In the Contradiction Lies the Hope (Part I)
by Jim Craven/Omahkohkiaaiipooyii
Introduction: On Contradiction
矛盾
The title of this essay comes from Bertolt Brecht’s aphorism: “In the contradiction lies the hope.” What did he mean by that and is there real substance to this aphorism?
In Chinese the word “contradiction” is formed by two characters 矛”mao” (spear) and 盾”dun” (shield) “maodun”. The legend goes that once, a long time ago, in a small village, there was an armorer who made various kinds of weapons. Well he was apparently rather immodest and perhaps an early example of “bombastic marketing”, and he advertised a prized spear (mao) as “the best spear in the whole of China, even the world, that no shield (dun) can resist penetration by it.” But right next to the spear (mao) he also advertised a prized shield (dun) as “the best shield (dun) in the whole of China, even the world, that no spear (mao) can penetrate.” Hence: “maodun”, in the classic Chinese way, says a lot, and at very deep levels, in only two characters.
But, at one level, we can see the depth and even genius in this story of the origin of the word and its meaning–“maodun”. But what really created the “maodun” in the example given in the story? What if the armorer had advertised honestly and/or dialectically, as indeed the spear and shield are really two interdependent sides of the same coin? Indeed since the spear and the shield, all offensive weapons (spear) since have been tit-for-tat improvements in reaction to the other defensive ones (shield) and vice versa.
What if the armorer had simply said: “This is the best spear in all of China or the world that only one shield (dun) can stop–this one. And this is the best shield in the world that no spear (mao) except one–this one–can penetrate? At least the formal contradiction (in narrow and formal logic) would not be embodied in his two interrelated–yet presented separately in time and space–bombastic, patently false and mutually untestable claims.
Now in classical Taoist terms, given the dialectical unity of opposites, the armorers claims would have been even more suspect. Why? Because offense and defense, just as in football like war, are two interrelated sides of the same coin. Weakening one, puts more pressure on, and ultimately weakens the other. A weakened shield also weakens the effectiveness of the one throwing his spear in response to a shield-penetrating spear just thrown. Just as weakened spear that fails to penetrate an opponents shield, invites and adds force and pressure on one’s own defenses from the returning spears of the opponents. And finally, even if the spear or shield are of the finest craftsmanship and materials, the skill and experience in their use is decisive–the lack of which negate or mitigate their other qualities.
This also illustrates, bombastic rhetoric, hype, grandiosity, and false and unattainable promises, that are some of the sources of the myriad contradictions of capitalism and imperialism as systems. Many of the contradictions and wounds faced by the U.S. Imperium are self-inflicted as well as systemic-imperatives-driven:
- When promises are made that cannot possibly be kept and should never have been made;
- When claims are made that are naked and easily-provable lies;
- When alliances are formed with those formerly called “terrorists” and now “freedom fighters”;
- When interest-driven military force structures, qualities, capabilities and doctrines are totally in contradiction with the ground-truth realities of wars and insurgencies;
- When the promises of the systems cannot be kept and are totally at variance with reality and any capabilities to keep them.
Which true “Homo Oeconomicus” [“Economic Man” model of ” eternal human nature” celebrated in all mainstream economics texts as a model for predicting human behavior: “rational, calculating, competitive, egoistic, selfish, atomistic, materialistic, acquisitive, utility/profit maximizing or satisficing now, ultra-individualistic…] would buy a car, fly on an airplane, take a drug, or invest in a project with only a ten-percent or less “user approval rating”? Yet we push the American political system that has less than a 10-percent user approval rating as a, or even the only, model for the whole world to follow as “real democracy”.
What about the present 30% or so “approval rating” in U.S. polls for how the country and its economic system are headed and what they have been delivering? What about the general approval ratings for Wall Street below that of even lawyers, politicians and pimps? Why buy into an economic system or political system whose users, in the past ardent supporters, certainly not Reds, give it between 10 and 30-percent approval ratings?
And the problem is not just the types of people who seek political office [Plato put it succinctly: “Those who seek power are invariably the least fit to hold and to wield it.”] the problem is that the system is structured and run, and was set up that way, to attract and reward, and keep as incumbents, the very same types who should never be allowed near any power. The worlds, of politics, business, academia and entertainment are full of and target rich environments for, psychopaths and sociopaths.
When Bill Clinton was asked how it was possible for him to risk all he risked (not only for himself and his family but for the whole country as his political capital was pissed away to save his own hide and image in the history books instead of to do some good for folks who really needed it) for the rather temporary and ephemeral pleasures of Ms Lewinski? his only answer was “because I could“. That was it: “Because I could“.
And of course the journalist who asked him that question, like all “mainstream” types who know that ACCESS is the coin of the realm, hard to get easy to lose, never dared with a follow-up question: “How is it that you could?” How is it that you had no inner moral compass restraining you? How is it that you could betray all those who elected you and trusted you to use your political capital and bully pulpit for good not your own narcissism and pathology? How is it that you could use Ms Lewinski, no matter what her willingness and enticements, as basically a sperm receptacle? How could you look straight into the camera and not only flat-out lie, and then lie some more in your retraction that followed later, but leave your wife and whole cabinet out on a limb blindly supporting and believing you until your retraction? How could you risk even national security and blackmail by foreign intelligence services like the Mossad, according to Gordon Thomas/ book Gideon’s Spies, with phone-sex calls to Ms Lewinsky, whose own unsecure phone made your own phone unsecure, and put yourself in a position subject to bugging and yielding potential blackmail material as well? This is the mentality of a psychopath whether as an individual or a whole regime:
- I or we do what I or we deem to be in our personal or national security interests.
- I or we have no real allies or friends, only interests.
- I or we do what we can, meaning only what we want done, what we have the capacity to do, and what is possible under our given constraints and given cost-benefit, risk-reward calculus of ranked interests and imperatives.
- I or we are special, destined to rule and lead “the sheeple”, and do not need to bother with the basic morality, trust, standards, restraints or even law, governing the lessers.
- I or we need only assert and manifest our certitude of our positions and claims to be taken seriously and to be believed–or at least not opposed.
The psychopath, whether the individual or a whole regime, understands the big lie concept and how to apply it; they understand that most people do not tell even small lies easily and certainly not big ones. And thinking most people are like themselves, they will believe that no one could be lying who is so convinced and convincing, so absolutely full of certitude, he must be telling the truth as they would not be able to tell lies with such certitude and no signs of deception. Hitler had it down almost to a science:
“If out-voting them takes longer than out-shooting them, at least the result would be guaranteed by their own constitution…Any lawful process is slow…Sooner or later we shall have a majority — and after that, Germany.” (Bullock 130)
“Capital must protect itself in every way…Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When through a process of law the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law applied by the central power of leading financiers. People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd.” — Taken from the Civil Servants’ Year Book, “The Organizer” January 1934
they proceeded on the sound principle that the magnitude of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great masses of the people in the very bottom of their hearts tend to be corrupted rather than consciously and purposely evil, and that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds, they more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a little one, since they themselves lie in little things, but would be ashamed of lies that were too big. Such a falsehood will never enter their heads, and they will not be able to believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous misrepresentation in others; yes, even when enlightened on the subject, they will long doubt and waver and continue to accept at least one of these causes as true. Therefore, something of even the most insolent lie will always remain and stick — a fact which all the great lie-virtuosi and lying-clubs in the world know only too well and also make the most treacherous use of. – Adolph Hitler
The U.S. Imperium and its Myriad Contradictions
The Widening Contradiction Between The Promises of Versus the Realities Delivered By the U.S. Imperium
The first and founding contradiction, from the first Pilgrims onward, was between the hubris, certitude, self-anointed and appointed sense of being “The Elect” and destined to rule others on the part of the Pilgrims, their smug entitlement, blatant bigotry, sense of “Exclusivism”, “Exceptionalism” and sense of “Triumphalism”, on the one hand, versus, on the other hand, the actual, demonstrated, lack of capabilities, lack of real performance, lack of intellect, lack of morality, matching any of their claimed performance and superiority. Without the Indigenous Peoples they slaughtered, infected with smallpox and turned into slaves, they would not have lasted their first winter. The chasm was clear and widening between their promises and claims of superiority of their bombastic ideology, versus the lack of ability to deliver on those promises, that were so summarily, and with such certitude, asserted as guaranteed–if only the value system and political-economic system of Capitalism and Calvinism were adopted or at least not challenged by the masses.
The early Calvinists, whose descendants are still to be found in the “highest” corridors of networked power, in secret societies like Skull and Bones, Bohemian Grove, Bilderberg, and the like, so proud of the “gene pool” they came from as some kind of accomplishment and credential, but yet that they had nothing to do with, still project that “Pilgrim Pride” of their ancestors who said they were building “A City Upon the Hill” (political-economic system, culture, religion) that would be a “beacon” for all of humanity to try to emulate for their own sake. Then, like now, they had and projected, a sense of being “preordained” or “predestined” to be among “The Elect”; not only in heaven but here on earth as well. And not only were they “destined” by God to rule the masses in America (along with enslaving African-Americans, “extirpating” Indians, subordinating women, ruling those without property) but America as a nation was “destined”, by God, to rule other nations and to stand as a single and unitary power, an “Exceptionalist” power, or superpower, among the community of nations.
What was/is the evidence? Blind faith plus certitude that God only rewards the favored and elect (and not on the basis of any “good works”) Heaven as well as wealth, and thus having become wealthy, is tautologically, “evidence” of being among the elect and among those destined by God to rule. The “logic” was/is simple and tautological: Since God is perfect and does not make mistakes, since God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, why would God reward with anything good like wealth, those who are not thrifty, hardworking, obedient, righteous, doing God’s work and spreading God’s true Word? So “therefore” my wealth and status is “evidence” that I must be among “The Elect”, in God’s favor, and “thus” doing “God’s Work” and spreading “God’s Word”. Where else could my wealth, status and power have come from except hard work, thrift, rectitude predestination and God’s Grace revealed in all that I have acquired?
Another poem by Bertolt Brecht sums up the smug entitlement, sense of being “destined” to be among “The Elect” (of people of the nation and of nations among the community of nations) , sense of Exclusivism (the law, international and otherwise, is for others with base natures and in need of being controlled; the law does not apply to those who make and apply it) and self-appointed/anointed sense of being an example or template for all peoples and nations:
Those who take the meat from the table,
teach contentment.
Those for whom the taxes are destined,
demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry,
of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss,
call ruling too difficult,
for ordinary folk.Bertolt Brecht
This then carries over to the bombastic rhetoric and promises of the U.S. Imperium on all the dimensions of a typical social formation or mode of production (political-legal; socio-cultural; economic; historico-geographical) as well.
The Imperial Imperative for and Demand for More Mercenary, Skilled and Trusted Operators versus The Available Supply of Same
Just think what a nightmare for the U.S. Imperium, with the increasing secrecy requirements and requirements for highly-skilled personnel of the national security state, and with/versus the examples set by the two most devastating spies and traitors in U.S. history: the CIA’s Aldrich Ames and the FBI’s Robert Hanssen. Both of them were a CIA or FBI recruiter’s “wet dream”. They were both virulently and very publicly anti-Communist. Both from fathers also virulently anti-Communist and with long careers in intelligence (Hanssen’s father was on the infamous Chicago Police “Red Squad”; Ames’ father was career CIA 30 years).
Hanssen belonged to the secret and virulently anti-Communist and proto-fascist cult in the Catholic Church Opus Dei, and went to the same Opus Dei church as FBI Director Louis Freeh and U.S. Supreme Court “Justices” Scalito and Thomas then, and probably more of the new Catholic “Justices” now. They both were at high levels of Counter-intelligence and specifically focused on the Soviets; both expressed abject hatred of the Soviets and communism and socialism, and both sold out only to the Soviets, not for any change in ideology, but for money and for revenge against the institutions they both thought did not see, use or appreciate their special “genius”.
And now they have the example of Edward Snowden who was living and walked away from, a life situation many would kill for: living in Hawaii with a “pole dancer” girlfriend; six-figure salary; high-level security clearance and highly sensitive and strategically-placed job with access to the highest levels of the intelligence establishment; a systems administrator with an overview and access few have in super-compartmented facilities who was a high-school drop-out and got his GED; and he flat-out walks away from it all to become a permanent refugee and wanted in several places.
With an increasingly complex, sophisticated, pervasive and highly sensitive national security state, where will the future Edward Snowdens come from and how many of them are likely to also get attacks of consciences that cannot be ultimately bought, when they see from the inside, what the national security state is really about and what it really intends?
Imperial Doctrines and Overreach versus Force Structures and Fiscal Crises
There is also the widening and deepening contradiction between imperial doctrines versus force structures and fiscal capabilities to fund them. The U.S. Imperium proclaims, as its central strategic military doctrine, “Full Spectrum Dominance” By that they mean not only dominance (not parity, or equity, or security, but dominance) in all potential spheres of battle (land, air, sea, space, cyberspace); they mean also, in terms of all forms of warfare (conventional, nuclear, CBW, irregular, COIN, CT, propaganda, etc) and all kinds of weapons systems and their offensive and defensive capabilities as well.
This doctrine stands in contradiction with past and present sclerotic and turf-war-driven military force structures and their demonstrated capabilities and limitations, coupled with fiscal crises making imperative the scaling down, not expansions of, those force structures and capabilities. Weapons supposed to be increasingly lethal, agile, mobile, flexible, fluid, adaptable, precise, covert, (and thus reducing needs for and deaths of large numbers of troops that compromise public support for wars) have proven not to be so “smart”, covert, lethal, accurate, flexible, adaptive or able to generate mass public support at home and less not more potential terrorists and insurgents in the future.
To be continued