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Too Late for Empire _ the Nation
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9/18/2014 Too Late for Empire | The Nation http://www.thenation.com/article/too-late-empire?page=0,1 1/4 Share Tweet Too Late for Empire Thirty years after Watergate, we again face a constitutional crisis at home and a misconceived war abroad. The United States will remain a helpless giant until we finally learn that power in the nuclear, postimperial age is diplomatic, not military. Jonathan Schell July 27, 2006 | This article appeared in the August 14, 2006 edition of The Nation. Opposing One-Party Government The need to repeat these familiar points, as I have just done (while also begging the indulgence of the reader, as I do), is itself a symptom of the crisis. The same concentration of governmental and other power in the hands of a single party that led to the abuses stands in the way of action to address them. The result is a problem of political sanitation. The garbage heaps up in the public square, visible to all and stinking to high heaven, but no garbage truck arrives to take it away. The lawbreaking is exposed, but no legislative body responds. The damning facts pour out, and protests are made, but little is done. Then comes the urge to repeat. The dilemma is reflected in microcosm in the news media, especially television--a process particularly on display in the failure to challenge the Administration's deceptive rationale for the Iraq War. The reasons for severe doubt were, at the very least, available before the war, and they were expounded in many places. More truthful, contrary voices could and did speak up, especially on the Internet, the freest of today's media. But they were not widely heard. They were drowned out by the dominant voices in the mainstream, acceding to the deceptions of power and their variations and derivatives. All over the world, autocratic-minded rulers, from Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to Russia's President Vladimir Putin, have learned that de facto control of the political content of television is perhaps the most important lever of power in our day. They have learned that it does not matter politically if 15 or even 25 percent of the public is well informed as long the majority remains in the dark. The problem has not been censorship but something very nearly censorship's opposite: the deafening noise of the official megaphone and its echoes--not the suppression of truth, still spoken and heard in a narrow circle, but a profusion of lies and half lies; not too little speech but too much. If you whisper something to your friend in the front row of a rock concert, you have not been censored, but neither will you be heard. The one major breach in the monopoly has been made by the Supreme Court, especially in its decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld requiring application of the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice to detainees. The decision's reasoning, if it carries the day in practice, would roll back many of the usurpations by the executive, which has already claimed that it will apply the Geneva Conventions to prisoners in US custody (though there is doubt what this will mean) and will seek a constitutional opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court on its wiretapping. When the Supreme Court speaks, it is more than repetition. It is effective action. Yet in the last analysis, the outcome of the contest will be decided in the political arena, About the Author Jonathan Schell Jonathan Schell is the Lannan Fellow at The Nation Institute and teaches a course on the nuclear dilemma at... Also by the Author How America Changed the Meaning of War (War and Peace, Nuclear Arms and Proliferation, US Wars and Military Action) After 9/11, the US invented a new kind of borderless, pre-emptive warfare, plunging the world into an endless cycle of violence. Jonathan Schell Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, the New Dissidents? (Crime, International Law) The United States is no Soviet Union —and yet it has set up machinery that satisfies certain tendencies that are in the genetic code of totalitarianism. Jonathan Schell Leslie Savan: You'll Have to Rip Benghazi From Fox's Cold, Dead Hands
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Transcript of Too Late for Empire _ the Nation
9/18/2014 Too Late for Empire | The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/article/too-late-empire?page=0,1 1/4
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Too Late for EmpireThirty years after Watergate, we again face a constitutional crisis at home and a misconceived war abroad. The United States will remain ahelpless giant until we finally learn that power in the nuclear, postimperial age is diplomatic, not military.
Jonathan Schell July 27, 2006 | This article appeared in the August 14, 2006 edition of The Nation.
Opposing One-Party Government
The need to repeat these familiar points, as I have justdone (while also begging the indulgence of the reader, as Ido), is itself a symptom of the crisis. The sameconcentration of governmental and other power in thehands of a single party that led to the abuses stands in theway of action to address them. The result is a problem ofpolitical sanitation. The garbage heaps up in the publicsquare, visible to all and stinking to high heaven, but nogarbage truck arrives to take it away. The lawbreaking isexposed, but no legislative body responds. The damningfacts pour out, and protests are made, but little is done.Then comes the urge to repeat.
The dilemma is reflected in microcosm in the news media,especially television--a process particularly on display inthe failure to challenge the Administration's deceptiverationale for the Iraq War. The reasons for severe doubtwere, at the very least, available before the war, and theywere expounded in many places. More truthful, contraryvoices could and did speak up, especially on the Internet,the freest of today's media. But they were not widelyheard. They were drowned out by the dominant voices inthe mainstream, acceding to the deceptions of power andtheir variations and derivatives. All over the world,
autocratic-minded rulers, from Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to Russia'sPresident Vladimir Putin, have learned that de facto control of the political content oftelevision is perhaps the most important lever of power in our day. They have learned that itdoes not matter politically if 15 or even 25 percent of the public is well informed as long themajority remains in the dark. The problem has not been censorship but something very nearlycensorship's opposite: the deafening noise of the official megaphone and its echoes--not thesuppression of truth, still spoken and heard in a narrow circle, but a profusion of lies and halflies; not too little speech but too much. If you whisper something to your friend in the frontrow of a rock concert, you have not been censored, but neither will you be heard.
The one major breach in the monopoly has been made by the Supreme Court, especially inits decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld requiring application of the Geneva Conventions and theUniform Code of Military Justice to detainees. The decision's reasoning, if it carries the day inpractice, would roll back many of the usurpations by the executive, which has alreadyclaimed that it will apply the Geneva Conventions to prisoners in US custody (though there isdoubt what this will mean) and will seek a constitutional opinion by the Foreign IntelligenceSurveillance Act court on its wiretapping. When the Supreme Court speaks, it is more thanrepetition. It is effective action.
Yet in the last analysis, the outcome of the contest will be decided in the political arena,
About the Author
Jonathan SchellJonathan Schell is the Lannan Fellowat The Nation Institute and teaches acourse on the nuclear dilemma at...
Also by the Author
How America Changed theMeaning of War (War and Peace,Nuclear Arms and Proliferation, US Warsand Military Action)
After 9/11, the US invented a newkind of borderless, pre-emptivewarfare, plunging the world into anendless cycle of violence.
Jonathan Schell
Edward Snowden andChelsea Manning, the NewDissidents? (Crime, International Law)The United States is no Soviet Union—and yet it has set up machinerythat satisfies certain tendencies thatare in the genetic code oftotalitarianism.
Jonathan Schell
Leslie Savan: You'll Have to Rip Benghazi From Fox's Cold, Dead Hands
9/18/2014 Too Late for Empire | The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/article/too-late-empire?page=0,1 2/4
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where public opinion and, ultimately, voters are the decision-makers. It's notable that thereaction to the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan by one Republican Congressionalleader was to accuse Democrats who applauded the decision of wanting "special privilegesfor terrorists."
One-party monopoly of power is not the only inhibiting factor. Any oppositionist who ishonest will keep in mind that a majority, however narrow, of Americans voted that one partyinto power in a series of elections. Especially important was the presidential election of 2004,when many, though not all, of the abuses were already known. (And then the election itselfwas subject to grave abuses, especially in Ohio.) The weight and meaning of that majoritydoes not disappear because it was demonstrably misinformed about key matters of war andpeace. It's one thing to oppose an illegitimate concentration of power in the name of arepressed majority, another to oppose power backed and legitimated by a majority. In thefirst case, it will be enough to speak truth to power; in the second, the main need is to speaktruth to one's fellow citizens. As the end is restoring democratic process, so the meansshould be democratic. It's true that since 2004 the President's positive ratings in the pollshave plummeted, but there is no guarantee that this shift in opinion will translate intoRepublican defeats in the forthcoming Congressional election, and a renewal of Republicanmajorities in both houses of Congress would add another stamp of approval to the Bushpolicies, however misguided.
The mechanisms inhibiting opposition to state power, especially when backed by electoralmajorities, are not something new. Even in the freest countries there is at all times aconventional wisdom, which may wander more or less far from reality. Sometimes it straysinto a fantasyland. Then marginal voices (which of course are not correct merely becausethey are marginal) have a special responsibility to speak up, and sometimes they shift themainstream--as happened, for instance, in the 1960s regarding the Vietnam War and legalsegregation. For the better part of a century, segregation fit squarely within the banks of theAmerican mainstream. Then it didn't.
Jonathan Schell July 27, 2006 | This article appeared in the August 14, 2006 edition of The Nation.
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