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Published Letters: 2
I'm deeply intrigued by Simon Blackburn's 'Platonic' reading of U.S. President Bush as "the kind of warrior-hero." In Bush, "you've got exactly somebody who's plugging in to the cult of the brute, the cult of the powerful figure, who gets his own way by sticking his elbows out and kicking other people." And in so doing, Bush, as the symbol of a nation, reflects our nation's, especially its men's, historic addiction to power, control, and violent bullying tactics. Ours is a nation, along with others, whose men, in particular, have been amBUSHed by such an acrimonious and aggressive lust for selective and self-serving "liberty" that we can hardly see that the "warrior-hero" way only leads to death in personal as well as political spheres of human existence. As Cornel West contends, "[The dogma of aggressive militarism] is not just the invasion of Iraq, but it’s the notion of being a military power, and feeling that we can revert to raw force as a means of resolving conflict, and in a unilateral way for the most part... And it’s the militarization of everyday life. Domestic violence. Cowardly brothers of all colors attacking vulnerable sisters of all colors. The militarizing of our minds. How we live and how we are oriented to each other is inseparable from the imperial identity and mentality that’s emanating now out of Washington."
