To dismiss protest is to dismiss human agency

Indian-Canadian professor Ananya Mukherjee Reed of York University in Toronto explores the power of political protest:

I think it is ironic that we often have to think of the “strategic” outcomes of social protest, because it really should be a celebration of human spontaneity at its best. More importantly, it is often the only tool people have, especially when institutional options are non-existent. No substantive social change has ever come about without protest. To dismiss protest, is therefore to dismiss human agency.

Her essay provides a welcome antitode to the RNC's anti-protest, anti-democracy spin. Read her full article here.

"If hate kills, your country will disappear."

Bread DeLong's Journal has posted an email exchange from January 2003 to the present, between an American professor and a Muslim student in Africa, on Iraq, America, ethics, and being human. The collection provides a remarkably honest, unfiltered insight into how the Islamic world (and much of the planet) views America.

"...Destroying a country can never be called “liberalisation”, resistance can never be terrorism, the victim can never be transformed to a criminal and the criminal to a victim."

"...With the massacre of more than 200 in two days, most of them women and children ... I’m asking if Americans feel guilt about what they are doing. Don’t they know that the blood of these innocent is a duty, that they will be asked for this blood another day toward god? Do they sleep quietly? How can they do it? Don’t they feel that they are partners of this crime by their vote, by their tools, by their taxes and by their silence?"

"...You know if I write to you, it’s because I know that you will calm me. Really sometimes I feel that my heart will explode. If hate kills, your country will disappear. There is no-one in my country who is loving the U.S."

I have to be honest: the author raises questions that I have asked myself, and I still haven't found good answers. I am afraid that the jingoism and isolationism of the political climate are insulating Americans from understanding how the US actions in Iraq are viewed and how dangerous the consequences may be.

If you have the stomach to look at an unvarnished reflection of America, invest some time and read the full post, Jill Gabrielle Klein Talks to a Ph.D Student from North Africa. And see if you can find honest answers to the questions she raises.

Via Bubblegeneration. (Thanks, Umair!)

Crossposted to BOP News.

Political Compass

Every so many years I am delighted to stumble, once again, across the Political Compass site.

They've taken the traditional, one-dimensional political spectrum of Right and Left (which was established, by the way for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789), and created a 2-dimensional model by adding a y-axis for the spectrum of Authoritarian to Libertarian. In other words, their model includes both an economic and social dimensions.

Political Compass offers a survey on their site to measure your political leanings. They map the results out on their graph.

My score was:

Economic Left/Right: -9.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31

You can see my score on a the political compass graph here.

That means, I am more liberal than Ghandi (nice guy, but a little conservative for my tastes)...

...and more anti-establishment than Nelson Mandela or the Dalai Lama.

Notice that George Bush is further right than all the world leaders mentioned except possibly for Thatcher and Friedman (hard to compare the two graphs); and more authoritarian than everyone but Ariel Sharon (bested by a nose, there) Robert Mugabe, Yassir Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Hitler...and possibly, again, Margaret Thatcher.

In other words, I am diametrically opposed to George Bush. Now who is suprised to hear that?

You can take the test yourself here.

Feel free to share your scores if you feel like it, too.

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I am, of course, a great admirer of Ghandi, Mandela, and the Dalai Lama, along with Aung San Suu Kyi, Dr. King, Dorothy Day, ,and César Chávez.

Which leads me to ask: who are your role models, political and otherwise? Whose life stories or careers to you turn to for guidance and inspiration?

Outside the strictly speaking politcal sphere, I would also add Hildegard of Bingen, Japan's Crown Princess Masako, Harriet Tubman, and Laura Secord. Many others, too...

Sexism, Ageism, & Blogging

At this point, a whole bunch of people are talking about how to get more women involved in political blogging.

I think the discussion is germane to young bloggers, too. Sexism and ageism aren't all that dissimilar--in fact, many of the ways that we disempower women boil down to infantilizing them.

And thus, I would like to invite ALL of you to join in the conversation. I'm talking about it on Tzuredzuregusa here, with links to some of the other blogs talking about the same thing.

Post here or over there, but please pipe in. I would really like to hear your perception of the obstacles to blogging...and then brainstorm on what we can do to help. I'm also curious to hear how much the sexism parallels your experiences of ageism.

An Essay on Conservatism

Has anyone seen this? It's a long but interesting manifesto entitled "What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?" written by Philip Agre, a professor of Information Studies at the University of California.

The essay references different decades and political figures, in order to help liberals today win political debates based on history. I was referred by Roz Kaveney on livejournal, where there is also minor discussion of the essay.

Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are also simple:

Q: What is conservatism?
A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.

Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.

These ideas are not new. Indeed they were common sense until recently. Nowadays, though, most of the people who call themselves "conservatives" have little notion of what conservatism even is. They have been deceived by one of the great public relations campaigns of human history. Only by analyzing this deception will it become possible to revive democracy in the United States.

Read the rest here.

US + SH

Raise your hand if you knew Sadam Hussein has been a CIA asset for 40 years.

[silence] [/silence]

That's what I thought.

Check out this fantastic flash animation about the history between the US gov & Saddam.

Via All Day Permanent Red