The Modern Antigone Debate

America may have been shaken by the economic crisis of 2008, but she still remains the world’s single superpower.  Yes, it is true that there are other countries closing the gap in terms of GDP, but in terms of international clout America still remains heads and shoulders above all others.  In this position the debate has often been over whether the US will be a noble hegemonic despot or a world police power or just to consider itself as an equal player with a little more equal than most level of influence.  But the more fundamental debate has yet to really be brought up, i.e. to what law must America, or indeed any nation, adhere?

The most famous exploration of this question is undoubtedly the play, Antigone of the Oedipus Trilogy.  In it the main characters Creon and Antigone argue for civil or natural/divine law respectively.  To what standard should we hold ourselves in our War on Terror?  Should we respect the sovereignty of other nations if they harbor our enemies, or should we be willing to act unilaterally?  Should we be expedient and treat terrorists as prisoners of war with military tribunals and secret detention, or should we hold ourselves to a higher standard and give due process to even our most violent enemies?  Without an objective third party to dictate what is and is not moral, how can a nation claim the legitimacy necessary to justify the pursuit of its principles?  Do we need sufficient justification to do what we deem virtuous?

I make no pretense of claiming to know the answers to these difficult questions, but as I see it Barack Obama has come the closest to a respectable answer to these, or at least the Obama of his speeches.  America needs to be willing to exercise the unique authority that she has received.  As a nation though we must hold ourselves to a higher standard than our enemies, or else what point was there in acting in the first place.  We must pursue the leaders of Al Qaeda even across borders, but we mustn’t be assassins, they must stand public trial.  We must end the use of torture, even if it means that some people get away, for it is a far worse crime to torture the innocent.  We need not look for a more noble purpose than the protection of all people from oppression, but we must not sully our cause through senseless violence.

In the end Antigone is correct that natural law trumps civil law in all matters, but it must be made clear what the natural law is.  For it is not, as some claim, the law of religious texts.  The natural law is that people have a natural right to live freely, where that right is stripped from them it must be righted, where there is injustice we must bring justice, where there is inequality we must bring equality, where there is intolerance we must bring tolerance and not tolerate the intolerance and bigotry of others.

Neo-liberalism, the Economic Cancer

It seemed that after Trente Glorieuses of social democratic supremacy over Western democracies that we’d entered into an age of renewed private enterprise and free market solutions, which was dubbed neo-liberalism.  Like classical liberalism, the focus was on the individual entrepreneurs and their rights to a free market, without the red tape of government planning, but now people had lived through decades of boom and bust, unfair, monstrous laissez-faire economics and realized that the government does have a role to play in making things run smoothly.  The new development was the protection of industry through bailouts, subsidies, and what would become the concept of ‘too big to fail.’  The neo-liberals realized that they could no longer convince people that the economic slavery of the free market was all good, that people enjoyed public education, fair regulations, social security, etc.  Therefore, they would pay lip service to the social democratic policies that were popular, but claim that the only way they could be payed for was if businesses were given free reign to do what they will.  With the resulting bubble economy of this neo-liberalism who was going to complain that large corporations were getting unfair benefits while benefits for individuals decreased, after all wouldn’t the wealth trickle down?

We’ve now seen the result of ‘supply-side economics’ and it is the destruction of the economy as a whole for the sake of a very small minority on top.  In America the CEOs and hedge fund managers responsible for the practices that led to the economic meltdown were not prosecuted, but bailed out and given bonuses.  In England successful public institutions like the NHS and the university system are being privatized, as the population becomes less and less capable of affording it.  The income gap between the richest and the poorest continues to grow, and the level of discontentment with it.

Indeed the only thing new about neo-liberalism is that it’s social democracy for the rich and liberalism for the rest.  The large private industries are allowed to keep more and more profits as the public takes more and more of the debts and losses.  Like a cancerous growth the neo-liberals pretend to be a natural part of the economic body, but grow more and more detrimental to everything around it.  This cancer needs to be cut out immediately.

There needs to be a resurgence of ‘demand-side economics,’ where the consumer is getting their money’s worth from both the public and private sector.   If we’re expected to foot the bill every time Lehman Brothers or Citibank take a loss, then we must demand that they give up the profits, not just for a year or two but indefinitely.  If they want to stand alone then they can do so, but if they expect to be able to destroy the economy for a few dollars more, they’ll be shocked to find we demand better.  And let us not just demand more from the private sector, but from our governments as well.  For too long we’ve accepted the trash they’ve supplied and only ever asked for small band-aids to fix the problems.  Let us demand results from our politicians, not term limits.  Let us demand consensus and action and not let them get away with unneeded cuts.  And if our demands mean higher taxes, so be it.  Let us never be satisfied with what has been given, let us strive for more.

And to the proponents of that cancer, neo-liberalism.  If you want a free market, fine supply it, but don’t be surprised when the people demand better medicine than the filth you provide.