Monday, May 4, 2009
The parading of the cloth square
And I thought D'Souza was impassioned. This Beveridge is even more zealous about the glory of America, and his arguments are based less on fact and history and more on the generalized concepts of glory, honor, and self-righteousness. His countless references to god simply underscore that he believes America is the chosen land and we should be able to take whatever we want based simply on that belief. Again, this is an individual Joe would greatly dislike. Based on abstract, intangible concepts like god and manifest destiny, Beveridge believes that we should send young men to war simply for reasons that we cannot see or feel or hear. And the most tangible of those reasons is selfish. Beveridge believes we should take the Philippines to open up new avenues of trade, and to find new areas of land and resources to exploit in order to make America better, likely at great cost to the natives. Beveridge's entire argument is based on selfish reasons of bettering America regardless of what happens to the rest of the world, and he is willing to sacrifice young American men like Joe to do it.
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2 comments:
While i agree Joe would dislike him, i believe Beveridge has much more merit to his article then you give him credit for. For instance, he argues that if we do not expand and break from isolationist other nations of lesser merit and freedom will. While i admit that two wrongs do not make a right, would not a less wrong prove beneficial? Also, this speech was given while he was running for office and at a time of great military moral because of the success of the Spanish-American war that probably accounts to pieces of his arguments
I agree that Joe would probably not like Albert very much. It seems the class agrees that Al isn't fighting for liberty or democracy, he's fighting for expanded free trade. He's fighting for American dominance. If he made a speech about that - about how we should fight because we live in America and America needs the resources - than would Joe approve?
What if we just said "we're going into Iraq for the oil" instead of masking our intentions under buzzwords like "freedom" and "safety?" America needs oil. I use it to drive my car. Joe's caretakers use it to heat the hospital. Would Joe support a war in Iraq if we admitted we were going in for the oil?
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