for someone so disdainful of information as a force, you certainly have a penchant for info warfare.
On Friday, January 10, 2003, at 11:25 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> ***** Imperialism Roundtable
>
> "Global Realm With No Limit, Global Realm With No Name"
>
> Bruce Cumings
>
> ...Today the United States straddles a globe that is bereft of
> alternative visions and programs, to a degree that would amaze
> "one-worlders" like Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. Yet "naming
> the empire" is left to isolated socialist remnants like Kim Il Sung
> and Fidel Castro.
>
> The greater part of the explanation for this phenomenon--global realm
> with no limit, global realm with no name--has to do with the
> popularity of America's role in the world at home, particularly among
> intellectuals....
>
> ...When the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
> proceeded to collapse, it seemed as if all was positively for the best
> in the best of all possible worlds, a celebratory moment from which
> few escaped. The modernization school proclaimed a belated triumph.
> Meanwhile Ronald Reagan and George Bush took advantage of a new,
> self-assertive nationalism to use American military power unilaterally
> to knock over a leftist regime in Grenada, quarantine the Sandinista
> revolution in Nicaragua, invade Panama, and punish Saddam Hussein.
>
> All this went forward as the arena of critical discourse shrank,
> whether measured by the constricted parameters of network television
> or the general silence of the universities; the willingness to "name"
> these imperial ventures as such, gave way to silence or positive
> participation in national celebrations of each pathetic "victory" over
> a small, essentially undefended Third World country. This is what
> William Appleman Williams meant by "empire as a way of life," what
> Louis Hartz meant by "liberal absolutism:" the legitimation of
> hegemony, ranging from grudging acceptance to patriotic celebration,
> imbedded in the national discourse, of the U.S. as (take your pick),
> "the last, best hope of mankind," the world power of last resort,
> land-of-the-free-and-home-of-the-brave. Global realm with no limit,
> intellectuals with no name. Perhaps this is the deep meaning of an
> imperial culture....
>
> <http://chnm.gmu.edu/rhr/cumings.htm> *****
> --
> Yoshie
>
> * Calendar of Events in Columbus:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>
>