Anti-Imperialism 101 Re: Hitchens quits Nation

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 12:02 PM -0400 9/29/02, Nathan Newman wrote:
>>>I similarly don't take "self-determination" seriously outside the 
>>>democratic context of a right of a people to choose their 
>>>representatives.
>>
>>Oh, I see, so a people who lack this ability are fair game for 
>>liberation by one who has it? And why were you making fun of Yoshie 
>>for talking about the White Man's Burden ? Your version isn't 
>>racist--it's culturalist. The Civilized Democratic World has the 
>>right, even the duty, to bring Enlightenment and Freedom to the 
>>oppressed masses living in darkness.
>
>Actually, I think the broad point is best phrased as Napoleonic, since that
>was the first wave of invasion backed by the idea of spreading democratic
>enlightenment ideals.  Without democracy, governments have no legitimate
>sovereignty over their peoples so other governments have as much right to
>displace them as they do to hold that illegitimate power.  The issue is not
>the "oppressed masses" since they have no say either way.

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and 
personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first 
time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidiere for Danton, 
Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the 
Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle" (@ 
<http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/ch01.htm>).

Why the constant necessity to refer to wars and revolutions of the 
past?  Because the present gives you no plausible excuse for this war 
-- the war to destroy the republican principle, not to spread it, 
unlike General Bonaparte's -- that a self-identified leftist can 
believe in without a bad faith.

There will be no American Stendhal, no Iraqi Fabrizio del Longo.
-- 
Yoshie

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