Scare Tactics

“How can hope be sustained in such a world? First, be shedding all illusions about the capacity of the rulers of the world to reform themselves.” Tariq Ali, The Extreme Center.

One of our local TV news outlets is an ABC affiliate, so my wife usually watches that channel in the morning, to find out what the weather is going to be and to catch some local news, delivered with amateurish exuberance by our local talking heads. At 7:00 Good Morning America comes on, invariably with the latest airline disaster, a dramatic train wreck or highway pileup, maybe a kidnapping or school shooting. If it bleeds or screams or wails or has the potential to scare people, it leads.

It amuses me to no end to hear people who call themselves “journalists” whip up fear of ISIS with scanty facts, almost no context, and the same file footage over and over, giving the impression that blood-thirsty ISIS evildoers are pounding on our gates. This used to piss me off but now I just find it amusing. ISIS is our creation and a direct consequence of our hubris in the Middle East, a region we do not understand. ISIS is also a fabulous windfall for the arms merchants who profit from death. Some deadly terror group had to replace Al-Qaeda. With Bin Laden and Saddam dead, and our leaders not yet so bereft of sanity that they dare start a war with Iran, ISIS is the perfect follow-on foe, stateless and barbaric, and savvy with social media.

Starting an armed conflict doesn’t cause the US to pause and consider as it once did; our leaders are eager, it seems, to impose their will with Hellfire missiles.

In his most recent book, Tariq Ali, a prolific writer and intellectual, argues that no external force exists that can knock the US from its dominant position in the world. Ali doesn’t accept the notion that the US is a fading empire that must follow in the footsteps of the British Empire, or, going further back in history, the Romans. Because I’m one of those soft-headed people who think the US should accept limits, retreat from the idea of global hegemony, and focus on domestic issues like health care, education, the environment and wealth inequality, I found Ali’s assertion depressing.

But I think Ali is correct when he writes that, “Any change from above or within the existing structures is unlikely, unless the threats from below become too strong to resist.” Unfortunately, unlike Spain and Greece, I don’t see any organization in the US coherent enough to challenge the current order. Backing Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 might make one feel better, but without an entire political party dedicated to challenging neoliberalism and a belligerent foreign policy, the prevailing structure will remain in place.

And make no mistake, the neoliberal edifice erected over the last 30 – 40 years is strong and its beneficiaries will fight hammer and tongs to keep it just the way it is.

Meanwhile, over on Good Morning America, the FBI has uncovered another ISIS plot to strike against the American homeland. The horror, the horror, lock your doors, and pull your children close.