Peter Daou wants to know if this is the best the US can do (h/t Digby):
A calamity is unfolding before our eyes – the greatest oil spill in history – and America’s response is little more than a big yawn.
The vast, sprawling coastal marshes of Louisiana, where the Mississippi River drains into the gulf, are among the finest natural resources to be found anywhere in the world. And they are a positively crucial resource for America. The response of the Obama administration and the general public to this latest outrage at the hands of a giant, politically connected corporation has been embarrassingly tepid. … This is the bitter reality of the American present, a period in which big business has cemented an unholy alliance with big government against the interests of ordinary Americans, who, of course, are the great majority of Americans. The great majority of Americans no longer matter. America is selling its soul for oil. – Bob Herbert
Where is the outrage? Where are the millions marching in the streets, where is the round-the-clock roadblock coverage tracking every moment of the crisis, every effort to plug the leak, every desperate attempt to mitigate the damage?
Where is the White House? Where are Republicans? Where are Democrats? Where is the left? Where is the right? Where is the “fierce urgency of now?”
Prominent oceanographers [are] accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope. The scientists assert that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have been slow to investigate the magnitude of the spill and the damage it is causing in the deep ocean. – NYT
In the movies, pretend heroes like Bruce Willis and Will Smith save the planet while the whole world watches with breath and belief suspended. In real life, a global catastrophe is treated like a mere annoyance, mismanaged by a rapacious oil company, while drill-baby-drillers double down on their folly and the White House puts out defensive fact sheets about how they were on it from “day one.”
In some parts of the country, the sight of oil drifting toward the Louisiana coast, oozing into the fragile marshlands and bringing large parts of the state’s economy to a halt, has prompted calls to stop offshore drilling indefinitely, if not altogether. Here, in the middle of things, those calls are few. Here, in fact, the unfolding disaster is not even prompting a reconsideration of the 75th annual Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. “All systems are go,” said Lee Delaune, the festival’s director, sitting in his cluttered office in a historic house known as Cypress Manor. “We will honor the two industries as we always do,” Mr. Delaune said. “More so probably in grand style, because it’s our diamond jubilee.” – NYT
Is this really the best we can do?
Yes, it pretty much is, Peter. First, this shows the fundamental continuity between Bush and Obama. The reaction to this is fundamentally the same as the reaction to Katrina and New Orleans: do the least possible, and sweep it under the rug as best you can. Does anyone imagine the Bush administration’s response to this disaster would have been fundamentally different from Obama’s? Or rather, does anyone think that Obama has treated this more seriously than Bush would have?
But Daou’s point is broader than this, he blames everyone. The left, the right, both parties, the public. The outrage over this doesn’t seem to be there, the demands for action are tepid.
I think this comes back to something about Americans I’ve witnessed over and over again. Many Americans, if something doesn’t directly affect them, think it doesn’t matter enough to get worked up over. There is this weird sense of “we’ll be fine and who cares about what’s happening to someone I don’t know?” Americans can’t really imagine disaster, or catastrophe, unless it happens to them or someone they’re close to. Otherwise, it’s all just “something on TV”, and fundamentally unreal to them.
So they don’t connect the dots. They don’t get what wiping out all this sea life, destroying beaches and marshlands, is going to do to them. (Among other things, dying wetlands means more likelihood of Katrina style disasters). Of course some of them do care and do connect the dots, but believe that there’s nothing they can do. After all, millions protested the Iraq war and it didn’t matter. Americans voted in Democrats in 2006 to end the Iraq war, and it didn’t happen. Americans called 19/1 against TARP and it passed. Americans voted in Obama to get real change, and he decided to be Bush #2.
I think it’s probably a bit of both: some folks just don’t see how it affects them and don’t care about things that affect other Americans, while other folks care or understand, but feel that there’s nothing they can do about it, since government is almost entirely unresponsive to their concerns, so why waste time getting worked up?
This is America, Peter. The best suffer from learned helplessness, the worst just don’t care unless they’re the ones being hurt.
Curmudgeon
I think much of American public indifference to anything beyond themselves can be attributed to the fact that the typical American has been so completely stripped of their economic and personal security and independence that they don’t have the strength left to give a damn about anyone else.
It’s hard to find the time to care about people you don’t know if you’re forced to spend every waking hour working to make ends meet. It’s even harder to care about people you don’t know if you’re always one illness away from bankruptcy and one paycheque away from not putting food on the table.
The lack of a solid social safety net and adequate protections against abuses by business and government has real psychosocial and political consequences.
Lex
And even when Americans try to care, debate or get angry about, say, the Gulf Blowout, they’ll be confronted with the issue as thoroughly politicized. Confronted with plenty of people arguing in favor of BP and whatever might be good for corporations.
A commenter at Scholars and Rogues told the rest of us to shut up because it wasn’t our problem; the oil would be washing up onto his beach in two weeks; and he was buying BP stock.
There is nothing that transcends politics in America anymore. No sense of right and wrong that isn’t fettered to a “D” or an “R”. And that leaves us a nation divided against itself, one that cannot stand.
CMike
The greatest political failure of the left is the lack of recognition of the power of broadcast media to shape the public’s perception of reality. Sure there’s a lot of bemoaning of the fact that the Main Stream Media are Corporate Media. However, not only has the left failed to make our central message the warning that corporations have a stranglehold on the flow and framing of information in this society but we’ve allowed the MSM to sell the public on the idea that it’s being bombarded with left-wing propaganda and that the capitalistic message barely has a chance to get through.
And for those voters who don’t pay attention to radio or television news and commentary there’s the endless stream of Hollywood movie and television dramas, which celebrate deadly scores of heroic fictional commandos and rogue cops who battle an unending flood of the sickest and most sadistic villains the imagination can conjure up, to shape their view of the world. Not to worry we’re taught, in the end the good guys acting behind the scenes will save the day.
beowulf
Does anyone imagine the Bush administration’s response to this disaster would have been fundamentally different from Obama’s? Or rather, does anyone think that Obama has treated this more seriously than Bush would have?
I disagree with the first part of that. If God presented Richard Bruce Cheney the opportunity to set off a nuke, he would not squander the gift.
http://www.americablog.com/2010/05/can-we-just-blow-up-oil-well-in-gulf.html
The Navy would have executed Operation Wigwam II the first week of the oil spill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRm32sv9mys
Cloud
Zombification by media technology.
Ecological disasters which are overwhelming to the point of apathy.
Government asserts right to kill any person at any time, anywhere in the world, without trial. Possibly by means of flying robots.
21st century go!
Cloud
Pending evaluation by actual geologists, I actually think using a nuke to collapse the oil volcano may be the best course of action. (Indeed it should have been done within a week or two, before so much oil go out, but teh authorities were so busy not looking to see how massive the problem was.)
There are things much worse than a single bomb’s worth of fallout. Like, say, the whole gulf ecosystem devastated by tar and oil, and God knows what long-term biological effects from the countless tons of dispersant chemicals sprayed on the whole thing.
pcurve
The American national identity has been falling apart. The country has become increasing fragmented. We only care about people who share strong commonalities with us, and unfortunately, being American isn’t one of them.
Also, the police state has effectively silenced the majority of ordinary people who are on the fence about public protest. With exceptions of communist countries, there is no other country in the world where people are more afraid of police than the U.S.
And finally, there is nothing to be proud of to be American anymore. Our enemies hate us. Our allies hate us. And we hate ourselves.
beowulf
That Obama sent an Energy Dept task force to the Gulf that included one of the inventors of the H-Bomb and the recently retired head of the Sandia nuclear lab is a tell that the President has nuking on the well on the table.
Unfortunately, as with his Afghanistan strategy, he’ll probably wait 3 months to make a decision that should have been made (for good or ill) immediately.
lambert strether
Peter Daou left out one question:
Where’s the legitimate institution?
Seriously.
anonymous
Learned helplessness? Not sure what kind of remark that is. I guess it means we’ve learned to hold our protests on weekends so as not to disrupt anyone’s commerce, and to do so in free speech zones behind chainlink fences and tear gas armed mounted police, a mile from anyone who might be offended. And god help any troublemaker who thinks to cross those lines, unless they are armed xtian white teabaggers.
Lori
What are Americans supposed to do? Even when 87% of us oppose something, like the Terry Schiavo intervention or the reforming of Social Security, our government does not pay attention. They do exactly what they want to do.
I literally have no idea what any of us could do that would make a difference. Come to think of it, I have no idea what ALL of us could do that would make a difference.
S Brennan
The reason there is no outrage is simple, right wing politics wants an extractive economy, Democrats, are now right wing [with personal liberties for the well off], Obama/Salazar personally involved themselves with British Petroleum on this particular well…and half of the Democratic party signed off on Obama & his tactics. Only 15-20% of US citizens are against what his wellhead represents, if you are Republican, or an Obama supporter, you supported this catastrophe with words and deeds. While Republicans want offshore oil production to work, Democrats[?] want the campaign contributions to flow from BP [and Obama is BP biggest recipient], so while Republicans may think BP management is vile, they say nothing…because it would hurt offshore oil production, meanwhile Democrats have married Obama and he’s whoring for British petroleum. Their is simply no opposition, if you’re a Republican or an Obama supporter…this is what is acceptable.
Bolo
“while other folks care or understand, but feel that there’s nothing they can do about it, since government is almost entirely unresponsive to their concerns, so why waste time getting worked up?”
This is basically where I’ve been headed recently. I just don’t see any way to make a difference anymore. After my wife and I move and get settled semi-permanently in the Northeast, we may try to do something with local volunteer organizations or with local government. But I have zero trust that the federal or state governments will ever listen to me or, if they seem to, that they won’t be robbing me blind while pretending to care.
At some point the disgust and outrage may reach a critical level. That will be the time to act. I just have no idea when that will be, if ever.
Bolo
Oh, and one last thing: another major de-motivator is the fact that so many of my fellow citizens believe absolutely repugnant things that I barely even know how to begin to argue against. People who hate the disabled and the poor. People who think that if you can’t feed yourself you deserve to die. People who think “blacks” are just “different than us” and all like to live on welfare. People who think that corporations should be allowed to do whatever they want (discriminate, etc.) because its their right. People who think government is always evil and corrupt (granted, there aren’t many positive examples at hand in the US right now). People who think that anyone suspected of terrorism must be guilty and should not be subject to a lawful trial.
I just got into an argument on Facebook with a friend from college who was arguing that capitalism was the purest form of freedom, that capitalism was the opposite of war, and that the Austrian School really knows what it’s talking about and that the government should be cut down to just contract enforcement. I know many of these people, not all quite as intellectual as my friend, and its almost impossible to engage with them. Not just about capitalism and the role of the government in markets, but most topics. No, scratch that–its just overwhelmingly tiring. Arguing with them is like trying to argue in a foreign language that I barely know, since there are so many things they take for granted that I do not–and challenging those basic precepts of their thinking is almost impossible. I still do it from time to time, but I have this strong urge to just turn inward and retreat.
It’s like the public debate (and most private ones) are based on concepts and thinking that have little or no grounding in reality. Someone in the comments above used the word “politicized” to describe something like this–I definitely agree. Our society is so politicized that we’ve mostly lost touch with cold, hard reality. We’re not unique in this regard, but its still frustrating and sad.
anonymous
“At some point the disgust and outrage may reach a critical level. That will be the time to act. I just have no idea when that will be, if ever.”
I think the disgust and outrage of the rightwingers is way ahead of ours, at least as far as getting to the point where they will take action. And they are the ones who can get away with taking illegal actions. I suppose that means the powers that be understand the illegal actions will be taken against liberals, leftists, unions and other unamerican elements, even if that means taking out a few lowly civil servants (fly a plane into a government office, and the preznit won’t make a peep, and congress will make a halfhearted peep 2 weeks later. try to fly one into congress or wall street and the constitution is suspended indefinitely). As for the time to act against evil, I’m starting to think it doesn’t matter. Evil is clever, but foolish and ultimately sefldestructive. I don’t think evil has ever been defeated by good. It just burns itself out for a generation or so. And I think the US is at the begining of its flameout.
Mandos
Yes. This is the problem. It must be understood that there is a significant segment of the population who actually want things to be this way. Really, truly.
BDBlue
Building on what Curmudgeon said, I would not discount fear as a motivating (or rather demotivating) factor. See this article about environmentalists protesting mountaintop removal who were arrested and had bail set at $100,000 – http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/environmentalists-100000-bail-for-civil-disobedience/2865/.
Most Americans are simply not in a position to take these kinds of risks. There is no social safety net. Most people work crappy jobs they need more than their employer needs them with no union or other group to protect them. There’s little societal reward these days for doing the right thing. There will be no one coming in on white horses to help them if they get fired and little protection from being fired. Look at the whistleblowers during the Bush years – unprotected and some are now being prosecuted by the Obama Administration (people they probably thought would be outraged by the abuse, not outraged about the whistleblowing).
This, btw, I think explains a lot of the really awful things so many Americans spew about their fellow Americans – they’re terrified and morally compromised and all of that comes together in a very dangerous mix of rage, fear, and self-justification over the things we’ve had to do because of rage and fear. Any help given by the government to your fellow American becomes a threat to you because we live in a society with vicious competition. If someone else succeeds that almost guarantees someone else is going to fail since we’ve been promoting policies that encourage people to fight over the same pile of money instead of building new wealth.
The anger may come off as incomprehensible and illogical, but I’m not sure it is. If your competition succeeding means you’ll starve, then the natural human instinct is to try to make sure your competition fails. In the midst of that struggle for survival, it seems only natural that people will not be able to lift their heads up and wonder why it is there’s such a competition in the first place and isn’t there a better way? Because to do so risks diverting your attention from the battle at hand, which could result in your lack of survival.
And I do mean survival. Poverty kills.
The gutting of the American middle class (including blue collar middle class) has destroyed activism, IMO.
David H.
The protest of millions against the Gulf War had no effect. The fact that the majority of Americans favored single-payer or opposed the bailout/giveaway had no effect. Democracy is fundamentally broken in the US, and everywhere you look there are strong disincentives to protest in any way. Only the threat of large-scale violence and civil unrest, as the govt feared in the 1960s, could possibly have any effect on our “elected” leaders. The atomization of society makes that unlikely until large numbers of people are homeless and hungry. We ain’t there yet.
tsisageya
I can barely read what most people write. How does it feel assholes? How does it feel to be helpless? How does it feel that the powerful and rich can suck you dry while you vote and make treaties? How does it feel that the Constitution is nothing but bullshit, nothing but a piece of paper? How does it feel that a certain Constitution and Bill of Rights is so full of crap? How does it feel that your government doesn’t give a shit about you?
How the fuck does it feel?
No one remembers the Native American
except me. I will always remember.
(Ian-don’t call other commenters assholes please.)
Z
We are under rule in this country. We have a government that does not represent us, which by definition makes us subjects. A lot of people realize this, but no one wants to pay the price for making our rulers pay a price for their inhumane and immoral system, becoz the price is almost certain death.
Their system is harsh on their subjects … it incarcerates us at the highest rate of any country by far and the incarceration includes the threat of the being raped, something that the state condones, and terrorizes and threatens its subjects with … but their system makes it almost impossible to hold the masters of it accountable. That means that we have to break laws to exact a toll from them, and at this point the only way to get their attention is via violence … for them to physically fear fucking us over. If someone chooses to do that, it is almost certainly suicidal … your chances of getting away with it in our militarized security and surveillance state is damn near zero.
I don’t know if is fair to call us individually cowards, but I do believe that we suffer from a collective cowardice which is rooted in our inability to become collective and unite.
Z
tsisageya
Right, Z. How does it feel?
Z
tsisageya,
It doesn’t feel good, obviously.
How do you know that “(n)o one remembers the Native American”? I know I do … and it’s a subject that’s been part of many conversations that I’ve had.
Z
S Brennan
tsisageya,
Who made you Chief of all the tribes?
What tribe gave you the right to speak for them?
Native Americans in Louisiana are going to suffer more than any other group.
Native People are going to get sick and die and your swarmy smug comments uses their suffering to make an idiotic point. Native Americans have been abused and this oil spill is part of that abuse…and you are happy about that? What a jerk.
I remember when when an Israeli woman was smugly saying to a media-news camera on 9/11/2001 “now you know how it feels” a new york bystander called her a [deleted] and asked if she was aware of how many Jews had died in the towers? She didn’t know what to say, it was clear that had never entered into her tiny little mind, so the guy made it clear that he was Jewish and that she should shut her [deleted] mouth.
FYI, about 18% of the victims were Jewish using surnames from NYT. This Israeli woman, in order to make a swarmy smug point was celebrating the deaths of 500+ Jews. What a jerk.
http://journalstar.com/news/national/article_5ebd077f-4964-5907-b8d0-8c826e61b158.html
anonymous
“How the fuck does it feel?
No one remembers the Native American
except me. I will always remember.”
So I guess that makes you one of us at last. Welcome, and please remember to wipe.
dcblogger
You keep writing these posts about what Americans are failing to do, I ask you, as a Canadian, have you done what you could do to support your friends to the south?
http://www.correntewire.com/word_our_friends_abroad
Ian Welsh
I’ve spent the last 5 years of my life doing pretty much nothing else but educating American, thanks.
S Brennan
dcblogger,
Ian & I have our bouts, so I am not from the sycophantic, or or Bowers Boy blog section of Blog-go-Stan. I’ve been happy to tell Ian to e’ff off and he has been able to emote a .
I think he has done far more than you and I want you to note I was a US Army soldier, in other words…I served the US…did you serve in US/CAN Armed Forces? Perhaps some modesty is in order?
Further, I’ve been reading you for while over at Lamberts…only recently have you left the conventional wisdom reservation.
I think you need to do few more acts of contrition before you go all MISSIONARY on Ian….K?
Ian’s okay with me, I think your self-congratulatory post is over-wrought.
dcblogger
Maybe we need fewer lectures and more gestures of solidarity.
S Brennan
Yeah dude…
“Maybe we need fewer lectures and more gestures of solidarity”. – dcblogger
A really amusing comment…seeing how you led off with a comment that should get filed under:
non-sequitur, smug, derisive & self-congratulatory.
If you want to have the last word you may want to try:
“Yeah…sorry Ian, my comment came off poorly” then finish with a flurry like “Solidarity Brother” or maybe just “eh”.
Michael Collins
There are plenty of citizens in the United States who connect the dots. In fact, it’s an actual majority. The opportunities for national expression have been completely removed. We get to have arguments over Hillary versus Barack as though that means anything (they’re clones working for the same bosses). The news media disgraces itself on a daily basis. The dialog at the local and state level is tightly controlled as well. Organize, demonstrate and you get the G-20 SWAT team treatment. Free speech is dead. The police enforce the propaganda directives without reflection.
Nevertheless, the people have their own news service and this is part of it. The lies of the “bipartisan” controllers are deconstructed and dismissed on the internet in record time. Whenever there’s an unbiased poll with reasonable questions, the public chooses correctly.
Dismissing our inability to act or even connect the dots without considering the above invalidates the discussion. Restricted dialog, controlled opposition, and a corporate media are the horsemen of our apocalypse. Their efforts and the current charade of control will be short lived.
tsisageya
How do you know that “(n)o one remembers the Native American”? I know I do … and it’s a subject that’s been part of many conversations that I’ve had.
How do I know? I know because I look out and see. Pine Ridge? For example. Do not speak to me. I’m tired of talking. What horseshit.
tsisageya
How does it feel?
http://www.livevideo.com/video/embedLink/FA115D7223B8442A82E5A3AE920F0F94/738013/bob-dylan-like-a-rolling-sto.aspx
tsisageya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8kMXufu3w&feature=player_embedded
Z
tsisageya,
“How do I know? I know because I look out and see.”
You don’t see very far.
Z
tsisageya
You may all be right to berate me. I am emotional about certain things. Not just emotional, though. Injustice has a place in my harsh words. I can’t seem to help it. History has a place as well. The fact that this country was built on racism, genocide and greed gets to me so that the history of our Constitution and Bill of Rights have come to mean less than nothing to me.
I am not the leader of any tribe or nation. I’m just a woman who is deathly sick of the bullshit that I see swirling around me.
Excuse the fuck out of me for having a goddamn OPINION.
Frank
America the oil crazy nation,payback is a bitch.way to go B.P keep that oil pumping.
Nothing will change
Nothing will change until the shipments to Burger King stop.