Neo-Con David Horowitz vs a very non-focused Slavoj Zizek Listening to David Horowitz on Julian Assange's new talk show on Russian television today was much like listening to right wing blowhards like Bill O'Rielly on Fox News. These purveyors of paranoia see a Muslim terrorist under every rock. He kept describing Obama as representing the left, a communist, which is utter nonsense -- Obama is a "liberal", not unlike Bill Clinton or John Kennedy. And liberals are very much in the pocket of the corporatocracy just like the conservatives. The American political system is 'owned' by the very rich and their henchmen, the corporate lobbyists. If self proclaimed conservatives, like Horowitz, had their way they would give the corporations even more power. While I do admit that Horowitz is right to say Obama and other "liberals" have been morally culpable in killing innocent civilians in America's wars he ignores the "progressive left" that have been just as critical of the war atrocities that Obama has, if anything, intensified over what George Bush had done. Why didn't Assange or his other guest Slavoj Zizek challenge Horowitz on this? Zizek is a charming and interesting fellow but I certainly believe that somebody like Chris Hedges or Jeremy Scahill would have presented a much more aggressive argument to counter Horowitz's simplistic right wing talking points. Or it would have been interesting if Jeremy Rifkin had been there to challenge Horowitz on his claim that Europe is no more than a "cultural theme park". Horowitz's repeated insistence that "the natural state for mankind is war" is a common Neo-Con canard that does not hold up as fact. Evidence abounds that human beings are becoming far less inclined to resort to war as a means of solving disputes. Prior to 1947 the major countries of Europe had been at war for hundreds of years. But since the second world war there has been no war between these major countries. Steven Pinker has done a most revealing study 2 on this. The proclivity toward violence has lessened over this last century. Americans had to be lied to and coerced into the Iraq war. No, the idea that it is natural for humans to be at war is dogma concocted to serve the interests of domination by Neo-Con ideologues like Horowitz. It also sadly appeals to uneducated populist notions on both the right and the left. Supreme court judge Antonin Scalia is another of these degenerate right wing fatalists that exaggerate the evil side of human nature and use it as an excuse to go to war, to kill dissenters or lock them up in privatized jails. If they see no hope for humanity why do they bother? With such low regard for human beings what is the point of serving the greater good as an important judge or prominent journalist? The answer of course is they are in it for strictly self serving reasons. They are no more than shills. America is becoming an increasingly degenerate society in which there are plenty of openings for clever opportunists, like Horowitz, who are willing to pander to conservative populism and get rich doing it. Bottom line is that this was a missed opportunity. Jon Stewart would have done far better. Horowitz was allowed to freewheel unchallenged and even had the disrespectful arrogance to answer his cellphone twice during the show. 1 - Watch the program http://assange.rt.com/horowitz-zizek-episode-two/ 2 - Steven Pinker http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_ the_myth_of_violence.html
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|