Sublime
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“In theory, neutrality should have no place in a modern world that has outlawed the use of force as a tool of policy and purports to divide all conflict neatly into categories of aggressor and victim.”
A pretext used to control and threaten of others we have no power over —>
“It is invoked by warring states seeking to control and threaten the actions
... See moreIn a healthy democracy, the opposite is true. Democracy requires accountability and consent of the governed, which is only possible if citizens know what is being done in their name. The presumption is that, with rare exception, they will know everything their political officials are doing, which is why they are called public servants, working in
... See moreGlenn Greenwald • No Place to Hide
The Straussian Moment
gwern.netThis is really the form that the dilemma takes. It is not solely a question of keeping the body alive; it is rather how not to be killed. Not to be killed becomes the great end, and morality takes its meaning from that center. Until that center is shifted, nothing real can be accomplished. It is the uncanny and perhaps unwitting recognition of this
... See moreHoward Thurman • Jesus and the Disinherited
The strategy of finite players is to kill a state by killing the people who invented it. Infinite players, however, understanding war to be a conflict between states, conclude that states can have only states as enemies; they cannot have persons as enemies. “Sometimes it is possible to kill a state without killing a single one of its members; and
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