tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2738035487280354412024-03-14T08:05:56.085-07:00Christopher JS Britt ArredondoAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-31980434947239248262016-11-18T18:36:00.000-08:002016-11-20T11:51:57.434-08:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><b>You Guys’ Wall:</b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><b>Crossing the US-Mexico Border in 1998</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Knowing I’d be driving back North to
Los Angeles later that day, I got up early in the morning and drove south from San
Diego to the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a lot closer
than I’d thought it would be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Taco
Shop Poets, a group of young Chicano poets who I’d come to San Diego to
interview, had told me that it would take about twenty-minutes to reach the
border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the excited state of mind
that I was in, I couldn’t measure twenty minutes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The border appeared suddenly, strangely,
inexplicably.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That it was where it was
and not anywhere else seemed to me an anomaly, a random and innocuous truth
that was begging to be explained or justified by an argument that did something
more than merely appeal to the self-evident presence of the border itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet here it was: The infamous San
Diego-Tijuana crossing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The only signs on the road read like
warnings: “Last exit in the U.S.” and then again “Last Exit in the U.S.”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another portentous sign consisted of the silhouette
of a fleeing immigrant family set against the bright yellow of U.S. traffic
signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d seen deer crossing signs
before; I’d seen cow-crossing signs before; but never a fleeing-immigrant sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first one I saw slipped by me at 60 mph
and I wasn’t sure if I had in fact seen what I thought I had seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A bit further down the road, I saw another
set of these hideous signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I
stopped, got out of the car and, feeling like a neophyte ethnographer, I
snapped a few quick shots of them.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t"
path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75"
alt="/Users/cbritt/Desktop/Fleeing Imigrant SIgn.jpg" style='width:198pt;
height:137pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file://localhost/Users/cbritt/Library/Group%20Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg"
o:title="/Users/cbritt/Desktop/Fleeing Imigrant SIgn.jpg"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What could these signs mean?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That immigrants from Mexico are animals?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Animals that freeze, like frightened deer,
like dumb, confused cows, in the headlights of oncoming gringo traffic?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If these signs had been posted out of a
desire to protect immigrants from speeding traffic, than certainly some less
conspicuous image might have been more appropriate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who were the people that voted in favor of
these signs, preferring them to other symbols?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Something that was not concern for human lives must have been the
principal motive behind those signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insurance companies tired of lost
profits from claims on fender-benders due to crashes with fleeing immigrants?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With my suspicions getting the better of me,
the curiosity I’d felt when I first saw the signs turned into anger and this
anger, eventually, turned into embarrassment – embarrassment, essentially, at
all that I had in common with the people who were responsible for the existence
of such signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those people were, in
part, my people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I drove on to where there was a split
in the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, I stopped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time had come to make up my mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either I turned around now to head back
North, toward where San Diego, La Jolla, Los Angeles and eventually Oakland –
where I needed to be by noon the next day – all awaited me or I continued south
toward the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to see it up
close.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And cross it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then be able to say, as much to myself as
to anyone else, that having once had the opportunity to get to know the border
and the city that lay to the other side, I’d not been too poor of spirit to not
take advantage of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With emptiness in
my stomach attributable to a mix of hunger and anxiety, I turned along the
Southern route.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would eat lunch in
Tijuana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">At the border there were signs that
were just a bit too big to qualify as obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They looked as though they had been made with children in mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The signs explained where one needed to go
if, as in my case, one had nothing to declare to the customs officers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I obeyed the signs and got in the quickly
moving line of cars I saw before me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
Mexican customs agent pointed at my car and, with a jerk of his index finger,
indicated I was to stop the car over to the side of the road, where another
agent was waiting for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With studied
indifference, this agent asked me to open my trunk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He looked inside, lifted the little carpet in the back that was hiding
the spare tire and, satisfying himself that the trunk contained nothing else,
he shut it and gave the rear of my car three friendly pats, as if to say
giddy-up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In something less than two minutes,
I’d crossed the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was in Mexico
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nobody had bothered to learn my
identity nor had they inquired after my reasons for traveling to Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did not ask me if I was French, German,
Canadian or whatever else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to
suppose that they figured I was nothing but another gringo … one more among a
daily multitude who travel to Tijuana in search of trade and who knows what other
delicacies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I drove away from the
border crossing, I started singing to myself that silly song by Manu Chao that
goes: “Welcome to Tijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tequila,
sexo, marihuana”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I had no idea which road to
take.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t even clear to me why I’d
come or what exactly I hoped to accomplish by going to Tijuana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did I only wish to learn if the much-coveted
salsa of the Washington embassies and newspapers tasted somehow different South
of the border?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or was I after some other
kind of experience, one that could open my eyes and open my heart and open my
mind to the realities of the border and the emerging transnational, half-breed
culture of the borderlands?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Uncertain of
what I was doing, I let myself be guided by the traffic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was mostly heading west, along the border,
toward the sea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The road ran parallel to
the great fence that the government of the United States had constructed in
order to obstruct the passage of the undocumented, the undesirables, the
forgotten ones of Mexico.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was struck
by how close people in Mexico actually lived to the fence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For many, it was literally in their back
yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others, I imagined, saw it more as
their front door.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">To the other side – the U.S. side –
what I had seen was very different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There, the fence was not surrounded by streets, houses, and children on
bicycles; but, by ample, wide-open, monumental spaces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Empty spaces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Spaces that had been set aside, it would seem, mostly in order to
celebrate the energy and intensity with which they were kept under constant
surveillance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the American side, the
power of the state was omnipresent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
had turned the borderland just north of the border into a no-man’s land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In its totality – watch towers, helicopters
flying overhead, INS <i>migra</i> pick-ups stationed every one-half mile – this
no-man’s land had the feel of a theater stage on which the state was making a
spectacle, not of its power <i>per se</i>, but of the paranoia such power
breeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There – on the Northern side –
the border was fortified, militarized, fetishized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I didn’t know any better, I would have had
to say that the United States and Mexico were still at war, still fighting over
whose land this was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">But on the Mexican side the presence
of the state was less obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
tempted to suggest that it was practically absent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But to do so would be misleading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What did reign here was public use of the
space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a public space,
nevertheless, that did not seem to be valued by the state, much less protected
by it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I saw was people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of them amassed along the fence, as if
they meant to push it over, as if they wished to tear it down in order then to
pass, pass, pass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But pass on to
what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the jobs that no
self-respecting, sweet-toothed ketchup eater would ever want?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To a misery somewhat less miserable than the one with which many
Mexicans in Northern Mexico were already familiar as workers in the <i>maquiladoras</i>
or machine shops of today’s civilizing globalization?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But others would say that these people wished to tear down the fence in
order to reclaim a land that had once been theirs: Aztlán.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Having driven into town, and not
wanting to eat lunch at a restaurant for gringo tourists, I stopped at a
roadside taco shop where there were already other people eating, some on foot,
others seated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This establishment
occupied the terrace of a house that was painted in two competing shades of
blue-green.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It had two pink counters and
somewhere in the vicinity of ten rickety yellow stools situated along side the
counters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Behind the counters was who I
took to be the owner of the business: a half-breed, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mestiza</i>, approximately fifty years old, who wore a white but filthy
dress and whose swollen, drying, arthritic hands told the story of a life of
tireless manual labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At her side there
was a young man in his twenties, also a half-breed, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mestizo</i>, who had a strangely high-pitched voice, like that of a
girl of eleven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He, not she, was the
cook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The meat had a bad look to
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A film of green sweat that shone
dangerously luminescent covered it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
vegetables and guacamole were on the counter, where fruit flies and some of
their larger brethren danced incessantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Beneath my feet were stained paper napkins, half-toked cigarettes, empty
beer bottles and drying mud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Around me
was the everyday taco eating clientele: relatively poor people, nervous and
chattering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They studied me out of the
corners of their eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was this gringo
doing eating lunch at a roadside taco shop?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I thought I could see the fence reflected in their watery eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or was I only transferring onto them the
fence I carried inside, as a half-breed of Spanish and Anglo-American
descent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fence was in them, tearing
them apart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or was the fence in me,
tearing me apart?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were looking at
me with suspicion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or was it me who was
looking at them with suspicion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were half-breeds happily at home in their half-breed world of the
borderlands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a different kind of
half-breed, uncomfortably not at home to either side of the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite all this, or rather because of it, I
greatly enjoyed the food I was served and the conversation that I fell into
with the señora whose taco shop this was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">After placing my order – three
taquitos with red salsa and a coca-cola – the señora commented on how well I
spoke Spanish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She told me, as if she
had been pleased by her discovery: “¡Habla español!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(“You speak Spanish!”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I answered: “Lo estamos hablando los dos,
¿no?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(We’re both speaking it, aren’t
we?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly, she had not expected to
receive such a disagreeable response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sensing that I felt offended, she sought to pardon herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She explained to me that I did not look like
I should know how to speak Spanish and that considering my physical appearance,
she’d assumed that I was a <i>gringo</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was tempted to tell her that I was gringo only in part, and that my
mother was Spanish, that I had lived in Argentina as a boy, that I was married
to a Colombian, that like her and everyone else at the taco shop, I was a
half-breed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I held my peace and
instead told her that her assumption had been correct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was a gringo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where then -- she wanted to know -- had I
learned to speak Spanish so well?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
crib, I told her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And with no more
explanations I asked for the bill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In order to return to San Diego and
from there to Los Angeles I would have to cross back over the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time around I had to wait in an
interminably long line.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed like
everyone and their grandmother had decided to leave Mexico behind and try to
cross to the other side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several people on
the side of the road asked if they could hitch a ride over with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I just kept smoking cigarettes and behaving
as if I were mad, like someone who understood nothing of what was being asked
of him, whether in Spanish or in English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And little by little, I put some distance between the Mexican flag and
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Slowly but surely, I advanced
toward the flag of the United States of America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">I watched as the customs agents, the
agents of the <i>migra</i>, looked over the cars in front of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They used mirrors to peek underneath the
cars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They used dogs to sniff at the
wheels, to sniff at the drivers, to sniff out drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were about three agents per car.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They all wore mirrored sunglasses: the kind
that are rounded just enough to contort the reflection of anyone who looks into
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They bore smiles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were armed to the teeth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Finally it was my turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the agents signaled for me to
advance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another asked me something I
was unable to understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said:
“Excuse me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And he asked me again, this
time raising his voice: “You are a citizen of what country?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hesitated to answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sight of these agents, their dogs, and
guns had gotten me thinking of the fleeing-immigrant signs I’d seen earlier in
the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Impatiently, the agent asked me
again: “What country are you from?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Impishly, I sang out “the Great Ole U.S. of A!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He asked for documentation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I fumbled a bit in my wallet and then
presented him with my DC driver’s license.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He snatched it from me, kept it in his hand, went into his little booth,
and began typing, perhaps in an attempt to find my name among those who figured
on his little black list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What were you
doing in Mexico?” was his next question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“I wanted to see what you guys’ fence looked like from the other side” I
spat back at him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Irritated, he ordered
me to open the trunk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being the
freedom-loving, independent-minded, and self-reliant American that I am, I sheepishly
obeyed his command. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the rearview
mirror I could see the dogs coming and that several other agents were already
inspecting my car, touching it, penetrating it with their gaze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started to believe that I deserved so much
attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the trunk they came
across, much as the Mexican agent had before them, the spare tire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The irritable customs agent put his arm
through the window and gestured as if he were going to hand me back my driver’s
license.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I reached for it, he let it
drop, with the subtlest of contemptuous flips, onto my lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“You’re free to go,” he informed me with
bored authority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, I did as I
had been commanded to do and drove away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once again, I was among those who had built up a fence in order to
protect themselves from the dangers of the Hispanic world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, in the home of the brave and the
land of the free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
<o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="false"
DefSemiHidden="false" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="382">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footer"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Hyperlink"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-33230014740022395812016-01-05T16:22:00.000-08:002016-01-05T16:39:06.385-08:00Providential Enlightenment<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Providential
Enlightenment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Christopher Britt<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With the demolition of the Berlin
Wall in 1989 and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the
nihilistic logic of mutually assured destruction that had dominated the Cold
War rapidly gave way to more hopeful views of the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the West generally, but particularly in the
United States of America, such optimism was cast in a triumphant light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Francis Fukuyama gave this victorious vision
its definitive form when, in 1992, he interpreted the end of the Cold War as
the end of History itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As he
visualized it, in this “post-historical” era there would not be too much for us
“last men” to do, except attend to the administration of global empire and
enjoy the resulting prosperity and ever-lasting peace.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We are enjoying this peace today: a global
war on terror that has no end in sight; an ever-expanding global market economy
whose frenetic use of energy is fast pushing the world to the brink of
ecological collapse; and everywhere the signs of social and political
disintegration associated with a so-called state of exception that has now
become the new norm in governance, not just among despotic regimes, but also,
and more importantly, among democracies the world over.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually, as a result of this continuing
global violence, there are now more refugees, asylum seekers, and internally
displaced people in the world than at any time since the end of the Second
World War.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not living in a post-historical era of
perpetual peace, but in an age of mounting global war and destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">II<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Critical analysis of America’s legacy of
enlightenment reveals that the Enlightenment in America has always and already
contained the seeds, not only of the republican virtues that have sustained
American democracy over the centuries, but also of the imperial vices that have
persistently and repeatedly weakened that democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not unlike the modern democratic virtues it
undercuts, this imperial vice is British in origin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It finds its first philosophical formulation
in Francis Bacon’s identification of inductive reasoning as a new organ or
method for thought, which alone would liberate men from ignorance and reveal to
them the laws by means of which they could rise above and govern nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In John Locke’s political theory,
enlightenment is also identified with self-mastery: a mastery of the self that
extends, by reason of industry and labor, over the “virgin lands” and
“uncivilized people” such labor allegedly improves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enlightenment, according to these original formulations,
is a liberating mastery that frees enlightened men from ignorance while enabling
them to dominate both nature and men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Significantly, for both Bacon and Locke, this enlightened <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">imperium</i> was also a matter of providence
and of the Biblical injunction to improve nature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When, in 1776, the British colonists in
North America declared their independence from the British monarchy, they
believed that their society was the truest embodiment of this providential
notion of enlightenment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when, in
1789, the Founding Fathers ratified the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Constitution
of the United States</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of America</i>,
they envisioned the United States as a mythical “City on the Hill” and a beacon
of light in the vast darkness of natural history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1803, when Thomas Jefferson signed the
Louisiana Purchase, he did so believing that his country would thereby realize
its purpose as an “empire of liberty” destined to spread the emancipating light
of reason across the entire globe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From
Franklin to Jefferson and from Washington to Hamilton, the Founding Fathers
embraced the providentialist logic implicit in the imperialist notion that
enlightenment is a liberating state of mastery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In 1823, John Quincy Adams, who firmly believed that the United States had
been designated by God as the redeemer nation, declared, by means of the Monroe
Doctrine, that America’s empire of liberty naturally included all of the
Americas.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Throughout the rest of the nineteenth
century, the conviction that America had a “manifest destiny” to fulfill led
the government of the United States to annex ever-greater expanses of land,
whether by means of purchase (as was the case with Oregon and Alaska) or by
outright conquest (as was the case with Florida, northern Mexico, Puerto Rico,
Hawaii, and the Philippines).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While these
conquests surely expressed America’s enlightened legacy of empire, they
nevertheless called into question America’s commitment to the enlightened
republican and democratic ideals expressed in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Declaration of Independence</i>. Indeed, by 1900, the majority of
Americans had become so enamored of the idea that America had been chosen by
Providence to civilize the world for Christianity, for democracy, and for
capitalism that, in the Presidential election of that year, they openly voted
against the republic in favor of empire.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the start of the twentieth century Presidents
McKinley and Roosevelt committed America to a foreign policy that would advance
American global imperial expansion at the expense of democracy both at home and
abroad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pretense, however, was that
U.S. imperialism in the twentieth century favored democratic self-determination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This idea was closely tied to the notion that
American imperialism was historically unique: it was an anti-imperial
imperialism, which sought to spread everywhere the so-called blessings of
American civilization. In the years leading up to World War II, Henry Luce
summed up this idea when he urged Americans: “to seek and to bring forth a
vision of America as a world power … as the Good Samaritan … as the powerhouse
of the ideals of Freedom and Justice” and to fashion a vision of the Twentieth
Century as “the first great American Century.”</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conceived
in this progressive manner, the American Century would introduce to the world a
new kind of anti-imperial imperialism, a new kind of American imperialism that
would allegedly use its power only in order to serve and advance the interests
of humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need only recall the
horrors of U.S. weapons sales and the wars in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan to
understand the profoundly nihilistic and destructive nature of the so-called
human interests that this would-be enlightened imperialism advances and serves.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">III<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Today, more than one hundred years after
the presidential election of 1900, we are living through the consequences of
that fateful betrayal of democracy in favor of empire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, America’s legacy of enlightenment has
become so thoroughly confused with the providentialist view of America’s
imperial manifest destiny that it is almost impossible to tell the two apart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider, for instance, how in response to
the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the U.S. government created an
intelligence-gathering program intended to achieve “total information
awareness.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Housed in the Information Awareness Office of
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA, this program
essentially involved the development and implementation of a surveillance
apparatus capable of policing the electronic communications of the entire world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The idea was to ensure that terrorists would
never again surprise the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conspicuously,
this program developed a logo for itself that purposely confused America’s
providential destiny as a world empire with the revolutionary rhetoric of the
Enlightenment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>DARPA’s logo usurped the
meaning behind one of the Enlightenment’s central metaphors --that the light of
reason frees us from ignorance-- and turned its emancipating logic on its
head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than represent freedom from
ignorance, fear, and arbitrary external controls, the radiant light of
enlightenment was here made to represent the freedom to control totally and on
a global scale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t"
path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_4" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75"
style='width:159pt;height:162pt;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file://localhost/Users/cbritt/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image001.png"
o:title=""/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img src="file://localhost/Users/cbritt/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image002.png" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_4" /><!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The eye of providence, which figures so
prominently in this logo, is of course also a key component of the Seal of the
United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the Seal, this
all-seeing eye is not related to the imperialist ideal of total global
domination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It rather expresses the enlightened
assertion that when men exercise their reasoning power, they become capable of
comprehending the order of the universe and of governing themselves according
to the laws of nature. Thus, the harmonious unity symbolized by the Seal of the
United States is altogether different from the one depicted in the DARPA
logo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not the providential unity
of technology, capitalism, and imperialism, but rather the ethical unity of
mind, community, and the cosmos: a unity to which Emerson would give a
transcendentalist expression in his philosophical essays on nature.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">This ideal of a rational, harmonious, and
cosmic unity has taken on a devastating irony.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">In place of universal reason, we now have the epistemological divisions
of expert forms of knowledge and the moral limitations of the bureaucratic
mind; in place of a rational community of compassionate human solidarity, the
divisions and conflicts of unbridled global capitalism; and in place of a
harmonious relationship to nature, the technological, industrial, and imperial
domination of both nature and mankind.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">Such
is the crisis of our so-called post-historical age: the enlightening power of
reason, rather than set our minds in proper and harmonious relation to our
communities and to nature, has splintered our minds, fragmented our
communities, and alienated us from nature.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;"><img src="file://localhost/Users/cbritt/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0clip_image004.png" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_3" /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">And yet, in spite of all its evident
failures and its destructive nihilism, enlightenment remains for us today the
only viable source of creative power by means of which we may yet aspire to
construct an ethical unity of mind, community, and nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is so, not in the sense of a
providential and imperial enlightenment, but rather in terms of the enlightened
secular, democratic, and communitarian ideals proposed by Thomas Paine at the
start of the American Revolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of
course, Paine’s opposition to empire, monarchy and religion, his insistence on
popular democracy, universal suffrage, the abolition of slavery, and free
public education, led most of the other Founding Fathers to regard him as a
dangerous radical, a demagogue, and promoter of an all-too-genuine form of
democracy.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recalling these enlightened democratic ideals
today, we denounce the jingoistic nationalism and providentialist imperialism
that stand in the way of our aspirations for a better future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Francis Fukuyama, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The End of History and the Last Man</i>. New
York: The Free Press, 1992.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Giorgio Agamben, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">State of Exception</i>. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> UNHCR Global Trends
Report, 2013.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> William Earl Weeks, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire</i>
Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1992. p.17.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Democratic
Party Platform was organized almost entirely around an anti-imperialist stance:
“We declare … that all governments instituted among men derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed; that any government not based upon the
consent of the governed is tyranny; and that to impose upon any people a
government of force is to substitute methods of imperialism for those of a
republic.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The platform goes even
further in its opposition to U.S. imperialism by asserting: “no nation can long
endure half republic and half empire, and we warn the American people that
imperialism abroad will lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at home.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To back this final point, the platform
describes U.S. tyranny in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines and concludes
with the specter of militarism, which “means conquest abroad and intimidation
and oppression at home”. “Democratic Party Platform of 1900”, July 4, 1900.
Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The American Presidency Project</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29587.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Niall Ferguson, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American
Empire</i>, New York, Penguin, 2004, p.65-66.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/nsa-and-pentagon-dream-total-information-awareness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=273803548728035441#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Paul Atwood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">War and
Empire: The American Way of Life</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>New York: Pluto Press, 2010, p.53.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-88690076463793008252014-09-29T06:31:00.000-07:002014-09-29T06:31:19.319-07:00Marching for Climate Change<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The image of masses of people marching through Manhattan to
protest climate change and urge diplomats from around the world to finally “do
something” about it, calls to mind the counter image of masses of people
fleeing from the destruction and wreckage wrought on the world by the
financiers of Wall Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In New York,
people marched last weekend along a pre-established course from Central Park to
the Javitz Center: to the opposite side of the Island, that is, from the UN and
easily miles north of Wall Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
marched under the watchful eyes of the media and the still more watchful eyes
of the police.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the rest of the world,
and on a daily basis, masses of people march too under watchful eyes, but not
in order to protest climate change or urge politicians to finally do something
about it: they march simply in an attempt to flee for their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;">There are more displaced people in the world today than at any
point since the end of WWII: more than 50 million, according to recent
estimates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This number includes both
refugees (that is to say, people who have had to flee from their country
seeking asylum in another) and internally displaced peoples (or people who live
as though they were refugees in their own land).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What is behind this violent displacement of millions of
people in the world today?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to
one activist who was present at the march in New York last weekend, the culprit
is Climate Change:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 45.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Speaking of Syria and the
waves of people who are fleeing from ISIS, this activist said: "There was
the worst drought in its modern history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It caused a major upheaval when all the farmers came into the cities.
There was a tyrant, who then oppressed his people, a civil war broke out,
destabilizing the entire region, and a group like ISIS has come to the
forefront. I mean that's the embodiment of what America is not about, and
that's what collapse of civilization would look like."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This kind-a-sort-a
gets at the issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is remarkably
naïve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Climate change is not what causes
civil wars such as the war that is currently raging in Syria, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Mali, Nigeria, Ukraine, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, and
Honduras.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, climate change is
caused by the same force that fuels these wars and keeps them burning
indefinitely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That force, for lack of a
better term, is empire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imperial states
have the world’s energy resources under military and industrial siege.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These festering, slow-burning wars are what
account for the millions of displaced people in the world today, to say nothing
of the millions of mortal victims of these imperial wars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Where do refugees flee?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mostly to concentration camps, otherwise known as urban slums, where they
mingle with the millions of internally displaced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, the misery of the fleeing, shocked and
awed refugees combines with the misery of all those who have become superfluous
in the labor market that is the global economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This misery generates violent opposition against this oppressive and
destructive system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This violent
resistance in turn legitimizes the much more powerful strategies and lethal
weapons of empire, in a circular rhythm that seems to know no end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Marching on New York to protest Climate Change and impress
upon world leaders the urgent need to do something about it is all well
enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the discussion of such a
march should by no means be limited to celebrations of the sort that figured as
headlines in major newspapers: “Largest ever protest against climate
change”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The largest ever crowd that we
should really be talking about is the crowd of over 50 million displaced
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This crowd and not the crowd of
activists gathered in Manhattan last weekend is the true measure of the
destructive force of an imperialism that is behind so much human suffering, so
much destruction of human life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-9560595860967832692014-07-15T19:48:00.000-07:002014-07-15T19:55:24.055-07:00INTELECTUALES E IDIOTAS<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"> La mejor manera de
comprender los fracasos y límites del esclarecimiento es la comparación.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Por un lado tenemos el ideal universal de la
emancipación humana; por otro, las grotescas realidades históricas que este
ideal ha venido engendrando hasta el día de hoy: el calentamiento global y la
devastación ecológica causados por la dominación tecnológica e industrial de la
naturaleza; una guerra global contra el terrorismo que amenaza con imponer un
estado de guerra civil permanente sobre toda la tierra; y por todos lados las
señas y símbolos de la desintegración social, económica, y política asociados
con el poder tiránico de un llamado “estado de excepción”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Para nuestra gran consternación, vemos que
por todas partes la libertad se ha convertido en un instrumento de
dominación.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Las libertades que
disfrutamos son, en el mejor de los casos, engañosas: la competición libre a
base de precios administrados, una prensa libre que se autocensura, la libertad
de discriminar entre marcas y artilugios.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No son las libertades que ejercen personas esclarecidas, sino quienes
más bien deberíamos clasificar como idiotas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Pero idiotas no en el sentido común de la palabra que usamos para
referirnos a alguien que es estúpido, incapaz de aprender y, por lo tanto,
condenado a un estado perpetuo de inmadurez, sino más bien en el sentido en que
los griegos de la época clásica usaban esta palabra para señalar una persona
ensimismada que, en vez de participar en la vida pública, prefería cuidar de sus
propios intereses. El esclarecimiento nos había prometido una emancipación
universal, en cambio, ha creado una hegemonía global que aspira a la dominación
total.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>En un sentido político esto implica
la destrucción de la autonomía republicana y la gradual pero persistente
convergencia de la democracia moderna con el totalitarismo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>El esclarecimiento ha devenido en un estado
de tiranía e idiotez.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>¿Será posible
invertir este proceso, y hacer que de alguna manera un nuevo esclarecimiento
emerja de la idiotez tiránica y la tiranía idiota de nuestro tiempo?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>La dialéctica del esclarecimiento según
la entendieron Horkheimer y Adorno, planteaba una crítica negativa de este
proceso.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Su análisis de los fracasos del
esclarecimiento giran en torno a dos temas centrales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>El primero contempla la pérdida o eliminación
de la dimensión emancipadora de la ciencia moderna y su transformación en un
instrumento de dominación.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>El segundo
considera el regreso de las sociedades esclarecidas hacia formas autoritarias
de poder y maneras arcaicas de pensar: el regreso hacia un estado de tiranía
que incita, estimula, y promueve la regresión humana a un estado de
primitivismo e idiotez. El esclarecimiento, que en su momento había prometido
sacar a la humanidad de sus penumbras, ha acabado por someterlo a una nueva
servidumbre a través de los sistemas de manipulación mediática, la vigilancia
electrónica, el consumo compulsivo y el terror de la una guerra global.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Para los griegos, la idiotez era un castigo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Era una prohibición.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Una especie de destierro y exilio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Idiotas eran hombres libres que habían sido
desterrados de la vida pública de la <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">polis
</i>porque, en vez de participar en la política, se habían preocupado de manera
exclusiva por sus propios intereses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Este
destierro de la vida pública equivalía a la pérdida de la libertad y, por
consiguiente, a la reducción de la vida a la búsqueda de una felicidad privada,
doméstica y trivial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“La característica
principal del tirano – escribió Hannah Arendt – era privar a los ciudadanos de
todo acceso al ámbito público, confinarlos a la privacidad de sus hogares y elevarse
a sí mismo al único responsable de los asunto públicos.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Alexis de Tocqueville entendía la
relación entre tiranos e idiotas de otra manera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Era más bien la idiotez la que instigaba la
tiranía.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pero la idiotez que él tenía en
mente se diferenciaba de la idiotez griega en un sentido básico: no era
individual, era la idiotez de las masas, la idiotez de la prosperidad, la
idiotez del progreso.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>En su profético
tratado sobre la democracia en los Estados Unidos de América, Tocqueville
retrataba esa idiotez como una especie de esclavitud a la prosperidad: el estímulo
de una felicidad a expensas de las propias libertades políticas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>La democracia estaba llamada a generar una
masa que sólo espera de su gobierno la seguridad suficiente para alcanzar una
estúpida felicidad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Desde el 11 de
septiembre, la mayor megamáquina burocrática de la historia de los Estados Unidos
de América impone este tipo de seguridad a través de un ministerio de “Homeland
Security” y del establecimiento de un aparato policiaco mundial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>¿Pero por qué toleramos estas formas de
tiranía cada vez más próximas de los modelos totalitarios del pasado?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>¿Tenía razón Tocqueville cuando señaló que
los idiotas abandonan felices sus libertades porque se han convertido en
esclavos de la prosperidad?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lo largo
de los siglos XIX y XX, este argumento ha dominado, de una manera u otra, los
intentos de explicar la idiotez de las masas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Desde Marx y su noción de la enajenación y la crítica de la clase ociosa
de Veblen a la teoría de la sociedad opulenta de Galbraith o de la razón
unidimensional de Marcuse, las teorías modernas de la idiotez asumen que las
masas han sido engañadas al aceptar el soborno de la tiranía que Tocqueville ya
identificó en su análisis de la democracia moderna.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Tenemos aquí un problema: al asumir como
punto de partida la estupidez de las masas esas teorías dan por sentado que los
intelectuales que las formulan están por encima de ella. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Desde las alturas de semejante trascendencia
el intelectual no percibe que él mismo forma parte de esta idiotez. Por eso
críticos ejemplares como Julien Benda, C. Wright Mills o Russel Jacoby pusieron
de manifiesto cómo los intelectuales públicos o académicos no sólo habían
traicionado a la sociedad abandonando la crítica de la tiranía en nombre de la
seguridad y la privaticidad, sino también asociándose activamente con
ella.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Son los intelectuales idiotas quienes
convidan a los tiranos a ejercer la tiranía en favor de la idiotez.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-ansi-language: ES-TRAD;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Al ignorar los asuntos públicos y no
intentar controlar las fuerzas tiránicas de nuestra época, corremos el riesgo
de que nuestras vidas se condenen a un estado de insignificancia política.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>El destino de los más de cincuenta millones
de refugiados en el mundo hoy, el destino de hombres y mujeres desnacionalizadas
por las guerras civiles y las diferentes formas de terrorismo estatal y
no-estatal de nuestra época, el destino de seres humanos que por una razón u
otra no pueden ser integrados en el sistema económico y político global, este
destino bien podría llegar a ser el que nos espera a todos nosotros. Para
evitarlo, debemos arrojar suficiente luz sobre el marasmo intelectual, moral,
político y económico que caracteriza nuestra realidad histórica y esclarecer el
camino que nos pueda liberar de este estado de rampante idiotez.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eso significa romper las cadenas que vinculan
epistemológica e institucionalmente la dialéctica del esclarecimiento con los
poderes imperiales,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>y reformular un
esclarecimiento que no nos enaltezca como imaginarios dueños de la naturaleza
ni como los supuestos libertadores de las naciones. Un esclarecimiento que nos
permita desarrollar, en harmonía con la naturaleza y en cooperación con los humanos,
una existencia libre de la estupidez y la tiranía. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-27587575161507757892014-07-15T19:06:00.000-07:002014-07-15T20:17:34.309-07:00Intellectuals and Idiots<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps the best way to account for the failure of the Enlightenment is to compare its ideal of universal human emancipation with the grotesque historical realities it has engendered: global warming and ecological devastation brought on by the technological and industrial domination of nature; a global war on terror that threatens to impose a state of permanent civil war on the entire globe; and everywhere the signs of social, economic, and political disintegration associated with the tyrannical powers of a so-called “state of emergency” that has become permanent. To our dismay, we see evidence everywhere of freedom being used as an instrument of domination. The liberties we enjoy are, at best, deceptive liberties: free competition at administered prices, a free press that censors itself, free choice between brands and gadgets. These are not the liberties enjoyed by an enlightened people, but by a people who would be more aptly described as idiots. Idiots: not so much in the modern sense of the word, which we use to designate someone who is stupid, incapable of learning, and has thus been condemned to a state of permanent immaturity; but more so in the sense that the ancient Greeks used the word to mean someone who selfishly neglects public affairs in order to attend to their private interests and concerns. The Enlightenment had promised universal emancipation, it has instead wound up creating a global hegemony that aspires to global domination. In a political sense, this has meant the destruction of republican self-rule and the gradual but persistent convergence of modern democracy with totalitarian forms of governance. Enlightenment has devolved into a state of tyranny and idiocy. Can this process be reversed, and a new age of enlightenment somehow made to emerge from out of the tyrannical idiocy and idiotic tyranny of our day?<br /><br />The dialectic of enlightenment, as first set forth by Horkheimer and Adorno, provides a negative critique of this process. Their analysis of the failures of enlightenment revolves around two central themes. The first is the loss or elimination of the emancipatory dimension of modern science and its transformation into an instrument of domination. The second is the social regression of enlightened society toward primitive forms of authoritarian power and archaic forms of thought: that is, toward a state of tyranny that incites, stimulates, and promotes the regression of humanity toward a state of primitivism and idiocy. The Enlightenment, which once promised the progressive liberation of mankind from darkness, has instead wound up subjecting humanity to a new servitude imposed by systems of mass manipulation, electronic vigilance, compulsive consumerism, and the terror of global war.<br /><br />For the ancient Greeks, idiocy was a punishment. It was a ban. Idiots were free men who had been banished from the political life of the republic because, out of preference for their own private interests, they had failed to participate actively in the public life of the polis. This banishment from public life was equivalent to the loss of liberty and, consequently, to the reduction of life to the pursuit of a private, domestic, and ultimately trivial happiness. “The principal characteristic of the tyrant,” writes Hannah Arendt, “was that he deprived the citizens of access to a public realm; he confined them to the privacy of their households, and demanded to be the only one in charge of public affairs.”<br /><br />Alexis De Tocqueville saw the relationship between tyranny and idiocy otherwise. For him, it was rather idiocy that incited tyranny. But the idiocy he has in mind differs from that of the ancient Greeks in at least one basic characteristic: it wasn’t the idiocy of individuals but the idiocy of the masses, the idiocy of prosperity, the idiocy of progress. In his prescient treatise on democracy in America, de Tocqueville portrayed this idiocy as a kind of enslavement to prosperity: the stimulation of happiness at the expense of political liberties. Democracy was destined to generate masses who only seek from government that it provide them with enough security to attain a happiness that is stupid. Since 9/11, the largest bureaucratic megamachine in the history of the United States has imposed this security by means of the Department of Homeland Security and its global policing apparatus.<br /><br />But why do we tolerate these increasingly totalitarian forms of tyranny? Could de Tocqueville have been right when he suggested that idiots willingly give up their own freedoms because they have become slaves to prosperity? Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this argument, in one form or another, has dominated theoretical attempts at explaining mass idiocy. From Marx’s notion of alienation to Veblen’s assessment of the leisure class to Galbraith’s affluent society or Marcuse’s one-dimensional life, modern theories of mass idiocy underscore the selfish stupidity and corruptibility of the masses; they assume that the masses have been duped into accepting the bribe of tyranny that de Tocqueville had identified in his study of modern democracy. <br /><br />We have a problem here: By assuming the stupidity of the masses, these theories of idiocy also assume that the intellectuals who put them forth have transcended the prevailing idiocy of our times and that they therefore stand above and beyond it. From the distant heights of this transcendence, intellectuals fail to perceive that they are implicated in the very same idiocy that they presume to criticize from afar. This is why exemplary critics, like Julien Benda, C. Wright Mills, and Russel Jacoby, have revealed how public and academic intellectuals have not only betrayed society because they have abandoned the critique of tyranny in exchange for security and privacy, but also because they have actively associated themselves with it. Intellectuals are idiots who invite tyrants to exercise tyranny in support of idiocy. <br /><br />By failing to attend to public affairs and neglecting to exert power over the tyrannical forces of our time, we run the risk of having our lives condemned to a state of political insignificance. The fate of the more than fifty million refugees in the world today, the fate of people who have been made stateless by the on-going civil wars and the different forms of state-sponsored and non-state sponsored terrorism of our time, the fate of people who for one reason or another cannot be integrated into the global economic and political system, may well prove to be the fate that awaits us all. In order to avoid it, we must seek to disentangle ourselves from the intellectual, moral, and political morass of our time and trust that in the process we shall shed some much needed light on how the rampant idiocy of our day can be transformed into tomorrow’s enlightenment. This involves breaking the epistemological and institutional chains that tie the dialectic of enlightenment to imperialism and reformulating enlightenment such that it neither sets us up as the imagined technological masters of nature nor as the would-be liberators of nations. An enlightenment, in other words, that enables us to develop, in harmony with nature and in cooperation with the rest of humanity, an existence that is free from idiocy and tyranny.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-49366624244970116262014-02-10T20:49:00.000-08:002014-07-15T19:26:56.398-07:00MILITARISM APHORISM<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Militarism is the prism that focuses this unsightly vision
of our beloved republic languishing in its imperial prison. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the turn of the 19th and twentieth centuries, Mark
Twain painted a picture of the militarist and corporatist prison in which our
sovereignty languishes today when, in a futurist essay titled “Passage from
‘Outlines of History’”, he lamented with visionary precision and derision that
(and here I quote that wise sage):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>“it was impossible to save the Great
Republic. She was rotten to the heart. Lust of conquest
had long ago done its work; trampling upon the helpless abroad had taught her,
by natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home; multitudes who had
applauded the crushing of other people’s liberties, lived to suffer for their
mistake in their own persons.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This vision of conquest abroad combined with apathy at home
underscores the extent to which Twain conceived of American imperial militarism
as a force that would, if it went unchecked, eventually strip away all of
America’s celebrated liberties and spread tyranny both across the globe and at
home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the 1930s, in the aftermath of the “Business Plot”, which
was a purported plan advanced by fascist-minded US oligarchs and military
veterans, to overthrow the U.S. government of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, Major General Smedley Butler –who had been invited to conspire
in this plot and lord over America as a dictator—not only denounced the conspirators
but also dedicated himself to criticizing the imperial militarism of US
corporations:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service
and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for
Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a
racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially
Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and
Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues
in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the
benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International
Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican
Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make
Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927
I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking
back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do
was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1962. Governments everywhere throughout Latin
America continue to be powerless against the militarism born of collusion
between of US multinational corporations and the Pentagon. Salvador
de Madariaga, a Spanish liberal who has been living in exile ever since Franco
rose to power in Spain, has this to say on the subject:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>“Today the United States wields more sovereignty over a
number of Latin American nations than it does over some of its own capitalist
enterprises. These multinationals are strong enough to usurp the
national sovereignty of the United States and force the State to serve their
own private or restricted interests, alleging all the while that these are the
interests of the nation.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Always the same story: The material interests of
a number of American citizens prosper, and the moral authority of the United
States declines. Who are, then, the real patriots?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An impossibly dastardly question to pose. An
equally impossible question to answer. So I will quote Mark Eitzel,
who in 2004, after the US invasion of Iraq, spun it out this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>You can see him fade with the dawn and a pile of washingtons<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>His head in a spin, he's happy to pass out again<br />
He would rather fade into the static than hear the violins<br />
That whine like old lovers who whine that they love him<br />
He would rather laugh alone in the dark with the soft hands of heaven<br />
Because they'd leave him alone with his entertainment system<br />
He does it for the money but he gives more than he's given<br />
He does it for the money but he gives more than he's given<br />
And it's only when he's naked that he feels his heart<br />
In the whorehouse desert of the patriot's heart<br />
We all want a patriot's heart<br />
We all want a patriot's heart</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-22640796775409064832013-11-16T20:46:00.001-08:002014-07-15T20:11:57.471-07:00The Tortured Tongue<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">The
pain that torture inflicts on its victims is instrumental.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">It is a means to an end.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">One way to conceive this end is from the
point of view of those who condone torture and justify it in the name of security.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Such people ask us to believe that torturers
inflict severe pain on their victims in order to force them to divulge
information: precisely the sort of information that could save the lives of
those on whose behalf the torturer punishes his victims.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Yet, the extent to which torture can help
secure this community from the dangers posed by the victim of torture and
his/her associates is questionable.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">As a
means of information gathering, torture is notoriously unreliable.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Victims of torture may confess to whatever
the crimes –whether real or imagined—of which their torturers accuse them
simply out of a desire to make the pain that they are suffering cease and go
away.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Torturers themselves are perfectly
aware of the unreliability of the information that they gather, which is why
they often must verify its accuracy. </span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Regardless
of the outcome of this process of verification, torturers will always find reasons
to continue torturing their victims: if the information is accurate, they will torture
again with a renewed sense of confidence in their ability to gather useful
information; and if the information is inaccurate, torturers will punish their
victims with a renewed sense of urgency and vengeance. Given the unreliability
of torture as a means of information gathering and given also that, as a
consequence of this unreliability, torturers create their own reasons for
continuing to inflict pain on their victims, the claim that torture is
conducted in order to gather information seems rather specious.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When we reconsider
this claim from the perspective of the victims of torture, we can discern how torture
uses pain as a means to an altogether different end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From this perspective, torturers inflict
severe pain on their victims in order to get them to think, say, or do things
that violate who they have become thus far in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is: torturers torture in order to
humiliate their victims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pain that
torturers inflict on their victims is meant to break down their victim’s loyalties
both to themselves and to their communities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In other words, torturers inflict pain on their victims in an effort to
compel them to speak <i>in other words</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>From the point of view of the victims, these other words constitute a
language that contradicts their own language; they are words that only their
enemies would speak; so when the victims of torture are forced to speak this
language, they in effect are forced to speak the language of treason and
betrayal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Victims of torture
are, in this sense, involuntary traitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are people who have been forced to betray themselves and their own
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The physical, mental, and
emotional pain that victims of torture are made to suffer is intended to push
them to the breaking point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What breaks at
this point is loyalty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Henceforth, the
victims of torture must live with the knowledge that they have become traitors:
enemies to their community; enemies to themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is not as though torture completely
breaks down all loyalty in those victims who it manages to turn into traitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Involuntary traitors are left with one kind
of loyalty: loyalty to the trauma inflicted on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They remember how, under the duress of
excruciating pain, they were forced to think, do, and say things of which they
will forever feel ashamed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The shame of
involuntary treason perpetuates the pain of torture by assuring that the
victims of torture replace their loyalty to self and community with a profound distrust
of their integrity as individuals and as members of a community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Convinced that they are untrustworthy, the
involuntary traitors that torture creates feel that they must bear the weight
of their shame alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Torture
aims to shame its victims and turn them into traitors because treason creates
rifts in communities; it fragments them; and breaks them down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Torture is a way to divide and conquer the
enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But torture is limited in its
ability to shatter the ties of loyalty that bind communities together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can create involuntary traitors only on an
individual basis; it can humiliate its victims only one at a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a way around this limitation, regimes of
torture have often sought to make torture into a public spectacle: some
examples of this are the Autos de Fe celebrated by the Spanish Inquisition; the
witch-burnings in Salem, Massachusetts; or, more recently, the public
executions of heretics by the Taliban.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
torture is made the centerpiece of public spectacles such as these, it serves
as a threat to all who witness it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
such instances, torture merges its power to utterly humiliate and shame
individuals with censorship’s power to humiliate and shame entire communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Censorship
generalizes the shame felt by the involuntary traitors that torture creates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does this by threatening violence against and
imposing silence on those who might otherwise denounce the regime of torture. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who obey the censor’s command to keep
silent internalize the threat of violence that underscores that command; thus,
they are made to share in the shame of involuntary treason that torture forces
on its victims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the victims of
censorship obey the command to say not a disparaging word about torture, they
also become involuntary traitors; their silent complicity betrays the victims
of torture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why regimes of
torture often align themselves with regimes of censorship: torture creates
involuntary traitors who are, in turn, betrayed by the victims of censorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together, torture and censorship generate a
culture of treason.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of
all the cruel and inhumane punishments that make up the torturer’s repertoire,
there is one in particular that demonstrates the extent to which torture and
censorship work in tandem to generate this culture of treason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This punishment is elinguation, or the
mangling, twisting, turning and eventual removal of the tongue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tongue matters to torturers and censors
because it is the principle organ of speech, and of articulated positions of
either loyalty or betrayal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such,
elinguation involves more than the literal removal of the tongue; it also
represents a metaphorical removal of language and community from the self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It both literally and metaphorically
displaces the victims of torture and censorship from their preferred
communities of speech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
is easy enough to understand how this punishment satisfies the desire of the
censor to impose a treasonous silence on his victims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It achieves in explicit terms what censorship
normally achieves only in implicit terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Less obvious is how this punishment satisfies the torturer’s desire to
force his victims to speak the language of betrayal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it does so too in the sense that the
silence it imposes makes the victim of elinguation complicit with the language
that the torturer speaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No longer able
to contradict his torturer, the victim of elinguation is ashamed to feel the
space that his tongue once occupied in his mouth filled with the filth of
censorship’s silence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
image of the tortured tongue is an apt metaphor for how the discussion on
torture has been carried out recently here in Washington, DC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our tongues –although not literally removed
from our mouths, have been forcibly twisted and turned, such that we now speak
on torture in a language that contradicts the language in which we have
traditionally spoken of both torture and censorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That language is intimately tied up with the
liberal tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the language in
which US constitutional law articulates prohibitions on torture and formulates
the equal rights of citizens; this language of enlightened liberalism is also the
language in which the Geneva Conventions and The United Nations Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
articulate international prohibitions on torture and formulate the equal rights
of all humans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At
issue in this language of enlightened liberalism is the idea that freedom must
be balanced against solidarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
balance is never easy to strike, and requires constant vigilance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such is the case, in great measure, because
the language of liberalism does not conceive of either freedom or solidarity in
simple terms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, it conceives them
each as a dynamic yet delicate balance between positive and negative
aspects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As concerns freedom, our
positive freedom to realize ourselves and our life projects is limited
negatively by other people’s freedom from coercion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As such, we are generally prepared to accept our
freedom from coercion as a necessary limit that is imposed on our freedom to do
with our lives as we please.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Likewise,
as concerns solidarity, our right to associate with others positively on the
basis of shared characteristics, values, or interests is limited negatively by
other people’s right to not have such associations forced on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this reason, we are generally willing to accept
the idea that our common humanity should act as a negative limit on the
prerogatives of our positive circles of solidarity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When
it is applied to questions of torture and censorship, the inherent logic of
this language establishes an analogy where Torture: Solidarity :: Censorship:
Freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to this reasoning, no
positively defined circle of solidarity (such as a tribe, an ethnic or
religious community, or a nation) can trump the negative solidarity that is
constructed on the basis of all of us having nothing in common aside from the
fact that we are members of the same species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This negative solidarity imposes a limit on freedom by prohibiting
torture as a violation of our human dignity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As concerns the positive solidarity that censorship constructs by
imposing silence, the logic of enlightened liberalism suggests that it is
limited by our freedom from coercion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This negative freedom imposes a limit on solidarity by prohibiting
censorship, which is conceived as a violation of our freedom to grow into
full-fledged individuals who think and speak for themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Bybee and
Gonzales memos, which the Bush administration prepared in 2002 in anticipation
of the US invasion of Iraq, turned this logic on its head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The new Bush-speak on torture inverted the
terms of enlightened liberalism’s prohibition analogy, replacing the negative
relationships between torture and solidarity on the one hand and censorship and
freedom on the other with positive ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As opposed to Torture: Solidarity :: Censorship : Freedom, the new
discourse on torture proposed that Torture: Freedom :: Censorship: Solidarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to this logic, torturers are the
ultimate expression of freedom; and censors are the ultimate creators of
solidarity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The positive freedom enjoyed
by torturers knows no limits; it is neither limited by the victim’s negative
freedom from coercion nor by the negative solidarity that ties torturers to
their victims insofar as they are both human beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much the same can be said about the censors
who this new Bush-speak on torture empower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The positive solidarity that these censors construct by imposing silence
knows no limits; it is neither limited by the negative solidarity of those with
whom the censors have nothing in common except their humanity, nor is it
limited by the negative liberty from coercion of the victims of
censorship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Failing to acknowledge any
of these limits, the positive solidarity that these censors create is as
narcissistic as it is jingoistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, the trouble with this overly-positive notion of solidarity is
that it has led some Americans to embrace a sense of patriotism that would
require all Americans to identify positively with torturers, as opposed to
identifying at least negatively with their victims.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I trust my
comments have made clear the extent to which this new language on torture, and
the censorship that accompanies it, openly contradict the traditional language
of enlightened liberalism on which our and all other modern democracies are
based.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insofar as we acquiesce to use
this new language or fail to denounce the silences it imposes, we run the risk
of becoming involuntary traitors and sharing in the shame that now permanently
marks the lives of those “enemy combatants” who have been tortured on our
behalf, ostensibly in order to secure our freedom and affirm our solidarity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch>
<o:TargetScreenSize>800x600</o:TargetScreenSize>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The outcome of the
recent Presidential election here in the US suggests that a majority of the
American public has now decided to reject the new language on torture that was
devised in secretive meetings and became policy without even the slightest
public debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps this majority favors
a return to the more traditional language of enlightened liberalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope they do not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For if the Bybee and Gonzalez memos prove
anything, it is that the language in which we have traditionally formulated our
prohibitions on torture is too weak; the negative limits we have traditionally
imposed on freedom and solidarity have proved to be malleable, twistable, and
torturous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do need stronger language
in which to prohibit torture and censorship while at the same time affirming
our solidarity as a species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My hope,
although it is not terribly audacious, is that this symposium today serves as a
first step in that direction.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-34929352778803457742013-10-25T19:26:00.000-07:002014-07-15T20:20:22.414-07:00America's Imperial Crusade in the Philippines<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%;">In an essay
titled “Expansion and Peace” originally published on December 21, 1899,
Theodore Roosevelt offered this defense of U.S. imperialism in the Philippines:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">the expansion of
a civilized nation has invariably meant the growth of the area in which peace
is normal throughout the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same
will be true of the Philippines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the
men who have counseled national degradation, national dishonor, by urging us to
leave the Philippines and put the Aguinaldan oligarchy in control of those
islands, could have their way, we should merely turn them over to rapine and
bloodshed until some stronger, manlier power stepped in to do the task we had
shown ourselves fearful of performing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But, as it is, this country will keep the islands and will establish
therein a stable and orderly government, so that one more fair spot of the
world’s surface shall have been snatched from the forces of darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fundamentally the cause of expansion is the
cause of peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is worth
noting here how Roosevelt uses Enlightenment rhetoric and imagery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>U.S. expansion, he argues, is an enlightening
prospect that promises to “snatch” portions of the world’s surface “from the
forces of darkness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Empire, in this
mode, is literally a matter of enlightening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But in this, as in other representative passages of Roosevelt’s epic
prose, he is ultimately less concerned with the enlightenment of those who live
in darkness on far away islands than he is with those among his fellow
countrymen who, due to either moral depravity or intellectual obtuseness,
simply refuse or are incapable of seeing the radiant light of American
imperialism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the passage at hand, he
depicts American anti-imperialists as men who have counseled “national
degradation” and “national dishonor”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">In his famous
essay of 1899, “The Strenuous Life”, he depicts the anti-imperialists in
similarly unflattering terms:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The timid man,
the lazy man, the man who distrusts his country, the over-civilized man, who
has lost the great fighting, masterful virtues, the ignorant man, and the man
of dull mind, whose soul is incapable of feeling the mighty lift that thrills
‘stern men with empires in their brains’ –all these, of course, shrink from seeing
us build a navy and an army adequate to our needs; shrink from seeing us do our
share of the world’s work, by bringing order out of chaos in the great, fair
tropic islands from which the valor of our soldiers and sailors has driven the
Spanish flag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the men who fear
the strenuous life, who fear the only national life which is really worth
leading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">With this
rhetoric of courageous and strenuous effort, Roosevelt seeks to construct a
modern heroic type: the imperial civilizer; but this would-be modern hero
actually reverts back to pre-modern forms of heroism celebrated centuries
before by Spanish imperial apologists who conceived of their own empire in the
Americas as the divinely sanctioned and heroic work of self-sacrificing saints
and crusading conquistadors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By means of
such heroic rhetoric, Roosevelt sought, not unlike the Spaniards several centuries
before him, to elevate the adventurer and even the criminal to the status of an
absolute moral conscience. This totalizing and absolutist conception of the
imperial hero is tainted, no doubt, with the universalism of Enlightenment
moral and political thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
Roosevelt’s heroes of American imperialism are not modern-day Prometheans who
dare to steal the light of the gods in order to improve the lot of mankind with
their modern science and technological know-how; they are rather pre-modern
heroes, bent on imposing the tyrannical spirit of their “strenuous way of life”
on those unfortunate enough to come face to face with them in a struggle to
retain their own freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-52886467188086907912013-08-12T20:22:00.000-07:002014-07-15T20:12:37.323-07:00The Meek Submission of Potential Criminals<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The first time I realized
that the state –as in the government of the United States of America—considers
each and every one of its citizens a potential criminal was when my wife, who is
originally from Colombia, was seeking to change her immigration status and
become an American citizen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a first
step in that process, she had to fill out Form I-485.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the form that innocently asks such pieties
as: Are you a prostitute?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are you, or
have you ever been, a member of a totalitarian movement?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you ever been, or do you intend to
become, a terrorist, a torturer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have
you entered the United States of America with the intent to overthrow the
government?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I mentioned already, my
wife is originally from Colombia, which is not exactly a bastion of civic
virtue; but all the same, did the state really have to ask her if she ever had
been or ever intended to become an out-and-out criminal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, my wife answered No to all the questions
asked on Form I-485.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And of course the
state expected her to answer No to all those incriminating questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So why the show?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To what end this silly willy-nilly game of
cat and mouse?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">The answer, at first, eluded
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, I am a native son; a
natural citizen who --unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger-- could become President, if
I were half the criminal he is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a native son, I had grown
accustomed to thinking of my government as the people’s government, as a
republic dedicated to democratic self-governance and to the equality of all
before the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I had a hard time
figuring out why the state was asking my wife such dastardly questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then it dawned on me that the reason the
state asked her these incriminating questions, knowing full well that she would
answer No to them all, was that, if in fact she was lying when she answered No,
they could legally criminalize her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Legally criminalize: this is
what the state does with each and every person who seeks to become a
naturalized citizen of the United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Legally criminal<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ized</i>: this is
the state in which all natural citizens have always and already existed
vis-à-vis the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The state legally
criminalizes us all, whether naturalized or natural citizens, whether
explicitly or implicitly, as potential criminals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">This is not as bad a deal as
it sounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Far be it from me to be an
alarmist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consider, for instance, that
there are those among us who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i>
criminals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whitey Bulger, the nefarious
Irish mob boss of Boston (and no, I am not talking about the Boston Police
Department), was convicted this past Monday for committing a series of 11
murders and other gang-related crimes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If the state did not consider him a potential criminal, if there were no
code of law in place that anticipated his potential crimes and set forth
appropriate punishments, Whitey would still be living it up with his girlfriend
on the beaches of southern California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
Americans, as a people dedicated to an ongoing experiment in democratic
self-government, we submit ourselves, our lives, to the rule of law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We agree that there should be fundamental
limits placed on our right to exercise freedom and pursue happiness: that limit
is the right of every other American to exercise their own freedom and pursue
their own happiness. So in essence, we are all also in agreement with the basic
impulse that informs the rule of law: that is, we all more or less agree to
treat each other as potential criminals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Don’t tread on me and I won’t tread on you: this is the basic underlying
logic of our experiment in self-governance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">But not all criminals are of
the Whitey Bulger sort, and not all crimes tread on other people’s
liberty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two cases, which are deserving
of our on-going attention and concern, are those involving Misters Manning and
Snowden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both of these young men are
accused of crimes against the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are not criminals of the Whitey Bulger sort, but an altogether
different breed of would-be criminal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are public servants who the government accuses of being disloyal to
the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of Manning, the
accusation stems from the fact that he disclosed a trove of not-too-secret U.S.
government files and made them available, through wikileaks, to a global
reading public interested in America’s failing human rights record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of Snowden, because he released
into the hands of the United States’s Cold War enemies –notably China and
Russia—secret documents detailing the NSA’s global and domestic surveillance
procedures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">Both of these young men claim
to have released these secret documents out of their love for the American way
of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each claims, in his own way, to
be a whistle blower whose main motivation has been to unmask the state’s
overbearing abuse of human and political rights both abroad and at home. The
government views their actions as proof of their potential criminality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Manning’s case, he has in fact already
been found guilty of crimes, for which he is likely to spend the remainder of
his life, locked up in federal prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In Snowden’s case, the judge and jury are still out, since he is quite
literally still out of the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">But the issue here, the real
issue, is not whether or not or to what extent their actions constitute crimes
against the state. To the contrary, what
is at issue is that their actions and the state’s response to these actions
reveal that it is the state itself that we must now also regard as a potential
criminal. Its crime is the crime that,
according to our own <i>Declaration of
Independence</i>, would justify our rising up against it in protest. It is a common enough crime, committed over
the centuries by any number of rulers drunk on the hubris of their power. We call it tyranny. The real surprise in all this is therefore
not that our government considers us all potential criminals, but that in the
face of our own government’s growing tyranny, we choose the option, not of
freedom-loving republicans dedicated to democracy, but that of voluntary
servants the world over: that option has a name: meek subservience. </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-55333102007490996182013-06-03T11:22:00.002-07:002013-06-04T08:59:48.898-07:00John Locke and America's Empire for Liberty<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">The political theory of John Locke is generally credited with
having provided both a philosophical justification for the American Revolution
and a practical roadmap for the founding of the Republic. It is in this
sense, for instance, that historians often point to that celebrated phrase in
the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, where Thomas Jefferson, citing
Locke, declares the People's right to "Life, Liberty, and
the Pursuit of Happiness". On this view, the influence of
Locke on American political culture was decisive, unproblematic, and
"happy". But such a celebratory view of Locke's influence on
American political culture correlates less with historical truth than it does
with the poetic half-truths of a national myth. This myth tells us that
Locke was a champion of liberty, of civil rights, and equality. The
historical truth, while not completely debunking this myth, nevertheless
unsettles the truths contained in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Locke was a champion of liberty; but he was also a champion of
British imperialism. He defended the right of individuals to enjoy
negative liberty --that is, their right to be free from coercion and tyranny,
but he also defended the positive liberty of "industrious" people
i.e., the British, to conquer foreign lands: both those lands that
were inhabited only by barbarians (which for Locke amounted more
or less to the entirety of North America, where he had a claim to a significant
tract of land in the Carolinas), or those lands that had been conquered by
people who were not industrious and had therefore neglected to improve the land
with their labor, (which for Locke essentially summed up vast areas of the
Spanish colonies in the Americas). This tension between negative and
positive liberties, between autonomy and sovereignty, is the true inheritance
that Locke bequeathed to America's Founding Fathers. It is a tension or
ambiguity that combines republican rights with imperial virtue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Insofar as he was an enlightened thinker, Locke was not the first
to formulate this ambiguity. Some sixty years prior to
the publication of Locke's <u>Two Treatises on Government</u>,
Francis Bacon had already defined enlightenment as a combination of <i>potentia</i> and <i>productio</i>.
Locke, however, takes this double aspect of enlightenment thought and
applies it, not merely to Man's dominance over Nature, but also to Man's
ownership of the land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">For Jefferson, who dreamed of U.S. expansion in terms of an Empire
of Liberty, the issue was not so much the right to property as the right to
pursue happiness, which he conceived in the terms of an agrarian utopia of
ever-expansive liberty. Locke did not, however, mince his words after
such a fashion. For him, government was meant to secure the rights of
individuals to life, liberty, and property.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Locke's theory of property combines negative freedom and positive
freedom. Negative freedom is at work in what he calls the Law of Nature.
In the <u>Second Treatise</u>, he writes: "The State of Nature
has a Law of Nature to govern it, which obliges everyone: And Reason, which is
that law, teaches all mankind ... that being equal and independent, no one
ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty, or Possessions."
For its part, Positive Freedom is at work in what Locke refers to as a
Biblical injunction to improve the land through labor. In this sense,
Locke writes elsewhere in the <u>Second Treatise</u>: "God, when he
gave the World in common to all Mankind, commanded Man also to labor and the penury
of his condition required it of him. God and his Reason commanded him to
subdue the Earth, i.e., improve it for the benefit of Life."
Accordingly, Locke argues, God gave the land "to the use of the
Industrious and Rational (And Labour was to be his Title to it;) not to the
Fancy or Contentiousness of the Quarrelsome and Contentious".
Locke's theory of property thus combines negative liberty, which protects
individuals from invasion of their land, with the positive liberty to invade
lands that have not been improved by the labor of others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Now what is truly worthy of note about this theory is the extent
to which it is intimately bound up with justifications for British incursions
into the Spanish colonies in the Americas. In this sense, Locke writes in
his <u>Second Treatise</u>: "Nay, the extent of <i>Ground</i> is
of little value, <i>without labour</i>, that I have heard it affirmed,
that in <i>Spain</i> it self, a Man may be permitted to plough, sow,
and reap, without being disturbed, upon Land he has no other Title to, but only
his making use of it. But, on the contrary, the Inhabitants think
themselves beholden to him, who, by his Industry on neglected, and consequently
waste Land, has increased the stock of Corn, which they wanted."
Here Locke speaks with philosophical admiration of the manner in which
Spaniards in his time would recognize labor as the only title necessary to own
common lands that would otherwise be left alone in a state of
"wastelands". But Locke was not only an enlightened philosopher. He
was also a Landgrave of Carolina and the Secretary of the Council for Foreign
Plantations appointed by King Charles II of England. In this capacity, he
ordered a study of the history of the Royal Society, in which the argument on
wastelands is turned against Spain's colonies in the Americas. In this
work commissioned by Locke, we read: "how unfit the Spanish humor is, to
improve Manufactures, in a Country so distant as the West-Indies; we may learn
by their practice in Spain itself: where they commonly disdain to exercise any
Manual Crafts, and permit the profit of them, to be carry'd away by
strangers" (Quoted in Eva Botella-Rodinas' "Debating Empires,
Inventing Empires: British Territorial Claims Against the Spaniards in America,
1670-1714" in The Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Vol. 10, No.
1, 2010).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Locke and his contemporaries in England viewed the Spanish as
"lazy" and "sinful", their empire already in decline and
doomed inevitably to collapse. The colonies in the Americas were, on this
view, wastelands --lands that the Spanish, who were according to this logic
interested only in silver and gold, had neglected to improve. This
prejudice, which in Locke is only in its nascent form, will with the passing of
the centuries guide not only British imperial pursuits in the Americas but
eventually also those of the United States of America: a Republic which
expanded across the continent first and then across the globe in order,
supposedly, to civilize the world and turn it, as Jefferson fondly dreamed, into
an Empire for Liberty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-3177322779236298272013-06-03T10:06:00.001-07:002014-07-15T20:13:12.398-07:00The Destruction of Enlightenment<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">Ours <i>is</i> an Age of Destruction.
The myriad crises that we face today --from global warming to global
warring-- are a brutal but eloquent testimony to this destruction. How are we to make sense of these forces of
destruction and combat the nihilism, the intellectual apathy, and lack of
creativity that drive them?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">The trend in the humanities over
the last several decades has been to identify these forces of destruction with
the Enlightenment. Enlightenment Reason,
we are told, is not universal but Euro-centric; it is not a liberating force,
but a dehumanizing, humiliating, and dominant force that is intimately tied up
with colonialism, imperialism, and even fascism. This post-modern critique of the
Enlightenment points to internal flaws in Enlightenment thought, to its
underlying contradictions and weaknesses.
Post-modern critics have reduced the Enlightenment --which was a
transformative movement that helped modernize science, technology, politics,
economics, and society-- to nothing more than a so-called “grand narrative” or
“discourse” by means of which Enlightenment thinkers sought, not to liberate
themselves and others from tyranny, ignorance, and superstition, but to place
humanity under the tutelage of instrumental reason.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">Although such post-modern
critiques of Enlightenment point correctly to dogmatic features in
Enlightenment thought, their caricature of this intellectual and political
movement as strictly rationalist and the call that they make for a radical
break with the universal moral and political values of Enlightenment, ignores
the extent to which Enlightenment thought has failed to live up to its promise
in large part because it has always and everywhere been opposed by very
powerful enemies. Think, for example, of
the absolutist Spanish monarchy and of the Inquisition; or, if you prefer, of
the Salem witch hunts, or for that matter, of aspiring politicians who claim
that evolution is but a theory and that global warming is but a delusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">The Enlightenment, for all its
internal contradictions and historical failures, still provides a needed model
for projects of cultural theory and social reconstruction in the Americas and
the world. Indeed, what post-modern
critiques of the Enlightenment express, first and foremost, is the enlightened
hope for a way to re-conceptualize progressive thought and practice. But because post-modernists throw the
Enlightenment’s baby of universal human values out with the proverbial bath
water of modernity, the would-be progressive programs of thought and practice
that they espouse are mired in the skeptical relativism and historical nihilism
that characterize post-modern perspectivism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: large; line-height: 200%;">What is needed to ward off this
nihilism is an alternative view of the Enlightenment and the ambiguity of its
legacy in our own age of destruction. At
its conception, the Enlightenment, with its new science based on inductive
reasoning, promised to liberate men from superstition and ignorance and reveal
to them the mysterious laws that govern nature.
Today, it is fair to say, the Enlightenment has failed to deliver on
this liberating promise. But this is
because the Reason that was to set men free and help them understand nature has
been reduced to its instrumental dimension: the scientific search for truth is
no longer an end in and of itself, but a means to an end. And what is that end? Nothing short of the domination of nature by
man and the creation of an all-too-human world that lords its technological
power over the organic forces of nature.
The Enlightenment also promised to set men free politically. When the colonists in New England fought
against the tyranny of the English monarch, they justified their revolution for
independence by appealing to Enlightenment ideals of democratic sovereignty and
self-rule. Today, many peoples around
the world see the US as a bully and a tyrant.
Indeed, it would seem that as a people we Americans have regressed from
our progressive political virtues of democratic self-government back toward
more primitive forms of authoritarian rule.
In the name of freedom, we now torture our enemies or assassinate them
with unmanned drones, while at home our age-old right to <i>habeas corpus</i> has been suspended by the bureaucrats in the world’s
single largest bureaucracy: the Department of Homeland Security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: large;">The technological elimination of
Enlightenment’s liberating power and the accompanying regression toward
primitive forms of political power are the two most salient features of our age
of destruction. Humanists would do well
to keep this in mind when they venture their post-modern theories on modernity
and its discontents. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-10826021619528040362013-06-03T09:58:00.000-07:002013-08-19T12:03:06.897-07:00A Modern Translatio imperii<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">A Modern <i>Translatio imperii</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The idea that the executive branch of
the U.S. government should have a legitimate power to wage an imperial war of
conquest and colonization, and to do so with only a modicum of congressional
approval and oversight, was first tested at the turn of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries when the U.S., taking full advantage of Spain’s definitive
collapse as an empire, conquered and colonized Spain’s erstwhile colonies in
the Caribbean and the Pacific. What
occurred on a grand scale at this juncture was a <i>translatio imperii</i> or imperial transfer of power from Spain to the
United States of America. But if the
medieval concept of the <i>translatio
imperii</i> construed such transfers of power from one emperor or empire to the
next as a linear continuum that was destined, according to the prophecies of
Daniel, to reach the end of times, in the modern era this apocalyptic vision of
imperial decline is turned back on itself.
Rather than a continuum of successive transfers of power destined for
eventual collapse, the modern understanding of the <i>translatio imperii</i> is optimistic; it sees this transfer of power as
a modernizing and enlightening advance.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">According to the positivistic logic
of this modern view, American imperialism is superior in kind and quality to
Spanish imperialism because the American brand of imperialism, as conceived
originally by the nation’s Founding Fathers, seeks to spread liberty and
Enlightenment, while the tyranny inherent to the Spanish brand of imperialism
only served as an impediment to Enlightenment.
It was in such cheerful terms that American imperialists of the turn of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries would defend the expansion of U.S.
dominion over Spain’s ex-colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific. America, they claimed, was a liberating and
civilizing empire. There is, of course,
a much less flattering interpretation of this imperial transition of power from
Spain to the United States of America.
According to the anti-imperialists, this transition rather marked a
regression of the American republic toward the unenlightened and tyrannical
forms of a pre-modern Spanish <i>imperium</i>. Instead of a modernizing advancement destined
to spread enlightenment around the globe, anti-imperialists viewed U.S.
imperial expansion as evidence of the republic’s decline into a sinister state
of political and cultural decadence.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Considered in this darker light, the
U.S. conquest and colonization of the Philippines was just as savage and cruel
as Spain’s conquests in the Americas at the start of the sixteenth
century. But the similarities between
U.S. and Spanish imperialism that this anti-imperialist perspective identifies
were not limited to cruelty alone. The
connection, as both the apologists for U.S. imperial expansion and their
critics made clear, ran much deeper.
U.S. imperialism was a continuation of Spanish imperialism in that, like
the Spanish before them, U.S. imperialists, such as Josiah Strong, imagined and
justified U.S. imperial expansion as an evangelical crusade; and much as the
Spanish conquistadores had done, imperialists like Theodore Roosevelt glorified
as heroic, acts of conquest and colonization that would have been more
accurately depicted as acts of brutality.
By defending American imperialism in these terms, American imperialists
in effect eliminated the liberating dimension of Enlightenment from their
would-be civilizing mission and they essentially reverted to primitive forms of
authority. American anti-imperialists
like Mark Twain and William James did not sit idly by; they rather attacked the
imperialists and their ideas in open and public debate. At issue in this debate was America’s legacy
of Enlightenment: the legacy, that is, that ambiguously combines republican
with imperial virtues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-1202928790411288612012-11-06T12:44:00.000-08:002012-11-06T12:50:06.241-08:00Imperial Idiot<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCuq7r9sadKfV_-DCkUbWPkCY4xf2VE7y9tpGQ3TVg-Qwf6MKm-YWYTnnERSTb53OIoKQFg84vM3HNYLeShY8Jh198Nk5VvgYUawFHR0gZoBneXu08YQfQcfBCbbWqyLGTsV85Ffh_F_k/s320/Imperial+Idiot4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoCuq7r9sadKfV_-DCkUbWPkCY4xf2VE7y9tpGQ3TVg-Qwf6MKm-YWYTnnERSTb53OIoKQFg84vM3HNYLeShY8Jh198Nk5VvgYUawFHR0gZoBneXu08YQfQcfBCbbWqyLGTsV85Ffh_F_k/s320/Imperial+Idiot4.jpg" width="378" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Our political culture is administered. Insofar as it encourages idiocy, rather than cultivate independence, it is an imperial and not a republican culture. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The imperial strain in American political thought, from the Founding Fathers to today, has always been fond of comparing America with classical Greece and Rome. According to these comparisons, America is continuing the experiment with democracy that first the Greeks and then the Romans undertook. It is in this respect that Jefferson spoke of an Empire of Liberty or Benjamin Franklin spoke of the American republic as a logical and historical continuation of the British Empire. Such comparisons are dangerous to make, however, not just because we know the final outcome of Roman History –i.e., the republic gave way to empire and the empire led to the decline and fall of Roman civilization; these comparisons are dangerous to make because they can also highlight the causes of that decline.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Consider, in this regard, that the word idiot comes from the ancient Greeks, a people who valued above everything else their public life in the polis. Consequently, for them, an idiot was someone who would dedicate himself to private preoccupations rather than concern himself with the public affairs of the polis.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">This “dropping out” of public life in order to attend to one’s private concerns is a symptom of the imperial idiocy that has taken hold of our political culture and threatens to undermine American democracy. Indeed, on the eve of the Presidential Election, we see in televised Presidential Debates that our political culture has become a spectacle and a farce. The candidates do not debate ideas and policies; they merely repeat scripted lines, like actors in a theater (of dunces). There is little if any concern for truth. The media treat this glaring absence of truth with decided cynicism: I am thinking of the Washington Post, where there is a column written daily in which the paper’s editors study statements made by either President Obama or Mitt Romney, and assign to these statements a certain number of “Pinocchios”: Five for outlandish lies, one for half-truths. To treat these misrepresentations of truth as something that is “cute”, only serves to remind us of the idiocy that reigns over and governs public discourse in America today. It is characteristic of the collusion of intellectuals with the administering powers, and it is symptomatic of their humiliation and reduced power to effect change in public life.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The decline of the public intellectual is, of course, not in itself a newsworthy item. From Julien Benda’s to Russel Jacoby, intellectuals have been decrying the increasingly circumscribed role that intellectuals play in our public life, not only here in America, but throughout the modern world, where the forces of globalization have managed to make a mockery of democracy in every inhabited continent of the globe. Such critiques, whether implicitly or explicitly, point to a utopian notion of the intellectual’s role in governing public life. We could go as far back as Plato’s Republic for an example of this utopian concept of the intellectual as a “Philospher-King”. But insofar as our democracy is a modern democracy, the more appropriate example is Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">In this text of 1624, Bacon formulated an enlightened ideal of a utopian society governed by the so-called Fathers, or intellectuals, of a university named The House of Salomon. In Bacon’s utopia, men participate in an expansive culture where human consciousness is completely articulate with the natural world and where this knowledge of the natural world serves as the basis of man’s sovereignty over his historical world. What is more, this is a society in which the intellectuals are trusted to never abuse the power of their knowledge and in which it is assumed that they will use it to the benefit of all mankind: it is, in short, a society that recognizes the moral integrity of its intellectuals. Finally, this is a society in which art (and techne in the broadest sense of the word) expresses these same enlightened ideals and the harmonious balance between human consciousness and nature in which they are founded.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Comparing our political culture to this enlightened ideal is enlightening. Today, intellectuals, from those who work in universities to those who work in the government or in the media, find themselves in a situation that is decadent. Under the current regime of administered culture, our knowledge has become disarticulated from the world and life; our moral conscience has been institutionally neutralized, and our art –our interpretations of reality—have dissolved into that endless stream of discourses on discourses that this administered culture calls “consensus”: the Washington Consensus: the consensus of dunces: of Imperial Idiots.
</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273803548728035441.post-18744030855857350302011-12-03T13:16:00.000-08:002011-12-03T13:20:21.361-08:00Parable of the Half Breed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOW9R6w7OaT1ytqzUEumDu4AsiBd8DUik6CJQlgkc950npKTLviqb4_oIuK1kTF-ThI44A0CiY4e449dRHN3mUQk9_-UJ2IHF2J4skhoKX5IEsLxR5H9XDBrzGGtgcpoqJSBc0IXAPEorn/s1600/ManRay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOW9R6w7OaT1ytqzUEumDu4AsiBd8DUik6CJQlgkc950npKTLviqb4_oIuK1kTF-ThI44A0CiY4e449dRHN3mUQk9_-UJ2IHF2J4skhoKX5IEsLxR5H9XDBrzGGtgcpoqJSBc0IXAPEorn/s400/ManRay.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 26px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Once, long ago, there was an island where Nature governed over life, its authority as yet unchecked by the efforts of men to dominate it. Situated in the tropics, off the coast of what would eventually be known as South America, this island was home to many species of naturally evolving plants and animals. From the simplest single-cell creatures to the most complex organisms, life would begin here in self-assured exuberance. Young plants would bloom, filling the air with intoxicating levels of sweet scents. Birds would feed, sing, and nest beneath the shady cover of the trees. Rodents, wild boars, reptiles, and insects would roam the island contentedly, never needing to go far to find their next meal or secure a comfortable resting ground. Most of these island creatures would live to a ripe old age and die at peace with themselves, with Nature, and with the life that they had lived. But other less fortunate creatures would die an untimely death: for each year, with cosmic precision, hurricanes would pass over this island paradise, decimating life. At such times, the island ceased to resemble the haven it was during the rest of the year and became, instead, a killing field and mortuary. Thousands of plants, animals, and even some birds would drown in the flooding torrential rains. The winds would blow hundreds of other creatures to death. Still others (it is hard to say whether they were the luckiest or the unluckiest) would be driven off into exile by the stormy streams of water and air, never to see their island home again. So much death, destruction, and loss would make life turn sour on the island; it would sour, mostly, on Nature.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In truth, there was no living creature on the island that could make sense of Nature’s fickle, inconsistent, and contradictory commands. One fine day, Nature would seem to command trust, encouraging all the animals and plants of the island to grow; the next day, it would seem to command fear, discouraging the creatures and betraying their trust. “Trust me. Fear me.” How could any living creature obey these two commands and not feel torn apart and weakened by them? Overwhelmed with terrible doubts, the plants would wonder what point there could be to flowering and pollinating their seeds again, if the hurricanes were just going to mash their fruits into a senseless pulp. And what point could there be to singing, mating, and nesting in the treetops, the birds would wonder, if the hurricanes were going to steal their eggs from them. Alas, the wild boars would wonder too, what point could there be to eating, sleeping, and defecating day after day, if with one up surging wave the angry ocean was going to just erase the traces of all that they had ever eaten, digested and crapped back out into the senseless, unfeeling, pitiless world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And yet, for these survivors, there could ultimately be no denying the empowering joy of their own verifiable survival. Were they not, after all, the fittest? Had they not, after all, been made stronger by the storms? Had they not survived? Verily, <i>they</i> were the chosen ones! And so it was that at the first sign of the passing of the hurricane season, these survivors would take advantage of the alleviating calm to make a spectacle of their vitality. Flowers would arrogantly bloom throughout the island again. Birds would sing flirtatiously across the canopy of tree tops. Animals of all ages would run and play on the sandy shores, beneath the gleaming warmth and comfort of the sunlight, as if they were all healthy children without any care in the world but to delight in their own expendable energy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">During this most magnificent and triumphant of seasons, the island would receive its only regular human visitors. They would come intending to mimic the creatures of the island, and make a spectacle of their own vitality: for they too were survivors. But unlike the animals and plants of the island, which were instinctively driven to celebrate their survival, these human visitors were driven –by conscious choice-- to marry their survival to the survival of the cosmos. For, as far as these human survivors were concerned, <i>they</i> –and not the plants or animals of the island, were <i>the</i> chosen ones. Thus, in wooden canoes, and usually totaling some fifty or so nearly naked men, women and children, the visitors would arrive at the island’s sandy beaches to celebrate their heroic triumph over death. With them, they would always bring another smaller group of human captives. The visitors would treat these captives with the utmost respect, feeding them only the finest fruits, the freshest fish, and the fattest frogs; for in truth, there was nothing more sacred to these primal people than the fattened bodies and sugary blood of their captives. Each year, they would remain on the island for an entire moon cycle, attentively feeding their captives and meticulously preparing for what they hoped would be another successful Feast of Cosmic Rebirth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the final days leading up to this Feast of Feasts, the visitors would prepare a powerful hallucinogenic brew, made of roots and mushrooms fermented by human saliva. On the eve of the festivities, they would pass this brew from hand to hand and mouth to mouth. Men, women, and adolescent neophytes –in short, all the members of the visiting party (except the captives of course), would partake of this blessed brew. Under the silvery light of the moon, this community of illuminated human awareness would begin its night-long chants; some would dance with cosmic self-importance, as if their steps were synchronized with the rhythm of the stars above; others would gravely narrate ancient stories that told of the origins of life and the mysteries of death; and still others would ceremoniously explain to the neophytes the unique role that they, as participants in the annual feast, would henceforth play in maintaining the natural order of things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At daybreak, the visitors would take the captives and commit them to the slaughter, one by one by one. They would spend the better part of that day roasting their captive’s skewered limbs over open fires, preparing sausages with their intestines and blood, and slowly boiling down their bone-marrow to a gelatinous mass (which made for a tasty dessert when it was luxuriously sipped through straws made of hollowed-out sugar cane). Then, in the late afternoon, as the sun began to set on this island world, the community would ingest the captive’s bodies. These cannibals, it should be noted, placed no more importance on this initial stage of ingestion than they did on the subsequent processes of digestion and excretion. For in order for them to triumph completely over death, they believed that they needed not just to ingest death but also digest it and then, finally, extricate themselves from it. Accordingly, after the meal, the festivities would center on disciplined digestive exercises that encouraged the revelers to vomit, crap, and piss all that they had swallowed back out onto the sandy shores of the island’s coastline. Following this humanly triumphant negation of death, the visitors would climb back into their canoes feeling relieved; and then deftly, quickly, gladly they would leave the now smelly island behind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nature never found these human visitors to be particularly intrusive. Rather, it was amused by their highly imaginative but ultimately incompetent attempts to gain control over Nature’s cosmic power to give and take life at will. And so Nature tended simply to celebrate their child-like comings and goings with an annual feast of its own. Billions of microbes, millions of insects, thousands of scavengers would clean the beaches where the man-eating men, women, and children would thoughtfully leave behind their annual pools of gruesome fluids. Inviting, in this way, the creatures of the island to feed off human death, Nature self-assuredly affirmed its authority over this island paradise. The power over life and death remained solely in Nature’s hands, which of course is where it belonged. Given this naturally just state of affairs, no native plant, animal, or human could ever have foreseen the alternative future, the civilized future, the altogether brighter future to which life on the island was ultimately destined. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The day a Spanish galleon shipwrecked off the southern coast of the island, Nature’s glorious reign began its descent into oblivion. From that day forward, the power over life and death on the island was transferred to a new force: the emotional force of human heroism. Accordingly, the creatures of the island were introduced to a new breed of man, a competent and imperious breed of man, a highly cultivated, thoroughly religious, truly refined breed of civilizing man. In fact, two such distinguished men emerged from out of the wreckage of that ship. <i>They</i> were the chosen ones; and they were known to themselves, as they would eventually be known the world over, as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Exemplary specimens of Hispanic genius that they were, these two children of Spain became the island’s first spiritual conqueror and cultivating colonizer, respectively. Under their nurturing care, Nature was dispossessed of its richest deposits of silver and gold; many of the islands indigenous plants were replaced by plants from the Old World; and the peoples from neighboring islands were captured and brought to the island, where Don Quixote helped them understand that they had been born in sin but could, with the help of his priestly mediations, atone for the wrong they had unknowingly done. Sancho Panza, who was always eager to help Don Quixote realize his spiritual ideals, generously offered these lost souls of the New World a chance to redeem themselves by doing penitent labors in his mines and fields. For all those who thus repented, Don Quixote and Sancho swore, the gates to Heaven would surely swing wide with forgiveness and deliver them, finally, to a state of eternal, blissful rest. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But the good news of this happy island’s liberating conquests and civilizing colonizations does not end here, with these two Hispanic heroes alone. Many years after the Spanish wreck, a second ship was brought to the island’s northern shores by a similar tempest. This was a British merchant ship. Only one survivor washed ashore to the north. <i>He</i> was the chosen one; and he was known to himself, as he would eventually be known the world over, as Robinson Crusoe. Exemplary specimen of Anglo-Saxon genius that he was, this son of England became the island’s second civilizing conqueror. Under his nurturing care, the plants, animals, and humans of the island were made industrious beyond compare. True virtue, Robinson led the people of the island to believe, could be recognized without the meddling interventions and priestly mediations of Don Quixote. Each man, woman, and child, argued Robinson, could appeal directly to the Almighty, rise above his state of fallen human nature and, by means of his own industry, tease open the gold-plated gates of Heaven. He did not offer eternal bliss in exchange for labor, but eternal riches.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Under the imperial gaze of first Don Quixote and then Robinson Crusoe, life on the island was de-natured and re-cultivated, several times over. The new age of civilizing disintegration and re-integration which these heroes set in motion, gave rise to new and completely unexpected forms of solidarity and cruelty on the island. The new natives had in their bodies the heritage of multiple, and often competing, origins. In them, opposite drives and values would fight each other. On the average, these half-breeds were made weak by this internal war. They wished to obey both sets of inherited drives, but could not withstand the tension and inner turmoil that such double allegiance generated in them. Paralyzed with mistrust, they wished the war would end; which is merely another way of saying that, insofar as they <i>were</i> this war, they wished that they would cease to be who they had become. This is no doubt why many of the island’s half-breeds became chauvinists -- either Quixotists or Robinsonists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There did also emerge, however, other half-breeds who were made strong by their mixed cultural inheritance. Empowered by a natural sense of self-trust, these stronger children of mixed origins welcomed the challenges of their inner tension and learned to cultivate the cross-cultural arts of seduction, translation, and betrayal. They were, down to the last droplet of their blood, double-crossing cross-cultural half-breeds. And it was thanks to them and to their cultivation of ambivalence that the glories of the island’s past would eventually find their complement in the glories of a once-imagined-but-long-since-unrealized future. Indeed, the hopeful growth and evolution of these successful half-breeds reveals the many perfectly legitimate reasons why they came to prefer certain possible futures over others; why they chose certain possible ways of reworking their past over others; and why they half-heartedly embraced both the Quixotism and Robinsonism that their two-timing cultural heritage simultaneously offered and denied them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> After he had washed up onto the southern shore, Don Quixote stood up, struck his sword --in the form of a cross-- deep into the sandy beach, and declared to his half-drowned, half-starved squire: “Sancho, my friend, look about you at this plentiful land. Undoubtedly, it was some powerful magician who led us here onto these sandy shores. No doubt too, he did this so we might conquer this place and further the glory of our Lady Dulcinea del Toboso. Courage, my friend Sancho, for this promises to be the most magnificent of our adventures yet! And should I prove successful in my bid to conquer this island, as most certainly I shall, I will turn the government of it over to your able hands, just as I had promised I would do when we first left home. Take courage, my friend, for soon you will be the governor of this island paradise.” In reply, his faithful squire admonished: “Indeed, I am honored by your gracious intentions, my vociferous Sir, yet, if you are in earnest, then do please me to quit your babbling and turn about to face the approaching enemy. For if I am not deceived, what approaches us now is an army of hungry <i>calibans</i> who are certain to choose my ample and sensuous meat over your gangly skeleton.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Don Quixote turned to view the approaching crowd of curious aboriginals: “You are right, Sancho, it is an army, but not of <i>calibans</i>, as you say, but <i>cannibals</i>” And having said as much, he advanced upon the army of approaching savages with his sword held high for all to see. Stunned by the sight of these two strange figures and the glimmering object held up by the taller, flatulent one, the anthropophagi stopped dead in their tracks. Don Quixote took this as a cue to launch into a discourse concerning the universal value of human life. He explained to his would-be interlocutors that he and they all formed part of the same family, which he called the Brotherhood of Man. He further explained to them that he had come in representation of their common Father in the Sky and that by submitting to him they would, in fact, be incorporating themselves into the Father's family of liberated worshippers. Finally, he promised them, he would teach them how to partake of the body and blood of this one true God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The anthropophagi did not understand much of what Don Quixote said. Still, the strange singing quality of his voice appealed to them, and so they came closer, gesturing to Don Quixote, asking him to repeat what he had said. In an attempt to communicate with his eager audience, Don Quixote began a pantomime of all he had pronounced. When the anthropophagi saw him pretending to eat the body and blood of the Father in the Sky, they gathered around him knowingly. The hungrier ones among them poked him in his ribs, but then turned away laughing. Smiling, they approached Sancho next, poking him in the ribs, the buttocks, legs, and arms. The smiling ceased at once. They picked plump old Sancho up over their heads and carried him to the fire. Understandably, Sancho, who was overcome by fear, called on his Lord, Don Quixote, to save him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> In the midst of Sancho’s desperate cries for help, Don Quixote entered into singular, heroic battle with the entire band of male anthropophagi warriors. Although he received several wounds, he defeated them, killing only those who resisted his sword and sparing the lives of the others who freely surrendered to his superior conquering will. Sancho, weeping for joy at not having been eaten, knelt down at his master's feet and kissed them graciously. The conquered anthropophagi followed Sancho's good example. Don Quixote and Sancho were then led by their new subjects to the bamboo palace that they had earlier prepared for their own festivals of carnage, blood and debauchery. Don Quixote ordained that the island, which he had just conquered in the name of the incomparably beautiful Lady Dulcinea, henceforth be known as <i>Isla Dulce</i> or Sweet Island. He further decreed that while he was to remain forever the conquering spiritual master of the island, Sancho would be the island's colonizing administrator. After this ceremony, Don Quixote retired to his quarters to rest and cure his wounds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sancho, for his part, set his newly bequeathed subjects to work immediately. That night, he decided, he would celebrate a feast in honor of his master’s conquering genius and his own good fortune. He assigned some of his subjects to fishing; others to gathering fruits and berries; and others still to hunting for the animals whose cooked carcasses would be the centerpiece of that night’s festivities. The feast was a sumptuous success. Sancho ate as he had not eaten in a great long time and Don Quixote, who ate only a little, entertained him with his customary flights of fancy. Once Sancho’s hunger abated and Don Quixote’s imagination ran dry, Sancho rose and spoke some solemn stupidities in honor of his Lord Don Quixote’s all-conquering will, thus bringing the feast to an official close. Don Quixote praised Sancho in return, advised him to govern justly, and graciously retired once more to his bed chamber so he might continue to rest and cure his still aching battle wounds.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Extra-officially, the festivities went on well into the night, with Sancho and some of his new subjects sharing a cup or two of a blessed, hallucinogenic brew, which they generously offered him. Among these late-night revelers was a well-fed, slightly chubby, cross-eyed Princess named Malinche. Sancho, who had come under the effects of the hallucinogens, exclaimed at once upon seeing the princess: “My Lady Dulcinea! It is you! Oh how pleased my master and lord Don Quixote will be when he lays his love-stricken eyes on you, to say nothing of his love-smitten hands!” Sancho’s subjects were pleased to see him greet Princess Malinche with such reverence, and mistook his display of passion to mean that he desired her for the night. Sancho corrected them, explaining that he was not happy for himself, who was already loyally married, but for their spiritual lord Don Quixote. “Finally,” he exclaimed, “Don Quixote will be united with his beloved Lady Dulcinea!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sancho led Princess Malinche to Don Quixote’s chamber and excitedly shook him awake. “Who disturbs my fitful sleep?” Don Quixote demanded to know. “My good Lord,” Sancho told him “your Lady Dulcinea has magically appeared before my eyes tonight.” “What is this you say, Sancho? Dulcinea? Here?” “Yes, my Lord. And I have brought her to you so she might know how deep your love for her runs.” “Sancho, bring me my armor and sword, that I might greet her as is befitting a Lady of her unequalled stature.” Sancho did as he was asked and, once Don Quixote was ready, he opened the door to Don Quixote’s quarters, letting himself out and letting Princess Malinche in. That night the plump young princess, who Don Quixote (mis)took for Dulcinea, rose to the noble occasion, charming her spiritual Lord with the unspeakable delights of her carnal knowledge. Nine months later, she gave birth to Don Quixote's son. He was given the name Hispánico and grew up to become the sweetest young man of all of Sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Robinson Crusoe, who was the sole inhabitant of the island's northern shores, gradually awakened to a growing sense of horror at the imposing spectacle that Nature had made of itself in this apparently uninhabited, island world. Robinson's first impulse was to swim away, back to civilization. But, realizing that there was no other land in sight, he instead prayed to God, asking that the Almighty help him understand and accept his misfortune. The Almighty did more than answer his prayers; He revealed to Robinson his manifest destiny: The Almighty intended for him to remain on the island and, in his likeness, conquer its unwieldy Nature. This placed Robinson under considerable hardship, but trusting in the wisdom of the Almighty and in his own God-given talents and abilities, he set about doing God’s labor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> As time passed, Robinson Crusoe came to appreciate the fact that God had favored him over the island's seemingly magical forces of Nature by equipping him with a cunning sense of reason and technical ability. Although it would certainly be lonely, he realized that his life on the island did not need to be a constant, relentless struggle to satisfy his most immediate, physical needs. By means of the exercise of his own reasoning powers, Robinson ceased merely to defend himself against Nature and began to conquer the island's natural wonders, forces, and resources. He first experimented methodically with the island's deciduous seasonal fruits, until he had organized them into crops and established a self-reliant, agricultural economy. He then proceeded to mine the island for minerals; there was plenty of coal, some iron and copper, but to his great consternation, only very little silver or gold. All the same, he built fortifications, including a castle with gunnery units, trenches and moats. He designed a system of roadways and canals on which to transport both his harvests and military defenses (if needed). Every day he prayed and gave many thanks to God for his good fortune; for his good reasoning, science and technology; and for his good progress in all things. Sensing that by virtue of his own efforts and the sweat of his brow the island had essentially come under his dominion; Robinson decided to name his island kingdom Sweat Island or <i>Isla Salada</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> No more had Robinson accomplished these feats than he determined to set out and explore the other regions of his island world. After several days of walking, he came upon a trail of human footprints which he followed to a campsite where he discovered the island's yearly visitors in the throes of an anthropophagous festival. The presence of Nature on Sweat, he realized, was not limited to the animals and plants he had already begun to dominate so cunningly; it also included the more ghastly aspects of brutish human Nature. Just as he had done before, upon first viewing the spectacle of Nature on the island, Robinson reacted to this anthropophagous spectacle with horror; he fled from the savages for the more civilized regions of his own fortified home.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Robinson remained nestled in his fortress for several weeks, planning a strategy for self-preservation. He realized that the element of surprise was his best defense against his enemies. In order to rid himself of or otherwise conquer the anthropophagi he would have to scare them with the magic of his science and technology. He placed several gunnery units in the hills above the campsite of the anthropophagi; he developed an automated system for triggering numerous bows and arrows simultaneously; and he built himself a suit of armor. Finally, on the eve of one of the festivals, Robinson exploded as if from out of nowhere with the power of a modern god. The distant anonymity of his magical bombs and cannon-balls killed most of his enemies without their knowing what or who had befallen them, others he killed less smartly with his bow and arrow devices; a few managed to escape by boat when they saw him coming down the hills glittering in his armor. When he reached the campsite, he was attacked from behind by the one remaining anthropophagite. In singular hand to hand combat, Robinson wounded and defeated his personal enemy, but masterfully spared his life. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Robinson took the young brute home with him; he nursed him back to health and put him to work in the fields, mines and canals. He named his slave Friday and tried to educate him in the Christian manner. He explained to him that his past way of life had violated the will of the Almighty and that henceforth he would have to do penance for his sins. The fruits of his labor, Robinson explained, would be the true measure of Friday's value in the eyes of the Almighty. Humiliated by the superior force of Robinson's military and technological power, Friday accepted the spiritual terms of his debt to the Almighty. In the years that followed, Robinson grew still more prosperous with Friday’s labor: more and larger crops could be tended, the roadways and canals could be mended, and the island could be defended from seasonal hurricanes and visits by Friday's anthropophagous ex-compatriots.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> One year, Robinson and Friday took another prisoner: a female. Like Friday before her, she was made to understand that she owed her life to the graciousness and generosity of the master, Robinson Crusoe, who had spared her life and nursed her back to laboring health such that she too might some day redeem herself in the eyes of the Almighty. Robinson put her to work in the fields alongside Friday while he dedicated himself to other more conceptual forms of God's labor. He studied the stars; did mathematics; conducted experiments with the island's natural resources; and began to create powerful machines that could do the work of many men and women. But he was nevertheless distracted from his work by the presence of the woman. His lust for the young, brown, sensuous body of his newest acquisition grew stronger and stronger with each passing day. No amount of work could keep him from lusting after her. He prayed to God for the strength and moral fortitude with which to defend himself from this most voluptuous of imaginable temptations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Friday took his master's hesitancy to procreate as a license to do so himself, and so he took the woman and bedded down with her. Eventually, she swelled with Friday's child. At the sight of this, Robinson flew into a jealous rage, explaining to them both that they had committed a terrible sin of the flesh by daring to have a family out of wedlock. Robinson pretended to grow skeptical as to the ability of either Friday or the woman to ever truly assimilate and live up to the standards of the Almighty's civilization, so he decided to turn them away (temporarily) from his fortress. He instructed Friday to construct two small huts: one near his castle where Friday would be expected to live out his days of punishment in domestic service to Robinson, and another near the fields where both the woman and her child would be expected to live out their days of penitence laboring in the fields. Friday's child was born a girl. Robinson parsimoniously named her Virginia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One particularly glorious day, Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe met. Each would now have a real companion, a noble friend, and a true equal with whom to exchange impressions, knowledge, and other cultural riches. They sat down in civilized brotherhood beside a cool fountain of crystalline water, where each told the other the harrowing story of his shipwreck and subsequent conquest of the island. Don Quixote boasted of his victorious campaigns over the island’s cannibals and of how, with the loving embrace of his Lady Dulcinea, he had united the people of Sweet both in ideals and blood. Robinson, by contrast, boasted of his technological dominance over nature and of the prosperity of life on Sweat. Through the course of their dialogue, it became increasingly clear to these two civilized men that, in spite of their evident differences, they shared many experiences in common. Each, in his way, had conquered a new world. They were the two of them, remorseless destroyers of old ways and indefatigable creators of new habits!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> As is generally the case with such first encounters, an uncomfortable silence fell on these two boastful interlocutors once they had exchanged their stories and realized how similar they were, the one to the other. Each stared the other in the eye and, in the breathless silence, began to lose himself in the other's gaze. This was a singular gaze: the gaze of equality: the gaze of the self-assured master staring into a mirror image of himself. Each struggled to break free from the inclusive gaze of the other, in which he could see his own intuited sense of superiority duplicated but not recognized. Then, just as unexplainably as the gazing had begun, it ceased. The self-certainty of difference set in, correcting the confusion of mirrored identity. Each had conquered; this was true. But only one of them could be <i>the</i> chosen one; this too was true and they both new it. And so the men parted, promising to visit each other on their respective halves of the island, yet feeling deeply troubled by the encounter. Neither could shake the awful suspicion that the other considered himself to be the island’s only true master. This suspicion would eventually poison their relations, putting an end to all dialogue and instigating war between them; but first, it poisoned their minds with jealous pride.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Who does that Robinson think he is?” Don Quixote would complain to himself late into most nights after he had said his knightly prayers. “Robinson is proud beyond belief of his technical prowess, and I have seen how Sancho and the rest of my Sweet people are in awe of him. Fine, Sancho and the rest of them can benefit from these Robinsonian technical advances and their lives can become ‘easier’ and more ‘comfortable,’ as they like to say these days. But as for me, I will do what God put me on this island to do; I shall disrupt this worldly comfort and ease and reveal the moral malaise that Robinson sponsors with this thing he calls ‘progress.’ I shall struggle to remind both the people of Sweet and Sweat of the ultimate value of life; I shall sacrifice myself in the name of life eternal.” And then Don Quixote would ask himself rhetorically: “How can I hold my peace when Robinson threatens to reduce the meaning of life on this island to nothing more than its usefulness to self-interested individuals? Are we all to forget the eternal, unchanging, and unrivaled values of spiritual life in exchange for these ever-shifting and always-competing self-interests of economic life? May God save us all from such false optimism! There can be no heaven on Earth. There is no real progress but that of the soul toward the afterlife. It is my duty, as a knight-errant and spiritual conquistador, to fight against this worldly pestilence.” Then, in a fitful surge of fury, Don Quixote would shout out loud at the gathering shadows of the night: “Oh Robinson, you arrogant scoundrel and fastidious infidel, you shall not dominate the superior will and lasting spiritual value of Don Quixote!” At the sound of his shouting voice, Dulcinea –or rather Malinche—would awaken. Not until she came to seduce him with the dark-chocolate of her semi-sweet kisses would Don Quixote cease his righteous spewing, relax and, after performing his duties as a faithful husband, fall asleep cradled in the arms of his one true love. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Robinson too would often find his work interrupted by bitter recollections of the self-indulgent pride with which Don Quixote typically spoke of spiritual and ethical concerns. “Who does that Don Quixote think he is?” he would ask himself at such moments. “He assumes he is noble. But who gave him that title of <i>Don</i> in the first place? A shoddy tavern keeper and would-be monarch bestowed it on him; that is who. He was not made noble by industry, but by the favor of another man, as ignoble as him. What a ridiculous specimen of nobility this Spaniard is! He prances about with the pride of a blind stallion, not realizing that what he conceives as gracefulness in his movements and eloquence in his speech betrays the clumsiness and stiffness of his thoughts. His mind is a cobweb of superstition; his priestliness is nothing short of intellectual slavery; he is a decadent, backward, other-worldly ascetic; he is a simpleton and buffoon who is no longer capable of meaningful, ennobling action. How can I possibly hold my peace,” Robinson would then ask himself rhetorically, “when under the leadership of this <i>Don</i> from La Mancha, the island’s resources are going to waste and its people forced to live in poverty? I must fight to liberate them all!” And then, as if he had been suddenly illuminated by a vision of transcendental origin, Robinson would say aloud, with the stars above as his witnesses: “Perhaps I could blow up one of my own ships when I go calling on him next, and accuse him of having blown it up himself. Yes,” he would then add in a conspiratorial giggle, “that would make for a splendid little war!” At once exhausted by his bitterness and excited at its belligerent possibilities, Robinson would go to bed and, seduced by one of the innumerable images of sweaty slave-girls that regularly filled his discriminating mind, he would dutifully, independently, self-reliantly masturbate himself to sleep. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Diplomatic relations between Sweet and Sweat were established shortly after Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe’s first encounter. Since Don Quixote could not be bothered with such worldly trifles, he left the negotiating of all political and commercial agreements to his squire Sancho, whose never-ending hunger, avarice, and lust for power made him an excellent negotiating partner for Robinson. Soon enough, Robinson established an embassy in Sweet City, and Sancho did the same in Sweat City. Motivated by a sense of political efficiency, Robinson named his good man Friday, who of all his subjects was the most cultured, as Sweat’s Ambassador to Sweet. Motivated by a sense of political expediency, Sancho named Hispánico as Sweet’s Ambassador to Sweat. He did so because, over the years, Sancho had learned to fear Hispánico, whose natural charisma and considerable skill as a public orator suggested he was destined to someday replace Sancho as governor of Sweet. Unwilling to relinquish his strangling hold on power and eager to see his dreaded challenger removed to a safe distance, Sancho, with Don Quixote’s enthusiastic support, appointed Hispánico to the embassy. To both Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s ultimate chagrin, this decision set in motion the tragic cycle of events that would lead to the eventual decline and fall of Sweet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> When Hispánico first arrived in Sweat as Sweet’s Ambassador, Robinson was delighted and held a banquet in his honor. There, Hispánico befriended Robinson, who from the beginning treated him always and in all things as neither Sancho nor his father ever had: as his would-be equal. It was also at this banquet that he met Virginia, Friday’s daughter. Hispánico fell desperately in love with her and she fell conveniently in love with him; they married; they built a beautiful house in which to live and love; and together they raised several children. (It used to be rumored that the eldest and prettiest of these children became Robinson’s concubine. It has also been claimed that, thanks to the unbridled fertility of his illicit lover, Robinson was able to increase the number of his workers at almost no real cost to himself. But such malicious rumors are, no doubt, the product of resentful and jealous minds and should therefore not be given any credibility.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By marrying into Robinson's world, Hispánico was introduced to a form of life that was governed by cultural values other than his own. Neither Don Quixote nor Robinson thought that this could present much of a problem, as they both trusted in the ability of Hispánico to discriminate meaningfully between the values of both imperious cultures. But such proved not to be the case. Out of his love for Don Quixote, Hispánico felt obliged to educate his children as Quixotists; indeed, at times he even considered that it was his duty, as Ambassador of Sweet, to try to persuade not only Virginia and his children but also Robinson to embrace the credo of Don Quixote. Yet out of his love for Virginia, Hispánico also felt the urge to adopt a distinctly Robinsonian way of life; he desired to learn to speak the language of Robinson, to think like Robinson in terms of self-interest, and to embrace, like Robinson, the democratic notion of popular sovereignty. Indeed, Hispánico even considered it his duty, as Ambassador of Sweet, to try to persuade Sancho Panza and Don Quixote to embrace the credo of Robinsonism. Blindly in love with his two worlds, Hispánico was unable to distinguish between the vital cultural values of the one and the other. There was no denying it: his love was great. He loved his two worlds equally. But his love was also indiscriminate. He was equally unfaithful to both his worlds. Tortured by suspicions of his infidelity and paralyzed by the fear of losing either of his two loves, Hispánico grew restless. This anxious agitation weakened his spirit; he fell into a state of deep depression; his powers of volition atrophied; and he was soon unable to perform even the simplest of daily tasks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Virginia tried to sooth Hispánico with her feminine charms; his children tried to cheer him with their puerile games; Robinson tried to encourage him to break his ties with Sweet altogether; Sancho wished him a prompt recovery (by which he really meant a quick and untimely death); while Don Quixote and Dulcinea –or rather Malinche-- wished him back home again. In the end, it was Hispánico’s parents, Don Quixote and Dulcinea –or rather Malinche, who prevailed. Don Quixote instructed Sancho to dismiss Hispánico from his duties as Ambassador and bring him home at once, where he might be nursed back to cultural health. In spite of Sancho’s and Robinson’s protestations, Hispánico, Virginia, and their children did eventually move from Sweat to Sweet, where Don Quixote waited for them daily in his temple, Sancho regularly avoided them at court, and Dulcinea – or rather Malinche -- told them sweet bedtime stories that encouraged Hispánico anew and helped him to see the revolutionary potential and cultural creativity of betrayal. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At the temple, Don Quixote would preach to his son, his daughter-in-law and their offspring, and warn them against the beguiling powers and temptations of the devil. Although he never admitted it to them, Don Quixote felt partially betrayed by his son and half-heartedly spurned by his daughter-in-law and grand-children. The devil incarnate, as far as Don Quixote was concerned, was a blue-eyed, blonde-haired beast that went by the preposterous name of Robinson Crusoe. Of course, in his sermons, Don Quixote never once mentioned this demon’s real name; but Hispánico, Virginia, and their children knew who Don Quixote had in mind when he spoke of the devil, and so listened to his sermons only with feigned admiration. Were they supposed to simply forget who they were, ignore all that their experience had taught them about life, and accept as truth what Don Quixote imagined as real? Such tactics might have worked with the natives of the surrounding islands, who Don Quixote and Sancho had converted to the credo of Quixotism. But they would not work with them, for Hispánico and his family had been made sophisticated already by reason of their contact with both Don Quixote’s and Robinson’s imperial visions of the world. Don Quixote would need to do more than threaten them with images of eternal damnation in order to persuade them that he, and not Robinson, held the keys to the future. On several occasions, Hispánico tried to reason with his father, explaining to him that the liberties in which he, his wife, and children believed were in keeping with Don Quixote’s spiritual ideals, and that what they wanted was not to forget the glories of the past, but to complement them with the glories of the future. Don Quixote, however, refused to be persuaded by such revolutionary sophistry. He only grew more secure in his certainty that the mind of his dear son Hispánico had been taken over by an evil spirit. Hispánico, Don Quixote insisted, would need to be exorcised, his mind and spirit purified of all foreign contagions. Only such drastic measures, Don Quixote lovingly assured his son, could cure him and bring him back home, as it were, to his father’s faith.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At court, Hispánico faired no better. Sancho avoided him at all costs; but on those few occasions that they did cross paths, Sancho treated him with contrived respect, calling him “my most faithful servant.” From his spies, Sancho had heard tell of Hispánico’s radical political theories. In particular, his spies had told him, Hispánico championed something he called popular sovereignty, which was nothing short of an attack on Sancho’s kingly authority. Thus, behind closed doors, Sancho began to organize a campaign to have Hispánico accused of treason, arrested, appropriately punished, and publicly humiliated. Hispánico, whose sons had infiltrated the inner circle of Sancho’s court, kept Hispánico apprised of Sancho’s mischievous plans, and thus was able to avert disaster. Indeed, on several occasions, Hispánico even sought to reason with Sancho, assuring him that the notion of sovereignty that he championed would never place unjust limits on Sancho’s kingly prerogatives. But Sancho, who had grown accustomed to thinking of himself as the island’s sole sovereign, refused to consider Hispánico’s arguments. Instead, he warned Hispánico against ever speaking in public about popular sovereignty and assured him that, to the contrary, he would be justly persecuted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In spite of the inquisitorial zeal of his father and the insipid machinations of Sancho, Hispánico did not give up hope: for there were signs in the air already that a new age was about to dawn! At night, it was always his mother, Don Quixote’s Dulcinea but his Malinche, who fed this hope with bedtime stories. These stories were, in fact, the same stories that Princess Malinche had listened to as a little girl when she was first invited, by her grandfather, to participate in the Feast of Feasts that her family celebrated each year on the island’s shores. Only now, these stories were mixed with the signs of the new age. Malinche reassured her son that he was <i>the</i> chosen one. In order to further the interests of his sweetly sweaty people, Malinche informed him, he would have to do as she had done many years before when she adapted to Don Quixote and Sancho’s arrival and re-invented herself. In due course, his mother assured him, the cosmos would call on him to affect a transvaluation of the competing drives and standards of value that characterized life on Sweet and Sweat. The war that he had become as a result of his marriage with Virginia, the war that had torn him apart by demanding that he follow competing cultural urges, the war that had weakened him and made him long for the restfulness of home, this war would henceforth serve Hispánico as a fountain of strength: for, thanks to his mother’s bedtime stories, he could now discriminate between the different values that competed for his allegiance and choose those that improved his health. He, Hispánico, son of Don Quixote and Malinche, was to become the half-breed standard of measure for the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In true Spanish fashion, Sancho had always been a king’s king, unashamed of the power he held concentrated in his pudgy, dimpled, hands. As much as Sancho was given to satisfying the needs and wants of the body politic (a body which was, to all intents and purposes, his own), he also was a true believer in Don Quixote. Thus, Sancho did not think twice when, only a few years after their arrival to the island, his master and spiritual Lord came to him one afternoon in a state of heated excitement, demanding that he, Sancho, declare a Holy War on the infidels of all the neighboring islands. Sancho financed the first campaigns of Don Quixote’s crusades with monies from his own treasure chests. Thanks to this generous sacrifice, Don Quixote and his armies of crusading warriors were able to conquer a vast empire. Sancho became the region’s king of kings and Don Quixote became this empire’s spiritual father, or Papa, as he insisted that his subjects lovingly and respectfully call him. Having been stripped of their gods, their language, and cultural memory, Don Quixote and Sancho’s ever-increasing number of de-natured and re-cultivated subjects became little more than so many ghostly figures of living death. Long ago, their ancestors had ingested, digested, and excreted death in anthropophagous rituals. Under the imperious rule of Sancho and Don Quixote, they were once again invited to internalize death; but unlike their ancestors, they were given no way to digest the dread and then extricate themselves from its deathly grip. They were offered only guilty feelings and the consoling promise of a blissful, finally restful, afterlife. As for life itself, it had become a punishment for these long-suffering people; and the islands that made up Sancho’s glorious empire seemed to them but prisons and labor camps scattered across the sea, as far as the eye could see.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In time, Sancho’s reserves of silver and gold began to diminish and he was forced to turn to alternative sources of income to finance Don Quixote’s imperial crusades. But since Sancho had neglected to develop other industries beside mining and agriculture, he was hard pressed to come up with a domestic solution to his decreasing economic might. No amount of extra taxes could replenish his treasure chests, not even when he threatened to jail, punish, and execute those among his malnourished, mostly illiterate, and endemically impoverished subjects who refused to pay these extra tributes. So Sancho turned to his sweaty negotiating partner, Robinson Crusoe, for help. Robinson, who was not one to let such a grand opportunity slip through his covetous hands, lent Sancho money at extremely reasonable rates of interest. Thanks to Don Quixote’s ongoing crusades, which always produced modest sums of silver and gold, Sancho was able to pay off significant portions of his growing debt to Robinson. But as the years passed, Don Quixote grew weak; he was unable to conquer any new territories and could barely keep control over Sancho’s already vast dominions. Consequently, Sancho fell deeper into debt with Robinson. For his part, Robinson recognized Don Quixote’s weakness for the golden opportunity that it was. And since Sancho was unable to pay his debts to him in full, Robinson decided to take what was rightfully his; he sent pirates out into the seas, where they regularly attacked Sancho’s fleets of treasure-loaded galleons; and also began, behind Sancho’s back, to do business directly with several of Sweet’s colonies. This business was of all sorts: slave trade, sugar, emeralds and gold, coca leaves, heroine, revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These clandestine commercial relations exposed many of the elites of the surrounding islands to Robinson’s modern outlook on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Soon, on both Sweet and the surrounding islands, Sancho and Don Quixote’s erstwhile loyal subjects were clamoring for political and religious freedoms. Sancho jailed many of these freedom-lovers and executed hundreds more. Don Quixote, who preferred a more spiritual strategy of defense, established an inquisitorial court, where he righteously tortured the bodies and souls of these so-called moderns and lovers of freedom. Robinson never ceased to lend Sancho and Don Quixote money, without which they never would have been able to build more prisons, inquisitorial dungeons, or raise a professional army with which they might once and for all put an end to the modernizing malaise of their subjects. Secretly, however, Robinson also helped to finance rebellions, in the hope that Sancho and Don Quixote’s freedom-starved subjects might finally break free from the double tyranny of authoritarian monarchy and religious intolerance which had come to characterize life in the Empire of Sweet. In either event, Robinson was growing richer, more powerful and arrogant with each passing day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yes, life on Sweet had turned sour. Sancho knew it; Don Quixote knew it; everyone who was anyone at the time knew it, for the signs were everywhere, even among the children. One day, Sancho’s Secretary of Education informed him that the children of Sweet no longer read the chronicles of Don Quixote’s crusades with reverent passion. Beyond any doubt, these chronicles --which tell of Don Quixote’s exploits on the battlefield, of his cunning diplomacy with cannibal kings, and of his zealous religiosity in the face of the infidels-- were among the finest literary jewels of Sweet. How could the new generations turn their noses up at such a glorious past? Once, not so long ago it seemed to Sancho, the good people of Sweet had claimed these epic chronicles as part of their imperial cultural patrimony. But the descendants of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza no longer claimed these songs of Sweet’s epic glory as their own. No longer did they wish to celebrate Don Quixote’s empire-building crusades. No longer did they wish to recognize Sancho as their rightful ruler. What they wanted now was liberty, equality, and that most corrupting of all modern political practices: democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These cultural and political calamities had befallen Don Quixote and Sancho because the sweet people of Sweet had been made to feel ashamed of their colonial heritage. And who was behind this humiliating shame? Who was it that was urging the people of Sweet to repudiate their cultural identity? Sancho knew well enough who was behind it all, and Don Quixote did too. Robinson Crusoe, of course: the same rascal who had poisoned Hispánico’s impressionable mind; the same scoundrel who had taken advantage of Don Quixote’s weakened old arm to conduct illicit business with the colonies of Sweet; the same miserly usurer who had lent Sancho money and now sent his sweaty Ambassador around to Sancho’s palace every day to ask to be paid in full. Yes, it was Robinson, the wanna-be imperialist, who had seduced the subjects of Sweet with false promises of liberty, equality, and enlightened progress. Shame on him for having shamed them!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Life on Sweet had once been glorious. Hispánico, his children, and the other sweet people of Sweet all longingly yearned for more glory. But under the stress of Don Quixote’s crusades and Sancho Panza’s lust for power, life in Sweet had lost its natural sugar coating. The time had come for revolutionary change. Hispánico, whose competing cultural drives now made him seem unusually energetic, rose to the occasion, rallied the people of Sweet around him, and bravely declared the coming of a new age: the age of the half-breed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“The half-breed spirit cannot be enshrined in a person such as Sancho, who would set a barrier to its unbounded freedom. The half-breed spirit is, my brothers and sisters, nothing more and nothing less than the spirit of freedom itself. It is filled with self-trust!” The people of Sweet applauded, guessing already what Hispánico would say next, for they were all of one mind, all of one nature, all of a common will. “Nor can the half-breed spirit be enshrined in a person such as my father, Don Quixote, whose premodern notions of brotherhood and religious unity amount, not to glory and eternal bliss, but misery and terrestrial servitude.” The crowd of sweet listeners was alarmed to hear Hispánico speak in this way about his own father, but it was excited as well by Hispánico’s show of independence. “Don Quixote would have us think ourselves free only insofar as we identify positively with his liberating crusades. Today, thanks to the enlightening example of Robinson Crusoe, we know that we are most free when we are hindered by nothing but our own half-breed health.” The crowds of Sweet’s sweet people now shouted in thunderous unison: “Give us Health!” Seduced by the crowd’s happy response to his stirring words, Hispánico proceeded: “Those who would unjustly restrict our freedom would also accuse us unjustly of treason. But know this, my fellow half-breeds, revolution is not betrayal. To the contrary, revolution is the motor of progress. In this, our age of revolution,” Hispánico said next with philosophic conviction, “the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new. Is this not, then, the best of all possible times? Who would not wish to be alive today? Well then, let each one of you measure his or her readiness; let each search their spirit for fear and hope. And when each of you has found hope, go out into the public square and declare before your enemies your inalienable truth: <i>I am my own master</i>!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Robinson had grown prosperous beyond belief by means of his licit and illicit trade with the Empire of Sweet. And now that Hispánico --that impressionable young half-breed and quixotic dreamer-- had begun his silly little revolution, Robinson was especially thankful to the Almighty for the promise of still more wealth. Confident that the richer he became, the more virtuous he would look on the day of final judgment, Robinson counted his blessings, one blessing for each silver coin, and two for each gold coin. But what was best of all for Robinson (and he couldn’t quite bring himself to admit this to the Almighty), was that he had prospered at Don Quixote’s expense. How truly clever he had been! There could be no denying it. He had out-foxed the haughty Spaniards. Soon, he would be able to call the entire island his own! And who could tell, in time, he might even come to be the emperor of a still greater, global empire!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But Robinson’s triumph was incomplete. “For too long,” Robinson humbly complained to the Almighty, “You have denied me the company of true equals. But I need real allies and friends, if I am to do Your good works” he pleaded with the Almighty. When the Almighty refused his request and did nothing to alleviate Robinson’s loneliness, Robinson tried to reason with Him. “Friday is a good enough person,” he explained. “I have, as I am sure pleases You infinitely my Lord, made certain to educate him after the Christian way of life.” Still, the Almighty held His peace. So Robinson continued his meek complaint. “Hispánico, Lord, is a reliable and enthusiastic youth, in whom I have managed to instill a civilized love of righteous freedom. Surely, this pleases You too, Lord.” Still, the Almighty neither said nor did a thing. “Neither of these two men,” Robinson went on, “measure up to me Lord. I alone have had to bear the burden, this terrible white man’s burden, with which You, Lord of Lords, have favored me.” Yes, he alone, so painfully alone, had had to bear the cross of civilizing the plants, animals, and people of his island fiefdom. Surely, Robinson believed, the Almighty, in His infinite wisdom and justice, would take pity on him (and deliver him the gift of someone with whom he could share a good laugh at Don Quixote).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">One particularly promising and sunny morning Robinson saw several shipwrecked survivors wash onto the shores of Sweat. When he saw that they bore the self-assured bearing of the Anglo-Saxon tribe, he lifted his hands up to the sky and, with teary eyes, thanked the Lord for answering his prayers and putting an end to his lonely civilizing labors. Robinson welcomed his new friends to the island in style. At the banquet that he held in their honor, he placed all his wealth on display. He wanted to assure his new friends that he was a virtuous man and that God had rewarded him plentifully for his labors. Some were immediately convinced of Robinson’s moral virtue; but others, who were less inclined to equate material wealth with moral virtue, were longer in recognizing his puritanical uprightness, integrity, and true goodness. When, with promises of shared wealth and prosperity, he had managed to secure the trust of all his new friends, Robinson asked them to remain on the island with him. Here, he promised them, they would all prosper and, if they saw fit to do so, would govern themselves as equals among equals, each man the king of his own castle. His friends agreed, whereupon Robinson told them of the island’s considerable natural resources; of how they would be able to replenish their stock of slaves each year with the natives who came visiting from neighboring islands (some of whom were quite beautiful), and of how they might all grow rich beyond their wildest dreams at Don Quixote’s expense. Then, at extremely reasonable prices, Robinson sold them each a stake in the island’s future, offering a parcel of land and a handful of slaves to the wealthier among them and administrative positions on his own lands and in his own factories to others who were less deserving. Sweat island had suddenly grown sweet with opportunity!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Hispánico’s revolution had started well. But despite some initial victories, his army of informal freedom fighters began to loose ground and then, definitely, to lose the war. Already, most of the revolution’s territories were being defended, if that was the word for it, by bands of guerrilla fighters and other bandits. Without the help that Robinson had promised, the revolution would not be able to move beyond the current state of protracted guerrilla warfare. Why had Robinson not come to Hispánico’s aid? Was it possible that he had no news of how dire Hispánico’s situation had become? In an attempt to quiet these doubts and in the hope that Robinson would take pity and come to his aid, Hispánico entrusted one of his valiant sons with the unrivaled honor of sneaking across enemy lines and delivering to Robinson Hispánico’s communiqué.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Answering Hispánico’s call for help, Robinson and his sweaty compatriots sent several ships of war to dock in the port of Sweet City. Robinson, who was commandeering one of the ships, sent word to Sancho and Don Quixote, demanding that they surrender or face the righteous wrath of Robinson’s very own rough-riders. This nasty development worried Sancho considerably, who consulted at once with Don Quixote. Don Quixote was only amused, and told Sancho not to worry. Robinson and his spiritless ilk, Don Quixote assured him, would never dare to attack. To suggest otherwise would be unthinkable, given Don Quixote’s superior moral virtue and the strength of his invincible arm. So Sancho, who was only half-heartedly convinced by Don Quixote’s proud posturing, did nothing --except drown his worries in a hearty stew. Seeing that Sancho, that Spanish laggard and coward, refused to strike the first blow, Robinson decided to blow up one of his ships himself. After Robinson had counted, collected, and ceremoniously buried at sea those self-sacrificing sailors of Sweat who had perished in the vile explosion, Robinson assigned an ad hoc committee to investigate the tragedy. This most professional and impartial of all committees discovered, just as Robinson had suspected they would, that it had been Sancho who, under the cover of the night, surreptitiously mined the waters surrounding Robinson’s fleet of warships. Given this unfortunate turn of events, Robinson had no recourse but to publicly accuse Sancho of having committed the dastardly deed and justly declare war on him. Hispánico was delighted to see Robinson and his cavalry of rough-riding freedom fighters charging the defensive fortifications that sustained the double tyranny of Don Quixote’s universalizing church and Sancho Panza’s imperious monarchy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> As Robinson and Hispánico’s troops advanced on Sweet, Sancho ran to Don Quixote and pleaded with him to leave the cloister of his religious contemplation. The Empire of Sweet was under imminent threat; the time had come for Don Quixote to take up arms again in defense of his Lady Dulcinea and all the eternal ideals she incarnated. Don Quixote agreed. He would fight in the name of all that was righteous, beautiful, and true in life. With much ado, and some hastily recited prayers, Don Quixote prepared himself for battle. When he was ready, he sent word to Robinson to meet him that afternoon on the beach. Both he and Robinson had desired this eventful day ever since their first trance-like meeting. Finally, they would decide who the island’s real <i>chosen one</i> was.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Don Quixote and Robinson met on the sandy beach in front of Sancho’s palace. Each faced the other and stared him in the eye. Robinson said nothing. But Don Quixote? He had plenty to say. “Prepare to die you lying, conniving, self-righteous inventor of spiritless machines!” he yelled. Then Don Quixote raised his sword high into the glittering sunlight and, mounted on his glorious stag Rocinante, raced at Robinson, in full confidence of his ability to defeat him in heroic, hand-to-hand battle. Robinson watched joyfully as Don Quixote advanced and, when finally he could see the white of his melancholic eyes, he shot him with a cannon ball. The smoldering ball of modern rage grazed the noble Don Quixote’s head, cutting away a portion of his left ear and leaving him sorely wounded on the beach.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Robinson ran up to Don Quixote and, placing the barrel of a rifle to his throat, demanded that he recognize him as the island’s only true master. Don Quixote, sanely realizing that he had been defeated, begrudgingly recognized Robinson as master. Hispánico, who overheard his father’s sorrowful words of submission, stood dumbly by, staring at his defeated father who lay bleeding on the beach. Was this the same mighty warrior and righteous conquistador who had won for Sancho his extensive empire? Was this the same figure of a man who had once lovingly watched Hispánico grow up to be the sweetest young man of all of Sweet, instilling in him the pride and honor of Spain’s cultivating genius? Hispánico was shaken loose from this melancholic line of thought when he overheard Robinson exclaim that, in light of Don Quixote’s submission, <i>he</i>, Robinson Crusoe, was now the island’s sole master and liberating colonizer. Naturally, Hispánico complained and reminded Robinson that the war that he had just fought with Don Quixote was not an imperial war but a war of independence. Not Robinson, but he, Hispánico, together with his fellow half-breed citizens, was now the master of Sweet. Robinson tried to calm Hispánico’s worries, assuring him that he and his rough-riding freedom fighters recognized the patriots of Sweet as their friends and neighbors. But, Robinson insisted, Hispánico and his half-breed brethren were not yet ready to use their newly won freedom responsibly. In order to learn how to use and not abuse this most satisfying of powers, they would require several years of schooling and paternalistic tutelage. In good time, Robinson assured Hispánico, the peoples of Sweet and Sweat would unite in brotherhood and together constitute the United States of Swat. But for the time being, Robinson encouraged Hispánico, the people of Sweet should be happy and thankful that Robinson had decided to place them under his protection. Partially defeated, partially triumphant, Hispánico agreed to Robinson’s terms and recognized him as the island’s legitimate <i>pater</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For his part, Sancho could not believe the audacity and ineptitude with which his master had gone to war. Seeing Don Quixote laying on the beach, soaked in his own blood, Sancho sensed that all was lost. If Don Quixote could no longer provide protection, who would now guarantee that Sancho’s meals were cooked for him on time? Who would see to it that he always had a kettle of stew into which he might dip his dimpled hands at the slightest hint of hunger? Who would prepare the tarts, the meringues, the chocolate-covered ants and coffee beans on which he had grown accustomed to snack as he justly presided over his kingly court? Guided by the instinctive wisdom of his stomach, Sancho turned his back on Don Quixote and ran to Robinson's side, begging to be spared his life and be fed an ample lunch. Robinson graciously acknowledged Sancho's newly won loyalty and asked Hispánico to take Sancho into custody and arrange for his liberating indoctrination, such that he might too someday soon learn to relish the sweaty, salty flavor of Robinsonian freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As for Don Quixote, Robinson sent him off to a cave, high up in the mountains, where he was made to live out the rest of his life, imprisoned in the memory of his irrevocable defeat and ultimate humiliation. Don Quixote agreed to the terms of his punitive displacement and exile, but he did not leave the theater of these tragic events without first delivering a final, prophetic warning to one and all. Turning to face Robinson one last time, he said: “To you, fiend of the cowardly cannon balls, I have only this to say: someday, discovering that your formula for self-governance and progress contains the seeds of your own perdition, you shall come crawling back to me, seeking my guidance and spiritual leadership. This I promise you!” And to Sancho he said: “Go, you treasonous scoundrel, go and learn from your new master all that he has to teach you. God knows you lost your kingdom to avarice. Go, go now and serve the Lord of avarice and greed. Learn from him how to dominate and conquer the indomitable Nature that is your hunger. Learn from him how to embrace the certain spiritual death that is your own self-interest.” Then finally, to his son Hispánico, Don Quixote said only this in parting: “Your independence from Sancho was won in treachery. Your independence from me is, however, impossible; no amount of treachery, no betrayal, no matter how complete, will ever break the spiritual ties that bind you to me. If you try to forsake me culturally, you will find that you only forsake what is most true in you. Don Quixote lives on in you, my child, just as you will forever live on in Don Quixote. May peace be with you, Hispánico, and may God forgive you for what you have done.” Plucking these moral victories from his physical defeat, Don Quixote retired to the mountains to lead a solitary life of spiritual exercise and, eventually, to die the sad death of a madman who had recuperated his sanity and was thus stripped of all imperious imagination.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Don Quixote may have died in Napoleonic isolation, but the legacy of his imperious insanity did not die with him. All the people of the island remembered him, some with fondness, but most with despondence. Nor was the legacy of Robinson Crusoe’s imperious reason ever forgotten either. All the people of the island remembered him as well, most with fondness, and others, of course, with corresponding despondence. As a general rule, the leaders of the Quixotist faction all claimed to be direct descendants of Don Quixote; and the leaders of the Robinsonist faction all claimed to descend directly from Robinson. The imagined genealogical purity of their leaders was of utmost importance to both factions, as they believed that such purity alone was the source of true honor and the standard measure for all values. But unlike the leaders, the majority of the people who aligned themselves with one or the other of these factions could not claim to descend directly from either Don Quixote or Robinson Crusoe. Such was the case because the vast majority of the island’s so-called natives were descendants of Hispánico and Virginia. When these half-breeds remembered the competing legacies of Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe, they remembered their own contradictory past.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By reason of this incongruous cultural inheritance, the great masses of the island could naturally claim to belong to both factions; but the leaders of the two factions would not accept such double allegiance as a viable alternative to full membership in their guilds, their tribes, their cultures. The leaders feared that the half-involvements and half-detachments of these innumerable half-breeds would only undermine the allegiance and solidarity that they, as Quixotists and Robinsonists, had been able to forge on the basis of their respective notions of purity. Indeed, double allegiance was punished by the leaders of each faction with the cruel severity that was justly reserved for only the most terrible of all crimes: treason. Hounded, persecuted, and reviled in this way for their suspiciously mixed cultural heritage, the people of the island were forced to choose between what came most naturally to them as half-breeds –that is, double allegiance-- and what came least naturally to them –that is, allegiance to one faction only. Ironically, only a few chose the route of what came most naturally to them as half-breeds (for this also proved to be the more challenging, lonely route), and the vast majority chose the least natural route (for, with the nurturing encouragement of the two factions, it was made to seem the easiest and most comfortable route to take).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Unlike the leaders of the two factions, who never once seemed to doubt where their natural allegiance should lie, the half-breeds were torn apart by such doubts. The conflict between the Quixotists and Robinsonists was in their hearts. They <i>were</i> the cultural war that was threatening to disintegrate life on the island and send it swirling into a factious, civil war. They could either reap this war’s just rewards or suffer its terrible punishments. Very few had the courage, the inner strength, and the self-trust to defend their natural right, as half-breeds, to declare their allegiance to both factions, both cultures, both worlds. The vast majority feared that the tension between their two worlds would rip them apart, and so they placed no trust in the ability of the braver half-breeds to overcome that tension and provide them all with an invigorating example of how to live in ambivalence. Motivated, as they were, by such dastardly doubts, the conflicted majortiy of half-breeds surrendered to the punishments of their inner turmoil. What they desired most was that the conflict that they <i>were</i> should come to an end. They wished to feel whole, once and for all. And they were willing to do anything, to stop at nothing, to satisfy this desire for wholeness, even if this meant splitting themselves in two, neurotically repressing one side of their heritage and histrionically affirming the other, even if it meant, as in the end it did mean, internalizing the death of one faction in order to claim allegiance to the other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Naturally, these fearfully patriotic factions hated each other. Naturally too, they blamed one another for all that was wrong in their lives. A sudden surge in the price of oil, the sudden disappearance of potable water, the sudden emergence of lethal strains of flu, every and any sudden crisis was an excuse to suspect, accuse, and clash. At first, these clashes were carried out strictly within the domain of culture. Debates concerning the proper interpretation of the island’s imperial and colonial history (or was it histories?) stirred the imagination and patriotism of its most highly revered, and therefore also most regularly ignored, academicians, journalists, novelists and other would-be public intellectuals. But the importance of such debates was lost on the vast majority of the island’s people, who did not care so much about whether Robinson had fathered illicit children with one of Hispánico’s daughters or whether Don Quixote had been motivated by a self-serving quest for personal fame as they did care about life in their own neighborhoods. “Why have our potholes not been repaired?” the good people demanded to know. Regardless of whether they were Quixotists or Robinsonists, the answer was always the same. “They, those <i>others</i>, are benefiting unfairly from State favoritism.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Robinsonists, who had been ruling the island without interruption ever since Robinson conquered Sweet and declared it a Protectorate, looked on with horror as their traditionally sweaty neighborhoods, schools, and churches were invaded –yes that was the word they used for it-- invaded by the ever-increasing numbers of people who continued to move north to Sweat from Sweet. Providing all these sweet people with penitent labor was no trouble: they were, after all, willing to do the work that no self-respecting Robinsonist would ever be caught doing. But to provide their hordes of children with an education, medical coverage, and equal access to the impartial and infinitely just institutions of the State was simply too expensive. “When,” they demanded to know, “would the potholes be fixed?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For their part, the Quixotists accused the Robinsonists of using their insider’s knowledge of governance in order to garner ever greater favors from the State. As a matter of principle, the Quixotists had no problem with this factional abuse of the State, what they wanted was to receive their share of the State’s generous gifts too. But of course they never admitted to this, and instead protested that the State, under the undo influence of Robinsonian power peddlers, had for too long treated them like second-class citizens. The Quixotists accused the society at large of systematically violating their right to equal opportunity, and denying them their rightful place in society as equals (equals who were hungry for their piece of the imperial pie: for it should be known that, in the one-hundred years or so following Robinson’s heroic conquest and paternalistic liberation of Sweet, Sweat had evolved politically beyond the status of a mere republic and become the greatest, wealthiest, mightiest empire ever known to man).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Robinsonists, in short, complained that what the Quixotists really wanted was nothing short of the kind of equal distribution of wealth that only the centralized economy of a fascist or communist state could provide. They expected the State to do too much for them, and failed to do enough for themselves. For their part, the Quixotists complained that the Robinsonists practiced ethnocracy, and only paid lip service to democracy. The lines had been drawn in the sand. Each faction was ready to go to war. Indeed, riots broke out in the cities. The State was forced to intervene. Protestors from both factions were jailed. Mob leaders and other rabble-rousers were persecuted; some of them were placed in secret jails where they were tortured into a state of enduring freedom; and others were simply assassinated; still others, not necessarily the luckiest, were forced to go underground or into exile.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thus, what had once been a strictly cultural dispute, turned political and the State was called upon to intervene in the conflict as a would-be impartial mediator. But it was no secret to anyone that the State was not in fact impartial and would mediate the growing conflict in keeping with its own best interests and the perpetuation of its own powerful institutions. Accordingly, the factions readied their armies of righteous legislators and wiley lawyers to do battle in the courts. Needless to say, the factions also did all they could to persuade the mediating bureaucrats of the State of the need, in times of crisis, to forgo any and all pretenses of impartiality and, extra-officially of course, declare their partiality for one faction or the other. When word got out that one high official of state had accepted bribes from the Quixotists, the Robinsonists sequestered his family and threatened to kill them all off, one by one, unless he recused himself from the negotiations. Similarly, when word got out that the Robinsonists had intimate ties with several of the State’s more highly respected legislators, the Quixotists assassinated these legislators. Such acts of terror only served to undermine the State’s monopoly on righteous violence, to corrupt the time-honored efficiency of its regal institutions, and weaken its power to protect the life, property, and freedom of its sweetly sweaty citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And so it came to pass that the executive branch of government, which was of course in the hands of the Robinsonists, claimed to have no other recourse but to call a state of emergency, take on the grave responsibility of exercising its emergency powers and, in the best interest of all the parties involved, declare martial law. Yes, as a final solution to the island’s cultural impasse, the leaders of the Robinsonist faction recalled the best of Don Quixote and Sancho’s imperial legacy and declared themselves Emperors. The State, this Robinsonist oligarchy made it known to one and all, would protect and secure its own powers and it would do so at whatever the cost to the liberties of its citizens. Since the legislative and judicial branches of government were also in the hands of the Robinsonists, this drastic measure made all the Robinsonists exceedingly happy, while with good reason it robbed many of the Quixotists of all hope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The lines were drawn deeper in the sand and life on the island became still more intolerable. The good people of the island, whether of a Quixotist or Robinsonian persuasion, were all being held for ransom, their liberties suspended indefinitely, and their security guarded by fear-mongering military and other more secretive forces of order and peace. The politicization of the cultural debates had only served to exacerbate the underlying cultural tensions. The time had come for the people of the island to take back what was rightfully theirs to own, use, and even, if need be, abuse. They would be free to become who they had already become: half-breeds. And not the State, not the Robinsonists, not the Quixotists could do a damned thing to suppress the unboundable freedom of the half-breeds. The time was ripe for revolution. The only question now was: What kind of revolution?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">12<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There were those among the island’s would-be liberating revolutionaries who clamored for the purging, cleansing, purifying revolutionary fervor of a blood-bath. Their virile posturing fooled many half-breeds into believing that they were to be the island’s true liberators, for when they spoke or took to the streets in virulent action, they seemed always to exude the virtues and restless strength of the great conquerors of the past: Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe. But their strength was only weakness disguised as its opposite; their virility, an over-compensation for indiscriminate cowardice. They offered the half-breeds of the island no real mastery and subtlety in waging war against themselves, no way to overcome themselves and their internal conflict. They offered only the purity, cleanliness, and emptiness of an aborted life and tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There were also those who, seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict, favored dialogue as a means to forging mutual understanding, respect, and a lasting peace. Their humble posturing fooled many half-breeds into thinking that they held the key to the island’s liberation from political and cultural tension. But their apparent strength too was nothing but a disguised form of weakness. The happiness they sought was that of resting, of satiety, of a finally attained unity. And like their counterparts, they offered the half-breeds of the island no real formula for a successful transvaluation of their mixed cultural heritage. They only offered the peace, warmth, and restfulness of a partial birth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Finally, there were those who sought to overcome the weakness of both by combining, in the form of a polemic, the restless spirit of the one with the restful spirit of the other. They were cross-cultural double-crossers, translators and exiles, extradited patriots and repatriated criminals. Through them and their irksome ambivalence, the way toward a successful transvaluation of half-breed values was revealed. They prepared the way for the emergence of a new survivor, one whose life on the island promised to regain the natural exuberance and self-trust it had lost long ago as a result of Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe’s shipwrecked encounter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04653433052182512585noreply@blogger.com0