Opinion
America is
spiritually bankrupt. We must fight back together
The
undeniable collapse of integrity, honesty and decency in our public and private
life has fueled racial hatred and contempt
by Cornel
West
Sun 14 Jan
2018 09.00 GMT Last modified on Sun 14 Jan 2018 09.01 GMT
We live in
one of the darkest moments in American history – a bleak time of spiritual
blackout and imperial meltdown. Exactly 25 years ago, in my book Race Matters,
I tried to lay bare the realities and challenges to American democracy in light
of the doings and sufferings of black people. Back then, I reached
heartbreaking yet hopeful conclusions. Now, the heartbreak cuts much deeper and
the hope has nearly run out.
The
nihilism in black America has become a massive spiritual blackout in America.
The undeniable collapse of integrity, honesty and decency in our public and
private life has fueled even more racial hatred and contempt.
The rule of
Big Money and its attendant culture of cupidity and mendacity has so poisoned
our hearts, minds and souls that a dominant self-righteous neoliberal soulcraft
of smartness, dollars and bombs thrives with little opposition.
The
escalating military overreach abroad, the corruption of political and financial
elites at home, and the market-driven culture of mass distractions on the
internet, TV, and radio push toward an inescapable imperial meltdown, in which
chauvinistic nationalism, plutocratic policies and spectatorial cynicism run
amok.
Our last
and only hope is prophetic fightback – a moral and spiritual awakening that
puts a premium on courageous truth telling and exemplary action by individuals
and communities.
The
distinctive features of our spiritual blackout are threefold.
First, we
normalize mendacity and naturalize criminality. We make our lies look like the
normal order of things. And we make our crimes look like the natural order of
things. We too often say Wall Street is a good servant – rather than a bad
master – of the common good. Then we look away from the criminal behavior of
big banks because they are too indispensable to prosecute.
We deny
that drone strikes are killing innocent people abroad. Then we overlook killing
lists on Terror Tuesday at the White House, when the president and his staff
decide to execute people without any legal procedure, including innocent US
citizens.
Imperial
meltdown is at the center of our catastrophic times. Our ecological catastrophe
is real
Second, we
encourage callousness and reward indifference. We make mean-spiritedness look
manly and mature. And we make cold-heartedness look triumphant and victorious.
In our world of the survival of the slickest and the smartest, we pave the way
for raw greed and self-promotion. We make cowardice and avarice fashionable and
compassion an option for losers. We prefer market-driven celebrities who thrive
on glitzy spectacles and seductive brands over moral-driven exemplars who
strive on with their gritty convictions and stouthearted causes.
Third, we
trump the moral and spiritual dimensions of our lives and world by applauding
our short-term gains and superficial successes. This immoral and brutal
disposition reinforces – and, in part, is a result of – the all-encompassing
commodification of a predatory capitalism, running out of control in our
psyches and societies.
The
pervasive violence in our domestic lives and military policies abroad are
inseparable from the profit-driven marketization of our spiritually
impoverished capitalist civilization. And our civilization rests upon an
American empire in decline and decay.
Imperial
meltdown is at the center of our catastrophic times. Our ecological catastrophe
is real. The Anthropocene epoch engulfs us. Human practices –especially big
business and big military operations – now so deeply influence the Earth’s
atmosphere that extinctions loom large.
The
potential for nuclear catastrophe remains urgent as US-Russia tensions escalate
and other nuclear powers, like North Korea, China, Pakistan, India, and Israel,
are expanding and restless.
Our
economic catastrophes proliferate along with grotesque wealth inequality. Our
political catastrophes deepen as oligarchy triumphs from governmental
dysfunction. Our civic catastrophes deepen as the public interest, common good,
or even rule of law are undercut by big money.
And our
cultural catastrophes are often hidden – the vast and sad realities of trauma
and terror visited upon vulnerable fellow citizens who are disproportionately
poor people, LGBTQ people, peoples of color, women and children.
The
political triumph of Donald Trump is a symbol and symptom – not cause or origin
– of our imperial meltdown. Trump is neither alien nor extraneous to American
culture and history. In fact, he is as American as apple pie.
He is a
sign of our spiritual bankruptcy – all spectacle and no substance, all
narcissism and no empathy, all appetite and greed and no wisdom and maturity.
His triumph flows from the implosion of a Republican party establishment
beholden to big money, big military and big scapegoating of vulnerable peoples
of color, LGBTQ peoples, immigrants, Muslims, and women.
It also
flows from a Democratic party establishment beholden to big money, big
military, and the clever deployment of peoples of color, LGBTQ peoples,
immigrants, Muslims and women to hide and conceal the lies and crimes of
neoliberal policies here and abroad; and from a corporate media establishment
that aided and abetted Trump owing to high profits and revenues.
The painful
truth is there is no Donald Trump without Barack Obama, no neofascist stirrings
without neoliberal policies – all within the imperial zone. Obama was the
brilliant black smiling face of the American empire. Trump is the know-nothing
white cruel face of the American empire.
Obama did
not produce Trump, but his Wall Street–friendly policies helped facilitate
Trump’s pseudo-populist victory. Obama’s reluctance to confront race matters in
a serious and substantive manner did not cause the ugly white backlash, but Obama’s
hesitancy did not help the opposition to white-supremacist practices.
And, more
pointedly, both Obama and Trump – two different faces of the imperial meltdown
– supported military buildups, wars against Muslim-majority countries, drone
strikes, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people, illegal
imprisonments of innocent people, night raids on poor Muslim families, and
inhumane detention camps. These war policies and war crimes have come back to
devour what is left of America’s democratic soul.
So how do
we respond to our dark times? The greatest tradition of prophetic fightback in
the American empire is the black freedom struggle. The greatest tradition of
moral and spiritual fortitude in the American empire is the black musical
tradition.
The painful
truth is there is no Donald Trump without Barack Obama, no neofascist stirrings
without neoliberal policies
The
artistic excellence in the best of black music – including the magnanimity and
majesty of the sound – sets the standards for the black freedom struggle.
These
standards consist of radical freedom in love and radical love in freedom – the
freedom to tell the truth in love about one’s self and world, and the love of
the truth as one freely speaks and lives.
The
Movement for Black Lives is a grand sign of hope. It is an exemplary collective
effort to put prophetic fight back in our bleak moment of imperial meltdown and
spiritual blackout. The prophetic vision and social analyses of the Movement
for Black Lives begin with the most vulnerable, such as the precious LGBTQ
people subject to massive trauma and terror.
In this
way, the terror and trauma suffered by the people in Gaza, Iraq, Pakistan,
Yemen, and India (especially with Dalit peoples) are inseparable from the
trauma and terror in Baltimore, Ferguson, Oakland and Chicago.
Another
sign of hope is Reverend William J Barber II, the most Martin Luther King–like
figure in our time. His Moral Monday movement and now the Poor People’s
Campaign is, alongside people such as Father Michael Pfleger and his great
ministry at St Sabina Church in Chicago, the Reverend Katie M Ladd at Queen
Anne United Methodist Church in Seattle and the Reverend Michael McBride at the
Way Christian Center in Berkeley, California, the last hope for prophetic
Christianity in America.
Like the
Movement for Black Lives, the 8 March 2017 women’s mobilization was a grand
sign of hope. It shattered the neoliberal hegemony of the Women’s March of 21
January 2017 over the “feminist” label. In stark contrast to the fashionable
corporate feminism, boss feminism and top-down feminism of the corporate media,
the 8 March women’s mobilization put class matters, gender matters and LGBTQ
matters at the center of race matters and empire matters.
The
historic moment of Standing Rock, in which indigenous nations came together in
a struggle for sacred lands, self-respect and control over resources was
another grand sign of hope.
Race
matters in the 21st century are part of a moral and spiritual war over
resources, power, souls and sensibilities. There can be no analysis of race
matters without earth matters, class matters, gender matters and sexuality
matters and, especially, empire matters. We must have solidarity on all these
fronts.
As we fight
back, we remember the great visionary and exemplary figures and movements of
the past. These precious memories focus our attention on things that really
matter – not spectacle, image, money, and status but integrity, honesty,
dignity, and generosity.
This focus
locates and situates us in a long tradition of love warriors—not just polished
professionals or glitzy celebrities – but courageous truth tellers who fell in
love with the quest for justice, freedom, and beauty.
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