Fear and War

"The two of us wrote Anti-Oedipus together. Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd."

—

Deleuze and Guattari

I love this line. In a 1000 years, I would never be able to write an introduction as good as that.

(via fearandwar)

Reblogging for the crowd that wasn’t awake at 3 in the morning.

"The two of us wrote Anti-Oedipus together. Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd."

—

Deleuze and Guattari

I love this line. In a 1000 years, I would never be able to write an introduction as good as that.

"There is a depressing sense that one has seen and read about current American policy formulations before. Each great metropolitan center that aspired to global dominance has said, and alas done, many of the same things. There is always the appeal to power and national interest in running the affairs of lesser peoples; there is the same destructive zeal when the going gets a little rough, or when natives rise up and reject a compliant and unpopular ruler who was ensnared and kept in place by the imperial power; there is the horrifically predictable disclaimer that ‘we’ are exceptional, not imperial, not about to repeat the mistake of earlier power, a disclaimer that has been routinely followed by making the mistake, as witness the Vietnam and Gulf wars. Worse yet has been the amazing, if often passive, collaboration with these practices on the part of intellectuals, artists, journalist whose positions at home are progressive and full of admirable sentiments, but the opposite when it comes to what is done abroad in their name."

—

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism

It is eerie how accurately that describes America right now.

(via fearandwar)

Basically, I’m reblogging all of my Edward Said quotes because they’re better than the debate.

"There is a depressing sense that one has seen and read about current American policy formulations before. Each great metropolitan center that aspired to global dominance has said, and alas done, many of the same things. There is always the appeal to power and national interest in running the affairs of lesser peoples; there is the same destructive zeal when the going gets a little rough, or when natives rise up and reject a compliant and unpopular ruler who was ensnared and kept in place by the imperial power; there is the horrifically predictable disclaimer that ‘we’ are exceptional, not imperial, not about to repeat the mistake of earlier power, a disclaimer that has been routinely followed by making the mistake, as witness the Vietnam and Gulf wars. Worse yet has been the amazing, if often passive, collaboration with these practices on the part of intellectuals, artists, journalist whose positions at home are progressive and full of admirable sentiments, but the opposite when it comes to what is done abroad in their name."

—

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism

It is eerie how accurately that describes America right now.

"Let’s leave aside the irony of the American media decrying crazy “conspiracy theories” in other countries, when it is the US that attacked another country based on nonexistent weapons and fabricated secret alliances with al-Qaida."

—

Glenn Greenwald

I can’t even begin to count how many times I’ve been asked why people in the Middle East believe in so many conspiracies. I’m going to start using this as my reply.

"Snow! Texans aren’t prepared for this kind of nightmare!"

— Hank Hill

"We’re glad to have him back. I think people deserve a second chance, you know. If you’ll note, he has not been on the Grammys for the past few years and it may have taken us a while to kind of get over the fact that we were the victim of what happened."

— Ken Ehrlich, Grammys Exec Producer, on Chris Brown performing tonight. Read that quote again. He says they needed a while to kind of get over the fact that they were the victim of what happened. HE SAYS THE GRAMMYS WERE THE VICTIM OF CHRIS BROWN’S ABUSE OF RIHANNA. Read more WTF insights here. Quote’s source here. (via celinenyc)

There’s understandably some anger about Chris Brown performing at the Grammys tonight, years after an infamous domestic violence incident. But … this quote. This quote pains us. It’s such a can’t-believe-he-said-that sort of thing, which personifies corporate issues when the real person who was hurt was a human being. You cannot defend this. You just can’t. (via shortformblog)

"To put it another way, one can sleep with anyone, but one can only read some people’s words."

— Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities

"The history of thought, to say nothing of political movements, is extravagantly illustrative of how the dictum ‘solidarity before criticism’ means the end of criticism. I take criticism so seriously as to believe that, even in the very midst of battle in which one is unmistakably on one side against another, there should be criticism, because there must be critical consciousness if there are to be issues, problems, values, even lives to be fought for."

— Edward Said