Frank Miller's rant: a wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

David Seaton's News Links

We are cohabiting with a wounded political-economic system that is pouring legitimacy out of its every vein and with every beat of its heart, spurting incoherency from every artery and its heart is beating very fast as it thrashes around. In this company paranoia is a default option.

Paranoia is a home game for the ultra-right, because that is where they live in the flushest times... it is in the times of the disintegration of the most common and garden variety certainties that their message resonates most dangerously.... times like these. To some extent all of us are vulnerable to that message now. Awareness is our best defense.

In trying to get to the heart of any movement's mentality the art it produces is the most accessible path. Artists exist to reveal just as politicians often  exist to conceal. A picture is worth a thousand words: "Socialist Realism" tells you more about the bleak mentality of "Really Existent Socialism" than a hundred "World Peace Conferences" ever could.

Probably the most fertile and creative artist on the American ultra-right is Frank Miller,  the author of endless noir comic books, screenplays and films.  I would say that you could learn more about the American ultra-right and neocon mind set from even  tiny samples of Miller's prolific production than by a wastepaper basket full of articles and policy papers by such neocon icons as William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer or the American Enterprise Institute.

Lets look at a brief sample of what he does.

Now let us visit him personally and catch his vibe in the following short interview.

A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.

This brings us to Frank Miller's Occupy Wall Street rant. Here is a juicy bit:

The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.(...) Wake up, pond scum. America is at war against a ruthless enemy. Maybe, between bouts of self-pity and all the other tasty tidbits of narcissism you’ve been served up in your sheltered, comfy little worlds, you’ve heard terms like al-Qaeda and Islamicism. And this enemy of mine — not of yours, apparently - must be getting a dark chuckle, if not an outright horselaugh - out of your vain, childish, self-destructive spectacle.

I would maintain that if a group of such reasonable, nonviolent protestors like the people who make up  OWS: men and women of all ages, and from all walks of life, can so stimulate the juices of a talented crypto-fascist such as Frank Miller, then they are doing something very right; it proves that they are drilling very close to the nerve of the wounded beast I opened this post with.

Summing up: there are few artists of American fascism as talented or as prolific as Frank Miller and to have attracted his attention so powerfully is a victory for America's progressive movement and should be celebrated as such. DS

Fatal American error in Somalia

"In the Cold War, "our son of a bitch" — the local anti-communist strongman — could be counted on to impose a brutal kind of order. Now, in the war on terror, the United States would rather see a country torn apart by multiple sons-of-bitches than ruled under Sharia law." Niall Ferguson

David Seaton's News Links

In their rush to demonize Islam, those who attack the world's second largest and fastest growing religion, neglect one of its greatest practical virtues: its ability, proven since the days of the Prophet, to create order out of barbarity, and chaos. The Sharia is particularly effective where there is little or no state structure or where it is hopelessly corrupt... certainly a fitting description of post colonial Africa, or where tribal loyalties mean that no "majority rule" will ever be seen as equitable. In Rwanda, for example, (quoting Wikipedia)

"Muslims in Rwanda during the genocide were composed of both Hutus and Tutsis but their common identity was religious, shaped by their shared faith in Islam, and not racial. This absence of racial identity is what led to Muslim Hutus not attacking their fellow Muslim Tutsis but also actively engaging in acts which saved the lives of Christian Tutsis."

And as the Washington Post stated in an article about Rwanda,

"Islam has long been a religion of the downtrodden. In the Middle East and South Asia, the religion has had a strong focus on outreach to the poor and tackling social ills by banning alcohol and encouraging sexual modesty

The Sharia is like an "civil order kit" that can be quickly unpacked and installed and which immediately establishes an easily understood and practiced universal system of justice and best practice, one that does not depend on any distant authority for its force and prestige. Its advantages are obvious in a situation such as Somalia. Globalization is a powerful solvent of local customs and cultures and corrupter of third world elites. "Everything solid dissolves into air". As everything else in those areas is failing, the rise of Islam in many parts of the developing world is probably inevitable and seen from a human, if not a business perspective, not at all a bad thing. Certainly it should be supported and engaged by everyone that would like the "ungovernable" parts of the world to find some measure of stability. To harass Islamic law indiscriminately is to drive it irremediably into the arms of Al Qaeda. DS

Niall Ferguson: Promoting disorder in Somalia - Los Angeles Times

Abstract: Long before the arrival of European imperialism, Somalia was a country plagued by warfare. There were recurrent attempts by Ethiopia to subjugate the Somalis. There were also frequent feuds between the various Somali clans themselves, like the Hawiye clan, which has its base in Mogadishu. The new prime minister is in fact a Hawiye, but has forfeited much credibility by acting as an Ethiopian puppet. In the eyes of many Somalis, recent events are just the latest of many wars with Ethiopia. That is why the recent rout of the Islamists is unlikely to be the last act in the Somali tragedy. The Islamists offered Somalia order; not a Western order, to be sure, but order nonetheless. Under their rule, the price of an AK-47 in the Mogadishu markets slumped to $15, a sure sign that the warlords were being forced to downsize their militias. Young men no longer roared through the streets in the Mad Max-style vehicles known locally as "technicals" — trucks mounted with antiaircraft guns. Some were returning to school and university. Others were getting jobs with private electricity companies and airlines. Internet cafes were beginning to displace militia training camps. Kalashnikovs were being traded in for mobile phones. Now, with the Islamists gone, the most likely scenario is a return of the warlords. Worse, the Islamists may now revert to the tactic of suicide bombing to destabilize the new government. As has happened in Afghanistan, the overthrow of an Islamist government will be followed not by a new order but by the old disorder.(...) At least in the Cold War, "our son of a bitch" — the local anti-communist strongman — could be counted on to impose a brutal kind of order. Now, in the war on terror, the United States would rather see a country torn apart by multiple sons-of-bitches than ruled under Sharia law. But the more U.S. foreign policy promotes anarchy instead of order, the stronger the Islamists' appeal will be. And the darker the shade of mischief that will ensue. READ IT ALL