tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post8613411090061811145..comments2024-03-22T20:34:13.792-05:00Comments on Indomitable | The online home of Chauncey DeVega: What is Politics? What is Political? A Hybrid Open Thread on the Egypt UprisingLady Zora, Chauncey DeVega, and Gordon Gartrellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09138154899923808806noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-60251105451056492742011-02-05T21:54:34.689-06:002011-02-05T21:54:34.689-06:00@Cobb. I would take the Al-jazeera vs. Fox News li...@Cobb. I would take the Al-jazeera vs. Fox News litmus test any day of the week. To call Fox "news" is a disservice to the very idea of the 4th estate. Now on the Egyptian Sarah Palin that is an interesting idea. Demagoguery is not culturally specific. But the way that demagogues package themselves is indeed a function of the milieu in which they find themselves. <br /><br />Egypt lucky to have Palin? I shutter at the thought that any society would be happy to have her.chaunceydevegahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09652406326490873337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-23467306152033038652011-02-04T12:21:45.115-06:002011-02-04T12:21:45.115-06:00I cannot imagine that the Muslim Brotherhood or an...I cannot imagine that the Muslim Brotherhood or any other nascent political proto-party of Egypt is any more sophisticated than your ordinary editor at Al Jazeera. Perhaps their English translators leave much to be desired, but I have yet to read anything at Al Jazeera that gives me any confidence that they or their audience is particularly educated. Which is to say for the purposes of provocative debate, that Al Jazeera is not quite as sophisticated as Fox News, or perhaps, owing to their popularity here and abroad Al Jazeera is exactly as sophisticated as Fox News and for exactly the same reasons - to support a particular worldview with political consequences.<br /><br />Either institution is inevitable if one expects peasants to participate in the proxy of representative government. So each enables the rabble to 'speak truth to power'. Each is 'the voice of the people'. Each is relatively idiotic, and necessarily so. <br /><br />So now American liberals are faced with the disheartening possibility that in countries like Egypt, there are many millions who would like their own Sarah Palins. Of course the idea that a woman might emerge to rule over the Nilotics is not unprecedented, but I hear no female names trotted out these days. Whatever the candidate and case may be, the fact remains that no matter how romantic this revolution may seem, its eyes, ears, arms and legs are of people who are, by and large, uneducated and unsophisticated in political matters. <br /><br />It has been said that such things don't matter so long as the people get to express their will and exert self-rule. Every time you see Sarah Palin's face, is that the thought that comes to mind? Of course not. You are political snobs and elitists and so am I. I would not be led by populists and I have no patience for identity politics, but you can bet that has all the political currency necessary in Egypt. Egypt would be lucky to have Sarah Palin, and we all know it.Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14540420277243106564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-64640848860459919732011-02-03T10:04:13.581-06:002011-02-03T10:04:13.581-06:00it is on the margins, in interdisciplinary spaces,...<i>it is on the margins, in interdisciplinary spaces, and where questions of power, culture, and identity are at the forefront where the "politics" in political science can become very contentious.</i><br /><br />The real underlying horn of contention and root cause of MENA instability doesn't even appear to be on your radar. The Egyptian uprising, like the Tunisian uprising, is about food security and the failure of the Egyptian state to deliver on its fundamental national security obligations. Watch, wait, and see if <a href="http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2011/02/oil-food-and-wealth-of-countries-in.html" rel="nofollow">the IMF's MENA datasets</a> have any real predictive power re continuing instability in the middle-east and north africa. Speculate then as to the what's, why's and wherefore's of the power elite (PE) getting together in their masses in Davos last week and not lifting a finger to stem the flood of investment dollars going into commodities, causing the food price spikes across the MENA that broke the proverbial camel's back and set all this tumult into motion.<br /><br />Everything else is merely projective conversation..., {some unintentionally very ironic to be sure} <br /><br />The "glass half-full" just-so storytellers will provide a post hoc narrative to account for these events which doesn't address the actual root cause - or - seeks to furnish mimetic cover for it as the result of "free-market" forces. Bottomline, the commodities and food price bubble driving this <a href="http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-goldman-sachs-gambled-on-starvation.html" rel="nofollow">has been anticipated for months</a> and could have easily been braked or avoided altogether with modest regulatory intervention. That it was allowed to proceed without such intervention marks it as <i>wait for it, wait for it <b>possible crank moment</b> ahead</i> <b>ENGINEERED</b>. <br /><br />Expect it to get truly nasty, <i>killer-ape resource war type nasty,</i> when <a href="http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2011/01/food-bubble.html" rel="nofollow">an underlying primary economic event</a> happens that actually constrains supply. <br /><br />Neoconservative knuckle-draggers are already chomping at the "opening chapters of WW-III bit" in response to what's now unfolding...,CNuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14152640304402402884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-61106017142329538342011-02-02T18:47:05.501-06:002011-02-02T18:47:05.501-06:00I wish the revolution for change that's sweepi...I wish the revolution for change that's sweeping the African/Arab world would spread to America. We sure could use some uprising outside the white house and congress.Invisible Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615524438949539565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57113078446695664.post-31805437613168590772011-02-02T17:58:25.694-06:002011-02-02T17:58:25.694-06:00CD,
My spin...
http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4200...CD,<br /><br />My spin...<br /><br />http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4200<br /><br /><br />Going underground catch up with you in a couple of months:-)<br /><br />PeacePlane Ideas https://www.blogger.com/profile/13838821721942426785noreply@blogger.com