As part of my ongoing series of short takes from The Reactionary Mind, I excerpt here chapter 9, “Protocols of Machismo.” This chapter originally appeared as a review essay in the London Review of Books in 2005. Because that piece remains behind the firewall, I’ve decided to reproduce the chapter here in its entirety: Part 1 today, Part 2, I hope, tomorrow. In the last several months, I’ve spent much time defending the state against both libertarians and anarchists. In this chapter, however, I go after the state and one of its most powerful and primary fetishes: the doctrine of national security. I also expand beyond my analysis of conservative intellectuals, taking on prominent liberal theorists like Michael Walzer and, […]
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Categories
Foreign Policy, The Left, The Right
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Tags Abu Ghraib, Brent Scowcroft, Cardinal Richelieu, Daniel Bell, Diane Sawyer, Edmund Burke, Francis Bacon, George Bush, Hitler, John Mearsheimer, Joseph Nye, Learned Hand, Michael Walzer, Peter Trubowitz, Richard Perle, Sanford Levinson, Stalin, Stephen Walt, Winston Churchill, Zbigniew Brzezinski
3 Quarks Daily, one of the classiest outfits on the internet, has awarded me 3rd Prize in its annual competition for “the best blog writing in politics & social science.” Harvard professor Stephen Walt, a formidable blogger in his own right and a model to younger academics like myself, was the judge. This is the post that won me 3rd Prize, which is officially called “Charm Quark.” And this is what Walt had to say about it: Why are today’s so-called “conservatives” so enamored of far-reaching social and political transformations, not to mention costly and ill-fated efforts to export “liberty” at the barrel of a gun? Far from being traitors to true conservatism, Robin argues that today’s conservative radicals are […]