rant · moment 16 of 19
Empire, Mercantilism, and Whether Terrorism Works
from Father Kump · #48
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minA heavier discussion of American empire, the apathy of the middle class, the impossibility of organizing real change, and a provocative claim that terrorism has historically achieved political goals.
- 53:36Brennan's angle is to dress up resource extraction as altruistic, talking about expanding freedom and human dignity.
- 54:25Richard Haas endorses a hands-off approach to empire modeled after the British Empire—mercantilism where you don't directly control colonies but use them as markets.
- 55:25Once you realize how rigged the game is and how much it favors wealthy, connected people, there's nowhere to go.
- 56:04The apathy of the middle and lower class, combined with their inability to organize and affect real change, leaves people asking what difference they can make.
- 56:27Society has conversations about gay people and trans people but not about the nature of empire and America's role in the world.
- 56:57Tim jokes that if you can't help people through charity or organizing, the alternative is killing everyone—kidding, but that's what people do.
- 57:12People who say violence never works ignore that Martin Luther King and Gandhi succeeded without overthrowing systems directly.
- 57:24Terrorism worked across the past 50 years—it got the U.S. out of certain situations, and when they overstepped, the country bounced back hard.
- 57:39Spain pulled out of their operations after the Madrid bombings, demonstrating that terrorism does work.
John BrennanEmpireRichard HaassMartin Luther KingGandhiCouncil on Foreign Relations