Grasping the Nettle

Thomas L. Knapp's manifesto:

In the future, intellectuals will debate at what exact point in time the United States in particular, and the world in general, entered into the present era. Perhaps it was at the turn of the century and of the millennium; more likely its roots go deeper, perhaps to the fall of the Berlin wall or the equally difficult to pinpoint "end" of the Cold War. The irreparable structural infirmities in the foundations of American political society existed prior to September 11th, 2001. The 9/11 attacks and their aftermath go far in revealing the extent of those infirmities, but were not their cause.

What is certain is that the United States has entered into a revolutionary situation. Severe financial exigency, a failing economy, a failed foreign policy and an increasingly draconian domestic situation have combined to produce the circumstances under which a fundamental reorganization of American political society is not only desirable, but necessary; not only necessary, but inevitable.