THE DEATH OF AMERICAN POLITICS
Dr. Gerry Lower, Keystone, South Dakota OpEdNews.Com
Thomas Jefferson was a dialectician in thought and a Deist in belief and,
from this theological ground, he provided the intellectual foundations of
American Democracy. Jefferson's theology was bottomlined in the concept
that Deity was located on the human inside, in the "head and
heart" of every person, that the highest authority is the "will
of the people, substantially declared." From this concept of Deity
and from nascent (dialectic) Christian values comes the concept of
universal human rights (G. Lower, BushWatch, July, 2003).
It is something more than telling that a past curator of the National
Museum, Daniel J. Boorstin, wrote a wonderful book entitled, "The
Lost World of Thomas Jefferson" in 1948. It is similarly telling that
this effort, at the dawn of "political correctness," avoided
serious discussion of Jefferson's theology, which is so entirely at odds
with traditional religion (and so entirely based upon and consistent with
nascent Christianity).
Historically, of course, the dialectic values beneath Jefferson's
Democracy were compromised right from the start by religious Tory
capitalism. The Constitution was penned in Jefferson's absence and it
vered sharply right in departing the spirit of Jefferson's Declaration,
religiously denying rights to women, blacks and non-landowners. Franklin
even prophesized that this "fault" would ultimately lead to a
nation under despotic rule and occupied by people who would not even know
the difference. Welcome to America in the 3rd millennium. Welcome to Bush
World.
>From these awkward beginnings, the traditional dialectic in American
politics has been between socialism and capitalism, left and
right, secular and religious, liberal and conservative. In 1816, Jefferson
warned the people of the dangers of an aristocracy of the rich that would
usurp their power. But, the Industrial Revolution was on, the era of
"robber barons" was on and the socialist-capitalist dialectic
emerged fully into public life. Grover Cleveland established Labor Day in
1894 to acknowledge the contributions of the beleagured American worker,
struggling to make ends meet without a fair say in or a fair share of the
deal.
The 1920s brought this dialectic to the political forefront with the
emergence of labor unions and farm and ranch organizations hoping to
achieve a semblance of fairness in American socio-economics by empowering
those who must work and produce for a living. Robert Tawney wrote a
marvelous book in 1926, ("Religion and the Rise of Capitalism,"
The New American Library, 1954) that provided serious insight into the
role of JudeoRoman religious attitudes in driving imperialism, colonialism
and capitalism. By FDR's administration, the President's wife was a
card-carrying socialist. Evenso, both political parties during the first
half of the 20th century managed to revolve around political center with
minimal polarization (Krugman, "America the Polarized," NY
Times, Jan. 4, 2002).
The dialectic provided by our Fathers (between those choosing to share
without restriction and those choosing to compete without limit) has had a
profound downside for American socioeconomics. As complementary opposites,
the extreme socialist (we are all the same) and the extreme capitalist ($ome
of u$ are cho$en) positions left virtually no room for Jefferson's
meritocracy (the dialectic synthesis), with individual reward as a
function of individual time and talent, experience and contribution. The
result in America is a socioeconomic order in which the skilled and
talented are nearer the bottom of the heap, while business administrators
rule the day in a world quite upside down by Jeffersonian standards.
Following World War II and the postwar success of capitalism in producing
wealth, both political parties were obliged to operate on the same side of
the traditional dialectic, to create an entirely new dialectic between liberal
secular capitalism and conservative religious capitalism.
Capitalism was no longer seen as one of several socioeconomic options
worthy of consideration within the frameworks of Democracy, but as the
sole chosen way of a war victorious and chosen people, a people whose
wealth and power provided evidence of the favoritism shown them by their
god, the reward for having faith, all of which served to justify
self-righteous claims to worldly dominion and control. With capitalism
thusly empowered, there was a need to solidify that power, and the stage
was set for complete polarization of the American politic.
The rightward shift to political polarization emerged in public in 1980
with the Reagan administration's overt pandering to the religious right
for fiscal support and votes, and the movement went exponential in 1994
with the Southern Baptist takeover of the Texas Republican party. This
evolutionary strand reached completion with the emergence of Old Testament
JudeoRoman fundamentalism ("compassionate" conservatism)
directly in the Oval Office, compliments of an unelected, court-appointed
Bush administration.
As a result, the religious right wing, mostly Republican, like the
JudeoRoman church-states before it, has pursued a complete tyranny over
the minds of the people via control over their government's institutions
and policies and control over their press, employing secretiveness and
propaganda laced with fabrications and lies. The secular left wing, mostly
Democrat, has been reduced to dumbness and impotence, lost entirely from
its liberal roots on the side opposite capitalism. Unaware that empowering
capitalism signaled the death of the traditional American politic, America
proceeded to make a god of mammon. The left wing is unable to envision an
alternative to the post WW II chosen "American Way" because it
is now integral to that program and to the resulting problems. Within the
"intellectual" confines of crony capitalism, there simply are no
solutions to the problems created by capitalism itself.
In other words, the radical shift in the American political dialectic
since World War II has left both liberals and conservatives on the
capitalistic side of the traditional dialectic. Moreover, this
self-evident shift has taken place without much public or academic notice,
an indication of the rampant sociocultural blindness emergent in America
under capitalistic dominion.
Nevermind family values. The creation of a socio-economic system requiring
both parents to work is seen as "progress." Nevermind community
values. The creation of a vertical national economy with large
corporations eating up the horizontal local economies which held our
communities together is seen as "progress." Nevermind national
values. The creation of a capitalistic ("one ill, one pill, one
bill" ) medicine and a root-level crisis in medical ethics is seen as
"progress." Exemplifying too much of "good" thing,
this capitalistic "progress" has demeaned everything that really
counted in America, everything meaningful, from parent-child relationships
to quality of education to the celebration of Christ's birth to the
principles of Jeffersonian Democracy.
The America people have been gradually but surely hijacked by the rich,
religious Republican right wing, those who believe that money, no matter
how acquired, is the primary measure of human worth, that it bestows the
right to power, and that there is never enough of the stuff. Employing
this approach to socioeconomic problem-solving, America has solved not one
single social problem since World War II, but rather has made most social
problems even worse, with capitalism's penchant for dealing with symptoms
instead of causes, it's employment of social bandaids to palliate systemic
disease, all in the name of preserving capitalism and enhancing the
ruthless pursuit of riches and the rule of the rich.
Coming to worship mammon as a nation was, obviously, a "mistake"
that had to be made and was made within the larger embrace of human
cultural evolution. Jefferson and Franklin both knew well that the
dialectic human values beneath Democracy would have global human appeal,
that the "ball of liberty" would "roll round the
world." They were also aware that if everyone does not have
Democracy, then no one really has it. The larger evolutionary program
simply called for further human unification, and JudeoRoman religion and
crony capitalism would ultimately supply the greed-driven motivations and
the rationalizations for economic globalization.
The American people, over the span of 200 years (Hamilton), 20
years(Reagan), and 2 years (Bush), have been (exponentially) coerced into
abiding an ancient religious script which they had no hand in authoring.
This coercion was a "mistake" that will have to be corrected as
soon as adequate numbers of people can see it, not so much as a mistake
but as an evolutionary necessity in the interest of continued human
socioeconomic unification (from tribal to national to global organization
via imperialism, colonialism and capitalism).
Capitalism has, since World War II, produced a global human economic arena
not yet worthy of being called a global economy. Accordingly, it's
evolutionary purpose fulfilled, capitalism must now stand aside in the
interest of political unification under the auspices of Democracy, the
genuine article. Religious capitalism will, of course, never stand aside,
and it will never listen to reason. The people are left to watch it die of
its own self-righteous hand.
In the historical sense, it is critically important for American citizens
to recognize that American Democracy has de-evolved to occupy a position
beneath and opposed to the philosophical position which gave it birth. We
have come full circle only to see ourselves from beneath and behind ...
and it is not a very pretty sight for a nation ostensibly birthed from the
concepts of fairness and equality. Until the people recognize the
historical significance of current reality, their problems will elude
comprehension and control, and they will continue to be led astray by
capitalists who fear and despise Democracy.
In the evolutionary sense, it is critically important for Americans to
recognize that America is integrally involved in a larger, implicit
cultural program that transcends "compassionate" conservatism
and the pax Americana it envisions. The outcome of this delusion has
already been determined by the JudeoRoman mythology which drives the
program, all branches of western religion being apocalyptic and
self-terminating. Until the people recognize the evolutionary significance
of current reality, their problems will elude comprehension and control,
and they will continue to be led astray by religious fundamentalists who
fear and despise nascent Christianity.
Thoughtful and caring people will be largely unable do anything to alter
the necessary evolutionary outcome, as vengeance-based religion and crony
capitalism continue to discredit themselves from the global political
arena. If the people choose to fight the good fight for Democracy and
freedom or if they choose to fight for JudeoRoman Bushism, the outcome
will be quite the same. While waiting for that outcome (as religious
prophecy blindly fulfills itself), the people will need to rethink
Jefferson's Democracy in contemporary Information Age terms, and the
people will need to re-establish Jefferson's God, the "will of the
people," as the direct decision-making apparatus of their nation. It
is time to return to common human sense and the dialectic wisdom of our
Fathers. It is time to grow up as a nation, socially and spiritually.
"Surely this is not an exorbitant demand" of the citizens of the
world's first Democracy. Jefferson and Franklin and all good Americans
pulled it off 200 years ago.
Dr. Gerry Lower lives in Keystone, South Dakota in the shadow of Mount
Rushmore. He is published in the areas of molecular pathology/oncology/epidemiology,
medical theory/philosophy/ethics, and global philosophy and ethics. Gerry
has recently returned from Ukraine where he presented several papers on
the values of science and democracy at the Kiev Medical Academy. His
primary concern is the development of a rigorously-definable global
philosophy and ethics suitable for a global democracy. This article is
originally published at opednews.com.
Copyright Dr. Gerry Lower, but permission is granted for reprint in print,
email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached. |
