I feel bad about listing this post under “politics,” but what isn’t political? In any case, I lost it last night. Between watching CNN and reading nearly every major thread on dKos, I just crumbled and started sobbing. I can’t think, write, or even look at pictures of people on rooftops without noticing how it’s getting a little dusty in here. CNN absolutely unloaded on the government, and I hear that other news outlets did, too. (That’s the best thing about a community like dKos: you have thousands of people watching and scouring the media so you don’t have to.) In fact, the hate was so strong that Bush has changed his tune and now calls relief efforts “not acceptable.” Of course they aren’t, you asshole. Your fucking administration gutted them!
But what was interesting last night is to see how much of this transcends even the local instance of neglect and incompetence. The Katrina aftermath is more than an indictment of the Bush Administration; it’s an indictment of the very philosophy of government that has guided the GOP (and DLC) for decades: government is bad and only wasteful.
I’m pretty sympathetic to anarcho-syndicalist complaints against government. Yes, it’s a hegemonic structure, fucking over the little guy by definition. But if we lived in the libertarian fantasy wonderland that the GOP allegedly wants, how much worse off would New Orleans have been? This disaster should show the world what happens when you let the “free market” dictate stuff, when you privatise everything with no oversight. You end up with paper tiger departments completely tossed around by street thugs, with military choppers afraid of small fire. Nine years ago, my conspiracy-minded righty acquaintances would kvetch about FEMA all the time—FEMA was the dirtiest word in their lexicon. It would be FEMA that would take their guns and their dope. It would be through FEMA that the US would curb individual rights. Well, now FEMA’s been gutted, and we have people who haven’t eaten in five days. We have a director who didn’t know for four days, despite its being all over television, that there were over 5000 people in the Convention Center.
Fuck you and your selfish individualism, you prick libertarians. You compassion-less assholes.
Anyway, I’m rambling. Although about 90% of the dKos front page last night was aces, this piece by Hunter should be read by everyone. I haven’t read all the comments, but I did read this one, by a native of Bangladesh who was in NYC during September 11. The underlying point deserves repeating over and over:
In Bangladesh, floods happen, and lots of people die. But the government tries as hard as it can to save as many people as it can. It’s not the most powerful government in the history of the world. It’s not the richest government in the history of the world. It’s not the most militarised government in the history of the world. It’s just a small government of poor Bangladeshis trying to cope with the fact that they live in a really dangerous part of the world. In the meantime, the most n government of the world lets a metropolis turn into Bangladesh on its watch. Have we seen 100% from the federal government? Are they for real?
It’s shocking. It’s shameful. And that’s why I’ve been teary-eyed for over a day now.
September 2nd, 2005 at 18:42
I agree. This is just shameful. We’ve spent countless dollars on improving “homeland security” over the past four years–presumably so we would be ready for domestic disasters–and the feds are now just barely starting to intervene. Five days.
This also made me really mad.
September 7th, 2005 at 1:28
“It’s just a small government of poor Bangladeshis trying to cope with the fact that they live in a really dangerous part of the world.”
After sharing an anecdote about a much smaller government that at
least at the moment seems much more effective in dealing with floods
(in part, surely, because floods are more common there), you conclude
that the problem has been ‘libertarian’ republicans shrinking
government. How does this make any sense at all? Has it occured to you
that the problem hasn’t been funding but rather bureaucracy? Have
you noticed that there is nothing libertarian at all about the current
Republican administration–that they’re increasing the size of gov’t
much faster than, say, Clinton did. Also, FEMA has nothing to do
with the free market. It is still a federal program. The problem may
well have been Bush folding the program into Homeland Security (read:
a bigger bureaucratic morass) and making it subsequently less
effective. Again, the problem doesn’t seem to be funding but rather
thick layers of bureaucracy. Why would you want to throw money at
this? Katrina may be (in a small way) an indictment of the very
philosophy that guides the current GOP administration, but you
completely misunderstand what that philosophy is. It isn’t small
gov’t, Goldwater conservatism, that’s for sure. It’s really the
mirror image of big government progressives with a different social
agenda.
September 7th, 2005 at 11:05
Friedrich, I’m fing on mini-hiatus.
Smaller was meant relatively in my comparison to B’desh. Smaller in terms of resources, and not, perhaps, on ideological grounds.
Your points about a bloated government miss the point: tied into the libertarian philosophy, as I’ve seen it exercised on the street, is a contempt for government—such that when such contemptuous people get in government, they act with indifference and people die. That’s the point.
Furthermore, despite the bloat, FEMA has been shrunken. It was folded into dhs. The most telling example of the “shrunken” gov’t is when Bush is tending to those two young black women and he tells them not to worry; there’s a Salvation Army truck around. Salvation Army? not part of the gov’t. Just sayin’…
The Feds outsourced disaster relief. That’s what I mean. If that means it’s bigger or smaller, I don’t know. That’s from where the free market business comes, too.
September 7th, 2005 at 23:41
“. . . tied into the libertarian philosophy, as I’ve seen it exercised on the street,
is a contempt for government—such that when such contemptuous people get in government,
they act with indifference and people die.”
Mr. M,
Your street observations have not given you an accurate portrait of what Libertarianism
is. Try reading my book, “Road to Serfdom.” Just a friendly suggestion.
Yours,
F.