History Never Repeats Itself--Or Does It?

There was a time long, long ago when the foul odor of fear clogged all American's nostrils. There was a time long, long ago when US banks quivered and fell, when businesses closed. There was a time long, long ago when the sound of the auctioneer's call sounded from a thousand courthouse steps as tens of thousands lost their homes, their farms, their hopes.

A charismatic man with a winning smile and an awesomely beguiling voice accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party for the office of President.

At this man's acceptance speech he made a promise to the American people. This promise became the mantra for the campaign.

No. It wasn't a call for "change."

FDR promised the American people a "new deal."

The words were in and of themselves meaningless. What else could be promised in the midst of the worst economic collapse the US had experienced in over a half century. More of the same?

Not hardly. FDR's promise of a "new deal" and his skillful working of the fears which struck so deep and hard in the collective psyche of We the People gave him the election. Sent him to the Oval with an overwhelming mandate. At the same time We the People, expressing both fear and hatred for the Republicans who were (wrongly) indicted in the court of public opinion for having both caused the depression three years earlier and being indifferent to its effects upon the people, gave FDR a veto proof Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

At his inauguration FDR spoke the most true and accurate words of his fourteen years in the White House when he said that the only thing the nation had to fear "was fear itself." He went on to address this fear in a flurry of legislation meant to provide for recovery, relief and reform. This legal snowstorm is the First New Deal. It lasted one hundred days.

For all the hype and hoopla, for all the bloviation then and now regarding whether or not FDR was a socialist or a conservative, the most important reality of the First New Deal was that it failed.

Not completely, of course. Some of the actions meant to alleviate human misery did do some good, did palliate some wretchedness. Some of the reforms did bring a greater measure of order, stability and fair play to the stock market.

But, in the area that mattered most, in the centrality of defeating the depression, the First New Deal failed. The American public grabbed its collective gonads not in a gesture of defiance but in token of fear and looked inward. Gazed at themselves and the systems of government and economy in which they lived and hoped to work.

Fear brought dismay. While many young Americans joined with the legions of young ideologues who believed in the majestic effectiveness of centralised, rational planning by "experts" and descended upon the new New Deal agencies, others, also true believers, followed the seductive message of social justice, political equality and economic parity coming from the Soviet Union. These Americans believed along with journalist Lincoln Steffens that, "I've been over to the future--and it works."

Under the lashes of fear and distrust, Americans flung ideological grenades at each other, enlisted under banners of foreign origin and doubted that the nation could survive--at least in the form which they had inherited.

The seemingly intractable depression went on and on. The First New Deal was followed by the Second. FDR challenged the Supreme Court and won--using fear as a weapon. The Court submitted in 1937 and allowed the creation of the administrative state--the system of federal authority under which we currently exist.

The administrative state was one of the many unintended consequences of the rather conservative FDR's efforts to defeat the depression. Other legacies of his fight against the uncertainties and deficiencies of the market are not so unintended.

An example is Social Security. FDR rejected the economically sound approach preferring instead the politically invulnerable "contract between generations" course of action. The FDR decision has saddled our young with the impossible task of providing for their own lives while carrying an enormous aging population on their backs. The polite term is unfunded entitlements.

"Wait one, Geek! Where the hell are you going with this? You're supposed to be focused on foreign affairs, military matters and that sort of good shit."

The Geek hears you, my friend, and is heading in that direction. But, it is necessary to understand first and foremost that there is no disconnect between domestic affairs and foreign policy. That is true in good times. It is even more true when We the People are consumed with fears over what is happening here at home and don't want to notice a damn thing outside of the scope of our up-close-and-personal apprehensions.

The decade of the Thirties was a time like the present. Both then and now illustrate why the Chinese toast, "May you live in interesting times," is actually a curse.

Throughout the years of the depression, throughout both of FDR's first two terms, the world grew increasingly dangerous for the US. The emergence of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan threatened core national and strategic interests of the US.

While we cowered in our cloud of fear and while our conflicting ideologies battled one with the others, we ignored what was happening over there--and over there and over there. These years, the years when the threats of Germany, Italy and Japan could have been dealt with quickly and effectively, were the period of most profound isolationism.

There is an irony here. A profound irony. A delicious irony for those who appreciate such things.

While We the People sat in our morass of fear, uncertainty and battling ideologies waiting for FDR and his bright core of experts to solve the never ending depression, war was brewing away in both Europe and Asia. When the war broke over our heads and shoulders with unmistakable force on Sunday 7 December 1941, it solved our depression.

Within six months of the bombs falling on Pearl Harbor we had suffered defeats on every front except one. That one? The Home Front.

The depression was as dead as the men lost at Pearl or on Bataan. We had full employment, full paychecks and would have had full lunches had it not been for rationing.

Playing to our fears FDR brought us a few reforms--some of which were and remain both useful and important. He also brought us the administrative state. Unfunded entitlements. And, worst of all, the unfounded expectation that the Federal Government could effectively address all the ails of economy and marketplace.

In conjunction with the fears of We the People, the administration of FDR also helped bring about as an unintended consequence the greatest and most destructive war in human history.

The New Deal for the American people may not have ended the depression but it did do much to assure the outbreak of the war which did bring recovery. At the cost of nearly a half million American lives.

That is something to remember today as we face genuine global threats to us and our interests. It is something to remember today as we face the latest storm of fears.

It is something to remember today as a man with a winning smile and a real gift for public speaking promises us "Change."

Paris Hilton--Icon of a Great Power?!

That's it, Geek! Time for you to get a grip!

Sure. Perhaps the Geek is over the edge, but he doesn't think so. He's ready and willing to argue that the recent (and ongoing) frenzy over the aforementioned 26 year old blond is a perfect epitomization of the central reason for the United States' status a Great Power.

Remember, he's already on record as saying that the bottom line reality of America's position in the world is not, repeat not, it's economy, nor its nuclear arsenal, nor its capacity to project military force. While these factors are important, they are not critical.

The critical component of American power is the intangible. Particularly important is the intangible that can is seen by our enemies as our decadence, our lack of order, the absence of morality, the lack of godliness. The intangible that is seen by internal critics as materialism, infantile desire for instant gratification, a lifestyle devoid of purpose beyond the commercial, the sensual.

Certainly, enemies and critics could point at Paris Hilton as an icon for these perceived flaws in the American national character. And, the Geek wouldn't argue the point. Not because he agrees necessarily, but because it's irrelevant.

They're missing the point. The intangible which they resent, oppose, even wish to destroy is the greatest strength of this nation. It is the magnet that pulled thousands here from Europe, Asia, Latin America. It is the driver which has propelled the people of the US to accomplish so much in such a short time.

Its name? Chaos.

Chaos. The word scares some. It excites more. Both fear and exhilaration spring from the same source: the absence of controlling authority, deadening tradition or dictatorial consensus whether religious or ideological.

The old cliche, "Land of Opportunity," really has always meant, "Land of Chaos," the place of dissent, conflict, disagreement. To glance over the thousands of articles, reports, opinion pieces and blogs dealing with Paris Hilton is to read the face of chaos--American style.

The beauty of the Paris Hilton Incident is the intense, passionate disagreement. There is no central authority, religious or civil, ordering a party line, policing compliance with the line, punishing those who don't follow the leader.

Excrescences of zaniness like the Hilton Incident have always been a part of the American scene. They have always defined for the world just how limitless the boundaries of chaos are.

What is most interesting about the zany sides of American life is how differently they are interpreted by authoritarian leaders and non-authoritarian members of the larger publics. Consider for a moment how the Nazis portrayed American jazz and swing music. Or, more recently, think about how the Communist leaders from the era of Stalin on insisted on describing rock and roll.

In both cases the official line was that the music illustrated the immoral, decadent, sensual nature of the debauched and jaded Americans. In both cases, the non-authoritarian or anti-authoritarian segments of the public embraced the music at great risk because it symbolised the free, chaotic, outlaw nature of American life. In short, all the appeals of life in the US.

In the past few days, with the exception of the authoritarian controlled media of countries such as Iran, the Paris Hilton Incident has been gobbled up in all of its many internally conflicted views as a shorthand presentation of the multifaceted, many hued nature of the contemporary United States, a place where so much is possible because so little is prohibited or required.

No Mullah, Imam, Priest nor President decrees what must be said, be written, be believed about Paris Hilton or the judge who sentenced her, or the Sheriff who let her go home. No one, no matter how exalted his position, can order the mob into the street for or against Paris. No minister can order her death. No Council can order the media to ignore the story. No commissar can silence the Internet.

Chaos. To be sure the Paris Hilton Incident is chaos in miniature and over an unimportant issue, but that's what an iconic event is--a miniature that represents something much larger, much more real and infinitely more important.

There are Americans who fervently wish none of this were true. There are Americans who fervently desire that the chaos could be shoved into a small bottle labeled "Order." There are Americans who would, if only they had the power, put an end not only to the circus surrounding Ms Hilton, but to the woman herself. There are Americans who would agree wholeheartedly with Hitler regarding jazz and the Kremlin commissars regarding rock and roll. There are Americans who are in complete tandem with the mullahs and imams concerning the debauched, ungodly nature of today's United States.

This type of American has always been with us as a (so far) permanent minority. The mentality of this American was described perfectly by a great politician, Franklin Roosevelt on a cold March day almost seventy-five years ago.

FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is--fear itself."

He was speaking narrowly of the economic depression which had settled on the nation like a foul cloud, but his words have a universality which make them appropriate today. The enemy of chaos and all the creativity it makes possible is the fearful mind.

Only the fearful mind rejects chaos and seeks the Authority of the state, of ideology, of tradition, of religion in its place. Only the fearful authoritarian seeks to place the burkah on the naked body of chaos, demands that all perceive, believe, think and act according to a presumed universal truth.

In a great movie, The Third Man, the character of Harry Lyme speaks of the distinction between the chaos of the Italian city states which produced the Renaissance from the rubble of unending wars and the orderly nature of Calvinist, authoritarian Switzerland which brought forth "the cuckoo clock."

Our chaos has produced not only breath arresting technological triumphs like landing a man on the moon and parsing the human genome but more human liberation in the past fifty years than had happened in the preceding thousand. Our chaos has resulted in not only the horrors of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles but freedom enhancing marvels such as the Internet. Sure, chaos is the cliched double headed ax. It kills. It frees. It destroys. It creates.

Chaos is our ultimate strength. If we are strong enough to embrace it.

Otherwise, we might just as well cave in to our fears. Join the authoritarians. Make cuckoo clocks.