Pluralists for Tyranny?

In the midst of a kind of rambling and overall poorly written post on the role of narratives in political discourse, I wrote the brilliant line that "superficially going to war doesn't seem to mesh well with pacifism."

Okay, maybe not my best work, even though it was intended to be ironic. The underlying point was that the if pacifists adopt that position instrumentally in order to pursue "deeper" values (like social justice or avoidance of harm to individuals), then a well-constructed narrative could convince an erstwhile pacifist to support a certain war (say, one to end a genocide) by reinforcing, not refuting, their pre-existing value system. But whatever--it was inartfully worded, and I deserved to be mocked.

And mocked I was, by Jazz Shaw of Running Scared. But then he steps past that and makes me a convenient straw man to bash all sorts of nasty things. Specifically:

A thumbnail description of why people following this particular theory try to call themselves "liberal" while endorsing Bush, preemptive wars and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as long as it's among "the good countries" could not be crafted in the space available. However, the crux of it is that "we" (and by "we", the theory refers exclusively to America) are essentially perfect. And as perfect beings, we somehow need to "save" the other countries of the world from themselves and their inferior societies, if necessary, by war. Spending our most precious capital -namely the blood of our youth - is somehow seen as "for the greater good" as long as we can bring them to see the light.

I'd write a long argument against this, but let's face it... it falls apart on its own. There are so many religions in the world... so many forms of government... so many opinions. Most all of them are valid for people of good intentions who love their own countries and societies and cultures. The mind reels. I welcome you to read the short but stunning (you fill in exactly why it's stunning) work of... David Schraub.
[...]
I can't tell if it's more amusing or frightening. What I do know is that it perfectly sums up the "theory" of the neocons who want to use preemptive war to project American power and "theory" on other cultures. To take those theories, even if you seriously believe them, and couch them in a cloak of faux liberalism, though, borders on insulting.

Somehow, I endorse Bush (I don't), advocate the spread of WMDs (again, I don't), believe that only American ideas/religions/opinions are worthwhile (take a guess), and am a neo-conservative who wishes to project American power (I'm not). In all actuality, I'm a neo-liberal anti-Bushite who believes in an at least partial WMD disarmament and is committed the liberation of those suffering under tyranny and oppression.

Since some folks don't seem to understand the difference between neo-cons and neo-libs, I'll try and spell it out. Neo-cons, as Jazz helpfully points (and rather unhelpfully ascribes to me) believe that America is "perfect" or nearly so, and that a just world is an Ameicanized world--whatever that means. If America is perfect, than anything we do in the pursuit of perfecting the world (torture, indefinite detention, etc) is justified. Neo-liberals, by contrast, are committed to certain ideals, among them democratization, equal rights, and other liberal mainstays. For us, America is instrumentally useful for achieving those goals--but certainly does not inherently embody them. So we'll loudly press for American-led democratization--while at the same time condemning American-caused atrocities like Abu Gharib. Where we join forces with neo-cons is that we do not see an alternative to an American led effort to secure these ends. No other organization or nation is remotely capable of achieving these goals. Ideally, would I prefer a nation or group that has a better track record than America to undertake this project? Sure. But who is out there? The UN? The EU? Don't make me laugh. At the moment, the US is the only choice we have.

Okay, now that we've gotten identity out the of the way, let's look at just who's argument falls apart on it's own terms, eh? Poor word choice aside, it seems quite reasonable for liberals of any stripe to push for the liberation of oppressed peoples. And realists of any stripe recognize that sometimes asking nicely doesn't work. So a liberalism that is in touch with reality has to occasionally sanction the use of force--and it certainly can't indulge in the sort of soft post-modernism Jazz embodies with his fuzzy talk of "so many opinions."

That, of course, is what makes Jazz's argument really ironic. "Pacifists for armed intervention" may be silly, but no more so than his "pluralists for tyrannies" objection. I recognize that Iraqis have many opinions--some of which are different from mine. In fact, I'm so cognizant of the fact that I'd actually like to give them the chance to express them! The right to self-determination, to be free of rape rooms and torture-on-whim, these aren't American rights (we too have violated them before). They're human rights--and at the moment America is the only chance of securing them.

What Jazz doesn't realize is that a "look-the-other-way" foreign policy is a conscious choice--one that dooms millions to rape, mutilation, and death. So when the US refuses to intervene to overthrow dictatorships, it isn't a "neutral" act but a positive affirmation of the current state of affairs. Effectively, Jazz is using pluralism to prop up authoritarianism--a contradiction in terms if I ever saw one. Jazz acts as if the contemporary global situation is natural and inevitable--that American efforts to rectify the situation are an illegitimate imposition on the way things "should be." Such a view is nakedly conservative--it not only asserts the naturality of the wretched state of the third world, but it implies that it is their choice to be that way. If trying to create progressive democracies is pushing an "American" theory or way of life, then the corollary is that the status quo--totalitarianism, oppression, poverty--is "their" way of life. That isn't liberalism. That's rationalization for refusing to rectify the pervasive inequalities that plague the modern world. If that's the new liberalism, then call me a moderate, call me a conservative, call me something else. But I refuse to believe it.

If you look closely, you can see the conservatism in the argument itself. Note what Jazz labels the "capital" being expended here: "the blood of our youth." Presumably also our money, our resources, and our attention. Of course, not a word is said about the capital expended when we do nothing: the blood of their youth (and adults), their money, resources, and attention (in quantities, proportionally, that dwarf what we'd expend). For an argument that purports to critique ethnocentrism, it sure does a damn fine job of marginalizing the Other. What of them? It is highly revealing that the interests of Iraqis or Afghanis or what have you play precisely no role in Jazz's moral calculus. After all, we both claim to be speaking for the best interests of the oppressed. Yet while at least the neo-liberals can provide concrete methodologies to improve the lives of the worst well-off, the leftist stance Jazz postulates consists mostly of looking in the mirror and beating ourselves bloody. We use the poor to whip ourselves, and then say what good persons we are because we're incorporating them into our discourse! Hurray for us! But true liberation isn't a product of making the oppressed our intellectual playthings, it's about seriously and materially working to improve their lives. We can't do that behind a podium in Turtle Bay--and it's willful ignorance to pretend otherwise.

Obviously, liberalism is a contested subject. But at the point where the "liberal" position is one that justifies inequality, shies away from reform, attacks liberators, and defends the status quo even in the face of sickening atrocities--at that point the term becomes distorted beyond recognition. Jazz can believe what he wants--but I'll defend my position as the true heir to liberalism any day of the week.

UPDATE: I go yet further into depth here.