the rest of the world, could help create a new set of ideas and institutions—an architecture of peace for the 21st century that would bring stability, prosperity and dignity to the lives of billions of people. Ten years from now, the world will have moved on; the rising powers will have become unwilling to accept an agenda conceived in Washington or London or Brussels. But at this time and for this man, there is a unique opportunity to use American power to reshape the world. This is his moment. He should seize it."

Meanwhile, Rachel Maddow is crusading on behalf of the auto companies versus the banks, on the basis of class bias, and she may be having some effect. After mentioning it on one show, showcasing it on another, some Senators were noticeably noting the discrepancy between the hundreds of billions in blank checks to the banks, and the fuss over a fraction of that for auto manufacturers. Senator Chris Dodd was like a wild man.

One irony is that money went to the banks so they would lend it out but they aren't doing that--and because they aren't lending to businesses, let alone consumers, some 40% fewer people are buying cars, creating the need for the Big Three to beg for loans from the federal government.

Late Thursday, ABC was reporting that congressional Dems sent a letter to the Bushites telling them they'd better carve out some chump change for the auto companies from the $700 billion bailout fund. Or General Motors could be gone before Obama gets to the White House.

Economist Paul Krugman has been using the word "scared" lately when confronted with economic prospects. He's especially worried about the unemployment numbers, that we could be losing a half million jobs a month. The first test will be Friday's monthly employment report. You may know the numbers by the time you read this--how close to 450,000 are they? We could hope he's been studying the Great Depression a little too closely.

Update: Seems Krugman was a bit conservative. Official job loss (so it's more that this) was 533,000 in November.

king to pawn

by Phineas Dash

Musings inspired by the confluence of Bushism and the Matrix Reloaded, among other distractions...

The idea of kings began perhaps as a mutation of the tribal figure we call the shaman: from one who hears the gods by deftly reading the signs of nature, to the one and only one, who the one and only God talks to.

Maybe the first were charismatic types with a flair for administration and certainly with a taste for power. They ruled by fear and love---by claiming to be the chosen of the King of Heaven who said whether or not the crops will grow to fruition, and by physical force: with an army to subdue the populace, and to fight enemies, invented or real. Conquest could lead to kingship. More lands meant more power. So it went, and so it goes.

When human societies were small and moved through the landscape among equals, there was no need of a king, an absolute ruler. Only when people became dependent on a single source of sustenance---even a single cultivated crop---in a single place, did they feel the need for a single authority. One King of Kings, one king of the realm, and a hierarchy of ownership and administration: the aristocracy to supply the army and control the peasants in exchange for land, power and courtside seats. Warfare of king against king, war within the aristocracy for the right to become king, transformed and absorbed the energies of human societies as they grew.

The religions that emerged from the Mesopotamian deserts were funneled into the king system. Who owns the holy truth? At first it's everybody until somebody claims it all, claims to know, claims the direct line to the King of Kings, so we fall right into following. But it's a damn good job so there are lots of contenders: prophets and heretics and who's on first-- so it becomes dogma eat dogma out there: popes vs. kings, kings vs popes, kings become popes, popes become kings, let's call the whole thing off. How about a savior then? Another name for the new king. Is this the best you can come up with?

We have yet to escape this system. It rules us in our so-called democracies and republics, in our churches, our sciences and arts. It governs our economics and determines how we spend the time of our lives. The authoritarian power may seem dispersed and unidentifiable now, but its basis is clear in how we deify one king or another, even if it is the king or queen of the moment; even if it's Stephen King.

The only meaningful revolt now is the revolt against kings, the idea of kings, the power of kings, the structures of kings, the king’s specialists, the emotions evoked by the system of kings, the beliefs based on the faith in kings and saviors.

Heroes are something else. Heroes and leaders, excellence, special gifts and sensitivities, and a captain to steer the ship, are all real, all to be nurtured and celebrated, and appropriately used. No hero triumphs without help, many myths are stories of groups of heroes, each contributing a talent or strength. The myths of heroes are myths of diversity and cooperation, with leadership and sensitivity to the realities of nature.

We need heroes, but we don't need another savior. Kings and saviors are the wellsprings of violence. The king suckers heroes and turns them into specialists, gets them fighting turf wars against each other, fighting for favor and funding, ignoring each other, learning nothing, dividing so the king can conquer.

We must oppose the king, disobey and resist. The king we must kill is inside us. We must understand what is inside us, what kings and what killers. The hero inside must be encouraged. We must understand, reconcile, invent, encourage, and work at it like the addicts to the king system we are. Saviors won't save us from ourselves.