Photo by Dave Center | CC BY 2.0
Like a glossy real estate magazine the bimonthly Foreign Affairs attracts the eye. And so like a mortgage salesman the Council on Foreign Relations pitches the Dream without mentioning the Nightmare. Its high class narrative on the primacy of “private property” (the US kind) at home and abroad baits the reader before switching to the lowest ideological standards there are. Conclusion: the Empire – like the mortgages – rests on an intellectual foundation of sand.
The January/February edition of Foreign Affairs epitomizes this bait and switch – this glossy sandcastle – that condemns its fraudulent take on the world.
The words “the undead past” on the cover of the illustrious magazine piques the curiosity. The expectation when opening the pages is one of deep historical questioning. Unsettling words about a “living history” provoke a dialectical framework. One that can only make the status quo nervous. But Foreign Affairs is the status quo. So what the fuck?
The opening “ghost story” is good though. It’s believable. White supremacy is an undead issue in America. The legacy of America’s founding fathers lives on. The social structure which the long dead slaveowners created is still present. The fact that it is necessary today to point out that Black Lives Matter proves the point.
The author – a Harvard academic – cares about America. She reveals a truth that pains her. Indeed she wants her country to…