[L]et us review quickly the kind of advice formulated by Machiavelli as administrative policies for rulers who would widen their powers or keep themselves in power: Either treat well or crush; defend weak neighbors and…
Posts tagged War
“Can ponwyi”–The Grace of Gods by Force
In Acholi, a language of the Acholi people of Northern Uganda, “can ponwyi” literally translates as “disaster and poverty teach you.” (Allen, “Postscript: a kind of peace and an exported war,” 283)* This might put…
On Hitchens-ism: When Good is Bad; The Humanitarian Screen for War.
I cannot improve on Greenwald’s discussion of the way the death of Christopher Hitchens has exposed a cadre of influential writers who provided “material support” for the invasion, destruction and occupation of Iraq as not…
To the Tally of Our Souls
It is both easy and difficult to give thanks, to be thankful. It seems an ingratitude to be ambivalent or even hostile to the notion of this day as a kind of celebration. But we…
The Unambiguous Ethic of Power
The “framing text” is a section from Simone de Beauvior’s 1947 book The Ethics of Ambiguity, “The Antinomies of Action”. Indented, intrusive text is Errant and clearly labeled. *** As we have seen, if the…
Tyranny at Home, Death Abroad: The Real Legacy of 9/11
What’s hard about yesterday, about honoring tragic events, is that it must necessarily be conducted only on a symbolic level. These are memorials. As such they are at best expressions of real, local grief and…
Captain America: All for One and One for All for War!
[I could care less if I spoil this movie for you either by revealing plot devices, denouement or “trite and true” verbal and visual propaganda.] “You’ve been asleep, Captain, for about 70 years.” (Anonymous, militaristic…