As the continuing violent disturbances in the town of Ferguson illustrate the United States is not a nation at ease with its self. Some would ask if it has ever been ! However, throughout its history this nation has been most adept at is being able to contain the numerous societal differences that exist regardless of their legitimacy. Admittedly the modern, post modern union is based on a 'coercive' civil war that reset the Founders original ideas and ideals into a more 'commercial package' - a translation of freedom that was to be found via economic individualism underpinned by a conservative community . This enforced understanding of what the US should be demanded a form of social compliance that was sold by displaying the banners of opportunity and ownership. However, the ability and facility to read let alone understand these offers was largely reserved for the people who fitted the original understanding of who an American should be. Shamefully, this type of political and cultural literacy was not available to Black America or any of the other 'tribes' that did not fit a Anglo Saxon Protestant template that had conjured up the magical and mythical notion that we are all created equal.
The subsequent practice of marketing the US as a place and space of liberty and equality whilst in actuality restricting membership through a understanding of racial hierarchy has been a recurring a theme throughout this nations developmental process. However, recently the pretence of a unified nation with common values and goals has been further stretched by the growing disconnect between the place that the average American inhabits and the Washington village that incorporates the political elite. There has always been and always will be a distance between the decision-makers and the recommenders but the space between the citizen and his/her representative has grown to such a degree that most minority groups have been relegated to just simply observers of a political process that trumps every social issue with the pre-eminence of national security.
This was no better illustrated than the offer of the Israeli Prime Minister to come and talk to Congress about his nation's present condition while towns and cities in the US continue to dispute their very own citizenship. After numerous standing ovations from the admiring audience that looked as real as a North Korean picnic party, the Israeli Prime Minister painted a picture that could have been sketched out during the Cold War but what was informative about his speech was his analysis of Israeli's present social woes, seen through the prism of security and the Iranian question. No wonder this approach won plaudits from the attending political elite since they understand these are the very issues that have priority not the social concerns of increasing economic and racial inequality. This securitization of government policy that has placed nation-state security above all other ills allows the nation's representatives to continue to treat the conflicting voices from places like Ferguson as just noise whilst the President is reduced to making ineffective speeches from the sidelines about how important it is that American communities should respect each other. Of course, it would help if the political elite respected that notion that the very citizens they are marginalising and ignoring are the same people that offer their consent every two and four years for them to govern but that idea is now becoming as fanciful as that notion that we were all created equal.
KK
The subsequent practice of marketing the US as a place and space of liberty and equality whilst in actuality restricting membership through a understanding of racial hierarchy has been a recurring a theme throughout this nations developmental process. However, recently the pretence of a unified nation with common values and goals has been further stretched by the growing disconnect between the place that the average American inhabits and the Washington village that incorporates the political elite. There has always been and always will be a distance between the decision-makers and the recommenders but the space between the citizen and his/her representative has grown to such a degree that most minority groups have been relegated to just simply observers of a political process that trumps every social issue with the pre-eminence of national security.
This was no better illustrated than the offer of the Israeli Prime Minister to come and talk to Congress about his nation's present condition while towns and cities in the US continue to dispute their very own citizenship. After numerous standing ovations from the admiring audience that looked as real as a North Korean picnic party, the Israeli Prime Minister painted a picture that could have been sketched out during the Cold War but what was informative about his speech was his analysis of Israeli's present social woes, seen through the prism of security and the Iranian question. No wonder this approach won plaudits from the attending political elite since they understand these are the very issues that have priority not the social concerns of increasing economic and racial inequality. This securitization of government policy that has placed nation-state security above all other ills allows the nation's representatives to continue to treat the conflicting voices from places like Ferguson as just noise whilst the President is reduced to making ineffective speeches from the sidelines about how important it is that American communities should respect each other. Of course, it would help if the political elite respected that notion that the very citizens they are marginalising and ignoring are the same people that offer their consent every two and four years for them to govern but that idea is now becoming as fanciful as that notion that we were all created equal.
KK
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