{"id":952,"date":"2011-08-30T13:43:32","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T20:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/952"},"modified":"2011-08-30T13:43:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T20:43:32","slug":"power-and-history-essential-readings-for-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/952","title":{"rendered":"Power and History: Essential Readings for Tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/952\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>If you have a free hour tonight, may I suggest two excellent articles?<\/p>\n<p>1. <a href=\"http:\/\/rabble.ca\/blogs\/bloggers\/james-laxer\/2011\/08\/when-rich-and-powerful-overplay-their-hand\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cWhen the rich and powerful overplay their hand\u201d<\/a> \u2013 The Canadian writer James Laxer provides a brief but thought-provoking history of the French Revolution, and the parallels it might have for modern American politics. Before the revolution of 1789, Laxer explains how the French state was hobbled by a revolt from the nobility, which refused to pay its share of taxes to a debt-ridden imperial government. The nobles brought the French government to its knees, but precipitated a much wider revolution that fundamentally changed the nature of France\u2026 and wiped out the nobility as a class. <\/p>\n<p>2. <a href=\"http:\/\/bostonreview.net\/BR30.3\/zinn.php\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cThe Power and the Glory: Myths of American Exceptionalism\u201d<\/a> \u2013 This is an older article (from 2005) by one of my favourite leftists, Howard Zinn. It is a searing indictment of an American foreign policy that predates the creation of the country. Zinn\u2019s essential point is that the Bush Doctrine is not new; it is part of a centuries-old policy continuum that justifies the brutal exercise of imperial power on the basis of a supposed moral imperative. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have a free hour tonight, may I suggest two excellent articles? 1. \u201cWhen the rich and powerful overplay their hand\u201d \u2013 The Canadian writer James Laxer provides a brief but thought-provoking history of the French Revolution, and the parallels it might have for modern American politics. Before the revolution of 1789, Laxer explains [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[98,100,99,101],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-politics","category-global-issues","tag-america","tag-exceptionalism","tag-foreign-policy","tag-manifest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}