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From: Matthew King <making@xxxxxxxx>
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Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 12:21:36 -0400 (EDT)
On Thu, 8 Apr 1999, sam binkley wrote:
> It seems to me that the NATO action in Kosovo stands to fragment the
> left in a profound way. The left, so used to opposing global military
> theatrics (for good reasons), is faced with what appears a
> humanitarian war, supposedly a contradition in terms.
Some have said that Kosovo has been a rude awakening to former doves like
the German foreign minister, who have been made to realize that one cannot
approach global politics from a purely idealist stance. I think this is
mistaken; far from turning to pragmatism, the former doves are still
upholding a perverse Kantianism--their principles (as the German foreign
minister says, the second world war left Europeans with two: never again
war, and never again Auschwitz) tell them that they have a duty to do
something, and so they must do something even if what they do makes
matters worse.
Matthew
---Matthew A. King---Department of Philosophy---York University, Toronto---
"The border is often narrow between a permanent temptation to commit
suicide and the birth of a certain form of political consciousness."
----------------------------(Michel Foucault)------------------------------
