Elizabeth Warren on "the anarchy gang"

"The boogey-man government is like the boogey-man under the bed. It's not real. It doesn't exist. [. . .] In our democracy, government is not some make believe thing that has an independent will of its own. In our democracy, government is just how we describe the things that we the people have already decided to do together." ~ Elizabeth Warren

From the passage above, Warren goes on to celebrate the experimental nature of democracy and to remind Republicans that the electorate already has rejected their views and and warn that they will do so again. This is, in all but one respect, a terrific speech. The problem is that the Republicans are not anarchists in any meaningful sense. They are reactionaries who hope to consolidate the oligarchy they've spent three decades working to establish. Anarchists want to devolve authority and influence; proponents of oligarchy want to usurp and centralize power, amplify inequality and dampen accountability. [Source: Mother Jones here.]

Political Scientists in the News: Jim Scott

The New York Times has run this nice piece on Jim Scott (Yale political science) who seems like a decent fellow in addition to being really smart. I mentioned Scott's most recent book Two Cheers for Anarchism in passing here a while back.

On Veteran's Day

"Dedicated to the Deserters of All Wars"

Nikolaus Kernbach, Stuttgart, Germany 2007.

 For the Unknown Deserters 

 Designed by Mehmet Aksoy, Potsdam Germany (1989).

 
Memorial to Unknown Deserters
Hannah Stuetz Menzel (1989/2005), Ulm, Germany.

I am not a pacifist. But I also suspect that most wars are unnecessary and doubt that even the truly unavoidable ones are justifiable. So, on this day when we are meant to be honoring Veterans - those given honorific status for having fought in wars - I want to note some discordant memorials. These all are in Germany. And there, of course, many people have a deep sense that their country perpetrated an especially heinous war. It is difficult not to agree. But, as the saying goes, 'He who is without sin should cast the first stone.' Do we need to feel the need to atone for crimes on the scale of the Nazis in order to wonder whether those who simply turn and walk away might not be taking an heroic stance?

__________

P.S.: I was prompted to track down these memorials - and several others - by reading James Scott. 2012. Two Cheers for Anarchism. Princeton UP. Overall, the book is not as provocative as I'd anticipated. But it raises a set of smart questions.

Reading Around - Art & Politics

"Without criticism, the only measure of value in art is money, and that measure has proven to be both fickle and stultifying. As a subject of inquiry, it’s a bore. I know why investment bankers and hedge fund managers prefer it, but why have artists put up with it for so long?" ~ David Levi Strauss

Sunflowers II (1992) ~ Lithograph © Joan Mitchell.

Bo Diddley (1999) ~ Etching © Richard Serra.

At The New Republic - a center-right mag apparently happy to have socialist dissidents, so long as they are not here in the U.S. - Michael Kazin offers this snapshot of the Polish New Left revolving around the group Krytyka Polityczna.

I've lifted the two images above from an advert for this newly opened exhibition of prints at the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee - Selections from the Mary and Michael J. Tatalovich Collection (June 6 – August 5, 2012).

At  al Jazeera you can find this appreciation of Richard Rorty by Spanish philosopher Santiago Zabala.

Last month Guernica ran this extended conversation between Rebecca Solnit - all around talented and wickedly astute public intellectual - and anarchist anthropologist (nice alliteration) David Graeber who has been influential on the Occupy scene.

Finally, and also last month, David Levi Strauss published this essay ("From Metaphysics to Invective: Art Criticism as if It Still Mattered") at The Brooklyn Rail. That is where I lifted the opening question. I think the program in Art Criticism & Writing that Levi Strauss runs at the School of Visual Arts in New York sounds really terrific. Criticism is a contested activity aimed at establishing values and criteria for assessing and experiencing and talking about art. And the program aims, as I understand it, to provide young writers with a body of basic knowledge on which to start articulating such values and criteria.