[lit-ideas] Re: national defense and global economics
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 15:29:03 +0900
On 2004/09/03, at 15:00, Eric Yost wrote:
> It's a commonplace that we are in transition from national sovereignty
> to international capitalist sovereignty. This transition is a zone of
> blurred identification. Who are "we" anyway?
>
> (1) When asked to fight the War on Terror, Americans are asked to
> defend
> "their country," and think nationally.
>
> (2) When told to tolerate job outsourcing, less free time, harsher
> working conditions, etc., Americans are told to understand "the
> realities of the global marketplace," and think globally.
>
To here, yes, shrewdly observed.
> "Are we "defending our nation" so that our government can hand over yet
> more power to corporate entities with no national affiliation? Is it a
> case of "When they need us, it's national defense; when they screw us
> over, it's global economics." There's a deep disconnect there.
Question 1: Why "disconnect"? Why should a disconnect be disturbing?
How do we answer someone who says, for example, we all have multiple
roles to play, as husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, lovers,
consumers, citizens, workers. Each role involves different behavior,
different rights and obligations. The citizen defends his or her
country, the worker competes in the global marketplace. What is so
strange about that?
>
> The political paradox seems to be a sort of hostage situation, in which
> citizens, through patriotic appeals, are asked to defend institutions
> that are indifferent to them and to their country. But citizens and the
> government do defend these largely indifferent institutions because the
> economic might of these international institutions has taken the
> country
> hostage.
>
Question 2: Why a "hostage situation"? In a hostage situation, the
hostage taker is usually holding the hostage in an effort to influence
someone else, from whom a ransom or other action is being demanded.
This may, in fact, be not too bad an analogy: transnational
corporation=hostage taker, nation=hostage,citizens=those from whom
something is demanded. But what precisely is being demanded, simply
going along with corporate dominance of the state or something more?
Interesting issue you raise.
John
John L. McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama, Japan 220-0006
Tel 81-45-314-9324
Email mccreery@xxxxxxx
"Making Symbols is Our Business"
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