4 ms·
No! Got a book or essay recommendation in particular? I'd definitely be interested. I've been thinking a lot about how the idea of "American Empire" gets dismi
by throw4847285 2y ago
No! Got a book or essay recommendation in particular? I'd definitely be interested.
I've been thinking a lot about how the idea of "American Empire" gets dismissed as "hippie crap," but it's an extremely helpful lens for understanding what global superpowers do in the modern era, as long as you have a more flexible definition of empire than "Exactly like Rome."
- keiferski 2y agoI just edited my comment with a brief overview, but I also recommend checking out this lecture series, here is the one on War Machines: https://youtu.be/M7fqHn3ydzM?si=FPdw8kLA9KgKbdp9 https://youtu.be/M7fqHn3ydzM?si=FPdw8kLA9KgKbdp9 Just a warning: Deleuze and Guattari are notoriously hard to understand and/or wordy and unclear with their writing. Some people think that makes it not worthwhile, but I think it’s absolutely full of interesting ideas.
- throw4847285 2y agoHmm interesting stuff. I'll give it a listen.
- toyg 2y ago> understanding what global superpowers do in the modern era, as long as you have a more flexible definition Yeah, absolutely. I remember a certain sense of enlightenment as undergraduate when a professor laid out the way the US projects military power - not through direct land occupation and control, but through deployment of a network of semi-permanent bases from which force can be rapidly unleashed on flexible terms, as well as through "advisors" that can co-opt local armies to carry out US objectives. Coupling that with direct and indirect shaping of cultural and economic consensus across allied nations, it's hard to define the role of northamerican states with a word different from "empire".