I would guess that many readers here also follow Sundance at CTH. Those who do will be aware that during the past week Sundance has been particularly focused on the ruling elite that has, in effect, been waging war on the world most of us grew up in. That would be Middle Class America. Sundance and many others see that world being crushed by people who control or influence our public institutions and policies but are either in it for themselves or are crazed ideologues. One way or another, they’re on a power trip the likes of which is arguably unparalleled in human history. What I’d like to attempt in this post is to show the link(s) between domestic and foreign policy—with roots that go back over a century. No, I won’t try to trace those roots that far back. That would be a book.
If you're referring to Conrad, who only wrote in English, his "Heart of Darkness" is not about Colonialism, but about a sociophobe. This may make it timely. I do not think Americans favor Colonialism, but cannot speak for the sociophobes in Washington. The worst , however, is as stated their waging war against middle class America, and destroying the American work ethic that made this country great. MAGA.
I think I knew that Korzeniowski wrote in English, a language he learned as an adult and only became able to write fluently in his middle years. Conrad was a pen name--he's buried as Korzeniowski--and he may have chosen that name (a middle name of his) based on his deep love for Polish Romantic writings. He remained passionately interested in Polish politics and the movement for Polish independence and saw his whole life as "sailing towards Poland." Although he became a British citizen (he had been a Russian citizen) he declined British honors and never voted in British elections. He himself acknowledged his continued "Polishness":
"The Polishness in my works comes from Mickiewicz and Słowacki. My father read [Mickiewicz's] Pan Tadeusz aloud to me and made me read it aloud.... I used to prefer [Mickiewicz's] Konrad Wallenrod [and] Grażyna. Later I preferred Słowacki. You know why Słowacki?... [He is the soul of all Poland]".
Korzeniowski's entire opus is largely a rejection of the Western notion of progress, which was the justification for colonialism, and of a natural superiority of Europeans over others. It's likely based on his experiences growing up in the Russian Empire as part of a subject nation. While working in the Belgian Congo, the obvious setting for Heart of Darkness, he became friends with Roger Casement who was investigating the excesses of Belgian colonialism there and was one of the first opponents of colonialism.
Thanks for the background information. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man? The Shadow knows." So do writers like Conrad and Dostoyevsky, gained through their lifetime of experience and communicated by their genius. The human struggle they portray transcends their time and any specific event in history.
I really should not be writing and posting to sites like this, and thank Mark and all of you for putting up with me and allowing me to. Apolitical, I am only concerned with institutions and authority as it affects people. My background is entirely in the humanities, with some first hand knowledge of the creative arts. I subscribe to the Proustian theory that great artists in their creative endeavors are little influenced by the practical nature of their everyday lives, and would never falsify anything in their work to advance a point of view. The finished creation must be of a piece, and timeless. Kurtz is a monumental study of the disintegration of a human being, and though the background is certainly not favorable to the Belgian colonization of Africa, it is not the main thrust of the novella.
"That leaves Western democracies with the ability to fight only one kind of war: atomic war – ... This is not diplomacy at all. ... But that is the only tactic that remains available to the United States and NATO Europe."
Perhaps not even that. We have not taken a nuclear weapon out of storage and tested it in a long time, and we no longer have the ability to produce tritium.
I don't have much use for hubris, nemesis, karma, or belief in a just world. America's leaders have, for generations, behaved as though the country had some bottomless strategic reserve to draw on in the event of trouble. In 1945 it did, but that was a long time ago. American leaders lack a skill that European statemen were once known for - the ability to maintain a balance of power among the Great Powers. That means both conserving your own strength and recognizing it's limitations. It also means the ability to work in cooperation with others, and not just dictating to vassals.
That was awfully long and it's a Saturday night here. For simple people like me it comes to simple things. We've borrowed from the future to pay for the now. When I say "we" I kind of me "they" because I never voted for any of it. A guy I listen to religiously says the simple part out loud, I paraphrase, "the laws of economics haven't gone away. They're out there, waiting to drop the hammer." This nation is hundreds of trillions of dollars in debt. When you take into account promises made by our cancerous federal gov't, we owe more than the entire world could produce for years. We are finacially doomed with no path to return to some sort of normal.
An analogy I heard once may be apropos - We went off the cliff sometime ago. We're just falling and don't know it. Sometime fairly soon we're gonna hit the bottom. When it happens we have a couple of scenarios - violence or we just simply fade away as a functioning nation-state. I don;t know which way is goes but I'm certainly no optimistic
Not only are we trillions in unrepayable debt, but, as the article states, we expect the rest of the world to drive over the cliff with us. The Laws of Economics are indeed very much alive and well. As is the god that those laws answer to: Reality. This Reality doesn't give a damn what pronoun we use, about or Harvard economics PhD or about what we want.
Most cogent analysis seems to be pointing to one overarching theme: the people in charge simply don’t know what they are doing! We can argue about the fine points, but everything that they attempt smacks of an ineptitude and arrogance that knows no historical comparison.
To continue down this path seems destined to lead us to national, if not civilizational suicide. I fear our prospects appear somewhat less than promising.
"Don't know what they are doing"? That is a possibility. It is also possible that they 'don't care what they are doing' to the rest of us. Our oligarchy is unabashedly self-serving and could care less what happens to the average American.
As that great philosopher George Carlin once said: "It's a big club and you (we) ain't in it"
I think we're moving into the era of Eastern colonialism. Particularly with China. If I was in Beijing, I'd be thinking seriously about the beaches of Taiwan.
Beware: if you inadvertently click on the wrong links to Epsilon you will use up your free access for the month. I read his bio and the 2014 essay and was locked out of reading the July 2022 essay.
If you're referring to Conrad, who only wrote in English, his "Heart of Darkness" is not about Colonialism, but about a sociophobe. This may make it timely. I do not think Americans favor Colonialism, but cannot speak for the sociophobes in Washington. The worst , however, is as stated their waging war against middle class America, and destroying the American work ethic that made this country great. MAGA.
I think I knew that Korzeniowski wrote in English, a language he learned as an adult and only became able to write fluently in his middle years. Conrad was a pen name--he's buried as Korzeniowski--and he may have chosen that name (a middle name of his) based on his deep love for Polish Romantic writings. He remained passionately interested in Polish politics and the movement for Polish independence and saw his whole life as "sailing towards Poland." Although he became a British citizen (he had been a Russian citizen) he declined British honors and never voted in British elections. He himself acknowledged his continued "Polishness":
"The Polishness in my works comes from Mickiewicz and Słowacki. My father read [Mickiewicz's] Pan Tadeusz aloud to me and made me read it aloud.... I used to prefer [Mickiewicz's] Konrad Wallenrod [and] Grażyna. Later I preferred Słowacki. You know why Słowacki?... [He is the soul of all Poland]".
Korzeniowski's entire opus is largely a rejection of the Western notion of progress, which was the justification for colonialism, and of a natural superiority of Europeans over others. It's likely based on his experiences growing up in the Russian Empire as part of a subject nation. While working in the Belgian Congo, the obvious setting for Heart of Darkness, he became friends with Roger Casement who was investigating the excesses of Belgian colonialism there and was one of the first opponents of colonialism.
Thanks for the background information. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man? The Shadow knows." So do writers like Conrad and Dostoyevsky, gained through their lifetime of experience and communicated by their genius. The human struggle they portray transcends their time and any specific event in history.
And Solzhenitsyn. https://www.wordsandquotes.com/text/the-line-separating-good-and-evil-aleksandr-solzhenitsyn
Wouldn't Solzhenitsyn deplore today's America? He knew.
I really should not be writing and posting to sites like this, and thank Mark and all of you for putting up with me and allowing me to. Apolitical, I am only concerned with institutions and authority as it affects people. My background is entirely in the humanities, with some first hand knowledge of the creative arts. I subscribe to the Proustian theory that great artists in their creative endeavors are little influenced by the practical nature of their everyday lives, and would never falsify anything in their work to advance a point of view. The finished creation must be of a piece, and timeless. Kurtz is a monumental study of the disintegration of a human being, and though the background is certainly not favorable to the Belgian colonization of Africa, it is not the main thrust of the novella.
Thank you. The only reason I post is to advance an idea and hopefully get a response, especially a critical one. I gain.
"That leaves Western democracies with the ability to fight only one kind of war: atomic war – ... This is not diplomacy at all. ... But that is the only tactic that remains available to the United States and NATO Europe."
Perhaps not even that. We have not taken a nuclear weapon out of storage and tested it in a long time, and we no longer have the ability to produce tritium.
I don't have much use for hubris, nemesis, karma, or belief in a just world. America's leaders have, for generations, behaved as though the country had some bottomless strategic reserve to draw on in the event of trouble. In 1945 it did, but that was a long time ago. American leaders lack a skill that European statemen were once known for - the ability to maintain a balance of power among the Great Powers. That means both conserving your own strength and recognizing it's limitations. It also means the ability to work in cooperation with others, and not just dictating to vassals.
That was awfully long and it's a Saturday night here. For simple people like me it comes to simple things. We've borrowed from the future to pay for the now. When I say "we" I kind of me "they" because I never voted for any of it. A guy I listen to religiously says the simple part out loud, I paraphrase, "the laws of economics haven't gone away. They're out there, waiting to drop the hammer." This nation is hundreds of trillions of dollars in debt. When you take into account promises made by our cancerous federal gov't, we owe more than the entire world could produce for years. We are finacially doomed with no path to return to some sort of normal.
An analogy I heard once may be apropos - We went off the cliff sometime ago. We're just falling and don't know it. Sometime fairly soon we're gonna hit the bottom. When it happens we have a couple of scenarios - violence or we just simply fade away as a functioning nation-state. I don;t know which way is goes but I'm certainly no optimistic
Not only are we trillions in unrepayable debt, but, as the article states, we expect the rest of the world to drive over the cliff with us. The Laws of Economics are indeed very much alive and well. As is the god that those laws answer to: Reality. This Reality doesn't give a damn what pronoun we use, about or Harvard economics PhD or about what we want.
Most cogent analysis seems to be pointing to one overarching theme: the people in charge simply don’t know what they are doing! We can argue about the fine points, but everything that they attempt smacks of an ineptitude and arrogance that knows no historical comparison.
To continue down this path seems destined to lead us to national, if not civilizational suicide. I fear our prospects appear somewhat less than promising.
"Don't know what they are doing"? That is a possibility. It is also possible that they 'don't care what they are doing' to the rest of us. Our oligarchy is unabashedly self-serving and could care less what happens to the average American.
As that great philosopher George Carlin once said: "It's a big club and you (we) ain't in it"
I think we're moving into the era of Eastern colonialism. Particularly with China. If I was in Beijing, I'd be thinking seriously about the beaches of Taiwan.
Beware: if you inadvertently click on the wrong links to Epsilon you will use up your free access for the month. I read his bio and the 2014 essay and was locked out of reading the July 2022 essay.