Visions of Solidarity: Strategy and Morality

Norman Finkelstein just published an article I wrote about the One State, Two State debate on his website.

Take a look: http://normanfinkelstein.com/2013/forbidden-zone-visions-of-solidarity-strategy-and-morality/

Brief Thoughts about New Karl Marx Biography

For a man who once wrote that “History does not consist of individuals,” Karl Marx’s life has received quite a bit of attention. From Communist governments which have sought to exult his memory to the extent that the Soviet Union concealed Engel’s death bed confession that Marx had fathered a son with his housekeeper, to Capitalist apologists who have equated Marx’s domineering personal tendencies with the totalitarianism of latter communist regimes, the biography of Marx has served as blank slate for the projection of preconceived notions of communism, driven primarily by events that occurred long after Marx’s death.

Jonathan Sperber’s biography, Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life, seeks to return Marx’s biography to the context in which his life occurred, namely nineteenth century Europe. What emerges from this effort is a portrait of a man whose ideas were shaped by events and ideas quite foreign from the world of 20^th and 21^st centuries when most of the debates about the theory and application of them have occurred.

In particular, two concepts, very important to the 18^th century Prussia Marx was born in, but increasingly less important as the decades past, form a basis for much of Marx’s thought: namely a focus on the French Revolution as a model for future revolutions and the dialectical ideas of Hegel. In this regard, many of the concerns and sensibilities of Marx were anachronisms in his own time. One of the most interesting parts of the biography is an extended examination of Marx’s relationship with scientifically based positivist philosophy, which came to eclipse Marx’s preferred dialectical philosophy during his own lifetime.

All of this is not to say that the portrait of Marx in Sperber’s biography is not without relevance today. In particular, Marx’s participation in and the lessons he learned from the major revolutionary events of his era offer an interesting perspective about how to understand the upheavals of the last few years from the Occupy Wall-Street Movement to the Arab Spring.

Additionally, Speber shows, Marx did not always fight against these changes and to a large extent embraced them near the end of his life. In one particularly interesting passage, a quote from the Communist Manifesto describing poverty in distinctly dialectical terms is juxtaposed with another quote from sixteen years after the manifesto was published in which the poverty is described in far more scientific, positivist, language.  Sperber concludes, “Dialectics were gone. In its place was a scientific definition of malnutrition, complete with the requisite number of grains of nitrogen, and the results of survey research.”

Ultimately, this biography is a reminder of the failure of relying on personal history to assess ideas. Throughout Marx’s life, many of the positions he took had nothing to do with his wider theories, which themselves were in a constant state of evolution. Indeed, many of the positions he took were dictated by personal conflicts and animosities. Marx himself acknowledged this deficiency when he famously said “Je ne suis pas Marxiste” (I am not a Marxist), in reference to the brand of his though that had taken hold in France.  The true importance of Marx is not in his life or personal qualities, as interesting as they may be, but instead in the line of thinking he introduced.  

Why Do They Hate US?

Here is a response I wrote to an article that appeared on the NPR blog Parallels. 

A recent article published by Parallels “Which Nations Hate The U.S.? Often Those Receiving U.S. Aid” referred to a Pew Research Poll that showed an association between countries that receive aid from the United States and anti-American sentiments. Unfortunately, this article failed to acknowledge many of the most salient reasons for these sentiments.

In the three initial examples of countries receiving aid (Egypt, Palestine, and, Jordan), the reason why ordinary citizens are not in the street waving the red, white, and blue and singing “God Bless America” is quite obvious: the aid is not going to the citizens themselves. In the case of Egypt, most U.S. aid is going to the Egyptian military, the primary enforcer of both the unpopular Camp David Accords and the destructive blockade of Gaza. Palestinian aid is primary going to prop up a corrupt and aloof Palestinian authority, while Israel, which gets much more aid than the Palestinians, continues its violent and illegal occupation.  

The article’s treatment of Pakistan is probably the most egregious. The only reason given for why only 11 percent of Pakistanis have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S. is “friction in recent years as the countries have been at odds over policies toward Afghanistan.” The article makes no mention the illegal drone strikes, which have killed hundreds of civilians.

It is reckless to ask why countries do not love us and all the money we give them, without acknowledging where this money is going and other factors that influence public opinion aside from money. 

President Obama: Make Climate Change a Priority in Inaugural Address

In 2050, a seemingly remote date from the new year we just welcomed, President Obama will be 89 years old, eight presidential terms will have passed since his second term ended, his daughters Malia and Sasha will be 52 and 49 respectively, and, if we continue on our present path, the world could be 4°F warmer, risking the lives and livelihoods of millions.

President Obama, as a leader of the largest historical emitter of carbon dioxide and the second largest current emitter of that climate-altering gas, has incredible power in shaping how severe and destructive this future will be. The world of 2050 will largely be dictated by the decisions the President makes over the next few years. How he handles this unique leverage will be the most significant and lasting legacy of his administration. 

This month in his inaugural address, the President can make it clear that he understands this ever-growing threat and has the guts necessary to aggressively confront the problem to the extent demanded by the science.

Unfortunately, even now in the second decade of the 21^st century, we already have raw glimpses of the “destructive power of a warming planet,” as President Obama described the impacts of climate change in his victory speech last November.  It is not only the children of 2050 that will be forced to live with this destructive power. No—the impacts of climate change are already here and they are only going to get worse.

From the droughts that ravaged food production in the nation’s bread basket this summer, to the wild fires that destroyed homes and forests in the west and the deaths caused by hurricane Sandy, the vicious devastation of weather patterns strengthened by the steroids of a carbon filled climate is something we must contend with now.

While the Inaugural Address is not necessarily a time for specific, wonky policy proposals, the time has come for more than the vague visions about climate change the President has so far offered. He should make it clear that the time has come to put a price on emitting carbon dioxide and that creating this impediment to pollution will be a central goal of his presidency.

By framing the price early in his second term, the President can take control of the narrative from the start and preemptively confront the inevitable accusation that it will be a burden on business, which will surely come from deniers and delayers in Washington.

He can define the price as crucial to preventing a small number of dirty corporations from polluting our environment for free. He can ask citizens directly: how would you feel if your neighbor could dump his garbage into your yard without any consequences? Why can fossil fuel companies, whose reserves are capable of warming our planet five times more than what the science tells us human infrastructure can handle, do the same to our atmosphere?

Additionally, with all the focus on the long term risks of a growing deficit and the fiscal cliff, the president can present the price as an opportunity to generate additional revenue from a few industries whose entire business model is based on jeopardizing the stability of our future.  

The fiscal cliff is indeed threatening, but it pales in comparison to the world-altering risk of a runaway climate. Hurricane Sandy and the Colorado wildfires alone cost the country millions. As climate change worsens, events like this will become more common and expensive. At this point it is undeniable, the sooner we act the easier and less expensive the transition way from fossil fuels will be.    

The president in his second term can operate without the concerns about short term political viability, which hampered his first.  The next four years are an opportunity for him to act on the visionary rhetoric that has characterized his political campaigns and not on what will win the next election.

Of course, the President still must contend with a Congress defined by an obstructionist House and an immovable Senate, but that alone is not an excuse for inaction. The president’s job is to lead. As the chief executive of the country, he has a unique ability to galvanize the public and communicate why urgent and ambitious action on climate change is necessary. The Inaugural Address this month is the perfect opportunity to begin this process.  

In 2050, when President Obama’s legacy is examined, arguments over particular aspects of the tax code or discretionary spending will be forgotten. What will be remembered is whether he chose to confront the most urgent challenge of his and, more importantly, his children’s era.