Bulletin N° 766
Subject : Bourgeois Humanism, the thin veil concealing
Capitalist Class Hegemony.
24 September 2017
Grenoble, France
“A man does what a man has
to do!”
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
If you don’t have 18 hours to spare for watching
the 10 episodes of The Vietnam War, by
Lynn Novick and Ken Burns, I suggest that you at
least look at the short Detroit Public Television interview
with the famous filmmaker, Ken Bruns, and read John Pilger’s
critical review of contemporary revisionism, Killing History,
to get an idea of the new levels of cultural hegemony that are being mobilized
against the anti-war movement at this strategic moment in history. (For a contrasting viewpoint, there is Jon Weiner’s interview in Nation
magazine with Todd Gitlin, “What
Does a Leader of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement Think About Ken Burns’s Documentary?”)
The cultural hegemony of the ruling
class has never been so apparent. The Media control of our thinking has
expanded to a extent never before imagined possible.
The uncritical submission to tyranny is almost painless, as we look forward to
the next diversion. Consumer society über alles; and to hell with the collateral damage!
A fake bourgeois “humanism” - which
essentially “humanizes” some people more than others - has become the hallmark
of class struggle today. Without an understanding of the conflict of social
class interests and how this struggle is played out on the world stage, we are
left to flounder in the myopic world of fear and individual self-interests,
which Franz Kafka portrayed so well in early 20th century Prague.
History shows that the violence of
capitalist growth is continually displaced – that if one group is getting a
momentary respite, it means that somewhere else other groups of people are
getting hell. Willful violence has always been a necessary ingredient of the
private profit motive behind capitalist development, and the war in Vietnam was
no exception. “Humanists” like Ken Burns got it wrong, but his well-funded
propaganda is an effective attempt to disarm people who are struggling for
their lives !
The 26 items below speak to
the conditions that have created a submissive population in the face of the
awesome violence to war and global climate catastrophe. The cultural hegemony
of neo-liberal values in the wake of consumerism and the requirement of war has
created an indifference to the suffering of others – the political base of
American politics has shifted further away from progressive liberalism and
towards a new constituency, more ignorant, more bitter,
more easily manipulated by demagogues . . . .
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor emeritus of American
Studies
University Grenoble-Alpes
Director of Research
University of Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced Study of
American Institutions and Social Movements
The University of California-San
Diego
a.
Why Do People Vote Against Their Interests? They Don't
by Richard Wolff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qaJbfRmDKg
Professor Richard Wolff, discussing the thinking of Antonio
Gramsci, and how it can inform politics today.
==========
b.
Spies, Hollywood And Neocons Team Up To Create
New War Propaganda Firm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47865.htm
by Caitlin Johnstone
“We have been attacked. We are at war.”
+
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47888.htm
==========
c.
Neocons and
Hollywood Liberals Go to 'War' on Russia
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20039:Neocons-and-Hollywood-Liberals-Go-to-%27War%27-on-Russia
The
promotional video of the Committee to Investigate Russia features actor Morgan
Freeman in what is 'probably his worst role since Driving Miss Daisy,' says
AlterNet's Max Blumenthal
==========
d.
Trump's War of Words With Black Athletes
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47882.htm
by
Adam Serwer
Speaking to a crowd in Huntsville, Alabama Friday night, President Trump said he hoped NFL players who knelt during the
national anthem—which they've done to protest
unjustified police killings of black Americans—would lose their jobs.
Trump urged NFL owners to fire players who protest.
“Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out.
He’s fired. He’s fired!”
==========
e.
Prisoners of Hope -
RAI with Thomas Frank (6/6)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20009:Prisoners-of-Hope---RAI-with-Thomas-Frank-%2866%29
On Reality Asserts
Itself, Thomas Frank says if liberals don't face up to how the policies of
Clinton and Obama helped create the conditions for the rise of Trump, the next
version of Trump will be far more dangerous than this one
==========
f.
From: "World Beyond War via WorldBeyondWar.org"
Sent: Monday, 18 September, 2017
Subject: New online study & action guide: Study War No More
Check
out the videos and photos from Sunday's Flotilla to the
Pentagon.
#NoWar2017
is less than a week away. You can still sign up to attend or plan to watch the livestream.
The important thing is to come. Pay only what you can afford. Use the rides and
lodging board.
Here's
a wonderful new tool for education and events that will debut at the conference
but which you can already check out online:
Announcing
the launch of: STUDY WAR NO MORE - A Concerned Citizens
Study & Action Guide for "A Global Security System: An Alternative to
War"
http://Globalsecurity.WorldBeyondWar.org
==========
g.
The Politics of
Military Ascendancy
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47821.htm
by James Petras
Clearly
the US has escalated the pivotal role of the military in the making of foreign
and, by extension, domestic policy. The rise of ‘the Generals’ to
strategic positions in the Trump regime is evident, deepening its role as a
highly autonomous force determining US strategic policy agendas.
In this paper we
will discuss the advantages that the military elite accumulate from the war
agenda and the reasons why ‘the
Generals’ have been able to impose their definition of
international realities.
We will discuss
the military’s ascendancy over Trump’s civilian regime as a result of the
relentless degradation of his presidency by his political opposition.
==========
h.
Former
CIA Agent Blows Whistle On Secret Shadow Government
Video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46025.htm
+
The Silencing of Dissent
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47827.htm
by
Chris Hedges
The ruling elites, who grasp that the reigning
ideology of global corporate capitalism and imperial expansion no longer has
moral or intellectual credibility, have mounted a campaign to shut down the
platforms given to their critics. The attacks within this campaign include
blacklisting, censorship and slandering dissidents as foreign agents for Russia
and purveyors of “fake news.”
==========
i.
The
Russian Hacking Story Continues to Unravel
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47824.htm
by Mike Whitney
A
new report by a retired IT executive at IBM, debunks the claim
that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign by hacking
Democratic computers and circulating damaging information about Hillary
Clinton. The report, which is titled “The Non-Existent Foundation for Russian Hacking Charge“,
provides a rigorous examination of the wobbly allegations upon which the
hacking theory is based, as well as a point by point rejection of the primary
claims which, in the final analysis, fail to pass the smell test. While the
report is worth reading in full, our intention is to zero-in on the parts
of the text that disprove the claims that Russia meddled in US elections
or hacked the servers at the DNC.
==========
j.
GOP
Congressman Sought Trump
Deal
on WikiLeaks, Russia
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47817.htm
by Byron Tau, Peter Nicholas and Siobhan Hughes
California’s
Dana Rohrabacher asks for pardon of Julian Assange in return for evidence
Russia wasn’t source of hacked emails
A U.S. congressman contacted the White House this week trying to broker
a deal that would end WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s U.S. legal troubles in
exchange for what he described as evidence that Russia wasn’t the source of
hacked emails published by the antisecrecy website during the 2016 presidential
campaign.
==========
k.
An
Economic Lesson for China and Russia
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47814.htm
by Paul Craig Roberts
Is
there anyone in Trump’s government who is not an imbecile?
After
years of endless military threats against Russia—remember CIA deputy director
Mike Morell saying on TV (Charlie Rose show) that the US should start killing
Russians to give them a message, and Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley
threatening “We’ll beat you harder than you have ever been beaten before”—now
the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin threatens China. If China doesn’t
abide by Washington’s new sanctions on North Korea, Mnuchin said the US “will
put additional sanctions on them [China] and prevent them from accessing the US
and international dollar system.”
https://www.rt.com/usa/403118-usa-china-sanctions-north-korea/
==========
l.
Empire
Files: Peter Joseph & Abby Martin on
Abolishing
Capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HwFOo5rbZA
Peter
Joseph is the founder of the Zeitgeist Movement, a grassroots, worldwide
organization that advocates an alternative economic system based on
sustainability, cooperation and human need. His most recent book, ‘The New
Human Rights Movement,’ delivers a startling exposé about the violent
oppression that defines our economic order, while issuing an urgent call for
global activism to unite to replace it. Abby Martin sits down with Joseph to
talk about the contradictions and crises of capitalism and what he advocates to
save the future of the planet from catastrophe.
==========
m.
LE
MONDE ECONOMIE | 13.09.2017 à 17h05 • Mis à jour
le 14.09.2017 à 09h10 |Par Francine Aizicovic
An
Economic Lesson
Économie
Un
médecin examine une patiente à Godewaersvelde (Nord), en septembre 2012.
Les médecins veulent pouvoir attester librement les conséquences du travail sur
la santé. Le Conseil d’Etat doit se
prononcer sur la légitimité des plaintes d’employeurs auprès du conseil de
l’ordre
==========
n.
From: Catherine
Sent: Monday, 18 September, 2017
Subject: Perturbateurs
endocriniens
Pétition
demandant aux eurodéputés de rejeter le texte en faveur des
perturbateurs endocriniens (vote le 3 octobre au Parlement européen):
https://actions.sumofus.org/a/considerez-les-perturbateurs-endocriniens-avec-le-meme-serieux-que-les-cancerogenes-et-refusez-la-proposition-de-la-commission-europeenne/
Un véritable permis d'intoxiquer donné aux industriels de
l’agrochimie
qui produisent les perturbateurs endocriniens sera voté le 3 octobre
au
Parlement européen. A l’aube du vote de la dernière chance sur ces
polluants chimiques qui dérèglent nos organismes et provoquent
cancers,
malformations, (etc.) nous devons faire bloc pour empêcher une
telle
décision.
==========
o.
Communiqué
d’Elsa Lefort,
Porte parole du Comité de soutien à Salah Hamouri
Ce lundi 18 septembre est un jour sombre. Salah Hamouri, avocat
franco-palestinien, a été condamné à 6 mois de prison
renouvelables,
sous le statut de la « détention administrative. ». C’est-à-dire
sans
connaître précisément et exactement ce qui lui est reproché, sans
avoir
accès à son dossier classé secret, sans avoir droit à un procès
équitable et contradictoire. Et tout ceci pour satisfaire à un
ordre,
signé de sa main, d’un ministre israélien défense particulièrement
extrémiste : Avigdor Lieberman.
Depuis le 23 août Salah Hamouri est la victime d’un
arbitrairetotal.
Depuis le 23 août il est en prison, pour rien. Depuis le 23 août il
ne
peut communiquer avec sa famille. C’est un calvaire pur et simple
à
mettre, une fois de plus, au débit des autoritésisraéliennes qui
violent
en permanence le droit sans recevoir en retour la réaction concrète
qui
s’impose.
Cette décision survient de surcroît à un moment précis : hier notre
compatriote Loup Bureau revenait enfin en France suite à son
emprisonnement pendant 51 jours par les autorités turques qui
l’accusaient, elles aussi sans la moindre preuve, de faire partie
d’une
« organisation terroriste. ». Nous nous réjouissons de cette
libération
! Si Loup Bureau a pu sortir de prison c’est suite aux
interventions
répétées des autorités françaises auplus haut niveau ainsi que de
la
médiatisation de son cas par ses confrères journalistes.
Cela ne fait que souligner avec d’autant plus de force le fait que
la
décision israélienne a été possible parce que ni les autorités
françaises, ni la presse n’ont bougé nettement pour la libération
de
Salah Hamouri. Pourtant la liberté est indivisible ou bien elle
n’est
pas. Ce double standard concernant une situation identique sur le
fond
ne peut que heurtertous les démocrates et faire monter l’exigence
d’une
intervention du Président Macron à l’endroit d’Israël qui ne peut
être
traité autrement que tout autre Etat. Ce qui a été possible en
Turquie
doit l’être pour Israël, personne ne comprendrait que le silence
français – aussi bien de l’Elysée que du Quai d’Orsay – continue
au
point d’en devenir assourdissant.
Nous demandons donc solennellement aux autorités françaises compétentes
de refuser le « deux poids, deux mesures » et d’intervenir en
urgence
auprès de leurshomologues israéliens. Nous demandons que le
Président
reçoive la femme de Salah Hamouri. Nous demandons, enfin, que les
médias
estiment que l’internement arbitraire d’un journaliste n’est
pasplus
grave ou important que l’internement d’un avocat. La liberté ne
peut
connaître aucune distinction ni de frontières.
Nous affirmons, enfin, forts du soutien d’une multitude de
personnes
venues de tous les horizons, que plus que jamais nous entendons
faire
prévaloir la justice et le droit ; que plus que jamais nous sommes
aux
côtés de Salah Hamouri et de sa famille si durement éprouvés; que
plus
que jamais nous entendons faire faire aboutir cette exigence dont
la
justesse est indiscutable : Liberté pour Salah Hamouri !
Paris, le 18 septembre
2017
Voir aussi :
http://www.france-palestine.org/Salah-Hamouri-injustice-est-faite-un-deni-absolu-de-droit
==========
p.
The
Neocons overthrew Trump and made him what is colloquially referred to as their
“bitch”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47860.htm
Late
this morning, outraged emails started pouring in. My correspondents
reported “getting sick” and having their “heart ache”. The cause of all
that? They had just watched Trump’s speech at the UN. I sighed and
decided to watch the full speech for myself. Yeah, it was painful. You
can read the full (rush, not official) text here or watch the video here. Most of it is so vapid that I
won’t even bother posting the full thing. But there are a few interesting
moments including those:
“We will be spending almost $700 billion on our
military and defense. Our military will soon be the strongest it has ever been“
==========
q.
Jeff
Sachs Warns "Nuclear War is a Real Threat" as Trump Threatens to
"Totally Destroy" North Korea
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/9/21/jeff_sachs_warns_nuclear_war_is
+
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/9/21/economist_jeff_sachs_americans_who_dont
==========
r.
Syria
- Russia Accusing U.S. Of Attacks,
Abduction
Attempts, Team-play With Al-Qaeda
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47863.htm
by Moon Of Alabama
The
situation in Syria is reaching another critical point. There is an increased
possibility of a large scale clash between U.S. and Russian forces. We
had warned of such a clash over control of
the rich fields east of Deir Ezzor. At least three incidents over the last days
point to more significant escalations.
On
the 17th the U.S. accused Russia of a light air attack on its proxy forces
north of Deir Ezzor. Russia denied that it had attacked those
forces.
On
the 18th and 19th large contingents of Russian and Syrian troops crossed the
Euphrates at Deir Ezzor in east-Syria. The U.S. Kurdish/Arab proxy force in the
area actively tried to hinder that movement.
In parallel a large al-Qaeda attack was launched in west-Syria. The Russian forces accuse U.S. intelligence services of having initiated that campaign. (The Syrian-Russian forces defeated the attack.)
Today
the Russian military accused the U.S. Kurdish proxies near Deir Ezzor of firing
artillery on its forces. It threatened massive retaliation.
==========
s.
From: Jim O'Brien via H-Pad
Sent: Thursday, 21
September, 2017
Subject: [H-Pad] H-PAD
Notes (formerly HAW Notes).
https://www.historiansforpeace.org/
Links
to Recent Articles of Interest
The
articles marked with asterisks are critiques of the PBS Vietnam series
directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.
By Maurice Isserman, Dissent magazine,
on-line preview of Fall 2017 issue
The
author teaches history at Hamilton College. This is a critique of the PBS
Vietnam documentary’s treatment of the antiwar movement.
* “Burns’ Vietnam Episode 3 Should
Have Addressed Human Costs of Bombing the North”
By Jeremy Kuzmarov, Huffington
Post, posted September 20, 2017
The
author teaches history at the University of Tulsa.
* "The New Series by Ken Burns
and Lynn Novick Is Mesmerizing, But It Doesn't Answer the Questions about the
Vietnam War That Many Are Still Seeking”
By Andrew J. Bacevich, The
Nation, posted September 19
The
author, a Vietnam veteran, is a professor emeritus of history and international
relations at Boston University.
* "The Insidious Ideology of Ken
Burns's The Vietnam War"
By Alex Shephard, New Republic, posted September 19
“A Negotiated Curbing of North
Korea’s Nuclear Capabilities Is Good, But Not Good Enough”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, History News
Network, posted September 19
The
author is a professor of history emeritus at SUNY Albany
“Why Would 58% Favor U.S. Bombing
of North Korea?”
By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.org,
posted September 18
The
author teaches history at Tufts University.
* “Burns and Novick, Masters of False
Balancing”
By Jerry Lembcke, PublicBooks.org,
posted September 15
The
author is a Vietnam veteran and sociology professor whose books about the war
include The Spitting Image: Myth,
Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam..
“The United States Was Responsible
for the 1982 Massacre of Palestinians in Beirut”
By Rashid Khalidi, The
Nation, posted September 14
The
author teaches Arab Studies at Columbia University.
“The Birth of ‘Illegal’
Immigration”
By Becky Little, History Channel
website, posted September 7
”Don’t You Hear Her? The Enduring
Korean War”
By Jessie Kindig, n + 1, posted
August 18
The
author has a PhD in history from the University of Washington.
Thanks
for Rusti Eisenberg, Mim Jackson, and an anonymous reader for suggesting
articles for the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
==========
t.
The
Killing of History
by
John Pilger
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47871.htm
One
of the most hyped “events” of American television, The Vietnam War, has started on the PBS network. The directors
are Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Acclaimed for his documentaries on the
Civil War, the Great Depression and the history of jazz, Burns says of his
Vietnam films, “They will inspire our country to begin to talk and think about
the Vietnam war in an entirely new way”.
==========
u.
William Blum on the Korea
War
Killing
Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II - Chapter 5
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47825.htm
by William Blum
To die for
an idea; it is unquestionably noble.
But how
much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true.
- H L Mencken, 1919
How is it that the Korean War escaped the protests
which surrounded the war in Vietnam? Everything we've come to love and cherish
about Vietnam had its forerunner in Korea; the support of a corrupt tyranny,
the atrocities, the napalm, the mass slaughter of civilians, the cities and
villages laid to waste, the calculated management of the news, the sabotaging
of peace talks. But the American people were convinced that the war in Korea
was an unambiguous case of one country invading another without provocation. A
case of the bad guys attacking the good guys who were being saved by the even
better guys; none of the historical, political and moral uncertainty that was
the dilemma of Vietnam. The Korean War was seen to have begun in a specific
manner: North Korea attacked South Korea in the early morning of 25 June 1950;
while Vietnam ... no one seemed to know how it all began, or when, or why.
==========
v.
North Korea Addresses United Nations
Responds to US President Trump's Speech
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47887.htm
Must
Watch
==========
w.
Trump
and Netanyahu Made A Complete Fool of Themselves in Front of World Leaders
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47859.htm
by David Macilwain
Donald
Trump’s speech to the UN General Assembly of September 19th 2017 will surely go
down in history as marking the final collapse of a terminally corrupt regime,
where any pretence of cooperative co-existence with the world has given way to
the logic of the battlefield.
==========
x.
Russian
Special Forces Repel a US-planned Attack In Syria
Denounce
the USA and Issue a Stark Warning
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47880.htm
by The Saker
Something
rather unprecedented just happened in Syria: US backed “good terrorist” forces
attempted a surprise attack against Syrian government forces stationed to the
north and northeast of the city of Hama. What makes this attack unique is
that it took place inside a so-called “de-escalation zone” and that it appears
that one of the key goals of the attack was to encircle in a pincer-movement
and subsequently capture a platoon of Russian military police officers deployed
to monitor and enforce the special status of this zone. The Russian
military police forces, composed mainly of soldiers from the Caucasus region,
fought against a much larger enemy force and had to call for assistance.
For the first time, at least officially, Russian special operations forces were
deployed to rescue and extract their comrades. At the same time, the
Russians sent in a number of close air support aircraft who reportedly killed
several hundred “good” terrorists and beat back the attack (Russian sources speak
of the destruction of 850 fighters, 11 tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles,
46 armed pickup trucks, five mortars, 20 freighter trucks and 38 ammo supply
points; you can see photos of the destroyed personnel and equipment here).
What also makes this event unique is the official reaction of the Russians to
this event.
==========
y.
Bernie
Sanders Calls Out 'International Oligarchy'
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20048:Bernie-Sanders-Calls-Out-%27International-Oligarchy%27
After mobilizing millions of
supporters around progressive policies at home, Senator Bernie Sanders unveils
a foreign policy vision that criticizes US militarism and 'international
oligarchy'
==========
z.
BERNIE SANDERS TO DEMOCRATS: THIS IS WHAT A RADICAL
FOREIGN POLICY LOOKS LIKE
https://theintercept.com/2017/09/22/bernie-sanders-interview-foreign-policy/