I've tried in the past to draw attention to the substantial continuities between the "neoconservative" foreign policy of George W. Bush and the classical imperialism of the late-19th and early twentieth centuries. "D" at Lawyers, Guns, and Money notes some linkages in terms of the rhetoric of gender anxiety as a motivating factor in foreign policy adventurism. And I think there's something to do. This sort of consideration doesn't drive strategic thinking, but it does help create a mentality wherein the destructiveness of war counts as a benefit rather than a cost of a war policy (see also "suck on this"). That skewed approach to accounting obviously sends the whole debate off-kilter in very bad ways.
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Gender Anxiety and Imperialism
01 Nov 2007 08:45 am
Comments (6)
And all this is naturally joined-at-the-hip with the 19th century 'effete Eastern races' trope. So, one of the reasons we had to go in there and get rid of Saddam was that 'they' couldn't do it themselves.
Norman Mailer opined in the New York Review of Books that the invasion of Iraq was partly motivated by a desire to compensate for the blow Sept 11th struck to American manhood. He made an interesting argument.
Wsam - and also see Faludi's The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-911 America.
" substantial continuities between the "neoconservative" foreign policy of George W. Bush and the classical imperialism of the late-19th and early twentieth centuries. . . .some linkages in terms of the rhetoric of gender anxiety"
Digby just wrote aboutGilded Age Politics, how the "political cross-currents" - specifically populist/ elite-fueled nativist-racist resentment. And interestingly, there are other similarities - natalism, fundamentalism&anti-evolutionism, etc. Whether they're actually a package triggered by certain conditions - arguably a certain kind of social rot produced by plutocracy. . . well, I dunno . . .
sigh - lemme try again:
how the "political cross-currents" - specifically populist/ elite-fueled nativist-racist resentment - "are depressingly familiar as well" . . .
If you want to read something really interesting for historical parallels of this sort, you should check out this article on the British policy of air control in Iraq in the 1920s.
Comments closed November 15, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
In this connection I have found James Hillman's book "A Terrible Love of War" illuminating. What is too often discounted is the inherent and intense appeal of war to human beings. It reminds me in broad terms of discussions of drugs; the unmentioned but essential aspect of the abuse of dangerous drugs is the fact that the people in question have an overwhelming desire to take them. So it is with the rush to war. It is as if we are blind to, or unconscious of, the intense appeal of war.
And when we are blind to it, it rules us. As we've discovered, again, to our sorrow.
Posted by Gee | November 1, 2007 9:06 AM