Bernie Babbles On

Bernie Babbles On

Peter Schultz

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/04/tlcc-n04.html

Sanders is at a loss, hence, his “crocodile tears” for Gaza while supporting Israel’s military actions. "Starting with the headline “Gaza needs a humanitarian pause, then we need a vision of where we go from here,” Sanders adopts a vague and passive style….” 

Sanders, like most, doesn’t understand that the “barbarism” he and others complain about - often focusing on the barbarism of one side or the other - is that that barbarism is endemic to contemporary politics. It isn’t an aberration, it isn’t an anomaly. It’s the essence of contemporary politics, as practiced by al Qaeda, the United States, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, or the Palestinians. Because Sanders doesn’t understand this, he has nothing useful to say. He just babbles on. And “the barbarism” goes on and on and on, with pauses every so often. 

in brief: It’s not simply that the Palestinians’ attack was barbaric. It’s that our politics is generally, deeply barbaric, characterized by death and destruction, even annihilation, which are seen as the keys to progress.

 

And here is the genuinely troubling thing: What if that’s correct? What if progress can only come by means of death, destruction, and annihilation? 

Perhaps the choice is rather simple: Either we embrace a politics of annihilation or we embrace a politics of accommodation. Right now, though, we don’t even recognize we have a choice.