Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Interesting Smithsonian article on how FDR tried to dominate the Supreme Court

roachboy · 05-10-2005, 10:27 AM

the fight over frame of reference on this issue is interesting--following what i take to be the lead of the hoover institution in both working out how to package and distribute the delightful ideology we have to argue against now and in shaping its content, the right would prefer to recycle the republican objetions to the entirety of the welfare state from the early to mid 1930s to the exclusion of anything approaching an understanding of the social and political factors that might first have lead to its being instituted in the first place, and to the exclusion of even a pretense to understanding what social and poltical functions that this system, writ large, performs in real time.

you can see why this makes sense for them: the right is advocating a wholesale abandonment of any and all public functions that stabilized the capitalist order they have no choice but to see as an unqualified good. this abandonment is a type of political capitulation to uncertainty, based on a wholesale intellectual capitulation--the assumption seems to be that even trying to redistribute wealth places the state in an unacceptable position--too much change in the overall organization of the economy, all happening too fast, with no way to calibrate the social system to them. so this is risk reduction for the right, risk reduction for the state as they see it. the motivation has nothing to do with the arguments advanced.

even if the two were linked, it is more than unlikely that anyone could rely on conservatives for a nuanced--or even factual--account of history when an ideological conflict is underway--look at the travesty of history they have built around their loopy original intent doctrine for "interpreting" the whole constitutional process. if you link this to thier views on "history" and "education" it is hard not arrive at the conclusion that, knowing they cannot win on the basis of history, on the basis of information, they prefer to try to bring the entire culture down to such a low wattage level that even the shallow narratives floated by the right would have some currency. which is just another form of capitulation.

onwards to the new feudalism.

05-10-2005, 10:27 AM	#14 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	the fight over frame of reference on this issue is interesting--following what i take to be the lead of the hoover institution in both working out how to package and distribute the delightful ideology we have to argue against now and in shaping its content, the right would prefer to recycle the republican objetions to the entirety of the welfare state from the early to mid 1930s to the exclusion of anything approaching an understanding of the social and political factors that might first have lead to its being instituted in the first place, and to the exclusion of even a pretense to understanding what social and poltical functions that this system, writ large, performs in real time. you can see why this makes sense for them: the right is advocating a wholesale abandonment of any and all public functions that stabilized the capitalist order they have no choice but to see as an unqualified good. this abandonment is a type of political capitulation to uncertainty, based on a wholesale intellectual capitulation--the assumption seems to be that even trying to redistribute wealth places the state in an unacceptable position--too much change in the overall organization of the economy, all happening too fast, with no way to calibrate the social system to them. so this is risk reduction for the right, risk reduction for the state as they see it. the motivation has nothing to do with the arguments advanced. even if the two were linked, it is more than unlikely that anyone could rely on conservatives for a nuanced--or even factual--account of history when an ideological conflict is underway--look at the travesty of history they have built around their loopy original intent doctrine for "interpreting" the whole constitutional process. if you link this to thier views on "history" and "education" it is hard not arrive at the conclusion that, knowing they cannot win on the basis of history, on the basis of information, they prefer to try to bring the entire culture down to such a low wattage level that even the shallow narratives floated by the right would have some currency. which is just another form of capitulation. onwards to the new feudalism. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite