[blind-democracy] The Age of Great Expectations

From: "Bob Hachey" <bhachey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2017 21:28:59 -0500

Hi all,

Got this one from another list.

Bob The Age Of Great Expectations And The Great Void

History after “the end of history.”

<http://mandrillapp.com/track/click/30489975/www.huffingtonpost.com?p=eyJzIj
oiMkNDQ0ZQTEdrUE1IZHlGakhUX3BmV2V5cnp3IiwidiI6MSwicCI6IntcInVcIjozMDQ4OTk3NS
xcInZcIjoxLFwidXJsXCI6XCJodHRwOlxcXC9cXFwvd3d3Lmh1ZmZpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbVxcXC
9hdXRob3JcXFwvYW5kcmV3LWJhY2V2aWNoXCIsXCJpZFwiOlwiZDliY2M0ODAxMjg3NDJhNDkyYz
JjZjc5MTAzNDBhNGVcIixcInVybF9pZHNcIjpbXCJkYmIyMTY0YmRiMjg4MWFjYmU5N2U2ZTliNm
U2YmE1ZmFhNGFhMWFhXCJdfSJ9> Andrew Bacevich Author, ‘America’s War for the
Greater Middle East: A Military History’

http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_630_noupscale/58739416170000880
1928edf.jpeg?cache=gfwgaw85gt

Reuters

Cross-posted with  <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.
tomdispatch.com_blog_176228_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekf
Bgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97Ibthq
Yoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=donxe8F7gdUfoEPCBhqRjw3ui44HOfktOddNEOlnVcI&e=>
TomDispatch.com

The fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989 abruptly ended one historical
era and inaugurated another. So, too, did the outcome of last year’s U.S.
presidential election. What are we to make of the interval between those two
watershed moments? Answering that question is essential to understanding how
Donald Trump became president and where his ascendency leaves us.

Hardly had this period commenced before observers fell into the habit of
referring to it as the “post-Cold War” era. Now that it’s over, a more
descriptive name might be in order. My suggestion: America’s Age of Great
Expectations.

The end of the Cold War caught the United States completely by surprise.
During the 1980s, even with Mikhail Gorbachev running the Kremlin, few in
Washington questioned the prevailing conviction that the Soviet-American
rivalry was and would remain a defining feature of international politics
more or less in perpetuity. Indeed, endorsing such an assumption was among
the prerequisites for gaining entrée to official circles. Virtually no one
in the American establishment gave serious thought to the here-today,
gone-tomorrow possibility that the Soviet threat, the Soviet empire, and the
Soviet Union itself might someday vanish. Washington had plans aplenty for
what to do should a Third World War erupt, but none for what to do if the
prospect of such a climactic conflict simply disappeared.

Still, without missing a beat, when the Berlin Wall fell and two years later
the Soviet Union imploded, leading members of that establishment wasted no
time in explaining the implications of developments they had totally failed
to anticipate.  With something close to unanimity, politicians and
policy-oriented intellectuals interpreted the unification of Berlin and the
ensuing collapse of communism as an all-American victory of cosmic
proportions.  “We” had won, “they” had lost �D with that outcome
vindicating everything the United States represented as the archetype of
freedom.

From within the confines of that establishment, one rising young
intellectual audaciously
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.embl.de_aboutus_sc
ience-5Fsociety_discussion_discussion-5F2006_ref1-2D22june06.pdf&d=DgMFaQ&c=
cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6Nrs
nGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=9KsdfzT14vAh-x
CaTxmHj12LG4rPHzEIANKYxhrsfAs&e=> suggested that the “end of history”
itself might be at hand, with the “sole superpower” left standing now
perfectly positioned to determine the future of all humankind.  In
Washington, various powers-that-be considered this hypothesis and concluded
that it sounded just about right.  The future took on the appearance of a
blank slate upon which Destiny itself was inviting Americans to inscribe
their intentions.

American elites might, of course, have assigned a far different, less
celebratory meaning to the passing of the Cold War. They might have seen the
outcome as a moment that called for regret, repentance, and making amends.

After all, the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union,
or more broadly between what was then called the Free World and the
Communist bloc, had yielded a host of baleful effects.  An arms race between
two superpowers had created monstrous nuclear arsenals and, on
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.tomdispatch.com_blo
g_175605_tomgram-253A-5Fnoam-5Fchomsky-2C-5F-2522the-5Fmost-5Fdangerous-5Fmo
ment-2C-2522-5F50-5Fyears-5Flater_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83
ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-9
7IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=2LUgt2CkaRY1KgZqb8h1OqAdw5rDteOFe2IUlfpJcA0&
e=> multiple occasions, brought the planet precariously close to Armageddon.
Two singularly inglorious wars had claimed the lives of many
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.va.gov_opa_publica
tions_factsheets_fs-5Famericas-5Fwars.pdf&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38Yxdr
PtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhI
tT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=oX0lcfN77N8NhMVti7QgYMAmQZkCR7fsi0iHz
Zq33sI&e=> tens of thousands of American soldiers and literally
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.reuters.com_article
_us-2Dwar-2Ddeaths-2DidUSN1928547620080619&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38Yxd
rPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEh
ItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=iFusH3H-Xt7ZFRmZl0MJXYhbG8vOYcHSxFEZ
h0PLsak&e=> millions of Asians.  One, on the Korean peninsula, had ended in
an unsatisfactory draw; the other, in Southeast Asia, in catastrophic
defeat.  Proxy fights in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East
killed so many more and laid waste to whole countries.  Cold War obsessions
led Washington to  <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.
nytimes.com_2016_12_16_opinion_now-2Damerica-2Dyou-2Dknow-2Dhow-2Dchileans-2
Dfelt.html&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-
JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_
0Vup8&s=-XxrOKbgLEpXlwmpfM0OQFT81Fd5pBhoBJnyOavcM4I&e=> overthrow democratic
governments,
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.theguardian.com_wo
rld_2000_aug_10_martinkettle&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekf
Bgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97Ibthq
Yoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=DSHKIJHkyO6MhJ8UHvhUU9MKKJTX_vJ9SCDplrpjOIY&e=>
connive in assassination, make common cause with corrupt dictators, and turn
a blind eye to
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.insideindonesia.org
_accomplices-2Din-2Datrocity&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekf
Bgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97Ibthq
Yoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=F3lgLZQnvi9EAy6nHZCTn4rReYOe_KlmQ_glbfRlUSI&e=>
genocidal violence.  On the home front, hysteria compromised civil liberties
and fostered a sprawling, intrusive, and unaccountable national security
apparatus.  Meanwhile, the
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-
3Fv-3DCWiIYW-5FfBfY&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r
=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgP
vDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=Eo--YOBJhIcgVTTfmlX1hbawfz2tK3Mzw73NL7K3phU&e=>
military-industrial complex and its beneficiaries conspired to spend vast
sums on weapons purchases that somehow never seemed adequate to the putative
dangers at hand.

Rather than reflecting on such somber and sordid matters, however, the
American political establishment together with ambitious members of the
country’s intelligentsia found it so much more expedient simply to move on.
As they saw it, the annus mirabilis of 1989 wiped away the sins of former
years. Eager to make a fresh start, Washington granted itself a plenary
indulgence. After all, why contemplate past unpleasantness when a future so
stunningly rich in promise now beckoned?

Three Big Ideas and a Dubious Corollary

Soon enough, that promise found concrete expression. In remarkably short
order, three themes emerged to define the new American age.  Informing each
of them was a sense of exuberant anticipation toward an era of almost
unimaginable expectations. The twentieth century was ending on a high note.
For the planet as a whole but especially for the United States, great things
lay ahead.

Focused on the world economy, the first of those themes emphasized the
transformative potential of turbocharged globalization led by U.S.-based
financial institutions and transnational corporations.  An “open world”
would facilitate the movement of goods, capital, ideas, and people and
thereby
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nytimes.com_1999_03
_28_magazine_a-2Dmanifesto-2Dfor-2Dthe-2Dfast-2Dworld.html&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5Y
EoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHf
Q5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=x9SWffJO1SAO6bQkOuj_
jmGd0NDFjrR3HHmnmmdgipc&e=> create wealth on an unprecedented scale.  In the
process, the rules governing American-style corporate capitalism would come
to prevail everywhere on the planet.  Everyone would benefit, but especially
Americans who would continue to enjoy more than their fair share of material
abundance.

<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.amazon.com_dp_05533
93936_ref-3Dnosim_-3Ftag-3Dtomdispatch-2D20&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38Yx
drPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuE
hItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=CAW6wJGFbLZ_KN7WQT17crqznevzD9kxIXg
mAN91pxE&e=>
http://www.tomdispatch.com/images/managed/bacevichamericaswar.jpgFocused on
statecraft, the second theme spelled out the implications of an
international order dominated as never before �D not even in the heydays of
the Roman and British Empires �D by a single nation. With the passing of the
Cold War, the United States now stood apart as both supreme power and
irreplaceable global leader, its status guaranteed by its unstoppable
military might.

In the editorial offices of the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post,
the New Republic, and the Weekly Standard, such “truths” achieved a
self-evident status.  Although more muted in their public pronouncements
than Washington’s reigning pundits, officials enjoying access to the Oval
Office, the State Department’s 7th floor, and the E-ring of the Pentagon
generally agreed.  The assertive exercise of (benign!) global hegemony
seemingly held the key to ensuring that Americans would enjoy safety and
security, both at home and abroad, now and in perpetuity.

The third theme was all about rethinking the concept of personal freedom as
commonly understood and pursued by most Americans.  During the protracted
emergency of the Cold War, reaching an accommodation between freedom and the
putative imperatives of national security had not come easily.  Cold
War-style patriotism seemingly prioritized the interests of the state at the
expense of the individual.  Yet even as
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.jfklibrary.org_Res
earch_Research-2DAids_Ready-2DReference_JFK-2DQuotations_Inaugural-2DAddress
.aspx&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnT
DmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8
&s=8IT_Kj0Q4aXjX_ZXw-VZMX4nk2vCxTeeqUhcyjNyMEc&e=> thrillingly expressed by
John F. Kennedy �D “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you
can do for your country” �D this was never an easy sell, especially if it
meant wading through rice paddies and getting shot at.

Once the Cold War ended, however, the tension between individual freedom and
national security momentarily dissipated.  Reigning conceptions of what
freedom could or should entail underwent a radical transformation.
Emphasizing the removal of restraints and inhibitions, the shift made itself
felt everywhere, from patterns of consumption and modes of cultural
expression to sexuality and the definition of the family.  Norms that had
prevailed for decades if not generations �D marriage as a union between a
man and a woman, gender identity as fixed at birth �D became passé. The
concept of a transcendent common good, which during the Cold War had taken a
backseat to national security, now took a backseat to maximizing individual
choice and autonomy.

Finally, as a complement to these themes, in the realm of governance, the
end of the Cold War cemented the status of the president as quasi-deity.  In
the Age of Great Expectations, the myth of the president as a deliverer from
(or, in the eyes of critics, the ultimate perpetrator of) evil flourished.
In the solar system of American politics, the man in the White House
increasingly became the sun around which everything seemed to orbit.  By
comparison, nothing else much mattered.

From one administration to the next, of course, presidential efforts to
deliver Americans to the Promised Land regularly came up short.  Even so,
the political establishment and the establishment media collaborated in
sustaining the pretense that out of the next endlessly hyped “race for the
White House,” another Roosevelt or Kennedy or Reagan would magically emerge
to save the nation.  From one election cycle to the next, these campaigns
became longer and more expensive, drearier and yet ever more circus-like.
No matter.  During the Age of Great Expectations, the reflexive tendency to
see the president as the ultimate guarantor of American abundance, security,
and freedom remained sacrosanct.

Meanwhile, between promise and reality, a yawning gap began to appear.
During the concluding decade of the twentieth century and the first
decade-and-a-half of the twenty-first, Americans endured a seemingly endless
series of crises.  Individually, none of these merit comparison with, say,
the Civil War or World War II.  Yet never in U.S. history has a sequence of
events occurring in such close proximity subjected American institutions and
the American people to greater stress.

During the decade between 1998 and 2008, they came on with startling
regularity: one president impeached and his successor chosen by the direct
intervention of the Supreme Court; a massive terrorist attack on American
soil that killed thousands, traumatized the nation, and left senior
officials bereft of their senses; a mindless, needless, and unsuccessful war
of choice launched on the basis of false claims and outright lies; a
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.history.com_topics_
hurricane-2Dkatrina&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r
=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgP
vDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=e6ZC2RmIKY4AHxA2-OtyQkdRPPUnCJ9eFZkRnmsOw5Y&e=> natural
disaster (exacerbated by engineering folly) that all but destroyed a major
American city, after which government agencies mounted a belated and
half-hearted response; and finally, the worst economic downturn since the
Great Depression, bringing ruin to millions of families.

For the sake of completeness, we should append to this roster of seismic
occurrences one additional event: Barack Obama’s election as the nation’s
first black president.  He arrived at the zenith of American political life
as a seemingly messianic figure called upon not only to undo the damage
wrought by his predecessor, George W. Bush, but somehow to absolve the
nation of its original sins of slavery and racism.

Yet during the Obama presidency race relations, in fact, deteriorated.
Whether prompted by cynical political calculations or a
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.alternet.org_newsan
dviews_article_753244_fox-5Fnews-27-5Flatest-5Fracist-5Fattack-253A-5F-2522o
bama-5Flooks-5Flike-5Fa-5Fskinny-2C-5Fghetto-5Fcrackhead-2522&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBO
A5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGt
GHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=Ex-V3o4rD1R6eAEuT
jOm9Tq_zHss8xsccib0ehnymA0&e=> crass desire to boost ratings, race baiters
came out of the woodwork �D one of them, of course,
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nytimes.com_2016_09
_17_us_politics_donald-2Dtrump-2Dobama-2Dbirther.html&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz
9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79
Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=x7NS1yhc7YxHiIgjUrf_COMBX
owIed9RtbXmu0f0c8E&e=> infamously birthered in Trump Tower in mid-Manhattan
�D and poured their poisons into the body politic.  Even so, as the end of
Obama’s term approached, the cult of the presidency itself remained
remarkably intact.

Individually, the impact of these various crises ranged from disconcerting
to debilitating to horrifying.  Yet to treat them separately is to overlook
their collective implications, which the election of Donald Trump only now
enables us to appreciate.  It was not one president’s  <https://urldefense.
proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DKiIP-5FKDQmXs&
d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5or
NTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=i43
PJEvRu2si2jBmoTdXHgFW2C4IaKASPg-fjlZeGuU&e=> dalliance with an intern or “
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.usnews.com_news_art
icles_2008_01_17_the-2Dlegacy-2Dof-2Dhanging-2Dchads&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9
KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79D
o&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=KBGgqXexGCNLYB2HBNv8UVDbAP
n05SgQX_mXASG9j2Y&e=> hanging chads” or 9/11 or “
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-
3Fv-3DXzrJwzYBUkU&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=C
K8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvD
iLKkjA_0Vup8&s=UdzpmcRnB6vR3c4aq_dJPvEGZfScZ__Bh7dJKWSb6Oo&e=> Mission
Accomplished” or the
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-
3Fv-3DaJHNEk-5FFvxY&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r
=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgP
vDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=XwMJ4OwZfRo9mXU2h8hYiKzJ1TETLIPFN4jv9o8wvRg&e=> inundation
of the Lower Ninth Ward or the
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.investopedia.com_ar
ticles_economics_09_lehman-2Dbrothers-2Dcollapse.asp&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9
KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79D
o&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=vM0Aiy6Q0vOftnArqNoi3oasEM
fuuAYsrmVs0gtn5XQ&e=> collapse of Lehman Brothers or the absurd birther
movement that undermined the Age of Great Expectations.  It was the way all
these events together exposed those expectations as radically suspect.

In effect, the various crises that punctuated the post-Cold War era called
into question key themes to which a fevered American triumphalism had given
rise.  Globalization, militarized hegemony, and a more expansive definition
of freedom, guided by enlightened presidents in tune with the times, should
have provided Americans with all the blessings that were rightly theirs as a
consequence of having prevailed in the Cold War.  Instead, between 1989 and
2016, things kept happening that weren’t supposed to happen. A future
marketed as all but foreordained proved elusive, if not illusory.  As
actually experienced, the Age of Great Expectations became an Age of
Unwelcome Surprises.

True, globalization created wealth on a vast scale, just not for ordinary
Americans.  The already well-to-do did splendidly, in some cases
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__money.cnn.com_2016_08_1
8_pf_wealth-2Dinequality_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq
5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoa
ng8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=EZJrzRKprwICQKdkRbkrEtCOQsCRCgk36zY4LBJG800&e=>
unbelievably so.  But middle-class incomes
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.epi.org_publication
_charting-2Dwage-2Dstagnation_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXe
kfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97Ibt
hqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=qPFYO4hg7C5MbalKNxWVNLazBsJMuP1qxbT-TPva3OU&e=>
stagnated and good jobs became increasingly hard to find or keep.  By the
election of 2016, the United States looked increasingly like a society
divided between haves and have-nots, the affluent and the left-behind, the 1
percent and everyone else. Prospective voters were noticing.

Meanwhile, policies inspired by Washington’s soaring hegemonic ambitions
produced remarkably few happy outcomes.  With U.S. forces continuously
engaged in combat operations, peace all but vanished as a policy objective
(or even a word in Washington’s political lexicon). The acknowledged
standing of the country’s military as the world’s best-trained,
best-equipped, and best-led force coexisted uneasily with the fact that it
proved
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.tomdispatch.com_pos
t_175854_tomgram-253A-5Fengelhardt-2C-5Fa-5Frecord-5Fof-5Funparalleled-5Ffai
lure_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnT
DmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8
&s=oz4iCtthuqbpFQcbUwGMue5tKq77KOM6_Qa0tw4Usd8&e=> unable to win. Instead,
the national security establishment became conditioned to the idea of
permanent war, high-ranking officials taking it for granted that ordinary
citizens would simply accommodate themselves to this new reality. Yet it
soon became apparent that, instead of giving ordinary Americans a sense of
security, this new paradigm induced an acute sense of vulnerability, which
left many susceptible to
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__thehill.com_blogs_pundi
ts-2Dblog_presidential-2Dcampaign_291498-2Dfull-2Dtranscript-2Ddonald-2Dtrum
p-2Daddresses-2Dradical&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5x
B0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang
8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=_EzNZIrKT38Fg0rnPOqmZcMCsGpNaCwdoGaZ64nDmUk&e=>
demagogic fear mongering.

As for the revised definition of freedom, with autonomy emerging as the
national summum bonum, it left some satisfied but others adrift.  During the
Age of Great Expectations, distinctions between citizen and consumer
blurred.  Shopping became tantamount to a civic obligation, essential to
keeping the economy afloat.  Yet if all the hoopla surrounding Black Friday
and Cyber Monday represented a celebration of American freedom, its
satisfactions were transitory at best, rarely extending beyond the due date
printed on a credit card statement.  Meanwhile, as digital connections
displaced personal ones, relationships, like jobs, became more contingent
and temporary.
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__fortune.com_2016_06_22_
loneliness-2Dis-2Da-2Dmodern-2Dday-2Depidemic_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh3
8YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GS
VuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=li8jvw9Er1EXS4pnEBVV4y9Ina6h0NW_
mmG8gHJm09o&e=> Loneliness emerged as an abiding affliction.  Meanwhile, for
all the talk of empowering the marginalized �D people of color, women, gays
�D elites reaped the lion’s share of the benefits while ordinary people
were left to make do.  The atmosphere was rife with hypocrisy and even a
whiff of nihilism.

To these various contradictions, the establishment itself remained
stubbornly oblivious, with the 2016 presidential candidacy of Hillary
Clinton offering a case in point.  As her long record in public life made
abundantly clear, Clinton embodied the establishment in the Age of Great
Expectations.  She believed in globalization, in the indispensability of
American leadership backed by military power, and in the post-Cold War
cultural project.  And she certainly believed in the presidency as the
mechanism to translate aspirations into outcomes.

Such commonplace convictions of the era, along with her vanguard role in
pressing for the empowerment of women, imparted to her run an air of
inevitability.  That she deserved to win appeared self-evident. It was,
after all, her turn.  Largely overlooked were signs that the abiding themes
of the Age of Great Expectations no longer commanded automatic allegiance.

Senator Bernie Sanders offered one of those signs.  That a past-his-prime,
self-professed socialist from Vermont with a negligible record of
legislative achievement and tenuous links to the Democratic Party might
mount a serious challenge to Clinton seemed, on the face of it, absurd.  Yet
by zeroing in on unfairness and inequality as inevitable byproducts of
globalization, Sanders struck a chord.

Knocked briefly off balance, Clinton responded by modifying certain of her
longstanding positions. By backing away from free trade, the ne plus ultra
of globalization, she managed, though not without difficulty, to defeat the
Sanders insurgency.  Even so, he, in effect, served as the canary in the
establishment coal mine, signaling that the Age of Great Expectations might
be running out of oxygen.

A parallel and far stranger insurgency was simultaneously wreaking havoc in
the Republican Party.  That a narcissistic political neophyte stood the
slightest chance of capturing the GOP seemed even more improbable than
Sanders taking a nomination that appeared Clinton’s by right.

Coarse, vulgar, unprincipled, uninformed, erratic, and with little regard
for truth, Trump was sui generis among presidential candidates.  Yet he
possessed a singular gift: a knack for riling up those who nurse gripes and
are keen to pin the blame on someone or something.  In post-Cold War
America, among the millions that Hillary Clinton was famously
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.cbsnews.com_news_hi
llary-2Dclinton-2Dhalf-2Ddonald-2Dtrump-2Dsupporters-2Dbasket-2Dof-2Ddeplora
bles_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnT
DmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8
&s=412jZSE5rZkHmTZ-VEtFxCv8fO0dfBoXpIytxZ8d3ow&e=> dismissing as
“deplorables,” gripes had been ripening like cheese in a hothouse.

Through whatever combination of intuition and malice aforethought, Trump
demonstrated a genius for motivating those deplorables.  He pushed their
buttons.  They responded by turning out in droves to attend his rallies.
There they listened to a message that they found compelling.

In Trump’s pledge to “make America great again” his followers heard a
promise to restore everything they believed had been taken from them in the
Age of Great Expectations.  Globalization was neither beneficial nor
inevitable, the candidate insisted, and vowed, once elected, to curb its
effects along with the excesses of corporate capitalism, thereby bringing
back millions of lost jobs from overseas.  He would, he swore,
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__thehill.com_policy_tran
sportation_306847-2Dfive-2Dthings-2Dto-2Dknow-2Dabout-2Dtrumps-2Dinfrastruct
ure-2Dplan&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-
JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_
0Vup8&s=eL57hXZMnsVSFnG3T-liHl-k9G0OW8Np5x1H3ti6aMY&e=> fund a massive
infrastructure program,
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.npr.org_2016_11_13_
501739277_who-2Dbenefits-2Dfrom-2Ddonald-2Dtrumps-2Dtax-2Dplan&d=DgMFaQ&c=cB
OA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnG
tGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=LUpLYjjJ_mxdKP76
2pacC87iRjVFrJzeMYc2D36w4a4&e=> cut taxes, keep a lid on the national debt,
and generally
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.brookings.edu_blog
_the-2Davenue_2016_11_18_it-2Dwont-2Dbe-2Deasy-2Dto-2Dbring-2Dback-2Dmillion
s-2Dof-2Dmanufacturing-2Djobs_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXe
kfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97Ibt
hqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=T-qZtuaHR65oQ5hHT69BCkZfAA2B-sfPbWAgRQyAvQc&e=>
champion the cause of working stiffs.  The many complications and
contradictions inherent in these various prescriptions would, he assured his
fans, give way to his business savvy.

In considering America’s role in the post-Cold War world, Trump exhibited a
similar impatience with the status quo.  Rather than allowing armed
conflicts to drag on forever, he
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.businessinsider.com
_donald-2Dtrump-2Dbomb-2Disis-2D2015-2D11&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38Yxdr
PtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhI
tT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=0_VpVTbyy1BLANfvkY71dnHbhz2XmFzhIuRbl
VT4Su4&e=> promised to win them (putting to work his
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-
3Fv-3Dkul34O-5FyMLs&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r
=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgP
vDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=0HYUa34krwIVUPa41oX43Lj7BjJljfreSkAqvhfGahQ&e=> mastery of
military affairs) or, if not, to quit and get out, pausing just long enough
to
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.washingtonpost.com
_news_energy-2Denvironment_wp_2016_09_09_trump-2Dthinks-2Dthe-2Du-2Ds-2Dshou
ld-2Dtake-2Dthe-2Doil-2Din-2Diraq-2Dheres-2Dwhy-2Dthat-2Dis-2Dnot-2Dso-2Deas
y_-3Futm-5Fterm-3D.5268248f1370&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckX
ekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97Ib
thqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=oPMfmLuzT9dQsdMkKpmWKrB1caYwlrdCpgT-A2pxar4&e=>
claim as a sort of consolation prize whatever spoils might be lying loose on
the battlefield.  At the very least, he would prevent so-called allies from
treating the United States like some patsy. Henceforth, nations benefitting
from American protection were going to
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.washingtonpost.com
_news_monkey-2Dcage_wp_2016_11_03_could-2Dtrump-2Dreduce-2Dthe-2Dnational-2D
debt-2Dby-2Dmaking-2Du-2Ds-2Dallies-2Dpay-2Dfor-2Dmilitary-2Dprotection-2Dhe
res-2Dwhat-2Dwe-2Dfound_-3Futm-5Fterm-3D.8e928df1dc6a&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz
9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79
Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=rQ1XwcytYq8sA9yBouDFdNeHo
-jaI_YCe9_7whHec_U&e=> foot their share of the bill.  What all of this added
up to may not have been clear, but it did suggest a sharp departure from the
usual post-1989 formula for exercising global leadership.

No less important than Trump’s semi-coherent critique of globalization and
American globalism, however, was his success in channeling the discontent of
all those who nursed an inchoate sense that post-Cold War freedoms might be
working for some, but not for them.

Not that Trump had anything to say about whether freedom confers
obligations, or whether conspicuous consumption might not actually hold the
key to human happiness, or any of the various controversies related to
gender, sexuality, and family.  He was indifferent to all such matters.  He
was, however, distinctly able to offer his followers a grimly persuasive
explanation for how America had gone off course and how the blessings of
liberties to which they were entitled had been stolen.  He did that by
fingering as scapegoats
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.aol.com_article_new
s_2016_11_11_donald-2Dtrump-2Ds-2Dmuslim-2Dban-2Dis-2Dback-2Dup-2Don-2Dhis-2
Dwebsite_21604038_&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=
CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPv
DiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=KkKZP9E6slGrfzdiyE998zRUm2LH6Sp0LRLegvUcaUM&e=> Muslims,
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.realclearpolitics.c
om_video_2015_06_16_trump-5Fmexico-5Fnot-5Fsending-5Fus-5Ftheir-5Fbest-5Fcri
minals-5Fdrug-5Fdealers-5Fand-5Frapists-5Fare-5Fcrossing-5Fborder.html&d=DgM
FaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZX
ar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=LBZrFJd1
G1ft9W0v7F_FdHg_JFmdnzgNHxeXeAOQvys&e=> Mexicans, and others
“not-like-me.”

Trump’s political strategy reduced to this: as president, he would overturn
the conventions that had governed right thinking since the end of the Cold
War.  To the amazement of an establishment grown smug and lazy, his approach
worked.  Even while disregarding all received wisdom when it came to
organizing and conducting a presidential campaign in the Age of Great
Expectations, Trump won.  He did so by enchanting the disenchanted, all
those who had lost faith in the promises that had sprung from the bosom of
the elites that the end of the Cold War had taken by surprise.

Within hours of Trump’s election, among progressives, expressing fear and
trepidation at the prospect of what he might actually do on assuming office
became de rigueur.  Yet those who had actually voted for Trump were also
left wondering what to expect.  Both camps assign him the status of a
transformative historical figure.  However, premonitions of incipient
fascism and hopes that he will engineer a new American Golden Age are likely
to prove similarly misplaced.  To focus on the man himself rather than on
the circumstances that produced him is to miss the significance of what has
occurred.

Note, for example, that his mandate is almost entirely negative. It centers
on rejection: of globalization, of counterproductive military meddling, and
of the post-Cold War cultural project.  Yet neither Trump nor any of his
surrogates has offered a coherent alternative to the triad of themes
providing the through line for the last quarter-century of American history.
Apart a lingering conviction that forceful �D in The Donald’s case,
blustering �D presidential leadership can somehow turn things around,
“Trumpism” is a dog’s breakfast.

In all likelihood, his presidency will prove less transformative than
transitional. As a result, concerns about what he may do, however worrisome,
matter less than the larger question of where we go from here.  The
principles that enjoyed favor following the Cold War have been found
wanting. What should replace them?

Efforts to identify those principles should begin with an honest accounting
of the age we are now leaving behind, the history that happened after “the
end of history.”  That accounting should, in turn, allow room for regret,
repentance, and making amends �D the very critical appraisal that ought to
have occurred at the end of the Cold War but was preempted when American
elites succumbed to their bout of victory disease.

Don’t expect Donald Trump to undertake any such appraisal.  Nor will the
establishment that candidate Trump so roundly denounced, but which
President-elect Trump, at least in his senior national security
appointments, now shows sign of accommodating.  Those expecting Trump’s
election to inject courage into members of the political class or
imagination into inside-the-Beltway “thought leaders” are in for a
disappointment. So the principles we need �D an approach to political
economy providing sustainable and equitable prosperity; a foreign policy
that discards militarism in favor of prudence and pragmatism; and an
enriched, inclusive concept of freedom �D will have to come from somewhere
else.

“Where there is no vision,” the Book of Proverbs tells us, “the people
perish.”  In the present day, there is no vision to which Americans
collectively adhere.  For proof, we need look no further than the election
of Donald Trump.

The Age of Great Expectations has ended, leaving behind an ominous void.
Yet Trump’s own inability to explain what should fill that great void
provides neither excuse for inaction nor cause for despair.  Instead, Trump
himself makes manifest the need to reflect on the nation’s recent past and
to think deeply about its future.

A decade before the Cold War ended, writing in democracy, a short-lived
journal devoted to “political renewal and radical change,” the historian
and social critic Christopher Lasch
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__democracyjournalarchiv
e.files.wordpress.com_2015_06_lasch-5Fdemocracy-2Dand-2Dthe-2Dcrisis-2Dof-2D
confidence-2Ddemocracy-2D1-2D1-5F-2Djan-2D2001.pdf&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9Kd
Lvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&
m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=V9HE3NSRHtBIf2M8ObVHtlSFvdju
TrQh2f7rpsM6M2Y&e=> sketched out a set of principles that might lead us out
of our current crisis. Lasch called for a politics based on “the nurture of
the soil against the exploitation of resources, the family against the
factory, the romantic vision of the individual against the technological
vision, [and] localism over democratic centralism.” Nearly a half-century
later, as a place to begin, his prescription remains apt.

Andrew J. Bacevich, a
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.tomdispatch.com_blo
g_176215_tomgram-253A-5Fandrew-5Fbacevich-2C-5Fthe-5Fswamp-5Fof-5Fwar_&d=DgM
FaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZX
ar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=JIlrAH_O
WbuUnNb9ngkSp0eqnCAI643sdpKE39UZggA&e=> TomDispatch regular, is professor
emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University. His
most recent book is
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_America
s-2DWar-2DGreater-2DMiddle-2DEast_dp_0553393936-3Fie-3DUTF8-26ref-5F-3Dnosim
-26tag-3Dtomdispatch-2D20&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq
5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoa
ng8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=dRZd6o1KC-ktSGoGkMkGgT6rXUaDm6axrY16GRFSHAE&e=>
America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History.

Follow TomDispatch on
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__twitter.com_TomDispatc
h&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5
orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=9
G69NoH7Sa9d8xd6t0zhYJpVT-NEOlODznyMuTZSKJI&e=> Twitter and join us on
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.facebook.com_tomdis
patch&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38YxdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnT
DmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuEhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8
&s=ZzVnBmk_KCBRUml8R0HYKGhSRm8pmB3bEyLxJD3k_Eo&e=> Facebook. Check out the
newest Dispatch Book, John Feffer’s dystopian novel
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amazon.com_dp_1608
467244_ref-3Dnosim_-3Ftag-3Dtomdispatch-2D20&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38Y
xdrPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVu
EhItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=qjOS9mkcdLS60UK7Fau8M8F7HG56hoGoqd
TLnrF6OjU&e=> Splinterlands, as well as Nick Turse’s
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.amazon.com_dp_16084
66485_ref-3Dnosim_-3Ftag-3Dtomdispatch-2D20&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38Yx
drPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuE
hItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=itkwrEehbaMeGZxA7wjl3v_XfM-I-ef-AbP
LKjpx5gY&e=> Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardt’
s latest book,
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.amazon.com_dp_16084
63656_ref-3Dnosim_-3Ftag-3Dtomdispatch-2D20&d=DgMFaQ&c=cBOA5YEoZuz9KdLvh38Yx
drPtfJt83ckXekfBgq5xB0&r=CK8oOj7-JYZnTDmB5orNTVZXar6NrsnGtGHfQ5m79Do&m=GSVuE
hItT4wh-97IbthqYoang8UgPvDiLKkjA_0Vup8&s=Cn7yWOpNrK6CWmObqG0pjgeGoavJrukfV1H
9Evp3Xdg&e=> Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global
Security State in a Single-Superpower World.

http://mandrillapp.com/track/open.php?u=30489975&id=d9bcc480128742a492c2cf79
10340a4e

[blind-democracy] The Age of Great Expectations

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