[Peace-discuss] Co-option comments

[C. G. Estabrook]

[1]	MoveON.org: The Perpetual Precession
	of the Simulacra of Antiwar Activism

Postmodernist philosophers are noted for their obsession with perceived 
differences between reality and socially generated representations of 
it. According to Jean Baudrillard, who died recently, we now live in an 
age marked by the substitution of the signs of the real, simulacra, for 
the real itself. He described this process as the precession of 
simulacra, a process that eliminates our capability to distinguish 
between nature and artifice.

MoveON.org is the classic manifestation of a liberal organization that 
sees the world in postmodernist terms, an organization that seeks to 
achieve the partisan goal of electing Democrats based upon the 
assumption that the precession of simulacra is an inescapable, 
established fact of our contemporary existence. I have previously 
described the efforts of MoveON.org to substitute the artifice of 
antiwar activism for the substantive kind (click on the label for 
MoveON.org below if you are interested), and barely a month goes by 
without discovering its participation in another initiative launched for 
the purpose of containing antiwar activism within the boundaries 
established by moderate Democrats.

For example, I discovered this one, while lurking over at DailyKos, the 
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq:

     "Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is a national campaign 
comprised of a variety groups from across the political spectrum that 
are committed to opposing the Bush-McCain plan to escalate the war in 
Iraq and to work for the responsible redeployment of American forces. 
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq includes veterans, students, some 
of the nation’s leading anti-war voices, and progressive organizations 
which traditionally confine their activity to domestic issues. Many of 
the organizations coming together to lead Americans Against Escalation 
in Iraq include those which successfully mounted a national campaign in 
2005 to defeat President Bush’s effort to privatize Social Security. 
Using that same campaign model, these organizations are joining with 
more traditional anti-war forces, veterans and students to mount this 
campaign because the stakes are so high and because the future of a 
generation of Americans is on the line."

Despite standing for virtually nothing, Americans Against Escalation in 
Iraq expropriates the language and methods of past social movements in 
the hope that the sprinkling of the magic dust of authenticity will 
infuse their efforts with a credibility that is absent. Quite 
predictably, it is now involved in a multi-million-dollar Iraq Summer 
project dedicated to pressuring Congresspersons and Senators to change 
their stance and stop supporting the Cheney-Bush Iraq policy. And, yes, 
you guessed it, Iraq Summer is only targeting Republican members of 
Congress, not Democrats, you know, those like Nancy Pelosi and Harry 
Reid who approved the continued financing of the war.

My hostility towards MoveON.org has primarily been because of its effort 
to prevent the emergence of a popular, mass based movement against the 
war in Iraq and, potentially, even US imperialism. Now, I have concluded 
that it serves an even more insidious purpose, the mobilization of 
people to participate in meaningless spectacles, based upon the 
assumption that radical political change is impossible. In other words, 
a perspective about US politics and social life that is irretrievably 
cynical and amoral, and allows the militarists to run free to plot new 
crimes.

http://amleft.blogspot.com/

[2]	Kos joins the big-time sellouts

 From my inbox:

	"Special News Bulletin: YearlyKos Welcomes Another
	Candidate to Groundbreaking Leadership Forum

	"The YearlyKos Convention team is pleased to welcome Senator Hillary 
Clinton to the second annual, historic gathering of the netroots in 
Chicago this August. Clinton joins Senators Edwards, Obama, Dodd, and 
Governor Bill Richardson as a participant in the first ever 
collaborative presidential forum with both a respected blogger(Joan 
McCarter of DailyKos) and a leading member of the traditional media 
(Matt Bai of The New York Times Magazine) as moderators, with author and 
blogger Dr. Jeffrey Feldman facilitating questions from attendees."

A "respected blogger"? Isn't that, like, an oxymoron?

The short history of Kosnikia provides a really brilliant, crisp 
case-study in the operation of the Democratic Party as a engine of 
co-optation. Matt Bai! When he shows up, you know the vultures have 
stopped circling -- they've landed and begun to dine.

Posted by Michael J. Smith at 1:54 PM on July 13, 2007

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/

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