Today, as we mark
Randolph Bourne’s
128th birthday, it seems an especially appropriate time to
step back from the noisy distractions of the ongoing public debate over
American foreign policy and reflect quietly for a few moments on the larger
picture. For what larger picture do we see when we contemplate war, peace,
and the institution of coercive government – the State – and what we have
learned over the past century about their myriad interconnections and
interrelations?
I think we see the
same thing one of America’s most remarkable public intellectuals, Randolph
Bourne, saw when he looked at the involvement of the American State in
World War I nearly a hundred years ago. We see that, as Bourne famously
put it in his
last and greatest essay, "war is the health of the State."
It is this insight, that the condition of war, in addition to the death,
injury, and destruction it brings with it by its very nature, also builds
up the warmakers – the States that fight the wars – leaving the victorious
ones, at least (and not infrequently even the losers), larger and more
powerful in their dealings with their home populations, so that they are
better positioned not only to fight yet another war but also to hire more
effective warmongers to sell it for them. It is this insight of Bourne’s
that inspires our work here at AntiWar.com, as it is after Bourne that
our parent organization, the Randolph Bourne Institute, is named. On this
day, Randolph Bourne’s 128th birthday, please join me in honoring
his timeless insight by supporting
AntiWar.com as generously as you can (matching funds are still in effect).
Yours in Liberty,
Jeff Riggenbach
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