Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Pizzagate

photo of Comet Pizza (Farragutful)

The Axis powers Germany and Japan were the threat to the liberal world order during the Second World War. Today the threats are Russia and China who have both moved away from periods of "glasnost" in which notions of a free market economy also led to the restoration of individual rights. However, the factors influencing the latest rise in autocracy are far more complex than they were in either the Second World War or its parallel universe iteration in say Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle. A paranoia about been engulfed or overwhelmed (in much the same way on a personal level individuals fear being overwhelmed by particularly strong personalities) characterizes the fundamentalism which has now become an important element in international politics. Just as fundamentalist religions fear the weakening of belief structures that facilitate conformity, China and Russia have both edged towards a cult-like concentration of power in single individuals, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. It's Jim Jones on the level of the nation state and something that's more characteristic of religions than left or right wing parties. ISIS and the philosophy of Sayyid Qtub, who supplied the ideology for Al Qaeda are two sides of the same coin. Another way of stating this quandary in terms of America's growing political divide is, why are so many willing to subscribe to QAnon and Pizzagate  at the expense of the constitution and the Bill of Rights?

read Francis Levy's review of Fit NationThe East Hampton Star

and listen to "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang


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