Mark Bittman published a very important article last week in the New York Times, entitled, “What is the Purpose of Society?” Important, because in just a few words he gets to the very heart of political action.
He begins with the most basic problem imaginable, food:
Before we get started, it would be useful to remember that the founding “parents” of the “conservative revolution” or “neo-liberalism” as it is known in Europe, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, both died of Alzheimer´s disease … This might not be the cause of the ongoing disaster, but it sure is a nifty metaphor for the situation we are in.
Regular readers know that one of my favorite hobby horses is criticizing the blockheadedness of post Cold War politicians who seem to have totally lost their fear of popular wrath.
Those who are cheerfully going about the work of dismantling the welfare state seem blissfully unaware that the welfare state was created by men as, or even more conservative then themselves (Bismark, for example), in order to avoid revolutionary social movements which would destabilize and jeopardize the entire economic system and society itself. This was a strategy that was so eminently successful that it practically has destroyed revolutionary praxis.
With Eric Holder on his way out the door as Attorney General, many Puerto Ricans are stepping up their calls for President Barack Obama to pardon 71-year-old political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, who has spent the last 33 years behind bars for seditious conspiracy. The holiday season is a common time for Presidents to use their power to grant clemency, but this was not to be in 2014 for the President who has granted the fewest pardons in modern times.
For Puerto Ricans, dismissal of their political demands is emblematic of their subjugation as colonial subjects.
In December, at a concert in San Juan, reggaeton singer René Pérez Joglar of the band Calle 13 brought López’s daughter Clarissa on stage to read a letter pleading for her father’s release. After winning the silver medal in judo in the Central American and Caribbean games in November, Augusto Miranda told the press: “I want to use this forum for all the people of Puerto Rico and the United States. It’s an abuse what they’ve done to Oscar López Rivera, political prisoner. It’s time to give him his freedom.”
