Rights Talk and National Greatness

Rights Talk and National Greatness

P. Schultz

[On Sept. 12, 2017, I posted a blog entitled “Let’s Talk About Greatness.” This post is a follow on to that one.]

            There are those, often conservatives or “neo-cons”, who argue that “rights talk” should be supplemented of even replaced by, say, “duty talk.” The people, the many, the demos, these sorts argue, need to recalibrate their psyches and talk less about rights and more about duty or duties. Were that to happen then our society would be better off, more law abiding, more orderly, and hence more livable.

            This is a rather powerful argument, in part because the idea of duty, being good, is deeply embedded in our psyches and in part because the idea of rights does privilege self-interest over, say, justice or community. There is a problem though. Part of the problem is that this argument in favor of duty almost always ends up as an argument “law and order,” that is, as an argument in favor of obedience to the established order, to the government. The other part of the problem is that those who make it pride themselves as being “political realists,” meaning that when it comes to wielding power the national interest – the rights of the nation - should take precedence over ideas of duty, justice, or community.

            So, having challenged or abandoned “rights talk” for the many, these realists embrace such talk for the nation, for themselves, for the powerful. The nation and they should not be constrained by talk of duty, of justice, or of community. Such talk is unrealistic.

            In other words, these realists don’t really reject “rights talk.” Unlike Socrates, who asserted that it was worse for human beings to do injustice than to suffer injustice, these realists assert or simply assume that it its worse for human beings to suffer than to do injustice. And, of course, once human beings prefer doing injustice to suffering injustice, they will, whenever push comes to shove, commit and even take pride in committing injustice. Such pride, ala’ Pericles, will even be taken as a sign of greatness. That our nation can commit injustice, even great injustice like genocide, reveals our national greatness. And so it should not be surprising that some of those, even most of those who seek national greatness or a return to national greatness are proud of their capacity for injustice. That capacity they take to be a sign of their greatness.

Trump and His Simple Minded Critics

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Trump and His Simple Minded Critics

P. Schultz

            The New York Times, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and Allen Dulles all asserted – before the Warren Commission had even met – that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating JFK. And, of course, their assertions were comforting because it reinforced the simple-minded belief that, basically, all was well with the American political order. After all, it is impossible to prevent random, isolated acts of violence, even impossible to prevent the assassinations of our presidents. As one writer put it:

“This [assertion about Oswald] was not just a psychologically motivated denial. What was at stake here was a definition of the supreme power in the land. The universally taught doctrine is that the United States functions under a rule of law, and that that rule, however imperfect, is the highest power there is. If Oswald was the assassin, acted alone, and was apprehended, then the hypothesis (or fiction) of a rule of law has been affirmed.” [Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, p. 296]

            So some, even most cling to the simple-minded notion that JFK’s murder tells us nothing about the character of the American political order where “the rule of law” is supreme and where it is simply, that is, simple-mindedly assumed that JFK could not have been assassinated by a conspiracy of political forces that exist and have substantial power within the established political order. A foreign power or foreign “other” had to be responsible for JFK’s death.

            What is the relevance of this today? Well, it seems to me that the response of many to Trump and his presidency is just as simple-minded. Trump, it is said, must be an aberration; he cannot be a reflection of a defective political order. Hence, many simple-mindedly insist, over and over, that Trump is the worst president, even the worst president ever, and totally unlike his immediate predecessors. And they go on to insist that Trump must be mentally defective, probably illiterate, and psychologically unstable.

            This is, actually, comforting because it means we don’t have to change anything significant in how our government works or in how we govern ourselves. Rather, we just have to get rid of Trump. So, yes, the simple-minded assert, “Impeach Trump! Impeach him!” In other words, once we are rid of Trump all will be well again in the land. And this is a comforting way of “thinking.”

            But what if JFK was assassinated by conspiratorial political forces that exist and wield power within the established political order? That is a very different story than the fairy tale most Americans believe about JFK’s murder. And what if Trump is a reflection of our defective political order? That too is a very different story than the fairy tales we are being told about Trump. It would be good to get this straight.

American Politics 101: A Different Perspective

American Politics 101: A Different Perspective

P. Schultz

            I am reading another interesting book by Peter Dale Scott that is advancing my understanding of the American political order. I guess it is true that one is never too old to learn, even after years of study. I am reproducing here two paragraphs from Scott’s book, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK. Enjoy.

            “At the end [of this book], I shall propose that most hypotheses of the Kennedy assassination heretofore, whether the designated culprits have been Communists or Minutemen, the CIA or the Mafia, have suffered from a common defect. This is to look for an external conspiracy violating the systemic political order from without.

            “We shall offer an enlarged and deeper perspective of power as a symbiosis of public government, organized crime, and private wealth with deep connections to both government and crime. From this perspective, the forces behind the assassination no longer appear as extraneous, but as deeply systemic; and the violation to the enlarged power system can be seen as coming from the Kennedys, with their policies of détente abroad and an attack on a CIA-sanctioned Hoffa-crime connection at home. From this perspective, the assassination was not a corrupt attack from the outside of an honest system. The assassination was a desperate, extraordinary defense, or adjustment, of a system that was itself corrupt.” [p. 74]

            And this perspective helps me answer one question that has often bothered me: Why did J. Edgar Hoover, who was perceived and who thought of himself as a or even the protector of the American political order, refuse to go after the Mafia or organized crime? There is no contradiction here once it is understood that the Mafia or organized crime, along with private wealth and a complicit government, lay at the heart of the American political order. And those who oppose that order must be “dealt with,” one way or another.