Mission Statement

Dvmx.com was launched in the spring of 2003 as a journal of the arts and sciences, with some political commentary. As we have seen in the American election of 2004, politics and red-state political 'culture' in the US lag far behind in understanding the issues of the modern world and in preparing a peaceful and prosperous future in the real world... and in fact seem to be impervious to rational argument, and easily seduced by inflammatory red herrings and multilayered deception.

However, here in the "reality-based' autonomous zone known as the world, we still face growing climate change, illegal wars are still illegal, torture is still shameful and abhorrent, state violence still begets more violence, and unbridled rule by greedy corporate interests still produces a huge and unhealthy wealth gap which cripples true social productivity, regardless of what deluded red-state voters think, or think they think.

Last year at the outset of the presidential election campaign, I wrote that "If the electorate of the leading democracy in the world cannot see through the deceptions and vote rationally and in their own best interests, the entire project of democracy in modern times looks dubious... If however we can rally and change a bad government, our example will be an inspiration, and will help to begin to restore the world's respect." Well, we were defeated in this, and that has been very sobering. Ironically, the democratic inspiration came instead from Ukraine, where citizens rose up and brought the country to a halt until a corrupted and stolen election was declared invalid. Watching the hundreds of thousands of people in the winter streets for weeks on end, it was clear this was unlikely to ever happen in America, where gay marriage and abortion seem to have trumped the classical political issues of coddled corporate corruption, dishonesty in government, and disastrous international policies. Which is to say that we may not really have a political culture in America any more- in the sense of having a means of elucidating and deciding issues classically germane to political discourse; what we have is like prepackaged junk food compared to a real meal, Americans have forgotten, or many haven't learned, the purpose of the political; the 200 year narrative of political enlightenment is now an arcane story known only to a few.

How this will play out is hard to forsee; America has an enormous impact on the planet, and the world will have to adjust in many ways. In the meantime, I am hopeful that the continuing development of science and ecology, problem-solving and conflict resolution, and the engagement of the arts internationally will prepare the way for a more relevant and enlightened politic.

SM/Dvmx January 2005

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