[PREV - DIVINE_RIGHT]    [TOP]

NATIONS_ABOVE

                                             February 8, 2010
Richard Posner, from
"Public Intellectuals:
 A Study in Decline" (p.88)                            POSNER_DECLINES

    "Resort to force is never justified,
    in his view, because no nation has
    completely clean hands.  But it may be
    excused when it is by a nation or
    group that is neither the United
    States nor allied with it.  Chomsky is
    an anarcho-pacifist.  His embrace of
    that creed-- which he treats as
    self-evidently correct and so doesn't          In other words, Chomsky
    attempt to defend-- "                          never actually says this
                                                   anywhere.
        Which is it?  The second sentence
        contradicts the rest: Is Chomsky a
        pacifist or is he anti-American?



"... illustrates the academic intellectual's
common mistake of confusing political with
personal ethics."                                  Here, Posner's footnote
                                                   quotes Max Weber, not
"A private citizen of the United States            Chomsky.  The Weber
can go through life without killing                argues that politicians
anybody or governing anybody; it does not          can't turn the other
follow that a large nation can get through         cheek, but must fight
its life without governing and without             evil with force.
causing people to be killed."
                                                     Fair enough, but the
    Ye olde divine right of fascists.                actual question is
    Big daddy is beyond good and evil.               how many innocents
    You punks on the other hand, better              is it okay to kill
    stay in line.                                    before your good guy
                                                     card is revoked.
             DIVINE_RIGHT
                                                     Opposing evil with
        You might argue it the                       force sounds good;
        other way: the truly                         Chomsky is more likely
        great should be held to                      to complain about
        an even higher standard.                     supporting evil with
                                                     force.

                                                     Unless you define evil
                                                     as anything that gets
                                                     in the way of anything
                                                     we might feel like
                                                     doing.


                                                     (Weber was writing in
                                                     1946: he was most
                                                     likely thinking about
                                                     killing Nazi's.)







--------
[NEXT - COCKBURN]