Clash Between Authority and Conditions

The treatment of the people of the Gulf Coast at the hands of the U.S. failed state demands redress. How can the people extract redress from the same state that has exposed itself so utterly as a failed state?

U.S. authority is scattering the people of New Orleans to the four winds throughout the country making it difficult for them to organize a collective fight for redress and to save their city. It is sadly ironic that the origin of the being of modern New Orleans was the forced deportation of Acadians from their homeland by the British colonialists, and the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of people from Africa . In failing to defend the city and in the wake of the disaster of deporting the people anew, the authority of the failed U.S. state attacks the very being of not only New Orleans , but of the entire people of African origin and of the United States itself. By hitting at the fundamental core of the right of the people to be, it reveals that it has a secret agenda and is prepared to impose it with deadly force.

By denying the people of New Orleans redress and a say in the renewal of their city, which is a further gross violation of their rights and negation of the being , personality and humanity of their city, the U.S. ruling class is attacking the being of all Americans. "Human beings are not only social in the way they acquire their living, but in all aspects of their life, they constitute a break with the animal condition. This break with animal existence -- with the vagaries of nature -- places a new, vital condition on all humans, the condition of being.... This condition of being dictates ... that human beings must have a say in the production and reproduction of real life. The demand of a say emerges out of the condition of socialization and leads to further socialization.... The condition of being demands that everything be judged on the basis of the extent to which the conditions permit the actualization of human rights." [ 1 ]

The plight of the people of New Orleans exposes in stark detail the overall clash between authority and condition in the United States . Increasingly, the military and police are given broad authority to carry out an agenda set by a small ruling elite. The war on terror, the Patriot Act , the militarization of Homeland Security and the consolidation of civil defence within its mandate, the expansion of the rule of the executive branch of government at all levels give powers to the institutions of the U.S. state to act with impunity and without redress. The existence of arbitrary powers contained in the war on terror and Homeland Security encourages the administration and police authorities to do whatever they wish.

After failing in its duty to ameliorate the conditions of the poor in the Gulf Coast; after failing in its duty to defend the Gulf Coast from a level four hurricane; after failing in its duty to create the conditions for an orderly evacuation in the face of the danger; after failing in its duty to provide elementary necessities of life for the evacuees or to rescue the people from their desperate situation and forcing them to suffer and die in unspeakable conditions; the U.S. failed state accords itself the right to demand that everyone comply with its agenda for New Orleans, to destroy its being and hand over the remnants of the city to the monopolies and speculators. In his desperation, the Mayor of New Orleans has complied with an edict that only military and police shall be allowed within New Orleans during the cleanup and all others will be forcibly removed at the point of a gun.

The U.S. failed state gives itself the right to order people to obey its edicts without having fulfilled its duties. The act of being of the U.S. failed state is in contradiction with the conditions and in contradiction with the rights of the people.

"Such an authority can make a decision and justify it simply on the grounds of its being , without having any interest in fulfilling its duty. This is why the people are also justified in overthrowing such an authority as an act of their being, the carrying out of their duty ."

The existence of the poor and unemployed in Louisiana and Mississippi is well documented even in the corporate media. What is not discussed is the right of the people to get out of their condition of being poor and unemployed, and on the basis of the right to conscience it is their duty to do such a thing.

When people denounce the failure of the U.S. state (its authority) to do its duty, they are demanding that the authority change the conditions as its duty to society and the people. In the face of the U.S. failed state and its utter neglect of its duty, it is the duty of the people to demand that the authority change the conditions and if it fails to do so, put an end to the authority and establish their own rule so as to change the conditions and guarantee their human rights.

"A right is fundamentally a phenomenon of human civilization (and) reminds the powers-that-be that we are human beings and that we should be treated in a way which befits human beings." The treatment of the people of the Gulf Coast is a gross negation of their human rights and brings into stark relief the necessity to negate the authority that is refusing to do its duty and is obstructing the changing of conditions and the realization of human rights.

"A clash between the act of being, Authority , which refuses to do its duty, and the act of being, Condition , which is demanding that the people do their duty, is the order of the day.... The act of being of the condition has assumed the primary position over the formalities and abstractions used as justifications by various authorities . When authorities do such a thing (neglect their duty), the right to conscience is violated.... Either the authority must bring about changes in the conditions , that is to shoulder its responsibilities so as to favour the right to conscience, or the conditions will continue to deteriorate until the people terminate the authority .... (The people) are doing their duty by claiming their rights from the act of being in definite conditions ; they want to overcome those conditions."

The U.S. failed state justifies the military occupation of New Orleans and the neglect of its duty by asserting the right to be of authority in the face of anarchy and chaos and the danger to the security of that authority . This is to cover up that authority has become anarchy and violence in the form of a failed state which "never stops claiming that it is innocent of any wrongdoing and that everything which is being done is for the well-being of the entire people and humanity. But the very act of being , the very existence of anarchy and violence, refutes such a claim.... If such a government were fighting for the interests of the people, and were actually doing its duty, anarchy and violence would not take over. This is because the people, who despise anarchy and violence above all else, since they are the ones who suffer from it the most, would certainly side with such a government.... When a government claims to combat anarchy and violence through the massive use of force, by an all-round assault on the mass of the people and through their humiliation, it is not beyond belief that such a government may have created that anarchy and violence in the first place."

The people must do their duty by "demanding their rights on account of their conditions of life ." The conditions before and after the hurricane violate the human rights of the people and their right to conscience, their right to be. "People are seeking to abolish the conditions which give rise to violations of human rights in the first place. They want to protect their right to conscience and use the content of their conscience to improve their condition of being.... It is the authority which is increasingly coming under fire and it is the conditions which are more and more crying out to be changed and an increasing number of people are coming forward to take up their duty.... Forms will vary, but in every instance they will reflect the contradictory process posed by the clash between the claims of authority and the demands of the conditions .... The act of being is what has to prevail. The act of being of conditions overrides any claims of authority ."

The struggle for human rights, for the amelioration of the human personality and dignity demands that the people take up their duty to themselves and society and force the authority to change the conditions and if it refuses its duty to the people and society, overthrow the authority and change the conditions with a complete renewal of authority.

The U.S. failed state is more concerned with the trappings and symbols of its authority than in doing its duty to the people and society. Now before the U.S. Congress is a bill to criminalize the burning of the U.S. flag. "By depriving the people of the right to conscience, authority is being turned into a cult and conditions are being worshipped as final and immutable.... Whether or not the right to conscience ... exists in real life, will actually determine whether a people live or die. It is the fundamental question of our time, along with matters related to the nature of a state, its form of organization and the economic system. It is at a par with these, and it actually overrides them in its importance.... Rights can only find their concretization in the solution of the problems facing a modern society, be they related to the economic well-being of the people or to the peace and harmony between peoples within a nation or between nations, or to matters of a spiritual and social nature.... Rights will be realized when authority changes the conditions in favour of the people and the people carry out their duty by ensuring that authorities do such a thing. ... People can perform their duty only if they have the right to conscience. This struggle, then, is the fulcrum on which the uplifting of the world and its renewal rests."

Notes

1. All quotations from The State of Human Rights After the Cold War -- A Theoretical and Political Treatment by Hardial Bains.