Chris hedges AND george Monbiot ON THE IGNORANcE - ColdType

ace relations
will again change
dramatically with
the existence of
the first black
president, much
more in this
psychological and
cultural sense than
in a legislative
sense.
20 thereader | November 2008
our policy choices mean in terms of quality
of life for Americans. What if we could acknowledge
that the polarization of wealth
in this country ranks us down along with
banana republics throughout the world?
Sometimes the most powerful and profound
political changes in a society are the
subtlest and quietest in their evolution.
Race relations in America, for example,
were clearly changed by civil rights legislation.
But they were even more affected by
the change in consciousness, often generational,
that turned racist attitudes from de
rigueur to unacceptable in polite society.
Indeed, it is arguable that the legislation
and the judicial rulings could never have
transpired without the less tangible psychological
changes preparing the ground
for them.
Race relations will again change dramatically
with the existence of the first
black president, much more in this psychological
and cultural sense than in a legislative
sense. But I raise the question more as
an example of a broader possibility than to
focus specifically on race. If Obama’s style
of governance can demand more of the
media and more of the public in terms of a
sophisticated processing of our politics, this
can only be good news for progressives in
America. The dirty little secret of the right
is that a thinking public is a death sentence
for their lies. Ten minutes of Limbaugh
makes that abundantly clear to anyone
with half a brain.
wary of the future
Looking ahead, there are surely some reasons
to be wary about what comes next.
read the best of
davId MIChael green
http://coldtype.net/green.html
There are many indicators to suggest that
neither boldness nor serious progressivism
are part of Barack Obama’s DNA, though
there are also numerous others to suggest
just as emphatically that they are. But that’s
for the months and years to come. The new
president will have plenty of opportunities
to disappoint us, though hopefully he’ll decline
to avail himself of very many.
In the meantime, there is so much to
celebrate and for which to be thankful. It
starts, of course, with the end of the Reagan/Bush/Cheney/DeLay/Scalia/Roveregressive
nightmare, and it would be more
than enough, frankly, if it simply ended
right there. But it doesn’t. We have a new
president coming to office who represents
our society’s very best in almost every respect.
And this is so because we, the owner’s
of this democracy, reached back into
our history to remember and locate the
best within ourselves in order to make that
happen. Emerging from so many years of
political darkness – so many moments of
utter astonishment at the evil my country
was practicing, so much heartache from
the destruction done in our name, so much
hopelessness after thirty years of Reaganism-Bushism
– emerging from these shadows
and tentatively poking my head out
into the light, one thought kept recurring
to me over and again last Tuesday:
It was a good day to be alive. CT
David Michael Green is a professor of
political science at Hofstra University in New
York. More of his work can be found at his
website www.regressiveantidote.net and at
www.coldtype.net/green.html