Washington's dystopian political and historic illiteracy

American Senator J. William Fulbright was a genius and magician. He wrote a book about today fifty-nine years ago and counting.

Preface

An invitation to readers to engage the Fulbright Agenda

Over the last sixty years there have been many books and papers written on the rise and fall of the American empire, its many woes and crimes. These include the negative effects it has had on the homeland. It has paid a dire price as the empire parasitically feeds on the resources of the homeland and its peoples.

Part of the tragedy is that the homeland is so passively indifferent to its cannibalization at the hand of the empire. It appears to an outsider like myself NFL football and NBA basketball are more important than the state of the union, and indeed, like so many other things, are an inadvertent or deliberate mass distraction to accommodate the evils of the empire.

Our societies today are by definition so complex, omnipresent and intrusive we have never been so vulnerable to subversive forces that are not external but internal.

As a scholar, congressman and senator J. William Fulbright was a giant in his time. His book of 1966 “The Arrogance of power”, written 59 years ago has an overwhelming prescience. It is both a stunning indictment of the present and a blue print for the changes that must take place.

There is always a choice between social and violent revolution and the former is essentially preferable to the latter. Social revolution is the internalization of old and new ideas blended and internalized for the present and future; which is the true nature of conservatism inherited from the wisdom of Edmund Burke. As a Democratic senator Fulbright was in turn a true conservative in the Burkian tradition.

Politics and governance without historical context and expertise is the hand cart racing to hell. Especially so when the democratic process and rule of law have been so flagrantly abandoned, and electorates are disenfranchised and regarded with open contempt.

The tyrannies of the present require reference to the past and Fulbright provides us a critically important window to do so.

“Those who lack self-assurance are also likely to lack magnanimity, because the one is the condition of the other. Only a nation at peace with itself, with its transgressions as well as its achievements, is capable of a generous understanding of others.”

—Fulbright, J. William. The Arrogance of Power (pp. 21-22).

Life is serendipitous, discovering books and ideas we wish we had discovered twenty or thirty years earlier. Life wouldn't be as intriguing if wisdom and knowledge arrived all at once. We couldn't process it, as both need to be internalized over time. Our brains, much like computer hard drives can only absorb so many bits and bytes in one go. As we learn more, we realize how little we know. In our ever-expanding universe, knowledge and wisdom are essential survival tools for everyone.

Most importantly, we must prioritize learning the important stuff first. Time-honored codes of conduct, principles, traditions, and moralities are vital, whether we live in caves or hermetically sealed glass towers. The irony is that if we insist on living in ghettoed glass towers, we might end up back in caves.

I mention the above because I am currently reading "The Arrogance of Power" by J.W. Fulbright (1905-1995), who served as a senator from 1945-1974. To this day, Fulbright remains the longest-serving chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During his tenure, he acquired a wealth of knowledge and wisdom on America’s place in the world, having presided over many events and an era that shaped America as it is today.

I have read many books on history and politics. A great truth of history is that it is the harbinger of things to come. It serves as the true prophet, the oracle of future events, and the cycles are as immutable as humankind has rendered them through time.

Fulbright follows in the steps of Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. President from 1913-1921, as both were scholars and politicians. They did not see through any divine provenance, but their studies allowed them to view the world in larger contexts and understand the complex dynamics that influence and determine historic outcomes. Their perspectives and analysis are delivered from a heightened level of consciousness, which embodies the very essence of education from kindergarten to graduate school. Ironically, our societies today shun scholarship and scholars, regarding them as pariahs and dissidents. Yet, in these complex times, they are essential influencers on all matters pertaining to governance and politics. As Fulbright contends, they are, among others, the true patriots.

As John Ralston Saul pointed out in his book, “The Unconscious Civilization” (1999), the level of consciousness in our societies is a profound determinant in our ultimate survival. His reason for writing the book was to address the monolithic forces, namely corporatism, that are determined to dull our societies to the point where we are no more than commodified automatons, shaped and propagandized to suit nefarious agendas.

We must remind ourselves that Fulbright speaks from 60 years ago. When he claims the deterioration of the U.S. Senate, where he served for 30 years, began in 1940, we should be deeply alarmed. The same applies to Canadians, where our chambers of “sober second thought” have similarly deteriorated over the same time. It is no coincidence that legislatures are in precipitous decline as the empire arrives on the scene and ruinous ideologies are mindlessly initiated with no regard for social impacts.

Fulbright's book raises issues that are crucial to our times, issues that have been blocked from a wider and more open debate. These matters have been suppressed by a warfare state steeped in arrogance and triumphalism. This state lacks the “self-assurance”, morality, and higher level of consciousness necessary to address these pressing issues, as defined by Fulbright and other true patriots, both past and present.

To conclude this blog, I leave you with a quote from the introduction to his book. It is even more important and relevant today than when he wrote it. This is a central issue of our times, even more so than in his era. The magnitude of dire consequences has multiplied many times over. It is a measure of the morality and consciousness of our times.

“Many of the wars fought by man—I am tempted to say most—have been fought over such abstractions. The more I puzzle over the great wars of history, the more I am inclined to the view that the causes attributed to them—territory, markets, resources, the defense or perpetuation of great principles—were not the root causes at all but rather explanations or excuses for certain unfathomable drives of human nature. For lack of a clear and precise understanding of exactly what these motives are, I refer to them as the “arrogance of power”—as a psychological need that nations seem to have in order to prove that they are bigger, better, or stronger than other nations. Implicit in this drive is the assumption, even on the part of normally peaceful nations, that force is the ultimate proof of superiority—that when a nation shows that it has the stronger army, it is also proving that it has better people, better institutions, better principles, and, in general, a better civilization.”— Fulbright, J. William. The Arrogance of Power (p. 5). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

This is the first of several blogs I will be devoting to Fulbright’s writings.

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