Re: The Last Days of the American Republic

[Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 3/14/07, paul phillips <phillipsp@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Has anyone on pen-l read this?  If so, what reaction?
>
>  Paul P
>
> Chalmers Johnson: "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic"
> Democracy Now
> Tuesday 27 February 2007
<snip>
> By the subtitle, I really do mean it. This is not just hype to sell
> books - "The Last Days of the American Republic." I'm here concerned with a
> very real, concrete problem in political analysis, namely that the political
> system of the United States today, history tells us, is one of the most
> unstable combinations there is - that is, domestic democracy and foreign
> empire - that the choices are stark. A nation can be one or the other, a
> democracy or an imperialist, but it can't be both. If it sticks to
> imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our
> system was modeled, like the old Roman Republic, it will lose its democracy
> to a domestic dictatorship.

On 3/14/07, Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > paul phillips wrote:
> >
> > Has anyone on pen-l read this?  If so, what reaction?
>
> When someone treats the Roman Republic as though it were any more a
> democracy than the Roman Empire, I began to wonder about the whole
> analysis. The Roman Republic was (a) a tyranny and (b) every bit as
> imperialist as the empire. Athens was a democracy. It was also
> imperialist. The democracy survived until Alexander destroyed it from
> outside.

The dominant culture of America used to seek to have Americans
identify with the Athenians, who were democratic and imperialistic at
the same time.  But nowadays the dominant American culture wants to
have Americans identify with oligarchic Spartans.

According to Lenin's Tomb (at
<http://leninology.blogspot.com/2007/03/gorgeous-slaughter.html>) and
other reviewers, (the just released and apparently wildly popular
film) 300 takes the Battle of Thermopylae and turns it into an epic
battle not only against the (naturally tyrannical) Persians but also
Blacks, queers, and so forth (you can watch two trailers of the film
at <http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/> and see for yourself).

It is quite appropriate that a film about the Battle of Thermopylae,
which the Greeks lost, is being shown at a time when many Americans,
even a growing number of Republicans, are thinking that America
already lost or is soon to lose in Iraq (which was part of the Persian
Empire at the time of the Greco-Persian Wars:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_500_BCE.png>).  The film
tells the Americans to sacrifice themselves bravely in Iraq, even to
the last man.  Their heroic deaths will be avenged later -- just as
Greek deaths were avenged first at the naval Battle of Salamis and
decisively at the Battle of Plataea.  Ominously, the second US
aircraft carrier group has already been deployed to the Persian Gulf.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>