File spoon-archives/anarchy-list.archive/anarchy-list_2003/anarchy-list.0303, message 50


From: "Dave Coull" <coull2-AT-btinternet.com>
Subject: RE: amerikan hegemony
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 09:11:01 -0000




Scott asked


> Been to England lately?  


No, not recently. However, I do know that somewhere
between a million and two million people (nobody
is exactly sure) demonstrated in London against war
recently. I do know that if anybody suggested that
English schoolchildren should be required to recite 
a "pledge of allegiance to the flag" every day, 
they would be laughed at as some sort of lunatic.
And yet I also know that precisely that act of madness
does takes place every day in American schools, 
and is taken for granted as something "normal".  


> What I'd like to know is why saying "Sure, the US 
> gov't sucks, but it doesn't suck any more than any 
> in Europe." is supposed to be some sort of shocking 
> display of nationalism.  


What is wrong with saying that is that, far too often, 
the unspoken implication is "so I'm not going to do
very much to oppose what 'my' government is doing
to the rest of the world". I am not saying that is 
so in  _your_  case, Scott, but I am quite sure that
it is in others'. We are not having some interesting
philosophical discussion about whether or not, in
an abstract world, all nationalisms are equally 
repugnant. We are talking about whether, in a world
with just one super-power which is throwing its weight
around ever more aggressively, those citizens of that
super-power who claim to be anarchists or libertarians
or anti-authoritarians of some kind ought to take 
quite such a relaxed view of their  _own_  Nationalism.


> Yeah, it sucks, its foreign policy sucks, its domestic 
> policy sucks.   But it's no worse than any other country 
> would be in its place (which is a point Carp has consistently 
> pointed out).


Whether or not it is any worse than any other country
would be "in its place" is not the point. No other
country  IS  in its place. And this "we're no worse 
than anybody else would be in our place" can be, 
and I am quite sure  _is_ , used as an excuse
for inaction.


Dave Coull


   

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