Monthly Archives: February 2022

The United States presents itself as the beacon of democracy in contrast to the autocracies of China and Russia. Yet American democracy is in danger of succumbing to the same sort of oligarchic economics and racist nationalism that thrive in both these powers.

After all, it wasnt long ago that Donald Trump who openly admired Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin encouraged racist nationalism in America while delivering much of the US government into the hands of Americas super-rich.

Now state-level Republicans are busily suppressing votes of people of color and paving the way for a possible anti-democratic coup, while the national Republican party excuses the attack on the Capitol calling it legitimate political discourse and censures Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the only two congressional Republicans serving on the panel investigating that attack.

Americas oligarchic wealth, meanwhile, has reached levels rivaling or exceeding those of Russia and China. During the pandemic, Americas 745 billionaires increased their holdings by 70%, adding $2.1tn to their wealth in just over a year.

A portion of this wealth is going into politics. As early as 2012, more than 40% of all money spent in federal elections came from the wealthiest of the wealthiest not the top 1% or even the top tenth of the 1%, but from the top 1% of the 1%.

Now, some of this wealth is supporting Trumpism. Peter Thiel, a staunch Trump supporter whose net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $2.6bn, has become one of the Republican partys largest donors.

Last year, Thiel gave $10m each to the campaigns of two protgs Blake Masters, who is running for the Senate from Arizona, and JD Vance, from Ohio. Thiel is also backing 12 House candidates, three of whom are running primary challenges to Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for the events of January 6.

Its not just Republicans. Last year, at least 13 billionaires who had previously donated to Trump lavished campaign donations on Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

The combination of oligarchic wealth and racist nationalism is treacherous for democratic institutions in the US and elsewhere. Capitalism is consistent with democracy only if democracy reduces the inequalities, insecurities, joblessness, and poverty that accompany unbridled profit-seeking.

For the first three decades after the second world war, democracy did this. The US and war-ravaged western Europe built the largest middle classes the world had ever seen, and the most buoyant democracies.

The arrangement was far from perfect, but with the addition of civil rights and voting rights, subsidized healthcare (in the US, Medicare and Medicaid), and a vast expansion of public education, democracy was on the way to making capitalism work for the vast majority.

Then came a giant U-turn, courtesy of Ronald Reagan in America and Margaret Thatcher in Europe. Deregulation, privatization, globalization, and the unleashing of finance created the Full Monty: abandoned factories and communities, stagnant wages, widening inequality, a shrinking middle class, political corruption and shredded social support.

The result has been widespread anger and cynicism. Even before the pandemic, most people were working harder than ever but couldnt get ahead, and their childrens prospects werent any better. More than one out of every six American children was impoverished and the typical American family was living from paycheck to paycheck. At the same time, a record high share of national wealth was already surging to the top.

Starting last July, America did an experiment that might have limited these extremes and reduced the lure of racist nationalism. Thats when 36 million American families began receiving pandemic payments of up to $3,000 per child ($3,600 for each child under six).

Presto. Child poverty dropped by at least a third, and the typical family gained some breathing space.

But this hugely successful experiment ended abruptly in December when Senator Joe Manchin joined 50 Republican senators in rejecting President Bidens Build Back Better Act, which would have continued it.

They cited concerns over the experiments cost an estimated $100bn per year, or $1.6tn over 10 years. But thats less than big corporations and the rich will have saved on taxes from the Trump Republican tax cut of 2018. Repeal it, and there would be enough money. The cost is also less than the increase in the wealth of Americas 745 billionaires during the pandemic. Why not a wealth tax?

The experiment died because, put simply, the oligarchy didnt want to pay for it.

Oligarchic economics coupled with racist nationalism marks the ultimate failure of progressive politics. Beware. When the people are no longer defended against the powerful, they look elsewhere.

More here:

Beware of this deadly mix: oligarchic economics and racist, nationalist populism - The Guardian

The British progressive rock band Jethro Tull released The Zealot Gene on January 28, the first recording of all new music by the group in more than twenty years. With words and music written by founder-leader Ian Anderson, the new record is a legitimate addition to the discography of the band, which started in Blackpool (a seaside resort on Englands northwest coast) playing the blues in 1967 and went on to become an internationally successful progressive rock group in the 1970s.

The new album contains a mixture of acoustic songs and heavier rock tracks featuring the eclectic blend of musical styles and influences that are central to Jethro Tulls sound. Also, the lyrics demonstrate Andersons affinity for story-telling and commentary on current and historical social phenomena from unique, not to say eccentric, points of view.

In keeping with progressive rocks concept album format, The Zealot Gene is comprised of twelve songs that reference Biblical text as inspiration for an exploration of human emotions such as compassion, tolerance, loyalty, love, jealousy, greed and hate.

As Anderson explains in the liner notes, he is not a man of faith when it comes to conventional, organized religions, but the Bible verses fueled my songwriting and were the starting point for elaborating examples of extreme feelings from different vantage points. While he typically finds images like photos or paintings to prompt his observational lyrics, the trigger this time was, immortal words from 1611 [King James Bible] which, for me, immediately conjure visual images that can be used to interpret and vocalize the subject matter.

If listeners have occasionally been baffled in the past by Andersons sometimes abstruse metaphors and colloquial adages, they will welcome the supporting material in the CD packaging. The words for each song appear along with the associated Bible verse and track notes explain what the songs are about. Listeners can also watch a series of video interviews with Ian Anderson on the bands YouTube channel where he reviews the creative process, the album concept and the production process, which were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Studio work on the album began in 2017 and, due to touring and other project obligations, seven backing tracks were recorded, and four tracks were completed before the pandemic hit in early 2020. The balance of the album was produced long distance with members of the bandDavid Goodier on bass, John OHara on keyboards, Florian Opahle and Joe Parrish-James on guitar and Scott Hammond on drumsrecording their parts separately from their home studios and sending them in to Anderson for the final mixing and mastering. Longtime Jethro Tull lead guitarist Martin Barre does not appear on the new album, having departed the band for a solo career in 2011.

The title track of The Zealot Gene unmistakably references would-be American dictator Donald Trump, with the lines, The populist with dark appeal / The pandering to hate / Which xenophobic scaremongers / Deliver on the plate.

Anderson writes in the track notes, As a song lyric; it sums up, for me, the divisive nature of societal relationships and the extreme views which fuel the fires of hate and prejudice Perhaps you think you know who I might have been thinking about here but, in reality, there are probably now at least five prominent dictatorial international figures who could fit the bill.

We have, needless to say, significant problems with the idea that humans are genetically preconditioned for extremism, whether in the form of contemporary right-wing populism or in the referenced biblical verse from Ezekiel about the slaughter of idolators with battle axes in Jerusalem. For one, it incorrectly attributes the source of ideological and political conflict to biology instead of socio-economic interests.

However, Anderson seems to be using the zealot gene as a device to advocate for middle-of-the-road political moderation and to warn of unintended consequences when social media is used uncritically or made a barrier to political discourse. He writes in the liner notes, It is almost as if we have some genetic component driving us toward that sub-intellectual graffiti for which the outlet, these days, is let loose by the aerosol spray of social media.

While opposing, prejudice, xenophobia and hard right conservatism, he also takes a swipe at wokeness, calling it a trendy and overworked viewpoint that can all-too-easily stifle the process of the direct exchange of views.

The other tracks on the album are less problematic. The opening song, Mrs. Tibbets, was inspired by the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:24-28. The song examines the barbaric bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US Air Force on the morning of August 6, 1945. Brigadier General Paul Tibbets flew the heavy bomber, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress called the Enola Gay, which he personally named after his mother the previous day.

The lyrics portray the rationalizations given to Mrs. Tibbets to justify the mass murder: Dont feel bad, they said, about the numbers / Dont feel bad about the melting heat / The burning flesh, the soft white cell demise. / And the shattered ground beneath the trembling feet.

The line in the chorus, Mrs. Tibbets little boy, makes a double reference to her pilot son and the codename for the five-ton bomb. Little Boy was the first nuclear weapon used in warfare and the first of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan as ordered by US President Harry S. Truman. Estimates of the number killed by US imperialism in the two blasts range from 130,000 to 215,000 people.

Of course, a big part of Jethro Tulls sound is Andersons use of the flute as a rock music instrument. While he is not the only artist to do it, he is the most well-known and he has an immediately recognizable style. In crafting songs about intense emotion, Anderson shows that the concert flute can be made to express a variety of feelings and this range is extended by his signature multiphonic vocalizations. The impact of the technique comes through in the portrayal of an angry Old Testament God in the track, Mine is the Mountain.

Another method Anderson has used is to play the flute in unison or harmony with the electric guitar. This is done effectively on the opening riff to The Betrayal of Joshua Kynde, an allegorical tale about deception among cold war spies. Other instruments such as harmonica, mandolin, Irish whistle, acoustic guitar and accordion make their appearance on the lighter tracks such as Jacobs Tales, Sad City Sisters and Three Loves, Three.

Using Bible verse to either express agnosticism or question Christian doctrine is not new for the band. Jethro Tulls most popular album Aqualung, released in 1971, has sold more than three million copies and contains a preamble in the liner notes which is a rewriting of Genesis 1:1, In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.

At that time, Aqualung was banned from radio play in Spain by the fascist regime of Francisco Franco and there were publicized burnings of the record in the US by some Bible Belt evangelicals. However, the ideas critical of the Christian church in tracks like My God, Hymn 43 and Wind Up also intermingled with the rebellious moods among the youth and contributed to the rising global popularity of Jethro Tull.

Anderson, 74, became the sole leader and creative force of Jethro Tull in 1969 after the departure of founding guitarist Mick Abrahams. Following the release of their first album This Was, the two clashed over the artistic direction of the group. Abrahams wanted Jethro Tull to remain a blues-based band and Anderson, influenced by the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, wanted to move in a more experimental direction.

Following the success of Aqualung, Jethro Tull rode a wave of mass progressive rock popularity with bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer and Yes, and released a studio album every year through 1980. The albums were followed by world tours, with live performances before sold-out crowds at arenas on five continents. During these years, Ian Andersons stage antics and costumes played directly into criticisms of progressive rock as pretentious and bombastic.

Among the more remarkable accomplishments of Jethro Tull during those years was that two concept albums with 45 minutes of continuous complex music and dense lyricsThick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973)both rose to number one on the US charts. While the rock music press generally panned these records, listening audiences embraced them.

Later in the decade, the band pursued a folk-rock direction and with Songs from the Wood (1977), Heavy Horses (1978) and Stormwatch (1979) that melded ethnic acoustic instruments and Scottish musical themes with heavy electric guitar riffs and rhythms. The lyrics on these records articulated Andersons concerns about industrial society, population growth and dwindling natural resources.

While the popularity of progressive rock faded in the 1980s and beyond, many of the most popular groups were able to continue by making new music and/or performing live concerts for their fans. The onset of the pandemic disrupted these cycles and, with most of the musicians now in their mid-to-late 70s, they have had to find new ways of interacting with audiences and to figure out what they will do in their later years.

With The Zealot Gene, Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull have released an engaging album. Whether listeners choose to enjoy the music or become involved with the conceptual elements, the album provides both new and old audiences with an opportunity to learn about one of the more thoughtful and significant artists of the era.

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Veteran musician Ian Anderson comments on right-wing populism with Jethro Tull's The Zealot Gene - WSWS

The former president is not alone.

I hope the truckers do come to America, Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, told The Daily Signal, a conservative website. Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates.

Nor was all this confined to North America. Ottawa truckers convoy galvanizes far right worldwide, an article in Politico on Feb. 6 declared. Leading Republicans, right-wing influencers and white supremacist groups have jumped at the chance to promote the standoff in Ottawa to a global audience.

In Bowling for Fascism: Social Capital and the Rise of the Nazi Party, a 2017 paper in the Journal of Political Economy, Shanker Satyanath of N.Y.U., Nico Voigtlnder of U.C.L.A. and Hans-Joachim Voth of the University of Zurich offer a counterintuitive perspective on the spread of right-wing organizing in Canada, Hungary, Brazil, India, Poland, Austria and in the United States.

The three authors argue that in the 1930s in Europe:

dense networks of civic associations such as bowling clubs, choirs, and animal breeders went hand in hand with a more rapid rise of the Nazi Party. Towns with one standard deviation higher association density saw at least one-third faster entry. All types of associations veteran associations and nonmilitary clubs, bridging and bonding associations positively predict National Socialist Party entry. Party membership, in turn, predicts electoral success. These results suggest that social capital aided the rise of the Nazi movement that ultimately destroyed Germanys first democracy.

Andrs Rodrguez-Pose, Neil Lee and Cornelius Lipp, all of the London School of Economics, pick up this argument in a November 2021 paper on the paradoxical role of social capital in fostering far-right movements. Noting that the positive view of social capital has, more recently, been challenged, the three economic geographers write:

The rise in votes for Trump was the result of long-term economic and population decline in areas with strong social capital. This hypothesis is confirmed by the econometric analysis conducted for U.S. counties. Long-term declines in employment and population rather than in earnings, salaries, or wages in places with relatively strong social capital propelled Donald Trump to the presidency and almost secured his re-election.

It is, the three authors continue,

precisely the long-term economic and demographic decline of the places that still rely on a relatively strong social capital that is behind the rise of populism in the U.S. Strong but declining communities in parts of the American Rust Belt, the Great Plains and elsewhere reacted at the ballot box to being ignored, neglected and being left behind.

Translated to the present, in economic and culturally besieged communities, the remnants of social capital have been crucial to the mobilization of men and women mostly men who chanted, you will not replace us and blood and soil in Charlottesville, who shot bear spray at police officers on Jan. 6 and who brought Ottawa to its knees for more than two weeks.

In a separate paper, The Rise of Populism and the Revenge of the Places, Rodrguez-Pose argued, Populism is not the result of persistent poverty. Places that have been chronically poor are not the ones rebelling. Instead, he continued,

the rise of populism is a tale of how the long-term decline of formerly prosperous places, disadvantaged by processes that have rendered them exposed and almost expendable, has triggered frustration and anger. In turn, voters in these so-called places that dont matter have sought their revenge at the ballot box.

In an email, Rodrguez-Pose wrote:

Social capital in the U.S. has been declining for a long time. Associationism and the feeling of community are no longer what they used to be, and this has been documented many times. What my co-authors and I are saying is that in those places (counties) where social capital has declined less, long-term demographic and employment decline triggered a switch to Donald Trump. These communities have said enough is enough of a system that they feel bypasses them and voted for an anti-system candidate, who is willing to shake the foundations of the system.

In a separate email, Lee noted that while most analysts view higher social capital as a healthy development in communities, it can also foster negative ethnic and racial solidarity: Social capital can be a great thing when it is open and inclusive. But when everyone knows each other, this can result in in-group dynamics particularly when people are led to be concerned about other groups.

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Opinion | Theres a Reason Trump Loves the Truckers - The New York Times