Zinn: US 'In Need of Rebellion'

[katty]

more: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/09-0

Published on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 by Al Jazeera
Zinn: US 'In Need of Rebellion'

Al Jazeera speaks to Howard Zinn, the author, American historian, social critic and activist, about how the Iraq war damaged attitudes towards the US and why the US "empire" is close to collapse.
Q: Where is the United States heading in terms of world power and influence?

Howard Zinn is the author of, most notably, A People's History of the United States, a National-Book-Award-nominated text that investigates US history from the standpoint of the oppressed. Other books by Zinn include Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology and his 1995 autobiography, You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train.HZ: America has been heading - for some time, and is heading right now - toward less and less world power, less and less influence.

Obviously, since the war in Iraq, the rest of the world has fallen away from the United States, and if American foreign policy continues in the way it has been - that is aggressive and violent and uncaring about the feelings and thoughts of other people - then the influence of the United States is going to decline more and more.
This is an empire which is on the one hand the most powerful empire that ever existed; on the other hand an empire that is crumbling - an empire that has no future ... because the rest of the world is alienated and simply because this empire is top-heavy with military commitments, with bases around the world, with the exhaustion of its own resources at home.

leading to more and more discontent and home, so I think the American empire will go the way of other empires and I think it is on its way now.

Q: Is there any hope the US will change its approach to the rest of the world?

HZ: If there is any hope, the hope lies in the American people.

lies in American people becoming resentful enough and indignant enough over what has happened to their country, over the loss of dignity in the world, over the starving of human resources in the United States, the starving of education and health, the takeover of the political mechanism by corporate power and the result this has on the everyday lives of the American people.
the higher and higher food prices, the more and more insecurity, the sending of the young people to war.

I think all of this may very well build up into a movement of rebellion.

We have seen movements of rebellion in the past: The labour movement, the civil rights movement, the movement against the war in Vietnam.

I think we may well see, if the United States keeps heading in the same direction, a new popular movement. That is the only hope for the United States.

[Maat]

1. It's a great interview.

Thanks for the post.

[Greyhound]

2. Thanks for the post.

Once again he demonstrates why his works should be required reading in school.
:kick: & R

[bdamomma]

3. are we ready to rise to the occasion if necessary.

[katty]

5. DHS is combat ready for what they call 'enemy combatants'

ready to hustle the american people into cages, taser, beat them senselessly, throw them in prison--because that is exactly what will happen across america.

[bdamomma]

6. so are we going to do (hard to say) surrender to them?

[katty]

7. I am not suggesting that--just saying that is what we face IF

a true revolution occurs.

[warren pease]

8. It's here whether you do anything about it or not...

The latest legal fiction is the charges filed against the "RNC Eight:" Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism.

They're test driving and running pilot projects against the general public.

They're spying and surveilling and intercepting and x-raying and strip searching and "detaining" and rounding up the usual suspects... whether you or anyone else decides a true revolution is occurring or not.

Our massuhs don't seem to be waiting for some formal declaration of hostilities or a precipitating event. They're going ahead and having fun with all that new federal power and all those cool new weapons.

And of course, we're still told this entire charade is necessary to protect us and "the homeland" from swarthy evildoers with bad hair.

In other words, it's vital to national security that law enforcement agencies mess with, beat on, hog tie, spray with various irritants and finally arrest and charge eight people who would have become RNC protesters had their "conspiracy" been allowed to play out.

The bottom line must go something like: These actions, taken against young would-be protesters by cops and prosecutors, had the immediate effect of staving off another "terrorist attack" by Islamic radicals.

These are the same ones who hate us for our freedoms and because we can choose from among 17 different brands of laundry detergent at the giant warehouse retail outlet, where service is their middle name.

Unfortunately for customers, their given name is "Yughetnoh" and their surname is "Phukstik."

So I'd say the poop has already slopped into the rotor, whether anybody likes it or not -- or even acknowledges it for that matter.

And now, The Second American Revolution: Part III... But first, these important messages from our sponsors.


wp

[lutefisk]

4. Nice interview, but the commondreams.org headline is misleading

He didn't say the US is in need of a rebellion. That implies something he didn't say.

He talked about a popular movement (a "movement of rebellion") akin to "labour movement, the civil rights movement, the movement against the war in Vietnam."