Socratic Prophetic Approaches to Democracy

[Tracey]

Socratic Prophetic Approaches to Democracy

Democracy Matters Are Frightening in Our Time
by
Cornel West


A Decade ago I wrote Race Matters in order to spark a candid public
A conversation about America’s most explosive issue and most difficult
dilemma: the ways in which the vicious legacy of white supremacy
contributes to the arrested development of American democracy. This
book—the sequel to Race Matters—will look unflinchingly at the waning of
democratic energies and practices in our present age of the American empire.
There is a deeply troubling deterioration of democratic powers in America
today. The rise of an ugly imperialism has been aided by an unholy alliance
of the plutocratic elites and the Christian Right, and also by a massive
disaffection of so many voters who see too little difference between two
corrupted parties, with blacks being taken for granted by the Democrats, and
with the deep disaffection of youth. The energy of the youth support for the
Howard Dean campaign and avid participation in the recent anti-
globalization protests are promising signs, however, of the potential to engage
them.

As I’ve traveled across this country giving speeches and attending gatherings
for the past thirty years, I’ve always been impressed by the intelligence,
imagination, creativity, and humor of the American people, then found
myself wondering how we end up with such mediocre and milquetoast
leaders in public office. It’s as if the best and brightest citizens boycott elected
public office, while the most ambitious go into the private sector. In a
capitalist society that is where the wealth, influence, and status are. But we’ve
always been a capitalist society, and we’ve had some quality leaders in the
past. Why the steep decline? As with sitcoms on television, the standards have
dropped so low, we cannot separate a joke from an insult. When Bush smiles
after his carefully scripted press conferences of little substance, we do not
know whether he is laughing at us or getting back at us as we laugh at him—
as the press meanwhile hurries to concoct a story out of his clichés and
shibboleths.

In our market-driven empire, elite salesmanship to the demos has taken the
place of genuine democratic leadership. The majority of voting-age citizens
do not vote. They are not stupid (though shortsighted). They know that
political leadership is confined to two parties that are both parasitic on
corporate money and interests. To choose one or the other is a little like
black people choosing between the left-wing and right-wing versions of the
Dred Scott decision. There is a difference but not much—though every
difference does matter.

Yet a narrow rant against the new imperialism or emerging plutocracy is not
enough. Instead we must dip deep into often-untapped wells of our
democratic tradition to fight the imperialist strain and plutocratic impulse in
American life. We must not allow our elected officials—many beholden to
unaccountable corporate elites—to bastardize and pulverize the precious
word democracy as they fail to respect and act on genuine democratic ideals.
The problems plaguing our democracy are not only ones of disaffection and
disillusionment. The greatest threats come in the form of the rise of three
dominating, antidemocratic dogmas. These three dogmas, promoted by the
most powerful forces in our world, are rendering American democracy
vacuous. The first dogma of free-market fundamentalism posits the
unregulated and unfettered market as idol and fetish. This glorification of the
market has led to a callous corporate-dominated political economy in which
business leaders (their wealth and power) are to be worshipped—even despite
the recent scandals—and the most powerful corporations are delegated
magical powers of salvation rather than relegated to democratic scrutiny
concerning both the ethics of their business practices and their treatment of
workers. This largely unexamined and unquestioned dogma that supports the
policies of both Democrats and Republicans in the United States—and those
of most political parties in other parts of the world—is a major threat to the
quality of democratic life and the well-being of most peoples across the globe.
It yields an obscene level of wealth inequality, along with its corollary of
intensified class hostility and hatred. It also redefines the terms of what we
should be striving for in life, glamorizing materialistic gain, narcissistic
pleasure, and the pursuit of narrow individualistic preoccupations—especially
for young people here and abroad.

Free-market fundamentalism— just as dangerous as the religious fundamentalisms of our day—trivializes the concern for public interest. The overwhelming power and influence of plutocrats and oligarchs in the economy put fear and insecurity in the hearts of anxiety-ridden workers and render money-driven, poll-obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit, often at the cost of the common good. This illicit marriage of corporate and political elites—so blatant and flagrant in our time—not only
undermines the trust of informed citizens in those who rule over them. It also
promotes the pervasive sleepwalking of the populace, who see that the false
prophets are handsomely rewarded with money, status, and access to more
power. This profit-driven vision is sucking the democratic life out of
American society.

In short, the dangerous dogma of free-market fundamentalism turns our
attention away from schools to prisons, from workers’ conditions to profit
margins, from health clinics to high-tech facial surgeries, from civic
associations to pornographic Internet sites, and from children’s care to strip
clubs. The fundamentalism of the market puts a premium on the activities of
buying and selling, consuming and taking, promoting and advertising, and
devalues community, compassionate charity, and improvement of the general
quality of life. How ironic that in America we’ve moved so quickly from
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Let Freedom Ring!” to “Bling! Bling!”—as if
freedom were reducible to simply having material toys, as dictated by free-
market fundamentalism.
~

This article is an
excerpt from his forthcoming book Democracy Matters from Penguin Press


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[Tracey]

Continued.....

The second prevailing dogma of our time is aggressive militarism, of which
the new policy of preemptive strike against potential enemies is but an
extension. This new doctrine of U.S. foreign policy goes far beyond our
former doctrine of preventive war. It green-lights political elites to sacrifice
U.S. soldiers—who are disproportionately working class and youth of
color—in adventurous crusades. This dogma posits military might as salvific
in a world in which he who has the most and biggest weapons is the most
moral and masculine, hence worthy of policing others. In practice, this
dogma takes the form of unilateral intervention, colonial invasion, and armed
occupation abroad. It has fueled a foreign policy that shuns multilateral
cooperation of nations and undermines international structures of
deliberation. Fashioned out of the cowboy mythology of the American
frontier fantasy, the dogma of aggressive militarism is a lone-ranger strategy
that employs “spare-no-enemies” tactics. It guarantees a perennial resorting to
the immoral and base manner of settling conflict, namely, the perpetration of
the very sick and cowardly terrorism it claims to contain and eliminate. On
the domestic front, this dogma expands police power, augments the prison-
industrial complex, and legitimates unchecked male power (and violence) at
home and in the workplace. It views crime as a monstrous enemy to crush
(targeting poor people) rather than as an ugly behavior to change (by
addressing the conditions that often encourage such behavior).
As with the bully on the block, one’s own interests and aims define what is
moral and one’s own anxieties and insecurities dictate what is masculine. Yet
the use of naked force to resolve conflict often backfires. The arrogant hubris
that usually accompanies this use of force tends to lead toward instability—
and even destruction—in the regions where we have sought to impose our
will. Violence is readily deployed by those who cloak themselves in
innocence—those unwilling to examine themselves and uninterested in
counting the number of innocent victims they kill. Note the Bush
administration’s callous disregard for both the U.S. soldiers and innocent
Iraqis killed in our recent adventurous invasion. The barbaric abuse of
prisoners at Abu Ghraib is a flagrant example.

[Tracey]

Continued.....


The third prevailing dogma in this historic moment is escalating
authoritarianism. This dogma is rooted in our understandable paranoia
toward potential terrorists, our traditional fear of too many liberties, and our
deep distrust of one another. The Patriot Act is but the peak of an iceberg
that has widened the scope of the repression of our hard-earned rights and
hard-fought liberties. The Supreme Court has helped lead the way with its
support of the Patriot Act. There are, however, determined democrats on the
Court who are deeply concerned, as expressed in a recent speech of Justice
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “On important issues,” she said, “like the balance
between liberty and security, if the public doesn’t care, then the security side
is going to overweigh the other.” The cowardly terrorist attacks of 9/11 have
been cannon fodder for the tightening of surveillance. The loosening of legal
protection and slow closing of meaningful access to the oversight of
governmental activities—measures deemed necessary in the myopic view of
many—are justified by the notion that safety trumps liberty and security dictates
the perimeters of freedom.

Meanwhile the market-driven media—fueled by our vast ideological
polarization and abetted by profit-hungry monopolies—have severely
narrowed our political “dialogue.” The major problem is not the vociferous
shouting from one camp to the other; rather it is that many have given up
even being heard. We are losing the very value of dialogue—especially
respectful communication—in the name of the sheer force of naked power.
This is the classic triumph of authoritarianism over the kind of questioning,
compassion, and hope requisite for any democratic experiment.
We have witnessed similar developments in our schools and universities—
increasing monitoring of viewpoints, disrespecting of those with whom one
disagrees, and foreclosing of the common ground upon which we can listen
and learn. The major culprit here is not “political correctness,” a term coined
by those who tend to trivialize the scars of others and minimize the suffering
of victims while highlighting their own wounds. Rather the challenge is
mustering the courage to scrutinize all forms of dogmatic policing of dialogue
and to shatter all authoritarian strategies of silencing voices. We must respect
the scars and wounds of each one of us—even if we are sometimes wrong (or
right!).

-Cornel West

*Closing Excerpts...
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