As anyone could have guessed when the U.S. under G W Bush invaded Iraq and recognized Kosovo, any other power with ambitions is now at liberty to bypass international law. We see the consequences most obviously these days in Georgia.
Bush' legacy is a destabilized world, to the detriment of the U.S' own security interests. No loudmouthing from the Bush administration can conceal this. Other governments, e.g. the Swedish, that follow suit are merely showing that they have not understood the implications of U.S. policies in recent years. Add to that, in the Swedish case, a foreign minister who has investments in the oil business - crucially important in the case of Georgia - and we find a conflict of interest that is so blatantly embarrasing that it is miraculous that he is still in office.
Psychologically the stance of the governments aligning themselves with the U.S. is easy to understand, as they are embarrassingly eager to perform the role of Bush' lapdogs.
The Moral Economy of Sustainable and Democratic Societies
This is held to be among reasonable and convincing premises for the long term success and survival of liberal and democratic societies:
’In A Theory of Justice, [John] Rawls defends a conception of “justice as fairness.” He holds that an adequate account of justice cannot be derived from utilitarianism, because that doctrine is consistent with intuitively undesirable forms of government in which the greater happiness of a majority is achieved by neglecting the rights and interests of a minority. Reviving the notion of a social contract, Rawls argues that justice consists of the basic principles of government that free and rational individuals would agree to in a hypothetical situation of perfect equality. In order to ensure that the principles chosen are fair, Rawls imagines a group of individuals who have been made ignorant of the social, economic, and historical circumstances from which they come, as well as their basic values and goals, including their conception of what constitutes a “good life.” Situated behind this “veil of ignorance,” they could not be influenced by self-interested desires to benefit some social groups (i.e., the groups they belong to) at the expense of others. Thus they would not know any facts about their race, sex, age, religion, social or economic class, wealth, income, intelligence, abilities, talents, and so on.
In this “original position,” as Rawls characterizes it, any group of individuals would be led by reason and self-interest to agree to the following principles:
(1) Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.
(2) Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.’
(from Encyclopædia Britannica, on ’John Rawls’)
Taken as an ideal of policymaking, the above stands in stark contrast to the actual policy processes of today, were MNCs and their self-serving CEOs – "the military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower warned against – have pocketed legislative bodies across the globe. This may read like populism, but is intended to make us realize the gravity of the current situation, and open up for a discussion on how to reverse these processes.
Again in Eisenhower's words, so different in profundity from the leaders of today: "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
’In A Theory of Justice, [John] Rawls defends a conception of “justice as fairness.” He holds that an adequate account of justice cannot be derived from utilitarianism, because that doctrine is consistent with intuitively undesirable forms of government in which the greater happiness of a majority is achieved by neglecting the rights and interests of a minority. Reviving the notion of a social contract, Rawls argues that justice consists of the basic principles of government that free and rational individuals would agree to in a hypothetical situation of perfect equality. In order to ensure that the principles chosen are fair, Rawls imagines a group of individuals who have been made ignorant of the social, economic, and historical circumstances from which they come, as well as their basic values and goals, including their conception of what constitutes a “good life.” Situated behind this “veil of ignorance,” they could not be influenced by self-interested desires to benefit some social groups (i.e., the groups they belong to) at the expense of others. Thus they would not know any facts about their race, sex, age, religion, social or economic class, wealth, income, intelligence, abilities, talents, and so on.
In this “original position,” as Rawls characterizes it, any group of individuals would be led by reason and self-interest to agree to the following principles:
(1) Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others.
(2) Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.’
(from Encyclopædia Britannica, on ’John Rawls’)
Taken as an ideal of policymaking, the above stands in stark contrast to the actual policy processes of today, were MNCs and their self-serving CEOs – "the military-industrial complex" that Eisenhower warned against – have pocketed legislative bodies across the globe. This may read like populism, but is intended to make us realize the gravity of the current situation, and open up for a discussion on how to reverse these processes.
Again in Eisenhower's words, so different in profundity from the leaders of today: "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Aug 15, 2008
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