Thursday, June 02, 2005
Multilateral Sour Grapes
(The following essay was origionally posted at this site last year)
After the Bush administration rallied over two-dozen countries against the fascist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, the usual clown show of media clones and “thinkers” have erected a mythology around the word, “Unilateral.” I’ve also seen the phrase, “Go it alone” used to describe the collaboration of these several countries that aren’t Russia, Germany, or France. Another counter-U.S. propaganda ploy has been to imply that the U.S. had somehow coerced or slighted France specifically in some way. Initially, of course, Bush hoped to get support from any country willing to stand firm in support of the multiple UN resolutions against Hussein’s police state. France not only chose to not support the effort, but also actively sought to undermine it and lead a coalition of the un-willing. After France displayed its historically characteristic arrogance on the matter, they then – with the help of the international media – chastised the U.S. for, of all things, “its arrogance.” We now know that U.N. staff members, France, and several other countries in the non-coalition we’re skimming considerable oil for food kickbacks from the Hussein regime. Ironically, the Marxist sympathies of Euro-land framed the U.S. effort as war “for oil.”
The well-constructed mythology of a villainous America has reached the point where people who neither know of, or care about, political matters now mimic clichés from the socialist mantra; “Bush and America are Fascists …no blood for oil…unilateralism!” – hymns from the Marxist songbook.
Another popular polemic scheme involves what I’d call, “rebellion through feigned disinterest and mock hyper-objectivity.” In America, the pseudo-rebels pose as non-aligned thinkers, imagining themselves to be somehow above the fray. While deriding the American position they claim to be “refusing to take a side.” Ironically, their refusal to take sides always defaults to the anti-U.S. position. While seeking an aura of profundity, in reality their stance is merely an expression of the weasel archetype, the guy who would sell out his family or country to maintain his own air of superiority.
We live in an age where slippery philosophical game players are considered heroic by some. Do we really want such types defending our families and communitites or leading our nations?
I’m reminded of Rhett Butler in “Gone With The Wind.” Through the beginning of the film, we’re impressed with his independence. He’s a smuggler who takes no side but his own. We can’t help but wish to identify with his superior insight and objectivity. He’s not naive like those other foolish souls running off to war for some meaningless cause. Later in the movie he shocks Scarlet O-hare and the audience as well, when he announces that he is going off to join the other soldiers in battle. He actually, quite humbly, acknowledges the weakness of his prior stand. We now can’t help but admire his newfound self-honesty and conviction. An actual intellectual appraisal of war itself becomes meaningless when we see this hero figure act on principal and do what he intuitively knows is right.
So, what is this “unilateralism” now taken as an objective label regarding America’s stance in the war with Fascist Islamic Jihad?
The fact that socialists in one country happen to agree with socialists in another country is hardly a noble expression of “multi-lateralism.” To the contrary, it merely means that some countries’ self-interests generally coincide with others. Contrary to the emerging mythology, France doesn’t base its policies on some self-effacing sacrifice or compromise. It merely acts in its own self-interest, seeking to resurrect a nationalistic ego tarnished by its own historical failures. The fact that it may agree with a few other countries in its desire to rein in the American “global hegemon” isn’t evidence of some noble cooperative greatness on its part.
The imperial rule of -- Western -- Europeans is long past and more than a few of them resent the fact that another country is currently taking its turn as superpower on the pages of history (It appears that the "colonies" are getting a lot more autonomy this time as well).
“Unilateral…hegemonic…illegal war?" – Mere euphemisms directed by the sour grapes of social-bureau-states unable to acknowledge their own obvious self-interest, delusion, and decline from past glories.
If the pampered magicians of sound-bite leftism only had the insight of Rhett Butler and recognized that taking a stand for genuine justice is not an issue of xxx-lateralism, but simply having the courage to do what is right.
After the Bush administration rallied over two-dozen countries against the fascist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, the usual clown show of media clones and “thinkers” have erected a mythology around the word, “Unilateral.” I’ve also seen the phrase, “Go it alone” used to describe the collaboration of these several countries that aren’t Russia, Germany, or France. Another counter-U.S. propaganda ploy has been to imply that the U.S. had somehow coerced or slighted France specifically in some way. Initially, of course, Bush hoped to get support from any country willing to stand firm in support of the multiple UN resolutions against Hussein’s police state. France not only chose to not support the effort, but also actively sought to undermine it and lead a coalition of the un-willing. After France displayed its historically characteristic arrogance on the matter, they then – with the help of the international media – chastised the U.S. for, of all things, “its arrogance.” We now know that U.N. staff members, France, and several other countries in the non-coalition we’re skimming considerable oil for food kickbacks from the Hussein regime. Ironically, the Marxist sympathies of Euro-land framed the U.S. effort as war “for oil.”
The well-constructed mythology of a villainous America has reached the point where people who neither know of, or care about, political matters now mimic clichés from the socialist mantra; “Bush and America are Fascists …no blood for oil…unilateralism!” – hymns from the Marxist songbook.
Another popular polemic scheme involves what I’d call, “rebellion through feigned disinterest and mock hyper-objectivity.” In America, the pseudo-rebels pose as non-aligned thinkers, imagining themselves to be somehow above the fray. While deriding the American position they claim to be “refusing to take a side.” Ironically, their refusal to take sides always defaults to the anti-U.S. position. While seeking an aura of profundity, in reality their stance is merely an expression of the weasel archetype, the guy who would sell out his family or country to maintain his own air of superiority.
We live in an age where slippery philosophical game players are considered heroic by some. Do we really want such types defending our families and communitites or leading our nations?
I’m reminded of Rhett Butler in “Gone With The Wind.” Through the beginning of the film, we’re impressed with his independence. He’s a smuggler who takes no side but his own. We can’t help but wish to identify with his superior insight and objectivity. He’s not naive like those other foolish souls running off to war for some meaningless cause. Later in the movie he shocks Scarlet O-hare and the audience as well, when he announces that he is going off to join the other soldiers in battle. He actually, quite humbly, acknowledges the weakness of his prior stand. We now can’t help but admire his newfound self-honesty and conviction. An actual intellectual appraisal of war itself becomes meaningless when we see this hero figure act on principal and do what he intuitively knows is right.
So, what is this “unilateralism” now taken as an objective label regarding America’s stance in the war with Fascist Islamic Jihad?
The fact that socialists in one country happen to agree with socialists in another country is hardly a noble expression of “multi-lateralism.” To the contrary, it merely means that some countries’ self-interests generally coincide with others. Contrary to the emerging mythology, France doesn’t base its policies on some self-effacing sacrifice or compromise. It merely acts in its own self-interest, seeking to resurrect a nationalistic ego tarnished by its own historical failures. The fact that it may agree with a few other countries in its desire to rein in the American “global hegemon” isn’t evidence of some noble cooperative greatness on its part.
The imperial rule of -- Western -- Europeans is long past and more than a few of them resent the fact that another country is currently taking its turn as superpower on the pages of history (It appears that the "colonies" are getting a lot more autonomy this time as well).
“Unilateral…hegemonic…illegal war?" – Mere euphemisms directed by the sour grapes of social-bureau-states unable to acknowledge their own obvious self-interest, delusion, and decline from past glories.
If the pampered magicians of sound-bite leftism only had the insight of Rhett Butler and recognized that taking a stand for genuine justice is not an issue of xxx-lateralism, but simply having the courage to do what is right.
