This book is outstanding. It outlines our anti-democratic conditions permeating American democracy, both domestically and in foreign policy and draws on the deep foundations of democratic traditions needed to draw on to combat what have lost. We have reached a rare fork in the road and it is crucial to draw on such democratic energies.
West outlines three antidemocratic dogmas that dominate our current political climate:
1. Free-market fundamentalism, which trivializes the concern of public interest. The overwhelming power and influence of plutocrats and oligarchs in the economy put fear and insecurity in the hearts of anxiety-ridden workers and render money-driven, poll obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit often at the cost of the common good.
2. Aggressive militarism. This new U.S. doctrine goes beyond preventive war but puts the green lights on the elites to sacrifice soldiers, mostly of the working and poor classes, fueling a foreign campaign which does away with multilateral decisions to that of unilateral, lone ranger imperialistic colonial invasions, all for the sole benefit of the government regardless of all others and societies.
3. Escalating authoritarianism, which is tightening security in replace of liberty and freedom. The Patriot Act is only the beginning, as we will see escalated censorship and rights removed.
In this West brings out three common forms of anti-democratic nihilism:
1. Evangelical nihilism. This is the idea that might makes right, as in Thrasymachus argument in Plato's Republic. The stronger U.S. must use its military power to quiet dissenters. All must obey and submit to our correct interpretations of culture. The evangelical spirit sharply gravitates towards militancy and censorship against all views that differ, especially dissenting views and those that employ Socratic inquiry.
2. Parental nihilism. This is found in both Democrats and Republicans, that is, the ideas that the leaders will not resort to the proletariat decisions, but rather remain in charge to work within the corrupt system to make the necessary changes, the idea that it is useless to do otherwise.
3. Sentimental nihilism. This is found in the cowardly lack of willingness to engage in truth telling, even at the cost of social ills, to forfeit the comfortable life for the sake of exposing truth to help others, as in many former slave owners and today in the media where they are drawn to their corporate owned sponsors and what sells a story. Monetary interests clearly outweigh the truth, dialogue is limited, questions are reduced and thus the answers are reduced to the range limits of the questions in the vulgar partisanship corrupting our public life.
While we see such antidemocratic views permeating America and the middle east, both with the Palestinians and with Israel, with oppressive policies and imperialism, West brings out there are those that are aware and that our future depends on those who embrace our deep democratic traditions that fuel true democratic energies. However, we must recognize the schizophrenic nature of the American democratic experiment in peoples who rebelled from British imperialism in favor of American imperialism over the Native American Indians, doing so with African American slaves. So there was always this dual nature in the American democratic experiement. To acknowledge the past is needed and then to reject the imperialistic tendencies and to draw on the democratic energies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Melville, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison and others. In this, West lists three democratic energies, which are:
1. The Socratic inquiry to fully examine government domestically and foreign. To question and fight censorship and corporate profit driven media from slanting the truths. This is the polar opposite from the fundamentalist and absolutist that defines all actions according to their predetermined meanings and then attacks with full vengence.
2. The Judeo-Christian prophetic view. This is the great tradition of mercy and justice of the prophets and of Christ, that enable social programs and genuine concern for the poor, the needy and the working class, to put individuals above corporate profits, monetary interests and imperialistic conquests. Just as you find the prophetic discarded by the Christian fundamentalists control in the Bush administration, you can find this same parallel situation in Israel, where the Jewish fundamentalists, attacks the prophetic Jewish voices of equality and social justice. West believes that those voices of democratic moderation are found in Rabbi Michael Lerner and Abraham Joshua Heschel.
3. Tragicomic hope. This is the crucial ability to cease from revenge, hatred and despair, to retain strength and integrity towards democratic equality with inner strength, despite the attacking hatred and vengeance directed towards one. And this West points out, can be found in the African American's treatment as outcasts, hated as inferior, and yet ceasing to return revengeful hate and not falling into despair, expressing themselves in the music of the Blues, Jazz and original Hip Hop and some Rap. This is the way to deal with slanderous, attacks from the fundamentalists and their hate.
West goes into the concept of Muslim democracy apart from Western domination, the abuses of the Judeo-Christian religious fundamentalism and its sharp contrast with the Judeo-Christian prophetic views. West calls these two types, Constantinian Christianity, from the government of Constantine backed imperialistic injustice, and prophetic Christianity, that of social democratic justice and democratic values.
