Blogging the Bookshelf » Politics

Means and Ends – “The Trial of Henry Kissinger” – Christopher Hitchens

Tim — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:40:06 +0000

If one can demonstrate that there was such a plan (to remove the President of Cypress), and that Kissinger knew about it in advance, then it follows logically and naturally that he was not ostensibly looking for a crisis – as he self-pityingly asks us to believe – but for a solution. The fact that he got a crisis, which was also a hideous calamity for Cyprus and the region, does not change the equation or under the syllogism. It is attributable to the other observable fact that the scheme to remove Makarios, on which the ‘solution’ depended, was in practice a failure. But those who willed the means and wished the ends are not absolved from guilt by the refusal of reality to match their schemes.

I found this to be an interesting quote, given that the last sentence in particular could be equally used to condemn Hitchen’s position on the Iraq War…

The Pornography of Power - “The Trial of Henry Kissinger” – Christopher Hitchens

Tim — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:00:05 +0000

I’ve noticed, time and again standing at the back of the audience during Kissinger speeches, that laughter of the nervous, uneasy kind is the sort of laughter he likes to provoke. In exacting this tribute, he flaunts not the ‘aphrodisiac’ of power (another of his plagiarized bon mots) but its pornography.

International Law – “The Trial of Henry Kissinger” – Christopher Hitchens

Tim — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:30:05 +0000

Many if not most of Kissinger’s partners in crime are now in jail, or are awaiting trial, or have been otherwise punished or discredited. His own lonely impunity is rank; it smells to heaven. If it is allowed to persist then we shall shamefully vindicate the ancient philosopher Anarchasis, who maintained that laws were like cobwebs: strong enough to detain only the weak, and too weak to hold the strong.

I can’t see how this isn’t the perfect description of ‘International law’…

Lumumba – “The Origins of AIDS” - Jacques Pepin

Tim — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:32:05 +0000

In September 1960, Lumumba was dismissed by Kasavubu, and in turn Lumumba dismissed Kasavubu. The constitution did not allow for either of these moves. After a few days of confusion, Lumumba was definitively overthrown in a bloodless military coup led by the very person he had just appointed head of the army, colonel Mobutu. Lumumba’s appeal to Moscow had provided the perfect justification, if one was needed. Mobutu quickly expelled all Soviet advisers. Placed under house arrest, Lumumba tried to escape to Stanleyville where his support remained strong, but he was captured after a few days on the run, imprisoned and then transferred to his arch-enemies in Katanga. One might wonder how the central government in Léo could transfer a prisoner to the Katanga secessionists, against whom they were fighting a low-grade civil war. The explanation is simple: Belgium controlled both ends of the equation, and thought it would be easier to eliminate this dangerous man in Katanga, where he had no political or tribal support. There, in January 1961, five hours after his arrival, he was executed by a firing squad supervised by Belgian policemen. Days later, his body was cut up and dissolved in acid. A state crime had been committed, ordered by the Belgian minister of African affairs, who had cleared this decision with his prime minister.

The Benefits of Centralised Government – “The Origins of AIDS” - Jacques Pepin

Tim — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:30:05 +0000

Cuba stands out as the country with not only the lowest HIV prevalence in the Americas but also the highest diversity: about half of Cuban isolates are either non-B subtypes or recombinants. This reflects the acquisition of multiple subtypes of HIV-1 (or recombinants) by some of the internationalistas, the soldiers that Castro sent to fight alongside the leftist Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola during the civil war in Angola, and very limited opportunities for transmission upon their return to the island. The whole Cuban population was screened for HIV in 1986–9; seropositives were quarantined for years in AIDS sanatoria and brainwashed with preventive messages (Cuba was indeed the only country that tried to control HIV like an infectious disease, rather than making it a human rights issue). At the peak of their intervention in 1986, 35,000 Cuban troops were stationed in Angola, which became one of the most corrupt and capitalist regimes in Africa, while smaller numbers of Cuban soldiers were stationed in sixteen other African countries. Recent studies documented a high diversity in HIV-1 isolates in Angola, where all non-B subtypes found in Cuba are present. This illustrates how political and military events, even ideologies, had a measurable impact on the transmission of HIV.

It’s interesting when reading a scientific account of the transmission of disease how much politics and sociological factors influence the process…

Immigration and Race – “The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever” – Philip Gould

Tim — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:30:05 +0000

The politics of grievance can be harsh and it is never easy moderating a group where the sole focus is immigration. But immigration, like crime, like welfare abuse, is not an issue we can avoid; we must deal with it head on. Not just because of the sense of unfairness that people hold but also because it is for many an issue of democratic involvement. Immigration has changed Britain, culturally and ethnically, and in my view for the better, but this was not a process over which the electorate felt they had sufficient control or influence. It has left many who had little power in the first place feeling yet more disempowered. So much of this is about control, insecurity and fear.

I think this holds for Australia too…

Perhaps most important, the politics of grievance is about control and empowerment and voice. If people are heard, if they have genuine influence over their communities and their lives, then they will feel less resentment. Paradoxically, the more people are empowered to act, the less extreme their opinions may be. The politics of identity and of empowerment must go hand in hand. We must hear the people on these issues, we must be tough where necessary and above all competent, but we must be confident that in the end progressive solutions will work, and conservative solutions will not. The answer to unfairness is not more unfairness; the left must win fairness back in all its various forms.

In Defence of Focus Groups – “The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever” – Philip Gould

Tim — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:00:05 +0000

Despite the small numbers sampled, and the obvious lack of empirical rigour they entail, focus groups are the form of polling that I prefer. Although their scientific validity is less than that of an opinion poll, they are in a sense truer because you can talk to people as they really are, not as abstractions captured in a single moment. You gain access to real people with ideas and opinions that connect both to the past and to the future, who do not care much or at all about politics, and who think at one and the same time at many different levels. The complexity of public opinion reflects the complexity of politics; people have paradoxical views and opinions that cannot be reduced to easy choices or one-dimensional solutions. At its best a focus group is a place where you can dig beneath the surface and feel the forces gathering below.

Gould’s (positive) view of Focus Groups is far more nuanced than the hostile views of many who oppose them…

Sustaining a Reforming Government – “The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever” – Philip Gould

Tim — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:31:06 +0000

David Marquand calls this the progressive dilemma:

‘How to transcend Labourism without betraying the labour interest; how to bridge the gap between the old Labour fortresses and the potentially anti-Conservative but non-Labour hinterland; how to construct a broad-based and enduring social coalition capable of not just giving it a temporary majority in the House of Commons, but of sustaining a reforming government thereafter.’

This is the test by which the New Labour government should be judged. When critics attack New Labour for caution, for failing to be radical enough, early enough, for making tough economic decisions, for trying to impose order and discipline, they are trapped in the conservative mind-set that kept Labour in opposition for so long. If a progressive coalition can govern Britain for a majority of the time then more poverty will be removed and more real change implemented than could ever be achieved by short, sharp, occasional spasms of radicalism. Lasting change can only happen over time, as part of a progressive project for government. The alternatives have failed Britain and its people. We lack schools that are good enough, hospitals that are modern enough, streets that are safe enough. The British people lack skills, opportunity and ambition. Our public infrastructure has been allowed to crumble, our national identity is uncertain. We have let people who do not use our schools run our education system, and people who do not use our health service run the NHS. This is the price Labour has paid for losing the last century. We need a new long-term radicalism, to ensure that progressive instincts become rooted in the institutions of the nation, just as conservative instincts were in the past. New Labour may have won an election, but now it has to win a century.

This is a fine articulation of why electoralism must underpin the progressive project.

New Labour – The Results – “The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever” – Philip Gould

Tim — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 04:30:05 +0000

Labour’s journey was over too. It had won an extraordinary victory on 1 May. The statistics of success were a mirror image of the failure of 1983, the election that had finally persuaded me to get involved. In 1983 Labour had lost by 144 seats, in 1997 it won by 179 seats: a shift of 323 seats in fourteen years. In 1983 the swing to the Conservatives had been 6 per cent, in 1997 the swing to Labour was 10.3 per cent. Tellingly, a Conservative lead of 8 per cent among skilled working-class voters had been turned into a Labour lead of 21 per cent.3 And most satisfying for me, 1.8 million Conservative voters in 1992 were estimated to have switched to Labour in 1997.

News Bulletins are Fragmented and Confusing – “The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever” – Philip Gould

Tim — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:06:06 +0000

On Sunday I wrote my first long strategy note of the campaign. ‘The electorate are not connecting with the election and do not understand most of the issues. They find news bulletins fragmented and confusing.’ This last point was important. Night after night I would show people the news (in focus groups), and they would not understand it. This was most true of the BBC, partly because their news is delivered at a level of abstraction that loses many people, but mostly because they insisted on editorialising continually. It was always over to Huw Edwards (or whoever it was) for his view of the election. Sky, who played it straight, were most easily understood, and connected best. The BBC let down their viewers.