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9.1.04

Be a Part of It…

By Nicholas Allanach

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“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” These immortal words, etched into the base of The Statue of Liberty, symbolize the ideal congenial spirit New York has always attempted to communicate to the world. However, as New Yorkers begin their march into the twenty-first century can they still honestly consider themselves a “beacon of hope” to the world and its people? If so; are the world and its people buying it? After all, this seemingly global city has not only become increasingly isolated and insular in its actions, but has also failed to acknowledge discrepancies in its relationship to freedom and democracy.

The resilient spirit of New York is, of course, still alive. However, to suggest that this life is thriving and emboldened would be an arrogant overstatement. In fact, New York is - like the rest of the United States - currently standing at the threshold of its own self destruction. Too brash? Perhaps, but the only way for this cohesive social entity to avoid an unfortunate crumbling fate is by confronting its own hypocrisy and by humbling itself to the problems it has created. Problems such as these are arguably connected to an aggressive and often blind pursuit of capitalist interests that subsequently ignores the harms it creates. We are a city of addicts, too drunk and consumed with getting our next fix. The only cure is detoxification. But what are the poisons tainting our growth and infecting our sight? Who has the authority to define what is harmful and destructive to this otherwise efficient machine?

The Bush administration and the Republicans convening here this week believe they have this authority. However, they’re obviously going to have a tough time convincing the hundred thousand protesters, also converging on the city, who believe they can best define what is also beneficial for our future. Both groups are predictably expressing and clinging to the principles of freedom and democracy. Have they overused these terms into banality, or are they reinvigorating them once again? Judging by the way each will behave in New York over the next week; it is safe to assert that both have alternative and perhaps even antagonistic definitions of the same word. Nevertheless, actions have and will determine who most appropriately signifies the principles of democracy.

If we are to use the last four years of the Bush administration as a model for how the Republicans will act in New York, then it is safe to assume they will be isolated, afraid, and only capable of spending money when it supports economic elitism. Freedom, according to this model, isn’t defined as “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action” but instead, as completely reliant on violence, fear, and wasteful economics. The democratic rule of a government maintained “by the people and for the people” cannot exist under these suppressed conditions. Is this the “beacon of hope” New York strives to emulate?

The antagonists to this week’s convention are expressing themselves outside of the official proceedings.   Protestors have organized their factions into a unified force that agrees on one goal – the ousting of President Bush. This barrage of leftist discourse and extreme antics is being executed to not only shock and amuse, but to hopefully offer alternative forms of social organization. The protesters will also attempt to create an image of solidarity and optimism to counteract the divided fatalism Republicans have often disguised as unified positivism. Whether or not these actions will persuade swing state voters to vote progressive is beside the point, because (like its opponents on the right) the left is merely trying to communicate its own utopian visions, even though it suffers no illusions (unlike its opponents on the right) regarding the amount of determination it will take to convince people that it has the answer.

Admittedly, New York hasn’t always been about honest hard work and determination paying off. Throughout its rich history, Gotham has exemplified the inherent paradox of modern culture, which is that innovation and liberation often create an equal (or greater) amount of distress and subjugation. Hence, New York was not only founded on pragmatism and opportunity; but also greed and making money with a complete negligence regarding social ethics. Fortunately, the city has also been about reinvention. Thus, the shrewd business ethics of Tweed’s Tammany machine soon gave way to the logic of J.P. Morgan’s “managed competition within a community of interests.”

Morgan’s ideal community of interests, competing within a managed environment, is exactly what the social, economic, and (of course) political climate of the city is currently trying to obtain. When New Yorkers, Americans, and citizens of the world read about the events unfolding in our metropolis this week, they are bombarded by lies, extremisms, and ambiguities; however, this should come as no surprise. New York is, and shall hopefully always be, a place in which healthy political dissent is expressed and discussed.

I do not blame Bush (at least this time), the Republicans, or the city of New York for the problems we currently face. We are all welcome here. I understand that the world is made up of a variety of forces that cannot be confronted until we accept and validate the interpretations of all sides. Perhaps we could follow the advice of Senator Bill Frist, who states that the Republican Party has “worked very hard to be the open door and show respect for other views.” New York, as an Empire, functions like a magnet that attracts the multiple aspects of our often antagonistic society. As these social forces organize throughout the teeming boroughs and expressed in print onto stacks of newspapers let us remember that only the democratic multitude can determine which of the sides it chooses to support. May the outcome of the battle be determined on November 2nd, until then, let us allow these conflicting feelings and opinions be fully expressed on the streets “yearning to breathe free.”

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Nicholas Allanach is a writer living in New York City. His work appears in Canon Magazine, and he can be reached here.

© 2004 Me Three
Image Courtesy of freetubes.com