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POLITICAL REALISM in APOCALYPTIC TIMES a Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in P

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POLITICAL REALISM in APOCALYPTIC TIMES a Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in P POLITICAL REALISM IN APOCALYPTIC TIMES A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Alison Elizabeth Jennifer McQueen January 2012 © 2012 Alison Elizabeth Jennifer McQueen POLITICAL REALISM IN APOCALYPTIC TIMES Alison Elizabeth Jennifer McQueen, Ph. D. Cornell University 2012 This dissertation traces the responses of three canonical political realists—Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Hans Morgenthau—to eruptions of apocalyptic rhetoric, imagery, and politics. I treat apocalypticism as a very particular kind of utopianism that is premised on a belief in the imminent end of the known world and the arrival of a radically new future. Contemporary realists tend to position their pragmatic approaches to politics against ‘utopian’ alternatives, which they reject for being at best unrealizable and at worst profoundly dangerous. However, in tracing the historical engagement between political realism and apocalypticism, I find a more complex and productive relationship. Through an historical and textual analysis of the work of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Morgenthau, I argue that much of the nuance and texture in these realists’ work, and particularly their evolving conceptions of human nature and their commitments to political action, emerge from serious and extended engagements with apocalypticism. ii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Alison McQueen was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She completed her secondary education at the Linden School in Toronto. She received her BA (with distinction) in International Development from the University of Guelph in 2003, her MA in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Toronto in 2005, and her PhD in Government from Cornell University in 2012. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. iii For my parents, David McQueen and Nancy McQueen, and in memory of my aunt, Jennifer McQueen iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As is the case with any piece of scholarship, this dissertation was in many ways a collective endeavor. It originally took shape as a loose series of observations about Machiavelli and Hobbes. Susan Buck-Morss first encouraged me to think about extending these observations to Morgenthau, pushing me in a more ambitious and exciting direction. In her capacity as the chair of my dissertation committee, Susan consistently helped me to see the project with new eyes, to find the strange in the familiar, and to take seriously the way in which images do important political theoretical work. Peter Katzenstein brought his sharp critical eye and wide- ranging intellect to every part of this project. And, as he has done for so many, Peter modeled what it means to be a serious and generous scholar and teacher. It was in a class with John Najemy that I first began to formulate my ideas on Machiavelli and the reading I offer in this dissertation owes much to these early conversations, as well as to John’s own wonderful work on Machiavelli and Renaissance Florence. The dissertation as a whole has also benefited from John’s rare combination of a breadth of vision and an eye for detail. I must acknowledge a special debt to Jason Frank. Had it not been for several seminars and many conversations with Jason, I would not have realized that I was a political theorist. He consistently saw more in this project than I knew was there. When I would turn to Jason in frustration, he would send me back to the dissertation with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. One could not ask for more. Isaac Kramnick read early drafts of the Hobbes and Machiavelli chapters and generously agreed to read the entire dissertation in his capacity as external reader. Beyond his valuable feedback on the dissertation, I am grateful for having had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for numerous offerings of Isaac’s introductory political thought course. It is from him that I learned how one does the history of political thought. v Many other people read and commented on one or more chapters of this dissertation. They include: Dwight Allman, Richard Bensel, Peter Breiner, Allen Carlson, Matthew Evangelista, Giovanni Giorgini, Joshua Goldstein, Benjamin Gregg, Randal Hendrickson, Al Martinich, and Travis Smith. Each of the core chapters of the dissertation was presented at a colloquium, workshop, or conference. I would like to thank the organizers and audiences at Cornell’s Political Theory Workshop and Dissertation Colloquia, the University of Texas at Austin, and at the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, the Association for Political Theory, the Canadian Political Science Association, and the Midwest Political Science Association. This project received financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Cornell School of Graduate Studies, and the Einaudi Center for International Studies. Burke Hendrix has seen me through the highs and lows of this dissertation. At every stage, the project benefited from his encouragement, questions, and gentle requests for clarification. Most of all, however, I appreciate the many ways in which Burke helped me to see the humor in an often gloomy subject. My greatest debt is to my parents, to whom this dissertation is dedicated. They first nurtured the skills required for scholarly work—reading, writing, and asking questions (not necessarily in that order). My aunt Jennifer, who died during the final stages of this project, supported and encouraged me throughout my graduate work. She was proof that it is possible to be a compassionate realist. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Theorizing Apocalypse: Context to Concept 24 3 Niccolò Machiavelli’s Savonarolan Moment 77 4 Thomas Hobbes: “Feigning the World to be Annihilated” 127 5 Hans Morgenthau and the Postwar Apocalyptic Imaginary 187 6 Conclusion: On the Art of Living Through Catastrophe 242 Bibliography 253 vii LIST OF FIGURES 1 Botticelli, Mystic Nativity (1500-1) 95 2 Botticelli, Crucifixion (1497-8) 96 3 Luca Signorelli, Apocalypse Sequence (1499-1502) 98 4 Luca Signorelli, Apocalypse Sequence (1499-1502) 99 5 ‘C’ Illustration, John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (1653) 134 6 Frontispiece, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (1651) 176 7 Anthony Van Dyck, King Charles I (ca. 1635) 179 8 Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I, King of England (1636) 180 9 Anthony Van Dyck, Christ Healing the Paralytic (1619) 181 10 Gislebertus, The Last Judgment (1130-1135) 182 viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION [W]hen we get to May 21 on the calendar in any city or country in the world, and the clock says about — this is based on other verses in the Bible — when the clock says about 6 p.m., there’s going to be this tremendous earthquake that’s going to make the last earthquake in Japan seem like nothing in comparison. And the whole world will be alerted that Judgment Day has begun. Harold Camping, Interview, May 11, 2011 For a half a century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical. And then there came a day of fire…By our efforts we have lit a fire as well—a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power; it burns those who fight its progress. And one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world. President George W. Bush, Second Inaugural Address, 2005 [T]he evidence coming in from the watchers around the world brings news of an imminent shift in our climate towards one that could easily be described as Hell: so hot, so deadly that only a handful of the teeming billions now alive will survive. James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity, 2006 In the months and days leading up to May 21, 2011, civil engineer turned radio evangelist Harold Camping preached an apocalyptic message of hope and despair. A cross-country billboard campaign urged Americans to “Save the Date!” and announced the “Return of Christ. May 21, 2011.” On this day, the faithful would be taken up to heaven in the rapture. From the safety of their heavenly perches, they would look down as a wave of divine destruction wrapped its way around the globe, consuming the world and massacring the unfaithful. Fires, wars, and plagues of the kinds described in the book of Revelation would ravage the earth for five months, 1 killing millions each day. With these predictions, Camping offered his followers a vision of the apocalypse—the imminent end of the known world and the beginning of a radically new future. When May 21 came and went without incident, Camping and his followers, some of who had quit their jobs and disposed of their assets, were widely ridiculed.1 Behind much of this ridicule was a sense that Camping and his followers were exactly what many of us expect an apocalyptic group to be—marginal, religious, and ultimately wrong. These preconceptions are often reinforced by media portrayals of apocalyptic groups. Many of us imagine a band of vulnerable people who, under the direction of a charismatic false prophet, have gathered in a rural bunker to await the imminent end of the known world. We imagine groups who have chosen to cut themselves off from mainstream society and to pursue their apocalyptic expectations to a violent consummation. Some of the most prominent cases of apocalyptic belief seem to fit this mold. For instance, the mass suicide of more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple at Jonestown, Guyana in 1978 was motivated in part by this group’s apocalyptic expectations. The Branch Davidians, a group of whom were involved in a protracted armed standoff with the FBI outside of Waco, Texas in 1993, were similarly motivated by expectations of an imminent end.
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