Right. Thucydides has Pericles say--I paraphrase closely here: What we have is, to speak frankly, and empire; to acquire it was unjust; to abandon it, unsafe. This naturally leads directly to the Athenian's explanation of why they were going to massacre the men of Melos, and enslaves the women and the children: The strong do what theycan, and the weak suffer what they must.
-jks
>From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: Ruling Class Fears, was Re: zionism
>Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 12:38:14 -0500
>
>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > When it comes to fantasies of vulnerability, Israel has plenty to learn
>from
> > the even more delusional USA -- that everlasting "pitiful, helpless
>giant"
> > with history's greatest war-making machine.
> >
>
>It's been a long time since I read Thucydides, but if I remember
>correctly one of the core arguments Pericles used for aggressively
>defending the Athenian Empire was, in effect, that Athens had a tiger by
>the tail, that they had made more or less their whole world very angry
>at them, and if they lost the empire that freed empire would gang up on
>them, so they had better fight.
>
>The US people have nothing to fear from the peoples of China, India,
>Indonesia, Southeast Asia, eastern Europe, fSU, Africa, Middle East, and
>Latin America. But the U.S. ruling class has a hell of a lot to fear
>from those peoples if they once escape from under the thumb of U.S.
>imperialism.
>
>And incidentally, the U.S. ruling class has not only to fear socialist
>revolutions but opposing capitalisms. I think Dennis is merely silly in
>his claims that Japan/China and/or Europe has already achieved hegemony.
>U.S. hegemony is clear and growing. But the world does change, and
>sooner or later (probably not a _lot_ later) u.s. hegemony _will_ be
>challenged: socially, economically, _and_ militarily. I suspect that the
>stupid fanfare about rogue nations etc. is merely the wrapping for more
>'sensible' long-run fears. One could, for example, imagine a
>China/India/Iran axis (allied with some forces in the fSU and even a
>South American breakaway state challenging the U.S.
>
>Specifics are mere fantasy -- but the possibilities such fantasies image
>are not.
>
>Carrol
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