As Rebecca Gordon notes in her new book, Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States, polls find greater support in the United States for torture now than when Bush was president. And it’s not hard to see why that would be the case.
The darkness to which I refer is something largely unanticipated in political studies and even in science fiction, a field which definitely enters this discussion, as readers will see. There have been many examples of national tyrannies and even stories of global autocracies, but the Hitler-Stalin-Mussolini type of tyranny is an antiquated model for advanced states despite its applying still to many third-world places. A unique set of circumstances now works towards a dystopian future in advanced states with no need for jackboots or brutal faces on posters.
John Chuckman
There must be something in the water at No 10 Downing Street, currently inhabited by Prime Minister David Cameron.
When Tony Blair was in residence, according to the diaries of his former communications director, Alastair Campbell, before the illegal invasion of Iraq, for which Blair’s Downing Street offices produced fantasy, fictional, false justifications, the then Prime Minister was guided by his faith and regularly spoke to “his Maker.” Blair may have “spoken” – but, as ever, he clearly didn’t listen.
There is no right in our democracy more basic than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.
— Chief Justice John Roberts, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission
On December 4, 2013, the New York Times reported the death of General Paul Aussaresses, one of the top military men in Algeria during the years of the Algerian national liberation struggle. Aussaresses was an unabashed colonialist whose politics were quite rightist in nature. One of his primary roles in the French war in Algeria was to interrogate anti-colonial fighters. Of course, this involved torture. Unlike many torturers before and since Aussaresses’ time in Algeria, the general never seemed ashamed of the torture he ordered. In fact, he spoke about it in interviews and eventually
On 24 February 2014 US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel held a press conference to announce some of the details of Pentagon’s 2015 budget. Beyond the news of cuts in war fighting machinery and personnel — and the pox of “irresponsible” sequestration on the federal government — Hagel made a point of indicating that the world is becoming an increasingly volatile place. He also seemed to express a bit of disgust for nation building of the type attempted by the USA in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A leading Uncle Tom Tamil, Tamara Kunanayakam, will perhaps be once again heading the Sri Lankan government’s case for itself at the 25th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), March 3-28, when a resolution critical of the government for human rights abuses against Tamils will be introduced.
The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.
— Former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, 1927 – Present
Ever reckon how future earthlings will sum up our whirling, unhinged, hyper-partisan dervish of an era? Nix on “Golden Age,” though even worse times ahead will inflate this era with a nostalgic glow. Forget “Renaissance” as one-third of our country considers classical, liberal humanism the menace. Too much fundamentalist shaking goin’ on, let alone the onrushing Rapture. Even so, no “Age of Faith” either as church membership plummets and god-fearing fret over impious children.
