Reading notes

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo interviews George Soros, author of The Bubble of American Supremacy, “a critique of Bush administration foreign policy and particularly the ‘Bush Doctrine’” (boldface emphases, and theological spin, mine) —

TPM: What is the essential problem that you see with the Bush Doctrine, both as a doctrine and how it’s been practiced over the last two years now?

SOROS: Basically it asserts American supremacy, particularly military supremacy. … It’s built on two pillars: One, that the United States must preserve and maintain its unquestioned military supremacy both globally and in any particular region. Two, the United States has a right to preemptive action. Each of these points on their own have some validity. It is desirable that we should have such military superiority, and under some circumstances it may be necessary to engage in preemptive action. But if you combine the two, it really establishes two classes of sovereignty: the sovereignty of the United States, which is sacrosanct and not subject to any international constraint, and the sovereignty of all other states, which is subject to the Bush Doctrine …

So it is reminiscent of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. You know, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. And this is in contradiction of the values that have made America great. It is basically one of the belief in inequality. And it is unacceptable — cannot possibly be accepted — by the rest of the world, as demonstrated by the allergic reaction to the first practical application of this doctrine in Iraq.

The absolute injustice and unsustainability of the Bush Doctrine, well put here, should be obvious to a schoolchild, should it not?

SOROS: … So that’s the first thing [about this administration]: the fact that their ideology of power and dominance is false. It actually doesn’t work. That’s number one. Secondly, it’s profoundly un-American, because we have, you know, a belief in the equality of opportunities and the very principles of America are not ones of dominance. … So, secondly, it’s really un-American; it’s a break with American values.

This is the part I’ve been so floored that Christians miss: No ideology of dominance can be from God, for God is always about “setting the captives free.” Domination is always the work of the Enemy.

And there is another aspect that is coming into sharper focus to me, even since I wrote the book. That is that this administration has no compunction in misleading the people. It has no respect for the truth. This, I think, is a real danger. It is the danger of an Orwellian world. … And there is only one remedy: an intelligent and enlightened electorate that sees through it.

I’m always struck by how Jesus calls the Enemy “the father of lies.” If this is true, then whenever lies and deception become rampant, surely it’s clear who’s begetting them.

Can we as an electorate be intelligent and enlightened enough to recognize this and effect the remedy?

Now, I find myself in a peculiar position, because having grown up or been exposed to the Nazi regime and the communist regime [see Soros bio], I am very sensitive to this kind of propaganda. And the American people, not having been exposed to quite the same extent, seem to be more easily misguided.

Being misguided is understandable. Staying misguided — by choice — leads to hell. For every definition of hell I can think of.

SOROS: Open society is always endangered. But the dangers are different in character. So, it was endangered by Nazism, it was by fascism, it was endangered by Communism. And now it is endangered in a very unusual, in a very unexpected way, from a very unexpected quarter, which is the United States. I have never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would be standing up to defend the principles of open society, which are in the core of American history and tradition, in America. …

Something is going on in the way of managing the interpretation of reality that is actually successful and poses a danger to open society. And it has been spearheaded by the conservative movement. But, it’s not confined to the conservative movement. In other words, it’s a cultural phenomenon. And it permeates, let’s say, the Democratic primaries as much as it does the propaganda of the Bush administration. …

[It’s] a cultural phenomenon — an unscrupulous pursuit of your cause with disregard to truth.

Yes, it’s not a left/right, liberal/conservative political issue. It’s a culture-permeating human theological issue.

Brilliantly incisive IMO. Thanks, Josh and George.

See also Wendell Berry’s valuable observations about the Bush Doctrine aka the “U.S. National Security Strategy.”