Tag: Politics (Aristotle)

For the first time, the majority of people worldwide lived in cities. The global city is a metropolis whose primary relation is to other global cities, not to the nation where it is located. There is no symbolic form for dispossession in the global city. There is no location that can be occupied to stop the spread of the global city. Today, the monuments are barricaded, a substitute target for those who protest the global city. Stand in Columbus Circle in New York City and the contradiction between the colonial monument and the sky-dwelling global city comes into sharp appearance. A different kind of monument is being created for the global city. If the super-talls and The Vessel seek to make a definitive statement of the global city’s rise to power, decolonization is the question of how to resist it. In visual work, decolonize your medium. Protesting the monuments makes that exclusion visible.

Today is Star Wars Day! In honor of this exciting event from a galaxy far, far away, here are some links to various writings and speeches I have done on the politics of one of the world's most popular science fiction franchises: Rogue One and the Politics of Star Wars (my take on political themes in the best Star Wars movie since the original trilogy). This is probably my personal favorite among my Star Wars-related pieces. Among other things, it discusses why it's important to think about what the Rebels are fighting for, as well as what they are against, and why why, they, like many of the American Founding Fathers, are "simultaneously freedom fighters and slave owners." The Politics of the Last Jedi (the politics of the most recent Star Wars movie) Star Wars, Science Fiction, and the Constitution (an analysis of Cass Sunstein's well-known book The World According to Star Wars). The World According to Star Wars (video of Cato Institute panel on Cass Sunstein's book of the same name, featuring the author and commentary by Michael Cannon (Cato Institute) and myself. The Politics of Star Wars (audio of my December 2015 Libertarianism.org podcast on the politics of the Star Wars franchise - produced just before the release of The Force Awakens, so it only covers the development of the franchise up to just before that point).

No, not Macron and Trump; rather, for the United States and France. But with the American president alienating many other world leaders, his working relationship with Macron, who is as willing as Trump to fête and be fêted, is signaling that no ally in Europe, or the world, perhaps matters as much to the White House than Paris. Just 15 years ago, Republican leaders in Washington snidely disparaged the French because they refused to follow Americans blindly into the Iraq War. The president invited no Democrats to the Tuesday dinner, making the point that like-minded foreigners are welcome but that Americans of the opposition party are not. Congressional Republicans long ago traded their political ideology for Trump. That’s literally trading country for party. In the world of militaries and national security politics, this all matters. The French flip-flop is yet another example of how Americans should know that the messaging and posturing of global political leaders often have little to do with, nor do they reflect the reality of, the military and intelligence relationships. Others are fighting and training forces in Africa, often alongside U.S. troops, in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger. That’s the diplomatic work that we’ve already started but we have to finish.