Identity Based Nationalism | Let Them Eat Debt | The Final Frontier for War & Surveillance

“Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.” – Voltaire

“Money does not buy you happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery.” – Daniel Kahneman

Identity Based Politics on the Left and Right Leaves the Middle (East) Empty: In the aftermath of World War II, democracies began flourishing, and not just in Western Europe. When David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence on May 14, 1947, the new Jewish homeland in Palestine became the first full democracy in the Middle East. It had been founded to protect not just the Jewish people, but their ideals of democracy and pluralism. However, the next 20 years did not see peaceful coexistence between Israel and its Arab neighbors. After a six day battle in 1967, Israel won a stunning military victory, capturing the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. But rather than bask in his nation’s territorial victory, Ben-Gurion came out of retirement to insist Israel give back the Arab lands. If it did not, he said, occupation would warp the young state.

51 years ago it was thought the right of national self-determination included all within its borders. Now, Israel has formally declared that it is “unique to the Jewish people.”It is an erosion of what once was the consensus that democracy should prevail over national identity. Or as some suggest, it is but a step along Ben-Gurion’s prophesied path: from occupation to endless conflict that would corrode democracy from within, and endanger a national character thought to come from ideals as well as demographics.

In the 1960s the general belief was that if the requirements of democracy clashed with national identity, democracy should prevail. It seemed that was still the consensus when a historian wrote in 2003 that Israel’s mission to maintain a firmly Jewish identity was “an anachronism”. Tony Judt argued that the country’s vision of itself as by and for a single demographic group was “rooted in another time and place”, a stubborn holdout amid “a world that has moved on.” 15 years later it is perhaps Judt’s position that is anachronistic.

Ample research demonstrates that continued chaos/conflict/terrorism increases support within the targeted community for right-wing politics. Scholars who study democratic decline tell us when people feel attacked merely for who they are, they hold more closely to their identity; their sense of community narrows; only those who look like them are to be tolerated. Studies strongly indicate that when a majority demographic group believes it could become a minority, preferences switch to wanting a strong ruler and harsher social controls. Fearful people tend not to support principles of pluralism or democracy. As the world stands today, democracy’s growth has stalled, and once-healthy democracies are slipping backward.

– For only the second time in Pakistan’s 70-year history, power will transfer from one civilian government to another when voters go to the polls Wednesday to elect a prime minister. But instead of celebrating their democracy, the campaign has been marred by suppression of the news media, accusations of manipulation by the military, a rise in Islamist extremist candidates and a series of attacks on candidates and campaign rallies, including one that killed 151 people. (NYT)

– Four men have been arrested in an apparent deliberate attack Saturday on a 3-year-old boy in a discount store in England. The toddler was splashed with acid and suffered severe burns on his arm and face. Such attacks have been on the rise in recent years and authorities sometimes struggle to find a pattern. Many attacks have occurred in or around London and have targeted gang members. But a range of others, from bankers to moped riders, have become victims in apparent random attacks. Acid attacks are particularly common in parts of South Asia, mostly involving women who are targeted by men. (WaPo)

– President Emmanuel Macron’s top bodyguard, Alexandre Benalla, was placed under investigation for allegedly assaulting protestors at a May Day demonstration.This follows a scandal in which Benalla was reportedly suspended, though pictures showed his continual accompaniment of the president. Macron has ordered a shakeup of his office following the recent reports, which had dropped his popularity ratings and created a large deal of unrest. (Guardian)

Autocrats Try to Blacklist White Helmets: The Syrian government has criticized and condemned the evacuation of White Helmet members across the border to Jordan. The White Helmets is a volunteer organization that does “urban search and rescue in response to bombing, medical evacuation, evacuation of civilians from danger areas, and essential service delivery.” Damascus described the evacuation as a “criminal operation” by Israel, calling out the White Helmets as dangerous and supported by terrorists. Despite their nomination for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, Russia and Syria hold scorn toward the White Helmets group, saying that they were linked to jihadist groups.

Spending (and Investing) to Prosperity: Portugal has demonstrated that, when times are tough, the tough get going—and increase spending. The government had been forced to accept an embarrassing international bailout when Europe’s debt crisis hit a few years ago. It’s European creditors imposed harsh austerity measures, meaning the country’s economy crumbled, wages were cut, and unemployment doubled. But in 2015 Portugal took a daring stand: it threw off the harshest austerity measures and started spending, reversing cuts to wages, pensions and social security, and offering incentives to businesses. Now the economy’s back! Managing a country’s economy is clearly not the same as managing personal finances. (NYT)

Let Them Eat (and Accrue) Debt: US household data shows that the bottom 60% of income-earners are the most responsible for the rise in spending over the past two years, even as their savings dwindle and their debt piles up. Now with borrowing costs on the rise, inflation picking up and the Trump administration tax cuts coming to an end, economists are warning that a further increase in gas prices, or a tariff-causing jump in the cost of goods, could push those most vulnerable over the edge, threatening the second-longest US expansion. (Reuters)

Executive Branch Power Unbounded: In 1999 Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh wrote an article, the subject of which was the 1974 ruling that forced President Richard Nixon to turn over to prosecutors secret incriminating recordings he’d made, known as the “Watergate tapes”. The ruling effectively imposed limits on a president’s ability to withhold information needed for a criminal prosecution. Kavanaugh concluded that the high court ruling may have been wrongly decided. It doesn’t take an advanced degree to imagine, were Kavanaugh to be confirmed and replace retiring Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court, which way he would rule if a similar issue arose involving President Trump. (Guardian)

– A New York Times opinion piece tells us how the beautiful blue skies above us, once the spark of human imagination, the home of the gods, the harbinger of storms — that vast and unknowable space — is now crowded with technologies of surveillance and war. (NYT)

– Move over, Hello Kitty, and make room for Sylar the Wonder Dog. Or maybe he’s Sylar the Cash Cow. Whatever he’s called, the fluffy, black and white Border Collie puppy gave his 31-year-old Chinese high school drop-out owner a new lease on life. And after Sylar became a social media sensation, inspiring a very lucrative online pet products business, his owner gave him a half million dollar ‘pet palace’. (WaPo)

– Gun control activists were alarmed following the beginning of the age of downloadable guns. Starting in August, a commercially available software blueprint will allow people to 3D print their own guns. After a four year legal battle, the Trump administration caved in, approving the blueprints’ release onto the internet. Untraceable and fully functional, many fear the repercussions of having such widespread information available to everyone and anyone. (Guardian)

– Being a sports fan stinks. Yet, every year, we hype ourselves up and most of the times, unless we follow a superteam, *cough cough Golden State,* we’re met with quite a disappointing showing, or a finals in which we’re swept despite our hardest efforts. A psychological phenomenon known as “loss aversion” would point people away from sports, because as studies show – losing a game feels a lot worse than winning one. Yet, misery loves company, so people continue to rally on in the emptying stadiums of weakening dynasties and teams. (Quartz)

– The New York Daily News made an announcement that they would be cutting fifty percent of their editorial staff. Cutting down to about forty full-time employees, one of the most popular papers in the United States is shrinking down and transforming to a “truly digital-focused enterprise.” Many layoffs have plagued the history of the firm, many of which incited outlash from fired employees, some of whom marked this newspaper’s path as “journalism being choked into extinction.” (Guardian)

LAST MORSELS

“Everyone wants to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” – Oprah Winfrey

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