http://www.jhm.org/home-new.asp One of the difficulties of carrying on dialogue with some folks is the cloying urge to stop being polite and just explode with a perfunctory "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?" This is my reaction when I hear or read enough of the kind of thing to be found…
A follow up, answer, another viewpoint…
The title is somewhat rhetorical. Hate–in its undiluted, culturally-disseminated form has only one reason–the perpetuation of local power–for the individual, the power to insist that he/she is right and refuses to countenance criticism, implicit or otherwise; for the state, the power to maintain power in the face of outside insistence on change. . If those against whom the hatred is directed are unfortunate enough not to see how they play into it, then the issue becomes complicated. What we now see in the Middle East and many other parts of the world is a hatred based on local potentates (single rulers, committees, vested interests, or cultural hegemons) desire, need, hunger to maintain a privileged position in their section of the world, something that became more and more untenable int he aftermath of World War ll.
Can that really be? After the decades of beating ourselves (namely, the West, which includes Europe, North America, and certain isolated pockets here and there and may now, paradoxically, include Japan, but certainly includes Australia, and may in time include India…) for our “responsibilities” in causing global problems (such self-recrimination soundly based on the legacies of a colonialist past), maybe it’s time to revisit some of that surplus self-loathing and see where the responsibilities actually lie.
The current exacerbating events of the current mess are all from the same source–the end of the second world war and the onset of the Cold War. Lest we forget, WW ll was …
This will be short. Seems the Pope has gotten into a bit of controversy because of a couple of ill-conveived remarks he made about Islam. Now, like most people, he probably meant Those Bad Ones Over There, who wear bombs and kill people in order to get into heaven. But…
Shortly after 9/11, we asked why “they hate us.” We still haven’t considered who “they” are, much less "why" "they" allegedly hate us. At Alternet, Matt Taibbi has posted a sharp criticism of America's refusal to take this question seriously. Taibbi correctly notes that America versus the World (similarly consider American versus…
Here’s what the president said Monday night:
“The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad”
Here’s an exerpt from a well-written post by Robert J. Elisberg:
Actually, no, it doesn’t. Anyone who thinks our safety “depends” on street fighting in Baghdad has a piss-poor, pathetic view of America and should be so ashamed that they stay in their room in disgrace. Of course, if they think that little of America, they probably are already hiding in their rooms.
Elisberg continues:
We’ve reached the point where the White House has become a scene out of the “Wizard of Oz.” A disembodied head blowing smoke and making ominous pronouncements, while begging us not to look at the little man behind the curtain.
The words are fantasy, the reality befuddled.
Here’s some more examples from Bush’s 9/11/06 speech, all of them equally pathetic:
We’re adapting to stay ahead of the enemy, and we are carrying out a clear plan to ensure that a democratic Iraq succeeds. [Clear plan? Could you please remind us of the terms of this “clear plan”]
We’re helping Iraq’s unity government grow in strength and serve its people. [It’s getting so good, that our military personnel are bringing their spouses and children over there to vacation while the soldiers are off-duty. Oh, wait. No, I was thinking about Hawaii.]