> At a repulsive and tedious Dissent event last week, which for some
> reason I subjected myself to, Walzer & Co. launched their latest
> issue on human rights interventionism. The air was thick with concern
> - though a very depoliticized concern. We heard about Rwanda and
> Bosnia - and U.S. indifference to both - but never anything about the
> politics that produced these disasters. "We" just had to intervene.
> Hardly a word about the causes of U.S. indifference, and never a word
> about, you know, imperialism. At one point, a rather mild-mannered
> German got up to ask Walzer if he'd support a UN effort to protect
> Palestinians from Israeli violence. For this, he had to endure taunts
> from a few audience members for being European (no kidding) and for
> being indifferent to Israel's safety. Walzer, of course, rejected the
> idea of such a UN force, citing the UN's dismal record (he always
> pointed to the worst of the UN, in an implied contrast with a
> humanely interventionist possible US, a purely phantasmic
> construction) and the fact that both sides want to destroy each
> other. That only one side has the capacity to destroy the other
> didn't enter into Walzer's fantasy. I'd say that's not only stupid,
> it's dishonest, and an apology for imperialism.
So, why exactly do they call their magazine Dissent?
<< Chuck0 >>
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-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)