DOCSLIB.ORG

Encountering the Abyss: Deconstructing the Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss and the Straussian Interventions Relating to the Invasion of Iraq

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Encountering the Abyss: Deconstructing the Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss and the Straussian Interventions Relating to the Invasion of Iraq Encountering the Abyss: Deconstructing the Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss and the Straussian Interventions Relating to the Invasion of Iraq A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Ph.D. in the Faculty of Humanities 2010 Agnes Hirst School of Social Sciences Table of Contents List of Abbreviations 5 Abstract 6 Declaration 7 Copyright Statement 8 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction.................................................................................10 Strauss and International Relations 12 Confronting the Abyss 18 Tracing the Abyss: Nietzsche and Heidegger 20 Strauss‘ Response to the Abyss 25 Derrida‘s Response to the Abyss 28 Part I Chapter One: The Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss...................32 Introduction 32 The Crisis of the West: Exposing the Abyss in Society, Social Science, and Philosophy 32 Countering the Abyss: The Invocation of Ancient Philosophy 45 The Generation and Preservation of Salutary Social Opinions 51 Three Dimensions of the Generation of Meaning: The Schmittean Friend/Enemy Dichotomy, The Tyrannous Regime, and Justice 55 Chapter Two: The Straussians.......................................................70 Introduction 70 The Straussians 71 2 The Signifier ‗Straussian‘ 77 The Politics of Straussianism 83 Following Strauss to the Ancient 89 The Generation and Preservation of Salutary Social Opinions: the Schmittean friend/Enemy Dichotomy, the Tyrannous Regime, and Justice 92 Chapter Three: The Straussian Interventions and the Invasion of Iraq.............................................................................100 Introduction 100 The Straussian Intervention in the Realm of Intelligence Production 100 The Straussian Intervention in the Realm of Intelligence and the Invasion of Iraq 106 The Straussian Intervention in the Realm of the Think Tanks and the Invasion of Iraq 116 The Straussian Intervention in Realm of the Media and the Invasion of Iraq 122 Conclusion to Part I......................................................................134 Part II Chapter Four: Challenging the Straussian Interventions..............137 Introduction 137 Challenging the Creation of Salutary Opinions 139 - ‗Terrorism‘ and the Event ‗9/11‘ 141 - ‗Rogues‘ and ‗Tyrants‘ 145 - Problematising ‗Iraq‘ 148 - The Temptation of the Media 151 The Productive Effects of the Abyss 155 - The Undecidable Decision 158 3 - Deconstruction and/as Resistance 163 Chapter Five: Deconstructing the Straussian Project................... 169 Introduction 169 Deconstructing the Schmittean Friend/Enemy Binary 170 Deconstructing the ‗Tyrannous Regime‘ 179 Deconstructing Justice as the Reason of the Strongest 186 Straussianism as Securitisation against the Abyss 193 Chapter Six: Challenging Ontological Foreclosure in Derridean Thought.................................................................. 199 Introduction 199 Deconstructing the ‗Worst‘ 199 The Closure of a Levinasian Supplement 203 Teleology and the Regulative Idea 207 Time and the Political 211 Openness 213 Conclusion.................................................................................. 216 Bibliography............................................................................... 223 Word Count: 84, 128 4 List of Abbreviations AEI American Enterprise Institute AVOT Americans for Victory Over Terrorism CIA Central Intelligence Agency DIA Defense Intelligence Agency DoD Department of Defense FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency INC Iraqi National Congress INR Bureau of Intelligence and Research JINSA Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs NESA Near East and South Asian Affairs Group NSIC National Strategy Information Centre NSS National Security Strategy of the United States of America, 2002 OSP Office of Special Plans PCEG Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group PNAC Project for the New American Century WINEP Washington Institute for Near East Policy 5 Abstract The University of Manchester Agnes Hirst Ph.D. Thesis ‗Encountering the Abyss: Deconstructing the Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss and the Straussian Interventions relating to the Invasion of Iraq‘ 7th September 2010 This thesis focuses on the figure of an abyss residing at the heart of metaphysics, and argues that thinking in light of its destabilising connotations opens up the possibility of attempting to take responsibility for the violence immanent to any and all politico-philosophical positions. It argues that this abyss represents a void or lack always already underpinning the attempt to posit universal or essential premises, and that it is precisely this lack which may be mobilised to unsettle the totalising claims of ontology. It demonstrates that the abyss occupies a central space in the political philosophy of Leo Strauss and Jacques Derrida, positing that the attempt to secure against it, qua Strauss, precludes the possibility of gesturing towards the taking of responsibility for the violence inherent to politico- philosophical projects. It traces the ethico-political implications of this response through a series of interventions enacted by eight followers of Strauss surrounding the recent Bush administration in the spheres of intelligence production, think tanks, and the media in the context of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, arguing that this securitising logic reflects an ontological totalisation which underpins the totalising politics they propound. It then shows that operating in light of the implications of the abyss, following Derrida, creates a space within which the imposition of totalising ontological claims may be resisted. Mobilising a conceptualisation of ‗Deconstruction and/as Resistance‘, it exposes three assumptions underpinning the Straussian response, the Schmittean friend/enemy binary, the notion of the ‗regime‘, specifically in terms of the opposition of ‗tyranny‘ and democracy residing at its core, and the concept of justice as amounting to the ‗reason of the strongest‘. It is the intention of this thesis to call for an endless resistance to the imposition of totalising narratives and principles in the hope that the violence of these may be subverted, and the violence which inheres in any and all projects be taken responsibility for. 6 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification at this or any other university or other institute of learning. 7 Copyright Statement The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the ‗Copyright‘) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. Copies of the thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the university has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, trade marks and other intellectual property (the ‗Intellectual Property‘) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (‗Reproductions‘), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproduction described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/politices/intellectual-property.pdf), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library‘s regulations (see http://manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University‘s policy on presentation of Theses. 8 Acknowledgements I would like to sincerely thank all those whose patience and support have been so invaluable during this process. My supervisors Maja Zehfuss and Angie Wilson have provided generous engagement and encouragement, as well as having taught me the importance of self- discipline, without which the thesis would never have been completed. I also very much appreciate the input of other staff members, past and present, at the Politics Department at the University of Manchester, who have been generous with their time and advice. Heartfelt thanks also goes to my friends and Ph.D. colleagues in the Department, especially Tom Houseman, Japhy Wilson, and Andrew Slack. I am also grateful for the E.S.R.C. funding without which this would not have been possible. Finally, my thanks go to Chris Rossdale for both his unreserved support and facilitation of welcome distractions. 9 Introduction The influences and interventions which made possible the 2003 invasion of Iraq have prompted extensive interest and debate in the discipline of International Relations (IR) and beyond. During the years immediately preceding the US-led intervention, a wide variety of issues were invoked in order to demonstrate its necessity, perhaps foremost the 9/11 attacks and the question of weapons of mass destruction. It has
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Beyond Good and Evil—1
    Nietzsche & Asian Philosophy Beyond Good and Evil—1 Beyond good and Evil Preface supposing truth is a woman philosophers like love-sick suitors who don’t understand the woman-truth central problem of philosophy is Plato’s error: denying perspective, the basic condition of all life On the Prejudices of Philosophers 1) questioning the will to truth who is it that really wants truth? What in us wants truth? Why not untruth? 2) origin of the will to truth out of the will to untruth, deception can anything arise out of its opposite? A dangerous questioning? Nietzsche sees new philosophers coming up who have the strength for the dangerous “maybe.” Note in general Nietzsche’s preference for the conditional tense, his penchant for beginning his questioning with “perhaps” or “suppose” or “maybe.” In many of the passages throughout this book Nietzsche takes up a perspective which perhaps none had dared take up before, a perspective to question what had seemed previously to be unquestionable. He seems to constantly be tempting the reader with a dangerous thought experiment. This begins with the questioning of the will to truth and the supposition that, perhaps, the will to truth may have arisen out of its opposite, the will to untruth, ignorance, deception. 3) the supposition that the greater part of conscious thinking must be included among instinctive activities Nietzsche emphasizes that consciousness is a surface phenomenon conscious thinking is directed by what goes on beneath the surface contrary to Plato’s notion of pure reason, the conscious
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values Joseph Anthony Kranak Marquette University
    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values Joseph Anthony Kranak Marquette University Recommended Citation Kranak, Joseph Anthony, "Nietzsche's Revaluation of All Values" (2014). Dissertations (2009 -). Paper 415. http://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/415 NIETZSCHE’S REVALUATION OF ALL VALUES by Joseph Kranak A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin December 2014 ABSTRACT NIETZSCHE’S REVALUTION OF ALL VALUES Joseph Kranak Marquette University, 2014 This dissertation looks at the details of Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the revaluation of all values. The dissertation will look at the idea in several ways to elucidate the depth and complexity of the idea. First, it will be looked at through its evolution, as it began as an idea early in Nietzsche’s career and reached its full complexity at the end of his career with the planned publication of his Revaluation of All Values, just before the onset of his madness. Several questions will be explored: What is the nature of the revaluator who is supposed to be instrumental in the process of revaluation? What will the values after the revaluation be like (a rebirth of ancient values or creation of entirely new values)? What will be the scope of the revaluation? And what is the relation of other major ideas of Nietzsche’s (will to power, eternal return, overman, and amor fati) to the revaluation? Different answers to these questions will be explored.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 4 the Right-Wing Media Enablers of Anti-Islam Propaganda
    Chapter 4 The right-wing media enablers of anti-Islam propaganda Spreading anti-Muslim hate in America depends on a well-developed right-wing media echo chamber to amplify a few marginal voices. The think tank misinforma- tion experts and grassroots and religious-right organizations profiled in this report boast a symbiotic relationship with a loosely aligned, ideologically-akin group of right-wing blogs, magazines, radio stations, newspapers, and television news shows to spread their anti-Islam messages and myths. The media outlets, in turn, give members of this network the exposure needed to amplify their message, reach larger audiences, drive fundraising numbers, and grow their membership base. Some well-established conservative media outlets are a key part of this echo cham- ber, mixing coverage of alarmist threats posed by the mere existence of Muslims in America with other news stories. Chief among the media partners are the Fox News empire,1 the influential conservative magazine National Review and its website,2 a host of right-wing radio hosts, The Washington Times newspaper and website,3 and the Christian Broadcasting Network and website.4 They tout Frank Gaffney, David Yerushalmi, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, Steven Emerson, and others as experts, and invite supposedly moderate Muslim and Arabs to endorse bigoted views. In so doing, these media organizations amplify harm- ful, anti-Muslim views to wide audiences. (See box on page 86) In this chapter we profile some of the right-wing media enablers, beginning with the websites, then hate radio, then the television outlets. The websites A network of right-wing websites and blogs are frequently the primary movers of anti-Muslim messages and myths.
    [Show full text]
  • Sovereign Poetics: from Exception to Apocrypha
    [Expositions 9.2 (2015) 16–34] Expositions (online) ISSN: 1747–5376 Sovereign Poetics: from Exception to Apocrypha ERIN FORBES University of Wyoming ABSTRACT This essay suggests an aesthetic solution to the problem of foundation in Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology by reading that work in relation to the Old English poem Judith. This is an essay that analyzes the dynamics of beginnings (those that are overt and locatable together with those that are concealed and irrecoverable). I myself begin by asking what might be gained by reading the Old English poem Judith, whose own beginning has gone missing, as a prelude to political philosopher Carl Schmitt’s Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty. Political Theology is a text whose famous opening hovers suggestively between gnomic aphorism and clear definition: “Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.”1 Unlikely as the pairing of Judith and Political Theology might at first seem, I argue that this juxtaposition helps us think through the problem of what Kathleen Davis, following Schmitt, has described as the “absent foundation of sovereignty.”2 Ultimately, I propose that the philosophical problem that Schmitt’s theorization of the sovereign exception poses has an aesthetic solution in the fragmentary Judith. Although his theories of political life have been influential to both conservative and radical thinkers in recent decades, it remains the case that Schmitt is most often remembered for his association with Hitler’s totalitarian regime. Yet Schmitt objected to constitutional politics throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries because of their pretense to organic totality, not because of their failures of authority.
    [Show full text]
  • Democracy and Dissent: Strauss, Arendt, and Voegelin in America
    Denver Law Review Volume 89 Issue 3 Special Issue - Constitutionalism and Article 6 Revolutions December 2020 Democracy and Dissent: Strauss, Arendt, and Voegelin in America Stephen M. Feldman Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/dlr Recommended Citation Stephen M. Feldman, Democracy and Dissent: Strauss, Arendt, and Voegelin in America, 89 Denv. U. L. Rev. 671 (2012). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Denver Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. DEMOCRACY AND DISSENT: STRAUSS, ARENDT, AND VOEGELIN IN AMERICA STEPHEN M. FELDMANt During the 1930s, American democratic government underwent a paradigmatic transformation.' From the framing through the 1920s, the United States operated as a republican democracy. Citizens and elected officials were supposed to be virtuous: in the political realm, they were to pursue the common good or public welfare rather than their own "par- tial or private interests."2 Intellectually, republican democracy had premodern roots stretching back to antiquity. 3 As such, republican demo- cratic theorists often conceptualized the common good in objectivist terms, as if there existed a distinct good that could be clearly ascer- tained.4 Equally important, for at least a century, republican democracy seemed to fit the agrarian, rural, and relatively homogenous American society. Thomas Jefferson, for one, insisted that the agrarian economy and widespread rural land ownership promoted a virtuous commitment to the common good.5 And given that, in the nation's early decades, an overwhelming number of Americans were Protestants who traced their ancestry to Western or Northern Europe, the people seemed sufficiently homogeneous to join together in the pursuit of the common good.6 Of course, some Americans did not fit the mold.
    [Show full text]
  • Democratic Vanguardism
    Democratic Vanguardism Modernity, Intervention, and the making of the Bush Doctrine Michael Harland A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History University of Canterbury 2013 For Francine Contents Acknowledgements 1 Abstract 3 Introduction 4 1. America at the Vanguard: Democracy Promotion and the Bush Doctrine 16 2. Assessing History’s End: Thymos and the Post-Historic Life 37 3. The Exceptional Nation: Power, Principle and American Foreign Policy 55 4. The “Crisis” of Liberal Modernity: Neoconservatism, Relativism and Republican Virtue 84 5. An “Intoxicating Moment:” The Rise of Democratic Globalism 123 6. The Perfect Storm: September 11 and the coming of the Bush Doctrine 159 Conclusion 199 Bibliography 221 1 Acknowledgements Over the three years I spent researching and writing this thesis, I have received valuable advice and support from a number of individuals and organisations. My supervisors, Peter Field and Jeremy Moses, were exemplary. As my senior supervisor, Peter provided a model of a consummate historian – lively, probing, and passionate about the past. His detailed reading of my work helped to hone the thesis significantly. Peter also allowed me to use his office while he was on sabbatical in 2009. With a library of over six hundred books, the space proved of great use to an aspiring scholar. Jeremy Moses, meanwhile, served as the co-supervisor for this thesis. His research on the connections between liberal internationalist theory and armed intervention provided much stimulus for this study. Our discussions on the present trajectory of American foreign policy reminded me of the continuing pertinence of my dissertation topic.
    [Show full text]
  • How Philosophers Rise and Empires Fall in the Work of Leo Strauss
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2019 Ungodly Freedom: How Philosophers Rise and Empires Fall in the Work of Leo Strauss Eli Karetny The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2819 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] UNGODLY FREEDOM: HOW PHILOSOPHERS RISE AND EMPIRES FALL IN THE WORK OF LEO STRAUSS by Eli Karetny A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2019 © 2018 Eli Karetny All Rights Reserved ii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. PROFESSOR COREY ROBIN _________________ ____________________________________ Date Committee Chair _______________ PROFESSOR ALYSON COLE Date ____________________________________ Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Corey Robin Alyson Cole Carol Gould THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract UNGODLY FREEDOM: HOW PHILOSOPHERS RISE AND EMPIRES FALL IN THE WORK OF LEO STRAUSS by Eli Karetny Advisor: Professor Corey Robin This dissertation argues that to fully understand the work of Leo Strauss, scholars must look beyond the Platonic and Machiavellian elements in Strauss and explore how Nietzsche’s ideas about nihilism, the will to power, the eternal return, and the ubermensch influence Strauss’s critique of modernity, his understanding of the relationship between philosophy and politics, and his redefinition of the philosopher as a prophetic lawgiver.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    NOTES Introduction 1. Robert Kagan to George Packer. Cited in Packer’s The Assassin’s Gate: America In Iraq (Faber and Faber, London, 2006): 38. 2. Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone: The Neoconservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004): 9. 3. Critiques of the war on terror and its origins include Gary Dorrien, Imperial Designs: Neoconservatism and the New Pax Americana (Routledge, New York and London, 2004); Francis Fukuyama, After the Neocons: America At the Crossroads (Profile Books, London, 2006); Ira Chernus, Monsters to Destroy: The Neoconservative War on Terror and Sin (Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, CO and London, 2006); and Jacob Heilbrunn, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons (Doubleday, New York, 2008). 4. A report of the PNAC, Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century, September 2000: 76. URL: http:// www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf (15 January 2009). 5. On the first generation on Cold War neoconservatives, which has been covered far more extensively than the second, see Gary Dorrien, The Neoconservative Mind: Politics, Culture and the War of Ideology (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1993); Peter Steinfels, The Neoconservatives: The Men Who Are Changing America’s Politics (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1979); Murray Friedman, The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005); Murray Friedman ed. Commentary in American Life (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 2005); Mark Gerson, The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to the Culture Wars (Madison Books, Lanham MD; New York; Oxford, 1997); and Maria Ryan, “Neoconservative Intellectuals and the Limitations of Governing: The Reagan Administration and the Demise of the Cold War,” Comparative American Studies, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Heideggerian Marxism
    1 2 3 4 5 Heideggerian Marxism 6 7 8 9 10 11 [First Page] 12 [-1], (1) 13 14 15 Lines: 0 to 16 ——— 17 * 429.1755pt 18 ——— 19 Normal Page 20 * PgEnds: PageB 21 22 [-1], (1) 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 1 european horizons 2 Series Editors 3 Richard Golsan, 4 Texas A&M University 5 6 Christopher Flood, 7 University of Surrey 8 Jeffrey T. Schnapp, 9 Stanford University 10 11 Richard Wolin, 12 The Graduate Center, [-2], (2) 13 City University of New York 14 15 Lines: 15 16 ——— 17 * 321.29399pt 18 ——— 19 Normal P 20 * PgEnds: 21 22 [-2], (2) 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 1 2 3 4 5 Heideggerian 6 7 8 9 Marxism 10 11 12 [-3], (3) 13 14 15 Lines: 36 to 16 ——— 17 0.78pt PgV 18 Herbert Marcuse ——— 19 Normal Page 20 * PgEnds: PageB 21 22 [-3], (3) 23 24 25 Edited by 26 27 Richard Wolin and John Abromeit 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 university of nebraska press 37 lincoln and london 1 © 2005 by the University of Nebraska Press 2 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 3 ⅜ϱ 4 The essays of Herbert Marcuse contained in this volume 5 are reprinted with the permission of the Literary Estate of Herbert Marcuse Peter Marcuse, executor. 6 Supplementary material from previously unpublished work of Herbert Marcuse, 7 much now in the archives of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University 8 Frankfurt am Main, is being published by Routledge in a six-volume series edited by Douglas Kellner.
    [Show full text]
  • A Media Event Event
    THE DEATH OF MARX: A MEDIA EVENT EVENT The 'new philosophers '. have enjoyed a recent intense vogue in France, 1 and have even provoked interest in the English speaking press - I have read articles on them in The Sunday Times, The Observer,observer, Encounter and Time magazine. on examination, they appear to be saying very little, so it is interesting to ask what their value is for the foreign press. It will be seen that I too treat them in a 'journalistic' rather than a serious academic fashion, and that this is, in fact, unavoidable. Nevertheless, whilst of little intrinsic interest, the new philosophers are illustrative ofof·two two problems, both of which are of some import. The first is that in French political and culturalculturaJ thought all problems and debates exist within a framework marked by two reference points - the' legislative elections in March 1978, and May 1968. These points are !'\ptApt symmetrical; however, they do mark the beginning and the end of the present •'epoch'.epoch'. The new philosophers are only possible v,i thin this framewor:j.{. The second is of a different order, and concerns the relations of intEll­ini;Ell­ lectuals to journalism, and the changes that these relations have bee~ undergoing. I shall return to these problems at the end, but first $hf.!,ll give an outline description of the phenomenon. * * * * The new philosophy oonsists primarily of publici,ty. The publicitypUblicity hasb,as peen ferocious - in magazines, journals, newspapers, pUblicpublic dis6ussions,disoussions, as ",ell¥ell as on radio and television. It has been centred on personalities - on the new philosophers rather than the new philosophy - and in the articles, I ,', ," interviews and so on the original books published seem of little importl,illce.importl,U1ce.
    [Show full text]
  • “Democratic Self-Government Or Mass Migration? Choose!” by John Fonte, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Washington, DC, USA
    “Democratic Self-Government or Mass Migration? Choose!” By John Fonte, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Washington, DC, USA. If Migration is the biggest Challenge of our Time---the key Issue is Who will decide this challenge? There are three possibilities: Supranational institutions (let’s call this Davos); the migrants themselves arriving without the consent of the people in the nations that are affected--or the demos, the citizens of democratic nation-states? Whether migration is decided by Davos, by the migrants or by the Demos will determine the direction of the West in the 21st century. The Challenge of Migration is at the heart of the most important question in politics going back to Plato and Aristotle. Who Governs? Supranational institutions or democratic nation- states? Transnational elites—unaccountable--to any democratic people or the citizens of a nation? The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has described the coming conflict as one between patriotism and globalism. Today, sovereign self-government is challenged within the democratic world and within the West by the ideological and material forces of Transnational or Global Progressivism. The Party of Davos-Global Governance-Transnational Progressivism is supported by an interlocking network of transnational elites including international lawyers, judges, bureaucrats, and activists housed at institutions like the United Nations, the European Commission, the European Court of Human Rights, leading global corporations, NGOs, and within the governments of many Western nation-states. These groups have a symbiotic relationship. John Bolton has referred to some of their practitioners as the “High-Minded.” This network promotes two complimentary ideologies: supranationalism abroad and multiculturalism at home.
    [Show full text]
  • Donald Trump, the Changes: Aanti
    Ethnic and Racial Studies ISSN: 0141-9870 (Print) 1466-4356 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rers20 Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution Ed Pertwee To cite this article: Ed Pertwee (2020): Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution, Ethnic and Racial Studies, DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688 © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 17 Apr 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 193 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rers20 ETHNIC AND RACIAL STUDIES https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688 Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution Ed Pertwee Department of Sociology, London School of Economics, London, UK ABSTRACT This article explores the “counter-jihad”, a transnational field of anti-Muslim political action that emerged in the mid-2000s, becoming a key tributary of the recent far- right insurgency and an important influence on the Trump presidency. The article draws on thematic analysis of content from counter-jihad websites and interviews with movement activists, sympathizers and opponents, in order to characterize the counter-jihad’s organizational infrastructure and political discourse and to theorize its relationship to fascism and other far-right tendencies. Although the political discourses of the counter-jihad, Trumpian Republicanism and the avowedly racist “Alt-Right” are not identical, I argue that all three tendencies share a common, counterrevolutionary temporal structure.
    [Show full text]