[Peace-discuss] "The Ideology of No Ideology" (Re: The Pitfalls and Possibilities of Orwellian "Pragmatism")

Fri Nov 28 11:18:39 CST 2008

Following on Dave's post, I wanted to point out this commondreams article
from Norman Solomon, 

    http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/11/25
    The Ideology of No Ideology

On Friday, columnist David Brooks informed readers that Barack Obama's picks
"are not ideological." The incoming president's key economic advisers "are
moderate and thoughtful Democrats," while Hillary Clinton's foreign-policy
views "are hardheaded and pragmatic."

On Saturday, the New York Times front page reported that the president-elect's
choices for secretaries of State and Treasury "suggest that Mr. Obama is
planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with
pragmatists rather than ideologues." [...]

The ideology of no ideology is nifty. No matter how tilted in favor of powerful
interests, it can be a deft way to keep touting policy agendas as common-sense
pragmatism -- virtuous enough to draw opposition only from ideologues.

Meanwhile, the end of ideology among policymakers is about as imminent as the
end of history.

But -- in sync with the ideology of no ideology -- deference to corporate power
isn't ideological. And belief in the U.S. government's prerogative to use
military force anywhere in the world is a matter of credibility, not ideology.

Ideological assumptions gain power as they seem to disappear into the
prevailing political scenery. So, for instance, reliably non-ideological
ideological journalists sit at the studio table every Friday night on the PBS
"Washington Week" program, which is currently funded by similarly
non-ideological outfits including Boeing, the National Mining Association and
Constellation Energy ("the nation's largest supplier of competitive electricity
to large commercial and industrial customers," with revenues of $21 billion
last year).

Along the way, the ideology of no ideology can corral even normally incisive
commentators. So, over the weekend, as news broke about the nominations of
Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers to top economic posts, former Labor
Secretary Robert Reich wrote an article praising "the members of Obama's new
economic team." Reich declared: "All are pragmatists. Some media have dubbed
them 'centrists' or 'center-right,' but in truth they're remarkably free of
ideological preconception. ... They are not visionaries but we don't need
visionaries when the economic perils are clear and immediate.  We need
competence. Obama could not appoint a more competent group."

Competence can be very good.  But "free of ideological preconception"?  I want to
meet these guys.  If they really don't have any ideological preconceptions, they
belong in the book of Guinness World Records.

As for competence, it seems that claims of non-ideology often go hand-in-hand
with overblown claims of economic mastery. "Geithner and Summers are credited
with expertise in crisis management," economist Mark Weisbrot pointed out on
Monday, "but we better hope they don't manage the current crisis like they did
in East Asia, Russia, Argentina or any of the other countries that Treasury was
involved in during the 1990s with their help. They helped bring on the East
Asian crisis in 1997 by pressuring the governments in the region to de-regulate
international financial flows, which was the main cause of the crisis. Then
they insisted that all bailout money go through the IMF, and delayed aid until
most of the damage was done. Then they attached damaging conditions" to the
aid.

After all is said and done, the ideology of no ideology is just like any other
ideology that's apt to be much better at promoting itself than living up to its
pretenses. No amount of flowery rhetoric or claims of transcendent non-ideology
should deter tough scrutiny. And Judge Judy's injunction should apply to the
ideology of no ideology as much as to any ideology that owns up to being one:
"Don't pee on me and tell me it's raining."

On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 09:43:30AM -0600, unionyes wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Sirota" <ds at davidsirota.com>
> To: <unionyes at ameritech.net>
> Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 9:37 AM
> Subject: The Pitfalls and Possibilities of Orwellian "Pragmatism"
>
>>
>> The Pitfalls and Possibilities of Orwellian "Pragmatism"
>>
>> By David Sirota
>>
>> Campaign for America's Future, 11/28/08
>>
>> If you've been reading the newspaper or watching television recently,
>> you probably noticed the sudden ubiquity of the word "pragmatic."
>> President-elect Obama has repeatedly used the term to describe his
>> new administration, citing it in juxtaposition to "ideology." The
>> media has followed his lead with lines like the one we see in today's
>> Politico, which says Obama's new economic adviser Christina Romer
>> "shares much of Summer's centrist, pragmatic perspective on economic
>> issues."
>>
>> Salon.com's Glenn Greenwald has written extensively on the Orwellian
>> nature of the term "pragmatic" (here and here) noting that the term -
>> and others like it ("competent," etc.) - were used to describe Dick
>> Cheney when he entered the vice presidency. I just want to add one
>> thing - politicians and the chattering class may be portraying
>> "pragmatism" as substitute for ideology, but any honest look
>> indicates that "pragmatism" is mostly being used in the political
>> debate as a euphemism for conservative ideology - and not some new
>> and reformed conservative ideology, but the same stultified and rigid
>> one that was just resoundingly rejected by the electorate.
>>
>> To read the full post, go to:
>>
>> http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008114828/pitfalls-and-possibilities-orwellian-pragmatism
>>
>>
>>
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