15 January 2012
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
Witnesses at Whitehall who were present on January 30, 1649 at the execution of Charles I --casualty of the Puritan Revolution, at the age of 48—remembered the mood of the crowd attending this public spectacle. Princeton University Professor Lawrence Stone describes in his book The Family, Sex and Marriage in England, 1500-1800 (1977) some recollections of the British Monarch’s overthrow and the public beheading of the King.
Despite Charles I’s long record of duplicity and illegal actions, very many individuals were in the last resort unable to shake off the ideological chains with which they had so long been bound. Men like Hyde were exasperated enough to destroy the machinery of royal government in 1640-41, but not enough to take up arms against the king in 1642. Even more striking is the response of the vast crowd in Whitehall in 1649, when Charles I’s head was severed from his body. Seventy years later, an old woman could still recall with horror the ‘dismal groan’ that she heard from the crowd as a child, while a boy remembered as long as he lived ‘such a groan as I never heard before, and desire to may never hear again’. This mass response to public execution must surely have been a reflection of a feeling by the crowd that it had witnessed an act of national patricide: the father of his people had been publicly murdered. (p.110)
Professor Stone’s emphasis on kinship instead of social class relationships speaks to a cyclical theory of history, where natural relationships can only momentarily be evaded, before a corrective mechanism restores relationships more or less as they were. During the disturbance a few people gain, others lose; then the old pattern of hierarchy is restored with some new faces appearing at the top, where old familiar ones have vanished. This revisionist view of the “English Revolution” denies class struggle as a motive force in history and instead classifies it as just one of many cultural epiphenomena. The debate continues . . . .
The concentrated effort to diminish the role of class consciousness in western societies received much funding and a great deal of encouragement from the corporate headquarters. Howard Zinn offers readers a synthesis of this right-wing intellectual history of the 1970s and 1980s in Chapter 17 of People’s History of the US, “Or Does it Explode?”: it is the story of David Rockefeller’s idea of “black capitalism” and soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell’s the new political orientation for corporate funding of university research:
To further the party's ideological and political goals, Republicans in the 1970's and 1980's built a comprehensive structure based on Powell's blueprint. Visualize that structure as a pyramid.
You've probably heard some of this before, but let me run through it again. Big individual donors and large foundations - the Scaife family and Olin foundations, for instance - form the base of the pyramid. They finance conservative research centers like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, entities that make up the second level of the pyramid. [For more information about the Right, see the Commonweal Institute's collection of articles, reports and resources for studying the right-wing ideological movement at:
http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/archive/information-about-the-right.]
This new intellectual emphasis away from revolutionary class consciousness and toward enrichissez-vous consumerism had its effect: A bovine complacency took over many middle-class areas of society, while Academia was transformed from the liberal “market place of ideas” into a fierce arena --a virtual cockfight-- for a new brand of anything-goes competition, to advance petty-bourgeois ambitions. We who lived this experience saw how quickly social solidarity dissolved into narcissism, while the mercenaries stood before the magic mirror, chanting: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?.” They were looking for their next targets.
Today, in the smoldering ruins of post-liberal society, the popular cry might very well become:
Democracy is dead; Long live democracy!
The revolutions of the past can be instructive sometimes, but they certainly cannot be used as a blueprint for future constructions. The cynical betrayal of the masses of ordinary people is a clear pattern from the past, but who wins and who loses can never be predetermined. We can see the social fallout of failed revolutions, leading eventually to the faltering efforts of people to get back on their feet to once again demand equality as a condition for human liberty, and when great risks are taken by large numbers of people, society can be transformed; new relationships and new institutions, which were unimaginable only a short while before, have emerged in history. The ideological bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie in 2012 is seen in the repeated use of their only recourse: An in-your-face rapport de force. But the use of such force is of very limited value in preserving the status quo, and for maintaining any semblance of social order; in the absence of social justice it is next to useless.
In the 9 items below CEIMSA readers will be able to see, perhaps with some embarrassment, how they have been exploited to support the interests of their masters, against their own collective well-being. This painful recognition is the sine qua non of meaningful social change.
Item A. is a controversial article on “the French connection” by Thierry Meyssan, first published on October 14, 2010 by Global Research.
Item B., from Professor Edward Herman, is an article on preparations for the creation of a police state in America.
Item C., from CODE PINK, is call for action against US government policy toward Iran.
Item D., sent to us by Reader Supported News, is: Live Coverage: Occupy Worldwide.
Item E., from Truth Out, is : Conversation About Occupy Wall Street, with Naomi Klein and Yotam Marom.
Item F. is an article by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship: Is This Land Made for You and Me - or for the Super-Rich?
Item G. is an article by Jeff Cohen on Obama, Sarkozy and 'Robin Hood'..
Item H. is an report by Tom Engelhardt on Obama's Military-First Policy.
Item I., from Ed Herman, is an article by Alexander Cockburn on the financial tactics with in the US war on the Iranian people.
And finally, we offer CEIMSA readers a dramatization of the bloody birth scene of “representative democracy” in England on January 30, 1649.
Alec Guinness as King Charles I - Execution Scene
(8minutes)
Sincerely,
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies
Director of Research
Université Stendhal Grenoble 3
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
____________________
A.
from Thierry Meyssan :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: The French Connection?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
Operation Sarkozy : how the CIA placed one of its agents at the presidency of the French Republic
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10060
by Thierry Meyssan
____________________
B.
from Edward Herman :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: Preparing for the Future.
Francis,
We are likely to hear more about these measures in the future.
ed
Tanks, SWAT Teams, Surveillance Helicopters: Cities Already Turning Into Mini-Police States for the Political Conventions
by Rania Khalek
____________________
C.
from CODE PINK :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: War Resistance.
http://www.occupyaipac.org/
|
“The time has come for the Occupy Movement to Occupy AIPAC.” - Adbusters
January 12, 2012
Dear Francis ,
The pro-Israeli government lobby AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is gunning for a war with Iran— just like they pushed us into the catastrophic war in Iraq. And their manipulation of our political process destroys the possibility of a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis.
Join us March 2-6 in Washington, DC as we Occupy AIPAC during their annual policy conference. We’ll have a Summit on Iran, Palestine and the Arab Uprisings, as well as workshops, cultural performances, film showings, protests and creative direct actions. Register now.
And there’s another way you can call for peace with Iran. Help us take out a full-page ad in the influential DC newspaper—The Hill. We’ll send a clear message to Congress that AIPAC does not represent the majority of Americans who won’t want another war in the Middle East. If you can donate $100 or more, we’ll include your name in the ad.
Now is the time to make a large, people-powered push to show our opposition to the stranglehold the Israel lobby continues to hold over our government. In this new year, let's make sure the US doesn't launch into a new war!
Say no to AIPAC. Say no to war with Iran. Say no to Israeli occupation. Speak out for peace and justice.
Onward for justice,
Alli, Farida, Gayle, Janet, Jodie, Kendra, Kristen, Lisa, Melanie, Nancy, Medea, Rae, Sanaa, Sharon, and Tighe
PS: Register today for the Occupy AIPAC summit and be part of history in the making!
____________________
D.
from Reader Supported News :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: Preparing for an Alternative Future.
Live Coverage: Occupy Worldwide.
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/7468-occupy-wall-street-take-the-bull-by-the-horns
____________________
E.
from Truth Out :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: Looking for the next Step.
Conversation About Occupy Wall Street
http://www.thenation.com/article/165530/why-now-whats-next-naomi-klein-and-yotam-marom-conversation-about-occupy-wall-street
by Naomi Klein and Yotam Marom.
____________________
F.
from Reader Supported News :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: Democracies, Old and New.
'Is this land made for you and me?' A mighty good question. The biggest domestic story of our time is the collapse of the middle class, a sharp increase in the poor, and the huge transfer of wealth to the already rich.
Is This Land Made for You and Me - or for the Super-Rich?
http://www.truth-out.org/democracy-land-made-you-and-me/1326393310
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
____________________
G.
from TruthOut :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: A Change of Heart?
US media obsessing on the fight here at home among conservatives vying to become president, most of them missed some big news about France, which already has a conservative president. This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he would take the lead - even go it alone within Europe, if need be - in introducing and pushing a financial transaction tax in his country.
Obama, Sarkozy and Taxing Wall Street
http://www.truth-out.org/obama-sarkozy-and-taxing-wall-street/1326302856
by Jeff Cohen
____________________
H.
from TruthOut :
Date: 12 January 2012
Subject: The New Militarism.
Here's the ad for this moment in Washington (as I imagine it): Militarized superpower adrift and anxious in alien world. Needs advice. Will pay. Pls respond qkly. PO Box 1776-2012, Washington, DC. Here's the way it actually went down in Washington last week: a triumphant performance by a commander-in-chief who wants you to know that he's at the top of his game.
Obama's Mission Accomplished Moment? And a Military-First Policy on a Destabilizing Planet
http://www.truth-out.org/obamas-mission-accomplished-moment-and-military-first-policy-destabilizing-planet/1326380401
by Tom Engelhardt
____________________
I.
from Edward Herman :
Date: 13 January 2012
Subject: Preparing for the Future.
War on Iran: It’s Not A Matter of “If”
by ALEXANDER COCKBURN
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/13/war-on-iran-it%E2%80%99s-not-a-matter-of-%E2%80%9Cif%E2%80%9D/