tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post2719937006775911675..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: The Displacement of the Public by the Promotional and the Disastrous Parochialism of Our PoliticsDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-67902902113867768642011-01-13T09:16:10.201-08:002011-01-13T09:16:10.201-08:00Sarah Palin is a celebrity, not a politician. Ever...Sarah Palin is a celebrity, not a politician. Every campaign is a marketing campaign for her books and shows and so on. There is a sense in which the same can be said for the GOP as a whole these days -- this is what it means for Republicans always to apologize to Rush Limbaugh when they cause the least offense, or to declare they used to think Fox worked for them but now they realize they work for Fox. The GOP is not a party with a governing philosophy, they are empty suits engaged in permanent campaigning and PR stunts that amount to entertainment ventures while contracting governance out to corporations. It can't work: either secular sustainable social democracy will prevail over them or they will succeed long enough to bring America down around their ears.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-26565441424743724682011-01-13T08:57:10.143-08:002011-01-13T08:57:10.143-08:00The imperial delusion of "war on the cheap&qu...The imperial delusion of "war on the cheap" has been around since empires have. Flashy aggressive initial victories enabled by superior imperial resources and then overreaching, fatal neglect of "hearts and minds," widespread corruption seem always inevitably to follow. I strongly suspect it is a futurological fancy to expect drones to alter the fundamentals very much.Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-85174778086527287852011-01-13T07:20:52.195-08:002011-01-13T07:20:52.195-08:00One scary thing worth pointing out is that "w...One scary thing worth pointing out is that "war on the cheap" is becoming possible. It's now possible to deploy munitions to remote areas relatively inexpensively using drones. And that cost is getting cheaper all the time. <br /><br />However there does seem to be an external cost. People in these countries violently object to killer robots operating with impunity against defenceless villagers for some reason.jollyspaniardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10999141103840765243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-14984655038810989212011-01-13T07:13:32.755-08:002011-01-13T07:13:32.755-08:00I think Sarah Palin may have just hit her Emperor ...I think Sarah Palin may have just hit her Emperor Has No Clothes moment. Even people on Tea Party blogs are viewing her canned, whiney, "I'm the real victim here" youtube address unfavourably. I tried watching it myself but had to stop half way through it was too cringe inducing for me to stomach. I've not heard Obama's speech yet but even the tea partiers like it which is some feat.<br /><br />You make a lot of good thought provoking comments. Despite your framing of the problem I still don't understand how one can craft a politics that can appeal beyond the wall of resentment that seems to govern the hard divide between progressive and reactionary politics in our respective countries. <br /><br />America seems to have had a small "penny dropping" moment this week. But America is still miles away from giving up military hegemony (or euphemisticaly called "forward deployment") which is what's really underneath everything you're describing here. Britain gave up their empire but it took two World Wars, Suez and Ghandi to do it. After they gave up the empire their national character completely changed. What's it going to take for America to do the same?jollyspaniardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10999141103840765243noreply@blogger.com