From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Mon Mar 27 2006 - 08:41:45 EST
> There is a material base for 'mass fear' in Palestine and Iraq, e.g., but > do we in America really live lives of 'mass fear' of violence against > ourselves? (I'm not speaking of 'mass fear' of unemployment.) We are not > Chile of 1973+, or Indonesia of the 1960s or Japan of 1944-45 or Burundi > of a decade ago. > 'Mass fear' is not a very useful concept (yet?) of the overwhelming lives > of most Americans and we need to know how privileged they are (9-11 > notwithstanding) relative to other parts of the world and relative to > history. > I hope you understanding correctly what I am trying to convey. Hi Paul Z, I agree that the material basis for mass fear in the US can not be compared to that in Palestine and Iraq. But, fear can not simply be grasped with reference to material conditions alone: i.e. fear can be a rational response to material conditions OR NOT. I don't think it is an exaggeration to claim that there was mass fear in the US following 9-11 -- which was out of all proportion to any actual threat -- and that this fear was *created* by bourgeois social institutions, most notably the state and the media. The _capitalist class_ in the US (or, at least, a segment of that class) had a material basis for invading Iraq, but this does not mean that there was a material basis within the US working class for supporting that war. Yet, I agree that the relative privileges of different segments of the working class have to be comprehended to discern whether there is a material basis for beliefs within that segment -- which there often is. While it is true that the US working class complains bitterly about rising gas and oil prices (despite the fact that the prices for these commodities are significantly lower than the prices for the same commodities in many other parts of the world, most notably the EU) mass support for the war against Iraq could not have been built by the state on that basis, I think. But, mass support could -- and was -- built through deceptions about WMD and exaggerations concerning terrorist threats (and, of course, through spreading the lie that Saddam Hussein was, in part, responsible for 9-11). Do you agree? In solidarity, Jerry
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