Taibbi writes: "... 'Syria is Iraq,' is the single most incoherent thing he has ever written. It's … well, breathtaking is the only word."

Matt Taibbi. (photo: Current TV)

Most Incoherent Tom Friedman Column Ever

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

26 July 12

realize this is not a statement anyone can make lightly, but: this morning’s column by Thomas Friedman, "Syria is Iraq," is the single most incoherent thing he has ever written. It’s… well, breathtaking is the only word.

Others, like Glenn Greenwald, have already pointed out the column's most obvious contradictions. But for those who missed it, here are two passages that were written, not as a joke, by the same human being in the same opinion column. Start with passage #1:

And, for me, the lesson of Iraq is quite simple: You can’t go from Saddam to Switzerland without getting stuck in Hobbes — a war of all against all — unless you have a well-armed external midwife, whom everyone on the ground both fears and trusts to manage the transition. In Iraq, that was America.

Got that? Here’s the second passage:

Because of both U.S. incompetence and the nature of Iraq, this U.S. intervention triggered a civil war in which all the parties in Iraq – Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds – tested the new balance of power, inflicting enormous casualties on each other and leading, tragically, to ethnic cleansing that rearranged the country into more homogeneous blocks of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

This pair of passages can be summed up in a Friedman-syllogism:

1. Syria will not become Switzerland unless it has the kind of help America gave to Iraq.

2. When America helped Iraq, it triggered a terrifying four-sided civil war that left the country reeling in blood-soaked, genocidal chaos and hopelessly partitioned along ethnic and religious lines – very much like Switzerland, where a diverse collection of ethnic groups speaking different languages live peacefully under democratic rule.

3. Therefore, when your wife needs help giving birth, she should hire a midwife who stands outside the door and carries an automatic weapon.

This column today is so crazy I have to think Friedman is kidding. The line about how everyone on the ground in Iraq trusts America is especially awesome. Of course! True, you can’t even open a Humvee door there to dump a pebble out of your shoe without getting your face shot off, but still, they trust us!

And yet the best thing of all is the rhetorical flourish at the end – a rare triple-figurative dismount, which he sticks with Nadia Comaneci-esque confidence:

Without an external midwife or a Syrian Mandela, the fires of conflict could burn for a long time.

God bless this man. There’s never been another like him!

Editor's note: Thanks to Justin Elliott at TwitLonger, who notes that this is at least the ninth time that Friedman has written a column calling for an Arab Mandela -- and at least the third time he has used the winning Arab-Mandela/midwife imagery combination.

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+127 # kyzipster 2012-07-26 18:30

It doesn't matter how crazy and incoherent Friedman's piece is, the right-wing will cling to every word, drumming this propaganda into the heads of their faithful sheep. In wingnutland, Syria is Obama's Iraq.

+16 # dbriz 2012-07-27 11:08

Please.

It is true that Likudniks and the religious right fit your description.

They are presently well represented by Straussian neoconservative s who are found firmly implanted in BOTH parties.

Friedmans increasingly hubristic writings aside, (after all he has become a laughingstock who is too self absorbed to realize it) do you find it at all alarming that the left has bought into and defended the current administrations continuance of Bush-Cheney foreign policies, expanded the wars and, is even worse on civil rights?

+11 # ericlipps 2012-07-27 12:45

Quoting dbriz:

Please.

It is true that Likudniks and the religious right fit your description.

They are presently well represented by Straussian neoconservatives who are found firmly implanted in BOTH parties.

Friedmans increasingly hubristic writings aside, (after all he has become a laughingstock who is too self absorbed to realize it) do you find it at all alarming that the left has bought into and defended the current administrations continuance of Bush-Cheney foreign policies, expanded the wars and, is even worse on civil rights?

And which left is this which has "bought into" Obama's embrace of Bush atrocities, er, policies?

Plenty of people on the left, in fact, are fuming--even writers for The Nation maagazine, which all but canonnized Obama in '08. Unfortunately, they have no better alternative who has any chance of winning the presidency now or ever. And all Mitt Romney promises is more of the same on foreign policy and human rights and more tax cuts for the rich at home.

+5 # dbriz 2012-07-27 13:32

Well, you personally( as I) may very well be opposed to the "...embrace of the Bush...policies ..." by Obama.

As well as a few Nation writers, Chomsky and a scattering of others who have little to no power or prestige within the Democratic Party.

In spite of these few anomalies, the broad based "left" in this country remains more than willing to hold their nose and vote yet again for Obama even though he is as bad as Bush on foreign policy and worse on civil rights.

If by some sad happenstance Bush had been able to have a third term and done EXACTLY what this administration has done, the left, encouraged and financed by the Dem power structure would be marching in the streets and demanding impeachment.

As to the "no better alternative" defense, I suggest otherwise:

At minimum vote third party or write in "none of the above", better yet withhold your vote from either party, refuse to participate in a rigged system that is controlled by big banksters, corporate crony's and the MIC. Your conscience will feel better.

Anything less and one is de facto endorsing that which is destroying liberalism in this country.

+19 # pamitty 2012-07-27 16:07

I agree that there is no GOOD choice, but the republicans "offering" is so crooked and sociopathic horror story, there is little choice but Obama. If he gets a 2nd. term it will be up to us to let him know we hate what Bush did and he better stop.
Romney is truly a "let them eat cake" man.
He has been a ruthless corporate raider and an unfeeling vulture capitalist. He really either doesn't understand or care about anyone but himself.
THings like the dog cruelty to the insulting great Britain and everything in between shows his moral loss.
Then there is the even more tax cuts for the 1% paid for by taking out the safety nets that we didn't have in the great depression. THAT ALONE SHOULD CAUSE HIM TO NOT GET ANY VOTES!
Then there is the Mormon problem. Have you heard of the white horse prophecy? Check out Mormonism. A good way is on You Tube, "the god makers" tell you what they REALLY believe.
don't have to like Obama, but please for all our sakes, DON'T vote for Romney!

+2 # Lolanne 2012-07-29 08:35

dbriz quote: //At minimum vote third party or write in "none of the above", better yet withhold your vote from either party, refuse to participate in a rigged system that is controlled by big banksters, corporate crony's and the MIC. Your conscience will feel better.//

Sure...especially when it wakes up and realizes you just threw your vote away and helped give mitty-boy the White House.

Please reconsider your vote. We desperately need to get a dem majority in Congress as well as re-elect Obama. The shameful performance of the reprobates the last few years have proved beyond any shadow of a doubt there is no such thing as cooperation or collaboration in DC. The reps have done NOTHING to help the country and EVERYTHING just to get rid of Obama -- their only stated goal. This is governing? I don't think so!

If dem congressional backing provides the ability to actually get something done, Obama will be more able to make some positive changes. And we will be in a much stronger position to exert pressure on our representatives & senators in order to help bring about the kind of changes we so desperately need. If dems are in the majority, they have no excuse not to act on what their constituents want. If they don't, they're gone the next election.

+1 # dbriz 2012-07-29 10:21

Drinking that good 'ol Dem/Pub koolaid.

Didn't they have a majority when the Big O was elected?

What that got us was more wars, an amended FISA act even worse than under Bush, extension of the misnamed Patriot Act and a Presidential finding that allows the president to assassinate US citizens without recourse upon presidential decision.

Why, we even passed Obamacare when Speaker Pelosi herself admitted she didn't know what was in it and didn't care, she could "...read it later...".

Yep. Just what we need more leadership like this.

As to this statement:

"If dems are in the majority, they have no excuse not to act on what their constituents want. If they don't, they're gone the next election."

They were in majority and while there increased the wars, shredded the already Bush/Cheney tattered Constitution and you want more?

The corporate cronies, CIA and MIC that run this country are perfectly content to see Obama in office. He poses no threat at all to them.

As long as left wing enablers support him, nothing will change.

And yes, I will not vote in a rigged system for either Bankster approved, corporate approved, MIC approved candidate. And my conscience will thank me.

+6 # ericlipps 2012-07-27 13:00

Quoting dbriz:

Please.

It is true that Likudniks and the religious right fit your description.

They are presently well represented by Straussian neoconservatives who are found firmly implanted in BOTH parties.

Friedmans increasingly hubristic writings aside, (after all he has become a laughingstock who is too self absorbed to realize it) do you find it at all alarming that the left has bought into and defended the current administrations continuance of Bush-Cheney foreign policies, expanded the wars and, is even worse on civil rights?

Which "left" is it which has bought into Obama's continuation (and in some cases intensification ) of Bush-era atrocities, I mean policies? Plenty of folks on the left have expressed their displeasure at Obama's apparent abandonment of what his supporters in 2008 thought were his principles. Just read, for example, recent uissues of The Nation magazine.

+9 # kyzipster 2012-07-27 13:26

Please. Criticism of Republicans is not an endorsement of the Democrats.

I don't believe the left has bought into much, all I've seen is criticism, outrage and a total lack of enthusiasm. Maybe you only pay attention to the media, like a Fox News automaton?

Obama's policies did not surprise me in the least. He's doing exactly what he promised to do when campaigning for his job. Many liberals were only hearing what they wanted to hear.

+5 # VLR 2012-07-27 13:27

The right wing? Hell, I've got a few NPR-listening gay progressive friends who cannot let go of an abiding affection for the Friedman unit. He calls himself a liberal, well, then or course he must be!

-203 # AlexLamb 2012-07-26 19:07

Reading Thomas Friedman's piece it is clear (to me at least) that the irony and low expectation of a good outcome in Syria is apparently lost on Mr. Taibbi. Friedman's analogy to a rebirth and the need for a 'trusted' midwife to attend, to ensure a live birth of the new nation, with a hope of a future is well illustrated.
The unfortunate sampling of soundbites would lead anyone not reading Friedman's article to believe he wrote something he didn't. This is a classic tactic of grandstanding that is then trumpeted by others too lazy to read the great man's writing - and understand his first hand experience in the Middle East. I suggest that Mr. Taibbi reads the article with a little more care - and shows respect to his elders and betters.

+85 # Lowflyin Lolana 2012-07-26 21:35

Our "elders" and our "betters" have done a bang-up job with our tax dollars and their precious wars.

In fact, here in my 40's it looks like it's high time my generation takes over the reins from the money-grubbing jackasses who rely on this pathetically twisted logic to convince the rest of us to send our money to kill more people.
Betters, my @$$. I would suggest YOU take a look at the world situation with a little more care.

Damn it makes me mad to see people imply that three decades of watching my country go down the tubes is not enough of an education in what NOT to do.

+19 # jimbeama 2012-07-27 12:52

Here! here! Well said. And who uses the term "betters" anymore other than a racist or a royalist? These days Matt Taibbi is one of the laser lights of clarity cutting through the camouflage the MSM tends to through over stories that would expose the corruption and dipshittery of the ruling class.

+46 # CreativeBlue 2012-07-26 21:56

I don't know what you do for a living, Alex, but for everyone's sake, I sure hope it isn't public relations.

+48 # tonenotvolume 2012-07-26 22:04

You have got to be kidding..."show respect towards his elders and betters"? What world do you live in?

+55 # Texas Aggie 2012-07-26 22:40

I'm sorry, but my reading of the Friedman article doesn't concur with yours. It seems to me that he has no idea whatsoever about the situation in Iraq either now or in the past. His calling it a democracy illustrates a mind somewhere in an alternate universe. How this translates into "elders and betters" is beyond me.

Furthermore, Egypt shows that creating a democracy out of a dictatorship works better from within without an exterior midwife than the US intervening in Iraq did. While Egypt may not be a perfect democracy, it is much more so than Iraq, and possibly even the US.

+47 # WestWinds 2012-07-27 02:15

Matt Taibbi is one of the best journalists of our time. I've been reading his writings for years and he's wonderful.

+25 # Andrew Hansen 2012-07-27 06:09

Seriously, this is a joke post, right? Beyond the incoherency we have Friedman fear-mongering, glamorizing "American" motives and abilities, intentional memory loss, and heavy dose of arm chair condescension.

I'd pile on the thumbs-down too, were this comment not a joke.

+3 # jimbeama 2012-07-27 12:57

:-) :-) :-) jokes are what jokes do and that is make us laugh. If that is your definition of a joke post then I agree! But like Matt said referring to the two passages he highlighted, though they seem like a joke, I personally think AlexLamb did not mean it as a joke post.

+58 # vicnada 2012-07-27 06:19

Quoting AlexLamb:

This is a classic tactic of grandstanding that is then trumpeted by others too lazy to read the great man's writing - and understand his first hand experience in the Middle East. I suggest that Mr. Taibbi reads the article with a little more care - and shows respect to his elders and betters.

OK, I just read Friedman's piece--with care--and decide that Taibbi has a strong case here: 1) Friedman is a professional journalist. This piece would not pass muster in freshman English with it's tortured metaphors--mixe d to the point of incomprehension . 2) Logic fails in his analysis (as Taibbi and others point out). The jury will be out for a long time on whether Iraq was a success. "Mission" has not been "Accomplished" by any stretch of the imagination. 3) If Friedman's continuing journalistic mission is to justify the deceptions that got us into our "abortive" war in Iraq, he should be more plain. 4) How can anyone seriously state that the sectarian violence in Iraq has remained within its borders? How does Assad's turning his Kurdish population free to sponsor sectarian "aspirations" on Turkey's border not encourage (enflame?) Iraq's Kurdish sectarian aspirations? 5) Elders are not always wiser...nor better.

+40 # dkonstruction 2012-07-27 06:43

With all due respect, i read the Friedman article (as i suspect Taibbi did as well despite your suggestion that he read it) and think that Taibbi (as usual) is right on the mark. And, this incohence is nothing new for Friedman. Finally, someone has done a serious critique of Friedman's work (The Imperial Messenger by Belen Fernandez)which is well worth reading.

As for Friedman, what can one expect such a "globalization" cheerleader who can write an entire book on the subject (The Lexus And The Olive Tree) without ever discussing the effects of debt on the "globalized" not to mention on the environment, global food prices, etc. Friedman is so selective in the "facts" he chooses to present to tell the story he wants to tell that he is at best disingenuous and at worst dangerous in that he often presents himself as the "rational" and "loyal" opposition such that really critical voices (such as Taibbi's) rarely get heard in the mainstream media (the same can be said for Chris Hedges whose recent appearance on Bill Moyers is also well worth watching...the whole interview can be seen online). Friedman's disengenousness can be seen in this piece when he states that "I absolutely would not advocate U.S. intervention on the ground in Syria or anywhere in the Arab world again." Where does he think the "opposition" is getting its weapons (as if he doesn't know)? The US does not need to be "on the ground" to intervene these days for if we did we would already be there.

+22 # rafael 2012-07-27 08:45

Really? Mr. "Victory is six months away" Friedman is Taibbi's "better?" Thomas Friedman is nobody's "better" unless the metric is hackery....Frie dman comes from a long line of pseudo-liberals , mainstreamers and middle-of-the-r oad mealy-mouthed pundits whose goal it seems at times it to somehow infiltrate rationality with their brand of heavily coated ideological BS designed to provide cover for their masters amongst the unwashed masses. Where is Chomsky's NYT column?

+14 # Billsy 2012-07-27 11:00

Friedman was one of the NYT's loudest cheerleaders for the Iraq war, now having to admit that the US was incompetent in its execution of that war. it's clear from his latest article that he's learned NOTHING from his past mistake, continuing to trumpet the call for continued US intervention in nations that detest our colonialism. He's a tool for the military industrial complex and deserves Mr. Taibbi's distain and criticism. Nothing to learn from your elders when they are too clueless to admit they're wrong.

0 # VLR 2012-07-27 13:29

Oh, Tom! Is that YOU?

+5 # Capn Canard 2012-07-28 06:19

AlexLamb, did that Blue Pill have a flavor? Friedman's piece is clear to true believers but to clear-headed thinkers it is complete nonsense, a fiction that is nothing more than rationalization for mistakes to rationalize mistakes.

+35 # cordleycoit 2012-07-26 19:08

Someone take a peek at his pad and make sure he's not in need of help. Sounds like he's feeding out of the wrong bowl.

+7 # Holmes 2012-07-26 21:13

Often for those whom I know who occasionally get really separated from reality, the question to ask is "have you had your Meds this morning?" Often the answer is "Opps No", or more seriously, "I am OK, I do not need my meds any more." Ususall followed in the next couple of months by a spell in the mental health unit sorting out their meds.

Any similar problems here?

+10 # Howard T. Lewis III 2012-07-26 19:55

Tom Friedman is Tom Friedman. More worthy of note is the fact that nearly all pancakes are round. And bacon crinkles as you cook it.

+27 # sfnativecrone 2012-07-26 20:24

Sounds like something Sarah Palin would say and makes just about as much sense.

+38 # pstamler 2012-07-26 20:42

Matt, if you want to understand Friedman you need to read one of his books (which are really collections of columns). When you do, when you look at one column against another against a third, and read them in a single session, you realize that the man is flailing incoherently ALL the time -- that not one of his columns is congruent with another, that he's just throwing out sage-sounding phrases with nothing behind him. (And for this he gets paid.) A mess of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

0 # Jim Young 2012-08-26 09:57

I have to admit I was impressed with Friedman's "style" in putting together incredibly consistent column length articles, with formulaic balance in opening body and "conclusion". I was so impressed by how well he did the style that I must admit I missed the content, and what seemed so rational on the surface, from the columns, and was also totally lost when I tried to read his "books." He does stimulate much thought, though, at least for me, and the search for bigger pictures is still enhanced by the kindling of his column length articles.

+30 # ProfessorJack 2012-07-26 20:58

As a young man, my country grotesquely interrupted my life and forced me to go "help" some wretched barbarians who were fighting over Vietnam. I bitterly resented it, wondering each and every day how I and my family benefitted by "stability" in that godforsaken place. Or where the taxpayers financing such foolishness came in. It may not have been pointless to those who lived there but it was pointless for me and everybody I knew. Let the people who really care about these places fight it out. Everybody else, forget about it.

+21 # Antler 2012-07-26 21:26

Yeah. I am so glad I am not the only one who thinks Friedman is a clown. It's awful. Just always.

+6 # CreativeBlue 2012-07-26 21:29

The Moustaches That Couldn't Think Straight.

+8 # JackB 2012-07-26 22:00

I can't believe I'm supporting Matt Taibbi but I don't see how anyone can disagree with his take on Friedman's article.

Friedman's article is gibberish & that is being kind.

The right will embrace Thomas Friedman? Only a liberal could dream that up.

-61 # barbaratodish 2012-07-26 22:15

I understand the "code" Tom Friedman is writing in, it's called THINKING! You should try it sometime MATT Taibbi!
My translation: Going from Saddam to Switzerland means that What Saddam stood for waswas a disrepectful intolerance whereas what Switzerland stands for is disrespectful tolerance! It's the same "SOCIAL CONTRACT" the same relative Hobbesian social contract violence, just one is more subtle than the other! Only a well "armed" emotional revolution (the midwife) could "give birth" to that which will transcend capitalism, namely evolution from PERFORMING AND HAVING materialism to BEING VALIDITY and limitless consciousness. AND second translation: The Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds have gone from Political-Relig ious Party Identities to More serious CULTURAL racial identities, sort of like following the JEWS who deny they are a religion and say they are a culture, race, god or g-d whatever limited construct they SAY the HAVE now, it's really meaningless because everyone who HAS ANY constructed identity is limited unless they can BE their own SELF VALIDITY!

+19 # dkonstruction 2012-07-27 07:28

With all due respect, I am a secular, agnostic...one of those JEWS to whom u refer. But, according to u, i must not be a JEW because i am agnostic. Sorry, but when the fascists come looking for THE JEWS again they won't give a damn weather i'm religious or not just as racists in this country don't care if you Shiite, Sunni, Kurd or whatever you're still an AAARAB or Towel Head "anti-american, " "Muslim Brotherhood" or whatever.

Sad to see how many privileged americans of no color consider Friedman a serious "thinking" intellectual. Usually, these are the same people that simply want to blame those evil rethuglicans for everything and try to brainwash us that if only we voted for and are completely uncritical of, the demorats that everything will be ok.

If you want to "transcend capitalism" (as i do), rest assured, it is not going to come from such arrogant, elitist, muddleheaded "post-modernist ", "new age," "cultural studies", reactionary, anti-semitic drival that presents THE JEWS, ARABS, and KURDS (all semites) as reactionary monoliths.

-21 # barbaratodish 2012-07-27 09:00

Quoting dkonstruction:

"If you want to "transcend capitalism" (as i do), rest assured, it is not going to come from such arrogant, elitist, muddleheaded "post-modernist", "new age," "cultural studies", reactionary, anti-semitic drival that presents THE JEWS, ARABS, and KURDS (all semites) as reactionary monoliths.

Well, then, dkonstruction, can you say HOW I (and we all) CAN "transcend capitalism" instead of saying how I CAN'T (and by extension, you may (?) be saying we all can't) transcend capitalism? Maybe a start is for everyone to begin to be able to take their identity and/or identities less seriously, perhaps. Perhaps instead of BEING an agnostic, your agnosticism HAS you! lmfao

+15 # dkonstruction 2012-07-27 09:18

Quoting barbaratodish:

Quoting dkonstruction:

"If you want to "transcend capitalism" (as i do), rest assured, it is not going to come from such arrogant, elitist, muddleheaded "post-modernist", "new age," "cultural studies", reactionary, anti-semitic drival that presents THE JEWS, ARABS, and KURDS (all semites) as reactionary monoliths.

Well, then, dkonstruction, can you say HOW I (and we all) CAN "transcend capitalism" instead of saying how I CAN'T (and by extension, you may (?) be saying we all can't) transcend capitalism? Maybe a start is for everyone to begin to be able to take their identity and/or identities less seriously, perhaps. Perhaps instead of BEING an agnostic, your agnosticism HAS you! lmfao

barbaratodish,

happy to respond to your courteous and respectful request to explain "HOW" we can "transcend capitalism." Capitalism developed and continues to reproduce and function as a system that responds to people's resistance to its enslavement. This is what Marx meant when he wrote that "class struggle is the motor of history." Marx was being quite literal here.

part 2 to follow

+16 # dkonstruction 2012-07-27 09:26

As Adam Smith noted in his private writings, for example (see Michael Perelman's wonderful book "The Invention of Capitalism"), people would not voluntarily become wage laborers and so he advocated for the state (so much for the idea that he was a "laissez faire" "free market" guru) had to intervene to ensure that people could not survive outside of being wage laborers...thus we get the enclosure laws (think Robin Hood) that took away the historic "commons" that allowed most people to be self-sufficient outside of "the market."

So, capital responds to how those living under it respond to capital's attempts to dominate every aspect of our lives.

this is why, all significant social change in this country (as well as all others) comes not from "above" but rather from the power of social movements below. This was true for movements to abolish slavery, for women's rights, the modern civil rights movement, the anti-nuclear movement, environmental movement etc.

the problem (really "a" problem as there are clearly more than one) is that marx has been supplanted in academia by the kind of post-modernist identity politics drival that has no understanding at all of what in Marx's day was called political economy (so today politics and economics are taught separately as if they can be separated and are in fact two separate things).

part 3 to follow

-1 # barbaratodish 2012-07-29 07:31

"Capitalism...c ontinues as a system that responds to people's resistance to its enslavement." Im having trouble understanding that."Adam Smith noted...people could not survive outside of being wage laborers..." People DO survive without being wage earners: wealthy who INHERIT money. Are you saying that offspring of certain wage earners or offspring of royal "bloodlines" are in some way, virtual wage slaves, as a result of their ancestors once being wage slaves? Re agnosticism: instead of saying "I don't know", I prefer to say it without the negative, like "I want limitless being instead of limitless having and/or knowing" (something Marx wrote about). I'm devoted to finding the "root of the problem". I truly believe the ROOT of the problem is "THE SOCIAL CONTRACT" because it's A BULLY "CONTRACT" where we either are bullied or bully ourselves due to OWNERSHIP arrogance. We hardly own ourselves (thus the ancient "art" (artifice) of externalizing identity, i.e.,tattooing, because we are missing BEING VALID to ourselves. Having-at least having excessively beyond what is basic necessity-alien ates because, as Marx said the more we have the less we "be"! Instead of trying to BE anything with my writing I am trying to allow my writing to write me and chiasmus, (surprizing reversals in language use) very well may use me!Re:academia: I am totally isolated and despised by academia. I have been banned by 2 academic associations, and Im probably on an academic "blacklist"

0 # dkonstruction 2012-07-30 05:18

The point is that "capital" is a social relation not "a thing" in Marx, and it is a relation that develops based on the ways in which ordinary people resist being dominated by capital...this is marx's notion of class struggle. My earlier point was not that some people did not continue to survive outside of wage labor, but the historical fact is that very few people were able to (initially in England) after the Enclosure Laws were passed that took away "the commons" that most people lived off of. Combine this with the Corn Laws and most people were no longer able to survive without becoming wage laborers. This was something Smith recognized which is why he pushed for laws that took away people's ability to be self sufficient outside of the market and wage labor. And, Marx never said "the more we have the less we 'be' in fact he considered capitalism a great advance over fudalism because "mass production" and the capitalist division of labor allowed for the possibility of greatly increasing everyone's standard of living. For marx was was alienating and exploitative about capitalism was wage labor which he said alienates us from our "species being." Given that we are all mortal and born into an existing hierarchical social order where a few have power and the rest do not to talk about individual "limitless" anything is meaningless unless all you want is your own individual "freedom" (and even here i would argue it's an illusion) and be damned with everyone else

0 # barbaratodish 2012-07-30 10:01

If Marx's capital is a "social relation" it's a BULLYING type relation. Now loads of people are not even ABLE to become wage laborers, so what are they supposed to do? When people resort to the grey market or the underground economy, etc., just to survive, they are often demonized and can't get a second chance in the "legitimate" economy. It seems, IMHO, and in my ACTUAL experience that there is NO ONE that HAS their heart, and soul, etc! Everyone's heart and soul has THEM. Few if any of us have SELF VALIDITY! Instead we get a kind of substitute FOR self validity by IDENTIFYING with EXTERNAL SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS, like race, religion, gender, ethnicity, class, occupation, family roles, political beliefs, external morality based on judgement,LAW which is more correctly F-LAW, etc. Most people are sooo self loathing that they, as a result, project their self loathing onto others, ALL others, even those closest to them!They PRETEND TO APPEAR as if they are loving. And those who protest, (and guaranteed they will her!they protest too much, methinks!) and say they would "DIE" for the ones they love, would only risk TO "DIE" if they thought they would have those that they would "DIE" for to control, through guilt, etc., because it's easier to control (or delude yourself into thinking you CAN control others) than to face the awareness of our own self loathing!

0 # barbaratodish 2012-07-30 10:22

I agree that in order to survive, you have to be relative (i.e., participate in social relations) and exist by limiting yourself to "going along to get along". But what I am trying to understand if IF there is a possibility to STILL KIND OF undo that loss of limitlessness by communicating your LEGITIMATE resentment FOR your loss of limitlessness! I am saying that I attempt to communicate that loss of limitlessness by communicating my ANGER. I TRY to direct that anger at the INSTITUTIONALIZ ATION and the WORSHIPING if the VIOLENCE (symbolic and/or actual violence) that is ENDEMIC and internalized and normalized within THE SOCIAL CONTRACT! Everyone, it seems, or just about everyone, is DENYING that the world CAN BE ANY OTHER WAY! THAT HOPELESSNESS for LIMITLESSNESS is what I detest! AND so yes, all I want is my own individual freedom ( absolute self validity) and be damned with everyone else", EXCEPT those who, likewise, want their own absolute self validity, as well! ABSOLUTE SELF VALIDITY WILL INCLUDE ABSOLUTE HUMOR so instead of killing each other, those with absolute self validity can instead laugh or even maybe simultaneously laugh and cry our selves to "death"! lol

0 # dkonstruction 2012-07-30 05:20

As for the root of the problem being "the social contract"; the social contract was an integral part of the liberal/enlighe nment project which developed as the ideological arm of capital so one cannot talk about doing away with "the social contract" unless one first talks about how to transcend capital, capitalism and the whole liberal/enlight enment project.

+19 # dkonstruction 2012-07-27 09:38

So, how do we "trancend capitalism?" It's called building a social movement and more importantly building the kind of anti-capitalist alternative institutions that are needed (an contemporary example would be the Zappatistas in Mexico that now control a significant part of the country). The Basque region Mondragon Cooperatives would be another example (although they still exist within the capitalist framework).

As for your comment that "perhaps instead of being an agnostic, your agnosticism has you"...this is precisely the type of post-modernist, cultural studies identity politics reactionary meaningless dreck i think is a big part of the problem in terms of what is currently being taught as "radical" in academia. An agnostic is someone who questions and who is willing to be honest enough to say "i don't know" but is also someone who is a "radical" which means that they seek out the "root of the problem" instead of chalking it up to whatever the latest pseudo-radical- chic so-called intellectual flavor of the week helps them publish a book or gets them tenure.

I will take Marx or someone like Howard Zinn any day over this current reactionary crap that passes for serious thinking and ideas (or people such as C.L.R. James or today Zizek or Negri and Hardt who at least are concerned about "what is to be done" rather than just trying to show the world how supposedly witty and above it all they are.

+23 # dkonstruction 2012-07-27 09:56

Finally, given that just in the recent past we have the examples of the Zappatistas in Mexico, Tahir Square in Egypt, the election of a slew of progressive leaders throughout Latin America, the democratic budgeting process in Porto Allegre in Brazil, the global OCCUPY movements...the ways to transcend capitalism are all around us...not in theory...not in some "emotional revolutions" or in how people take "their identity" but in the real life struggles and modes of organizing and ways of being that actually take control of our lives and our destinies. So, whether it is the Paris Commune or the alternative institutions built by the Spanish Anarchists during the Spanish Civil War or the students in France in May '68 or the Autonomia movement in Italy in the 1970s or any one of countless current examples the way to transend capitalism is to organize, resist, build alternative institutions and recognize that capitalism is not "natural" in the same way that wage labor is not (it has only been with us for a very brief part of human history)....as Marx understood (and as most contemporary academics don't) the point is not to understand the world but to change it. That won't happen and won't come from privileged white academics telling THE JEWS, THE ARABS, THE KURDS to take their identities less seriously...and the struggle will indeed be alot harder when this kind of propagandistic drival being taught/pushed in academia.

+4 # Majikman 2012-07-27 20:08

A standing ovation,dkonstr uction.

-2 # barbaratodish 2012-07-29 07:50

You seem, IMHO to be mesmerized by "modes of organizing", and I wish I could be hopeful with ANY organized movement, but I always seem to be excluded, (perhaps because I am a woman with a "checkered, dark past) and thus my recourse has been to find that to me,the entire social contract IS a bully contract and lately I am looking at anarcho-primiti vism for my own "personal" substitutes for identity and "organization" ( I doubt even anarcho-primiti vistic collectives would include someone like me!) I wish I was wrong, but IMHO it seems as though the only way I could be accepted in the social contract the way it is today would be for me to alienate myself from my valid self. My valid self wants to be emotionally FREE from all LIMITING identities so that I can be free to BE SPONTANEOUS, in the present. I am able to achieve this sometimes when I do alternative comedy and most of all when I do spontaneous, unscripted IMPROV. Too bad you misunderstand me, but I understand and LOVE me so much, I can continue to go on WITHOUT anyone else BUT my valid self understanding me, the valid me! I could care less if the entire world hates me and wants to silence me!

0 # dkonstruction 2012-07-30 05:28

I am not "mesmerized" by "modes of organizing" but i do believe that the means must be in accorance with the ends (otherwise you wind up with the ends justifying the means which has led to all sorts of atrocities in the name of "freedom," "liberation" etc. As for being hopeful about any organized movement, it is only through such organized movements that people have won whatever freedoms we have. All this talk about being "emotionally free from all Limiting identities so that I can be free to Be Spontaneous" sounds like the kind of self-indulgant narcissism that seemed to develop in the 1970s/1980s as part of the overall backlash against the social movements of the 1960...and where did all of that "turning inward" and "self-help" stuff get us...40 years of economic decline, environmental devastation, the rise of reactionary right-wing neo-liberalism and the conscious destruction of many of the gains that the working class as a whole made between the end of World War II and the early 1970s. So, i am not "mesmerized" but i believe that only by studying and learning the lessons (both good and bad) of how people have struggled for freedom and a better life in the past (as well as by understanding the current conditions) and by continuing to organize (in democratic, non-hierarchica l forms) do we have any real chance to liberate ourselves (collectively, not just "me") and at this point save the planet from capital's global suicidal tendencies

-1 # barbaratodish 2012-07-30 09:20

"(O)nly... by continuing to organize (in democratic, NON -HIERARCHICAL FORMS (capitals added by me for emphasis) do we have any real chance to liberate ourselves (collectively, not just "me") and at this point save the planet from capital's global suicidal tendencies."

Where, oh where, is just one (1) non hierarchical form of democracy or of anything else? The ONLY freedom from hierarchy is absolute self validity! Absolute self love ( omnipotence, spontaneous, limitless spirituality,(e ven imagining G-D limits absolute spitituality) is free from all judgement because it is absolute self validity, instead of relative self validity! All judgement is arrogant and therefore hierarchical. MY heart is breaking because IMHO everyone else's heart has THEM! I am trying to show that you HAVE to have ABSOLUTE SELF VALIDITY, ABSOLUTE SELF LOVE in order to WITHSTAND the ABSOLUTE CALLOUSNESS OF EVERYONE ELSE! I am called insane, I am demonized, I am hated, but I STILL LOVE ME! and everyone needs to HAVE ABSOLUTE SELF VALIDITY instead of (or even in addition to) IDENTITY that is external and indoctrinated INTO US!(Of course there is always the problem of basic needs, in order to BE ABSOLUTELY SELF VALID YOU FIRST MUST SURVIVE- but I maintain my self validity by writing and trying to find anyone who can help me be self valid WITHOUT having to give up my absolute self validity. I know this is hard to understand, and it's even harder to LIVE and to BE ABSOLUTELY self valid!

+18 # Tigre1 2012-07-26 22:55

The 22 most backward, misogynistic nations in the world
started to fall...didn't they?

Nobody in this world has kicked more ass and taken more names without breaking stride lately than Taibbi...I adore him and would stand between him and a tyrannosaurus, but hang loose a bit. Because even if moonbat Friedman is a little bit nuts...each of us looks at the world from a different personal bubble.

Many of us just rise to challenges... instead of picking a p-match with Friedman and taking your eyes of the nearest ball, shouldn't you start thinking about who you want in your county for DA? your board of directors, or Sheriff? your school board? it'll make a difference for you and for little kids...your closest, and many virtuous and great immigrants.

Maybe old moonbat was fishing for you, and like bulls going for the cape you're running for it, and then THEY'LL do something else. Don't forget the Ts sponsors ain't barking at him: they're working to take over YOUR county. Think about it.

And Obama is NOT the lesser of two evils...he's the BEST we can do now, and as soon as we throw THAT sandbag into the wall, we gotta gotta do better. This old Green Beret sarge wants to tell you:chill,focus . Your county and state are the where the 'bench' come from, and who makes decisions on drone use will one day soon be someone you did...or did NOT help. Matt, I love your work. Greets, brothers and sisters...

+8 # genierae 2012-07-27 14:28

I agree, Tigre!, instead of looking at things negatively, why not just support the person who will benefit the common good the most? Obama is ten times the man that Romney is, and since we have only two choices, we need to vote for Obama....Unless of course, we recognize a third choice, letting the country crash and burn, and then starting all over again....Hmmmm. ...

+1 # pamitty 2012-07-27 17:56

I agree with you. At least Obama has been trying to do what is right for the American people, the republicans have even stopped pretending that they have us in mind and for our good.
THey ADMITTED they use hostage taking. ADMIT the want more tax cuts for our oppressors,and that they Don't want us to be able to have some voice and some bargaining power at the jobs we do.
Romney is a scary evil man and he will if elected be opposed to our safety nets that his people don't need, he will allow fracking and more air pollution, he will alienate more countries against us. And lots more.
We NEED president Obama 4 more years to recover from the damage that W. Bush the arbusto did.

+5 # JetpackAngel 2012-07-26 23:19

...What?

+17 # KCLouisville 2012-07-26 23:29

Alex, Taibbi has a long history of skewering Friedman's writing in a pretty unassailable way. If you think Friedman is a "better" of Taibbi then there's probably no chance of convincing you on anything else.

+25 # stiver-aloha@hawaii.rr.com 2012-07-27 00:36

Friedman is a Zionist through and through -- and you can bet your bottom dollar that he sees Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran et al within the Israel-first blinders always at his keyboard fingertips. The US invasion dismembered and destroyed Iraq; just what Israel and Friedman want. Syria's civil war is goosed by outside interference from various sectors; just what Israel and Friedman want. Once Syria is destroyed as a viable nation, then on to Iran...then to Lebanon, Jordan...until Zionist Israel and Friedman get what they want -- Eretz Israel, on the US taxpayers' dime.

+9 # countmarc 2012-07-27 00:39

No matter how many times the US fails trying to recreate post WWII MacArthur world rebuild someone steps out of the chorus to save the world from itself. Syrians, Iraqi, Afghans aren't going to play ball either with the buttinski US or each other. Civilizations way on pre-Christian fighting the good fight since the dawn of time-if time is measured by the Judeo-Christian calendar. We need pooper scoopers not spikes to keep the sole of our boots clean. Picturing Joe boys in Iran & Syria is almost as scary as the picture of Romney & Bolton together sharing a joke.

+18 # mppeace 2012-07-27 00:54

I don't ever recall "midwife" Mandela carrying an AK-47 in the birthing of the new South Africa! So, what kind of weed has Tom Friedman been smoking these days?

+30 # TomDegan 2012-07-27 01:04

I can remember in the months leading up to America's illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq. Friedman was the most vocal "liberal hawk" in the print media. Why can't he just admit that going into Iraq was thew stupidest military blunder in the hi9story of this once-great nation?

I cannot fathom - for the life of me - how this guy can even be taken seriously anymore.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

+20 # RMDC 2012-07-27 02:19

You are right Matt. Friedman has always been a complete idiot on the middle east (and a lot more subjects). He's always advised maximum violence and at the same time has said the US is incompetent at using violence in any way that produces anything more than more violence. But the US should do it anyway.

He's a role model for how the ruling elites want the proles to think about US foreign affairs -- just a muddle.

+11 # handmjones 2012-07-27 03:23

Every word he writes betrays his prime loyalty to Israel not the U.S. or the World in general.

+1 # Antler 2012-07-28 03:11

*portrays, not *betrays.. i think. yes?

+2 # AlexBrown 2012-07-27 03:56

The difference between Iraq and Syria is the last major oil reserve on the planet.

-35 # speedracer 2012-07-27 04:24

Can this be real? Does the Arab world really need another of the iike of Mandela, the cop-killer, whose rise to power came through the acts of terror called 'necklacing'? That was the practice of beating a suspect, usually a policeman of some other governmnet type, half senseless and then jamming a car tire down over his shoulders, dousing it with gasoline and lighting afire so that the poor wretch was burned to death in a most hideously disfiguring way--his head reduced to a flaming, empty skull. And, you really consider this Socialist a hero? Balderdash! Pah! I spit on your shoes!

+14 # dkonstruction 2012-07-27 08:04

Quoting speedracer:

Can this be real? Does the Arab world really need another of the iike of Mandela, the cop-killer, whose rise to power came through the acts of terror called 'necklacing'? That was the practice of beating a suspect, usually a policeman of some other governmnet type, half senseless and then jamming a car tire down over his shoulders, dousing it with gasoline and lighting afire so that the poor wretch was burned to death in a most hideously disfiguring way--his head reduced to a flaming, empty skull. And, you really consider this Socialist a hero? Balderdash! Pah! I spit on your shoes!

Unfortunately, Mandela and the ANC abandoned their socialist roots (and promises) when they defeated Apartheid in South Africa with the result that the white minority still control virtually all of the land which they stole from the indigenous peoples in the first place and the economy was not reorganized along socialist principles such that, again, the minority whites still own and control the vast majority of the wealth in the country and wages for blacks are actually lower now (adjusted for inflation) than they wre under Apartheid. As for the "necklacing" accusations this was shown up for what it was; the work of agent provocateurs (which is what you sound like in which case Racer X is turning in his grave for sure) as is made clear in the article whose link is below.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/6006

+9 # dick 2012-07-27 04:42

Friedman is caught on the horns of a dilemma. He wants to sound credible to various camps while remaining an enabler for the suicidal Israeli theft of Palestine. And he is obsessed with his own stature. He has had his moments in the past, but sold his soul to NYTimes' Hearsts.

0 # christiensell 2012-07-27 05:25

This article is more obscure than a script by Ionesco -- AND, AND -- it has split infinitives! Shameful....

+16 # Glen 2012-07-27 05:30

It appears many Americans really are not aware of the history of the Middle East and how the West has meddled, damaged, rearranged, and destroyed the territory.

Mainly Americans don't know that these countries were not countries until after WWII, when the West adjusted boundaries, including establishing Israel and Kuwait. All the groups in that area had their traditions, territories, etc., established on their own, a long damn time ago. Along comes new boundaries, throwing all these groups into a political morass and they have been paying the price ever since.

+13 # teineitalia 2012-07-27 13:22

[quote name="Glen"]It appears many Americans really are not aware of the history of the Middle East and how the West has meddled, damaged, rearranged, and destroyed the territory."

glen, you have hit the nail on the head. Americans are woefully ignorant of both history and geography, and this has been disastrous on many levels. They can be so easily manipulated because they don't see the big picture. People like Karl Rove depend on that, and they depend on apologists like Friedman to smooth the way for their power hungry moves.

-34 # midgesimba 2012-07-27 06:16

Sometimes I think Taibbi just goes over the top in order to make waves. I respect both writers and think they both have valid arguments on many issues. IMO Friedman is making a very level headed analysis in his column and Taibbi is being provocative for no legitimate reason.

+15 # chickensroost 2012-07-27 06:30

So apparently Iraq is now Switzerland. No longer the world's cop, we're now it's midwife. Nice.

+11 # Floridatexan 2012-07-27 07:01

That's midwife with an AK-47, chickensroost. What kind of imagery does that conjure in your head? This reminds me of Newt Gingrich, who uses the same convoluted logic in his books and speeches; the Reich Wing just can't get enough. They're all standing around with cries of "brilliant!" because no one wants anyone else to know that he doesn't understand a word of it.

+5 # catherinewriter 2012-07-27 07:02

"Most incoherent . . . ever!" Really, how in heaven's name would you choose?

Seriously, thanks for all your very good work, especially in the financial area.

-4 # bingers 2012-07-27 08:01

I respect Matt Taibbi greatly, but what is he drinking? Tom Friedman is always writing dumber than a Romney garbage.

He never makes sense, although Taibbi may have a point in that this has a large Jabberwocky element to it, not to say that Jabberwocky was this stupid and it did make internal sense of a sort.

+14 # moby doug 2012-07-27 08:25

So according to Friedman, the disastrous Iraq invasion/occupa tion led not to endless civil war but to Switzerland? No wonder Friedman would claim as much.....he heartily supported the invasion. The NeoCon invasion boosters are shameless and are STILL struggling to find cockamamy ways to claim their monumental disaster was a suckcess....and that it's time to get involved in ANOTHER disastrous war in Syria. Remember, Tom Friedman writes for the NY Times, the same paper that showcased Judith Miller's lies (channeled straight from Dick Cheney) justifying the invasion of Iraq. It's time for Tom to turn in his mustache.

+2 # forparity 2012-07-28 08:18

Judith Miller's lies (channeled straight from Dick Cheney) justifying the invasion of Iraq. ? ?

How about ole Pres Bill Clinton?

July 22, 2003
* Bill Clinton - I think the main thing I want to say to you is, people can quarrel with whether we should have more troops in Afghanistan or internationaliz e Iraq or whatever, but it is incontestable that on the day I left office, there were unaccounted for stocks...of biological and chemical weapons. ...... And what I think -- again, I would say the most important thing is we should focus on what's the best way to build Iraq as a democracy. . .

* We should be pulling for America on this. We should be pulling for the people of Iraq."

End Clinton's plea to America.

+12 # tomo 2012-07-27 09:55

Friedman is a remarkably intelligent man, excellently connected with important sources of information, gifted in his use of language, and charming in personal presence who--some years ago--decided, whether consciously or through some unmonitored and gradual sea-change, to become an apologist for "the way things are." His new message is "Let's not rail against the inexorable forces in whose grip we find ourselves!" He's not the only smart person to do this. It's called SELLING OUT. Robert Kaplan has done it as well. David Brooks--a man of a certain upbeat charm--has been likewise engaged in the project over many years now. It's just too bad!

+10 # genierae 2012-07-27 14:39

Excellent analysis, Tomo. I read and listened to Friedman for years, until I couldn't stomach it anymore. What a fraud he's become!

-3 # forparity 2012-07-27 15:37

How can Syria be like Iraq?

Syria hasn't already invaded a neighbor (Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 - while Carter was Pres) resulting in a million lives being lost.

While goodness knows, untold thousands have been killed, tortured, falsely imprisoned in Syria over recent decades -- the number doesn't approach the hundred's of thousands as Saddam handed out in Iraq.

To our knowledge, Basir has not conducted WMD attacks on his people yet, as Saddam did in Iraq.

And did the US assist, in a bloody coup, in putting Bashir's (daddy Bashir) party in power as did JFK assist in putting the Baath Party in power, back in 1963 - because they seemed a better choice than the communists, at the time?

Oh, and to Matt Tabbi -- Stating that the US armed Iraq is like saying that Rhode Island armed the Swedes. 97-98% of all of Iraq's arms, nuclear whatever and chemical/nerve whatever came from Europe, Asia and the Soviets.

+3 # Pollard 2012-07-28 06:49

Friedman was certain Iraq would devolve into an ethnicly divided state as he was pleading in the NY Times for an invasion throughout 2001 and 2002. He also is keenly aware that Likud's agenda is for the USA to divide Syria into ethnic regions in the same way the US butchered Yugoslavia into segments. The new York Times has banged the drums for any and every war the last one hundred years. And every Manhattan based television cable news channel has a mission to educate US taxpayers about the need for wars.

+3 # midwestgirl 2012-07-28 08:44

Friedman has never let go of a 1980s world view that turns out was wrongheaded and way out of date even in the 1980s. He never lets reality get in the way of his fantasy.

+1 # lark3650 2012-07-29 13:30

His writing puts me in mind of the story "The Emperor's New Clothes." Everybody knows there is nothing much there but nobody says anything because they don't want to appear.."foolis h"....thank God that Matt calls it for what it is.

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