It is the strong version of the Copernican thesis - where ever you are is, by definition, unimportant. As far as I can tell there is exactly one person who has agreed with the reverse of that thesis all along, that instead we are at an important moment, and has methodically pursued the chance for the Republican Party to be the one that determines the shape of the new constitutional order.
His name is Karl Rove, perhaps you've heard of him.
The always-interesting Stirling Newberry attempts to connect the dots between the day to day tactics and the long term strategy of the GOP. As with any serious analysis, he doesn't dally with psychology. It's not about strong fathers versus nurturing mothers; it's not a matter of projection or frames; no one cares about anyone being a dry drunk or a latent (or actual) homosexual. It's about the money.
Looking at politics from the point of view of money gives some of the same insight as looking at biology from the point of view of the genes. Genes selfishly strive to replicate themselves. The cost of that replication, to the host body which expresses the gene or to the community which shares the gene is irrelevant. The gene's environment may curb or enhance its replication, the differential rates of replication serving as a measure of "success," but that's the end of it. While this turns our normal view of the world on its head, we find that many things are easier to predict and understand. Evolution itself follows as an obvious corollary. There is clarity in the view that life is something that genes do to us, not that genes are something we use to carry out our lives.
Likewise we can see politics as something caused by money, not by us. Certainly dollars cannot act intentionally any more than strings of DNA, but it pays to look at it as if they do. In essence, selfish dollars look for a place to park themselves so they can collect rent from other dollars. The big dollars on the Monopoly board today are all parked on oil, and the longer they park there the bigger they get. While I don't agree with everything in Newberry's thesis it's certainly well worth reading. He makes a very good effort at explaining at lot of things, even the Clinton impeachment, from within this framework. Social Security, he argues, is a linchpin for the liberal republic because it allows us all to have a better retirement than any other possible system of private plans.
I would like to say more about his concept of Bash, Break and Borrow at a later point. Read it yourself for now.
- jack*
I will try and read Ackerman's article on the Supreme Court. Many of us would agree that appointments there, having a greater longevity, have a greater potential to cause mischief. One has to be impressed by the sweep of Newberry's article. It is almost as if he were mimicking Hegel and Marx with a grand plan of History. Relevant only to America, with its Constitution, but Grand in any sense.
I think it is always a little dangerous to channel History, She doesn't like it and may turn and bite you. However, I cannot argue with his thesis, that Money is God. The irony, of course, is that this is a group of politicians who have hitched their horse to the Christian bandwagon. I think, rather than trying to read patterns into History, a more rewarding endeavor is to look for chaos and irony.
Maybe that is what bloggers do.
Incidentally, the other side of the free wheeling gene coin, which I agree with though I have trouble with Dawkins and others, is free will. This is something that we should really look at from a biological (o.k. reductionist) standpoint.
Posted by: Dr. C. | February 27, 2005 at 07:44 AM