Departments

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militarism

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    2/18/2021

    The American Century Ends Early

    by Tom Engelhardt

    The American empire is now visibly in a state of rapid decay, the product of three decades of wasting the "peace dividend" of the end of the Cold War. 

  • 2/14/2021

    Heed the Cornerman's Cry

    by Mike McQuillan

    The failure to heed the warnings of the Kerner Commission in 1968 – of a society divided by racism and inequality – has led to ongoing suffering and a politics of resentment over an ethic of mutual care.

  • 2/14/2021

    King’s Final Book: Both Political Roadmap and Passionate Sermon

    by Fred Zilian

    As Black History Month unfolds amid an atmosphere of crisis and division like that which prevailed in 1968, it's worth revisiting Martin Luther King's publication that year of "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community" – a call for reordering national priorities toward justice through politics and for renewed spiritual and ethical dedication to shared humanity.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    2/11/2021

    Beyond Donald Trump: When Poisons Curdle

    by Andrew Bacevich

    The writer regrets not absorbing the message of MLK's prophetic "Beyond Vietnam" sermon when it was delivered in 1967. But the years since have shown he wasn't alone, and the nation's failure to reflect on the interconnection of racism, materialism and militarism accounts for the dire state of affairs reflected in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. 

  • SOURCE: The Drift
    2/2/2021

    First-Person Shooter Ideology​: The Cultural Contradictions of Call of Duty

    by Daniel Bessner

    "Right now, this one game is teaching millions of young Americans about the epic struggle between their government and the Soviet Union, a century-defining cataclysm that resulted in tens of millions of deaths, reshaped world history, and engendered the ideological struggles that presently bedevil the public sphere." But the lesson is one of cynical resignation to today's state of endless war. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    1/26/2021

    While America Was Sleeping

    by Alfred McCoy

    As journalist H.L. Mencken predicted back in 1920, America had finally come to the point where “the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

  • SOURCE: American Conservative
    11/11/2020

    The Origins Of U.S. Global Dominance

    by Daniel Larison

    A conservative historian reviews a new book on the history of American interventionism and advocates for reorganizing foreign policy without the imperative to dominate the world. 

  • SOURCE: Boston Review
    10/19/2020

    Why Is America the World’s Police? (Review)

    by Sam Lebovic

    A review of Stephen Wertheim's "Tomorrow, The World" concludes the new book shows how American military supremacy moved in a generation from a novel idea to embedded common sense, and demands rethinking the resources spent to maintain it. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    10/15/2020

    America Has No Reason to Be So Powerful

    by Stephen Wertheim

    "There was a time when Americans believed that armed dominance obstructed and corrupted genuine engagement in the world, far from being its foundation."

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    10/1/2020

    How Trump Brought Home the Endless War

    by Stephen Wertheim

    The Global War on Terror reconfigured American foreign policy around military force against abstract ideas and indeterminate enemies. The divisions of domestic politics set the stage for Donald Trump to move the war to the streets of the United States. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    6/23/2020

    Martin Luther King’s Giant Triplets of Injustice

    by Andrew Bacevich

    Without addressing the fundamental evils of economic inequality and militarism American society will continue to fail to realize the promise of racial equality, as Martin Luther King warned in his 1967 speech at Riverside Church. 

  • 6/14/2020

    Let Them Eat Weapons: Trump’s Bizarre Arms Race

    by Lawrence Wittner

    The Trump administration's stated intention to "spend the adversary into oblivion" through arms buildup is likely to bring ruin to the American public before it harms Russia or China. 

  • SOURCE: Lapham's Quarterly
    4/6/2020

    A Revolution of Values

    by Peniel E. Joseph

    Racial apartheid’s grip on American democracy, argued King, corrupted the nation in war and peace.

  • SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
    10/24/19

    Killing Me Softly with Militarism

    by William J. Astore

    Besides TV shows, movies, and commercials, there are many signs of the increasing embrace of militarized values and attitudes in this country. The result: the acceptance of a military in places where it shouldn’t be, one that’s over-celebrated, over-hyped, and given far too much money and cultural authority, while becoming virtually immune to serious criticism.