apocalyptic presidential speeches[1]

8/3/2019 Apocalyptic Presidential Speeches[1]

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Apocalyptism and

Presidential SpeechesGeopolitics of Empire


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Lee Quinby: Conference on Evil andHuman Wickedness, March 2006

I focus on two contrasting discoursesof evil found within American culture,one in which evil is perceived as a

destructive, cosmic force againsthumanity and another in which evil isthe name given to designate harmfulhuman actions. These are hardlyexhaustive of the uses of evil in

American culture.


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Lee Quinby: Conference on Evil andHuman Wickedness, March 2006

I am wary of using the concept of evil because it sooften falls on the well-fertilized and watered soil of anapocalyptic-ready and highly-armed nation. Rather thanadding fuel to already inflamed forms of moral rectitude,it is possible, and more importantly, desirable, to fosterthought that is at home in complexity, change,ambiguity, and artifice. This attitude, mindset,standpoint, poseas a nexus of ethics, politics, andaesthetics its something of all of theseare vital forcultivating what I call a geopolitics of prevailing. Andthat stance, I want to argue, encapsulates both a vision

and a means for U.S. citizens to think of themselves asglobal citizens. In order for that to occur, it is necessaryto reject the apocalyptic view that cosmic evil lurksthroughout the world, seeking to wreak havoc onhumanity by tapping certain groups who doomthemselves in the process of carrying out venomous

deeds.


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Apocalyptic Fear-Mongering

Typically traffics in a desire forrevenge against a declared enemyand a promise for the enemys defeat

This trajectory from fear to defeatenables the demonization,scapegoating, and stereotyping of the

perceived enemy


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President Bushs Remarks onthe War on Terror 10/6/2005 The evil that came to our shores on

September 11th has reappeared on otherdays and in other places. In cities acrossthe world, we have seen images ofdestruction and suffering that can seemlike random acts of madness but are partof a larger terrorist threat. To combat thisevil, we must remember the calling ofSeptember 11th - we will confront thismortal danger to all humanity and not tireor rest until the war on terror is won.


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Bushs War on Terror

A calling to arms against the conspiracy of terror. Given such a dire enemy, goodness automatically

adheres to the enemys enemy.

In other words, America becomes the chosen

nation, or, as apocalyptic rhetoric would have, theElect

Views on Iraq:http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051006-2.html

9/11 speech:http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases

/2001/09/20010920-8.html


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American Theocracy

Polls repeatedly show that the majority of Americans todayself-identify as church-going believers in God, Satan, heavenand hell and that at least a third of the population acceptsthe fundamentalist view of a coming apocalypse.

In part this is due to the legacy of the colonial period.Strains of apocalyptic good versus evil resounded mightily as

the Puritan colonialists established a theocratic governmentusing the Old Testament as a guide for their laws. Evil for the Puritans was the kind of cosmic force that

President Bush now sees as terrorist threat. Their specificenemies included the indigenous population, as well as othercolonists like the hedonistic Thomas Morton of Merry Mountnotoriety, who rejected their laws and way of life outright.

These blatant sinners were inevitably seen as pawns ofSatan who sought nothing short of world destruction


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Book of Revelation

Its fantastic imagery is a rich sourcefor popular culture, from heavy metalmusic to film to Celestial Tea ads.

In its simplest form, it is a story ofRevenge and Rescue. A man namedJohn has an elaborate vision of world

destruction, which deserves to becrushed because Satans evil hasendured in it.


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Narrative of overcoming evilthrough revenge and rescue Became an institutionalized form of religious

power but also merged with secular forms ofgovernment and nationalism.

It has held sway over the centuries, beingrenewed at times of crisis, especially around wars,from the Revolutionary break with Americas firstevil empire, Britain, to the Civil War, in which bothsides designated theirs as the divinely ordainedone, throughout the Cold War, and right into thecurrent War on Terror and President Bushs

condemnation ofNorth Korea, Iran, and Iraq as anAxis of Evil.


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Other Presidential Evils

Presidents Roosevelt and Truman:Explicitly linked evil with social issues suchas poverty, economic inequality, and theunchecked pursuit of profit.

Eisenhower: a gradual shift towardreligious categories of good versus evilbegins, continues to take hold as the Cold

War escalates Kennedy and Johnson: also maintain the

notions of poverty and inequality as socialevils


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President Reagan

Fusion of the moral and the ontological Fundamentalist acceptance of the Book of

Revelation foretelling a final world battle atArmageddon

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/obits/reagan/audio_archive.html

Evil Empire Speech:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=do0x-Egc6oA 2 speeches that changed the world:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_F3xl8seQ&feature=related


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George W. Bush

Assumes Reagans approach but addsto it a dimension of his own specialrole as Gods emissary.

In his speeches he portrays himselfas an embodiment of Gods will and

America as Gods chosen nation


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Evil is Social Injustice

The writings of Thomas Jefferson,Margaret Fuller, Henry DavidThoreau, Maxine Hong Kingston, and

June Jordan forge an ethical traditionthat emphasizes that evil is a result ofsocial injustice.


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Lee Quinbys Questions

Can people learn to live non-apocalyptically in a society given toapocalyptic diatribes against evil

enemies and impending doom?And if so, how do we encourage

others to reject the belief that we are

doomed unless, as a nation, some ofus fight to the death on behalf of theGood?


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William Faulkner, Nobel PrizeAcceptance speech, Dec.1950.

Our tragedy today is a general and universalphysical fear so long sustained by now that we caneven bear it.

This overriding sense of fear stems from thenuclear threat deemed paramount in his day. Helaments that There is only the question: When will

I be blown up? and advises young writers to teachthemselves that the basest of all things is to beafraid.

He takes a decidedly non-apocalyptic stand. As heputs it, I decline to accept the end of man,

reiterating, I refuse to accept this. Faulkner concludes his speech on a note of duty

and privilege by declaring that the poets voiceneed not merely be the record of man, it can beone of the props, the pillars to help him endure andprevail.


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Faulkners Lesson

We must strive to think beyond what hecalls the last ding-dong of doom as itapplies to our own Time of Terror as muchas it did to his Cold War Era.

For [Quinby], his message gets to theheart of what [Quinby] means by ageopolitics of prevailing.

Denouncing doom opens up a new space

for human agency. So too, theinterconnections between individuals,groups, and nations become more visible,the necessities of cooperation more clear.


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Current policy of the UnitedStates

Follows a geopolitics of empire thatuses the threat of doom as a meansto justify world control.


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Geopolitics

In its most basic sense, geopolitics isa theory seeking to explain worlddevelopments in light of geographic

space and resources.


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Geopolitical HistoricalPractice It was ideologically instrumental in

expanding the British empire 20th Century territorial take-over by theNazis during the build up of their powers.

As a term, it reemerged in the U.S. duringthe Cold War, especially through use byHenry Kissinger in the 1960s and 70s

Further popularized as a foreign policystrategy for the United States during

Reagans administration


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Current American Context

Empire has become less a matter ofannexing territory and more a matter ofextending control over other nations andtheir resources.

Under the first President Bush, through theClinton administration, and now with thecurrent President Bush, geopolitical controlby the United States has been justified in

the name of democracy for others androuted through proclamations that Terror isevil incarnate and God is on Americas side


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Credits

Dr. Lee Quinby: Demurring toDoom: A Geopolitics of Prevailinghttp://www.wickedness.net/Evil/Evil

%207/quinby%20paper.pdf

apocalyptic presidential speeches[1]

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