Numb

BACKGROUND

See,

James Rowles, “Sleepwalking in the garden of fascism: ‘Merrily we roll along!’’ The Trenchant Observer, June 2, 2021.

Things are not going well in America or in the world.

Like many others, I am numb.

I am numb from seeing Israel commit war crimes on a daily basis in Gaza, and acquiescing in if not fomenting settler violence in the West Bank.

I am numb from observing America's complicity in the commission of these Israeli war crimes.

I am numb from all of Joe Biden's talk of peace in Gaza and Israel, coupled with his absolute refusal to use the instruments of American power to bring about that peace.

I am numb from all of the talk about a ceasefire and release of Israeli hostages deal, the evil ploy used by Israel to hold out hope while it continues to kill thousands of civilians in Gaza, and while Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately acts to kill any ceasefire and release of hostages deal whenever negotiations appear close to agreement.

I am tired of Joe Biden's endless assertions that he is pressuring Israel to kill fewer civilians, as he approves a $20 billion military aid package without effective limits on Israeli actions, without even emphasizing those restrictions already contained in American law which prohibit arms transfers when the arms might be used in ways other than self-defense (as defined by international law and the U.N. Charter).

I am numb from watching the horror show in Gaza, and the horror show in the White House where the president will not withhold the U.S. veto in the U.N. Security Council to allow it to take effective action by, e.g., imposing sanctions on Israel for its blockade and other war crimes in Gaza.

I am numb from watching Joe Biden impose prohibitions on the use by Ukraine of weapons supplied by NATO countries against targets in Russia when such action is fully justified under the international law of self-defense and the United Nations Charter.

I am numb from listening to specious justifications for such restrictions, with the armchair warriors in U.S. military ranks telling the Ukrainians the weapons would not be effective despite Ukraine's contrary view and urgent and repeated pleas for such weapons.

I am numb from observing Joe Biden's cowardice in confronting Vladimir Putin and Russia since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022, always withholding needed weapons for as long as he can until unity in the NATO alliance threatens to dissolve.

I am numb from the cowardice that assumes that this is Ukraine’s war, not our war, as the world faces the greatest challenge to civilization and the international legal order since World War II.

Finally, I am numb as I watch half the people in America abandon reason and all moral principles as they surrender to the cult of Donald Trump and the growing fascist movement in the United States.

I am numb as I see the formation of a powerful alliance between so-called "low-information voters" and highly educated business people, often billionaires or very wealthy individuals, who cynically support the Leader believing as their counterparts in Germany believed in the 1930’s that they can control the fascists.

Who are these "low-information voters"? They are the voters who with their cynical business allies would again elect Donald Trump, who charitably might be called the ultimate "low information president".

Yet let us dig further. What, really, is a “low-information voter”?

He is a voter who has not taken the trouble to investigate the facts regarding different candidates and issues, being content to go with the mass emotions of his tribe.

Is it not the first duty of citizenship in a democracy to inform oneself about the candidates and the issues in an election?

The media will not call out these “low-information voters” as lazy or stupid people, because they depend on selling soap and other goods and services to these same people.

Who came up with such a marvelous euphemism as the "low-information voter"?

Well, I'm numb from all of the above.

One thing is clear to me.

The future of American democracy, as well as the moral basis and strategic coherence of U.S. foreign policy, now depends on the half of the American electorate who might still be able to think and act in a rational manner, if they could only wake up from the their current torpor and numbness, and act to save the Republic.

FURTHER READING

James Rowles, “A Parable of our time: ‘Our democratic house is on fire!’” The Trenchant Observer, September 23, 2021.

James Rowles is a former Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and professor of international law at other universities. He is the author of The Rape of American Democracy: Republican Actions and Democratic Failures, 2016-2021 (forthcoming in September, 2024).

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