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June 25, 2002

Junius is all outta gum Posting has obviously been light lately—I’ve been so busy, I haven’t even read the last couple of days’ worth of stuff posted to my comment sections. This will improve.

But I have to note Chris Bertram’s latest post, in response to Brendan O’Neill, who is

[…] expressing his disbelief in human rights (along with a load of other stuff). He doesn92t actually have an argument against them, though, he simply thinks that human rights rhetoric is a tool for the projection of western power into the third world. (Compare: God doesn92t exist because people invoke His name in self-serving ways. Would that be a good argument?) Now Brendan is entitled to believe what he likes (hang on, am I granting him a human right there?) but it seems odd to declare one92s disbelief that individuals have any rights not derived from positive law and then go on to assert support for the idea that states have absolute rights to non-interference.
The notion that people don’t have rights but states do has a long history, of course. The Confederate States of America was founded on the principle that slavery is A-OK but that when the federal government overrules a state government it’s an outrage against the conscience of mankind. [01:54 PM]
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Comments on Junius is all outta gum:

Christopher Hatton ::: (view all by) ::: June 25, 2002, 04:33 PM:

I agree with you. But would I write just to say that? Nope...

No, I just noticed that in (dare I say mainstream writing? not quite) a lot of things I read, the phrase "such and such has a long history" generally is used as a justification (or at least an excuse) for whatever it is, neglecting the fact that much of history is determined by humans doing stooopid things for centuries and centuries...

Most of the people I respect now use it to mean "such and such is probably stupid." I just find this really amusing, I don't know why.

Nathan Newman ::: (view all by) ::: July 05, 2002, 08:40 PM:

To be fair, Greider was not hoping for a depression, just noting that it would end the easy triumphalism of America telling everyone else that it's system was so superior. In the late 80s, there was the same hype around Japan, as everyone worried about the decline of the US economic system. One lesson of all of this should be a little bit more humility by the temporary winners of the global economic lottery. Who's up today may be down tomorrow. Who remembers that the 70s were a really good decade for latin america and Africa after their devastation in the 1980s?