[Peace-discuss] Chomsky arguments.

[Morton K. Brussel]

I'm afraid Matt, you are just misinformed on this: I would suggest that 
even preceding the French revolution of 1789, there was continual 
ferment and agitation by the Left in France. Aside from the 1789 
Revolution itself, think of the Paris Commune of 1871, the overthrow of 
the monarchies of the 19th century, the election of socialists in the 
20th century (the Popular Front), the strength of the Communist party 
after WWII, the strength of the unions, etc. There is nothing 
analogously effective, aside from the civil rights movement, in the 
United States.

As for stating that there is healthier skepticism of government in the 
United States than in France, I would disagree. I've lived and worked 
in France for several years, and found criticism and scepticism at a 
high level there, and better organized. Never have I heard the animated 
political discussions at lunchtime or "pauses" that I heard in France 
reproduced here.  Even on gender issues, the question is not clear. For 
example, there are relatively many more women in the science 
professions  in France than in the United States, and even in politics. 
The symbol of France is embodied in a woman.

One could go on; There is no equivalent here to Le Monde Diplomatique. 
Although they have now lost their leftist allure and compromised their 
initial promise, there were no popular newspapers (L'Humanité, Le 
Monde, Liberation) or magazines (Le Nouvel Observateur) in the U.S. as 
there were in France.

Finally, I can believe that the only reason Chirac and Schroeder have 
put up some (feeble) resistance to Bush policies is that they knew the 
sentiments/opinions of most of their populations. The U.S. population, 
deluded and confused as they are by the mass media here, and with a 
superiority complex derived possibly from the frontier, have not been 
able to express any equivalently coherent and effective resistance to 
the Bush agenda. So, although most of the U.S. population was against 
the first Gulf War, as soon as the "troops" were involved, their tune 
changed. Similar sentiments occurred before the recent Iraq aggression, 
and quickly melted away.

Enough. Enjoy your stay over there, and don't frequent MacDo.

Mort

On Feb 1, 2005, at 12:11 PM, Matt Reichel wrote:

> The facile idea has it that the U.S. is far to the right of Europe. I 
> find this to be incorrect for multiple reasons: for one, I think 
> Americans demonstrate a much healthier skepticism about government and 
> heirarchies in general and their effectiveness in @representing@ the 
> public at large, the U.S. is much much more feministic than any 
> country i've seen in Europe (both in cultural practice and political 
> practice), and Americans actually have a richer history of rebellion 
> and resistance by workers, intellecuals, students, anarchists, 
> communists, and even Left Liberals (which has been actively squashed 
> by the government through time).