The Cultural Contradictions of Democracy: Political Thought since September 11

218 Pages·2007·0.73 MB·English

by  John Brenkman

Th e C u lt u r a l
C o n t r a d i c t i o n s
o f D e m o c r ac y
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Th e C u l t u r a l
C o n t r a d i c t i o n s
O f D e m o c r a c y
Political Thought since September 11
JOHN BRENKMAN
Princeton University Press Princeton & Oxford
Copyright © 2007 by Princeton University Press
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Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brenkman, John.
The cultural contradictions ofdemocracy : political thought
since September 11 / John Brenkman.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-691-11664-8 (alk. paper)
1. Political science—Philosophy. 2. Democracy. I. Title.
JA71.B735 2007
320.01—dc22 2007007659
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Adobe Garamond
Printed on acid-free paper. ∞
pup.princeton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
F O R H É L È N E
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c o n t e n t s
Introduction: Political Thought
in the Fog of War 1
War and Democracy 1
Hobbes versus Kant? 4
Leviathan 6
The Neoconservative Illusion 9
The Frailty of Human Affairs 12
Crises of the Republic 14
The Argument 19
Seized by Power 24
Death and the Governor ofTexas 24
The New American Exceptionalism 28
The Cold Warrior Myth 34
Kant with Arendt 37
Targeting Iraq 41
Al Qaeda and Ultimate Ends 43
A Grammar of Motives 46
The Imagination of Power 51
State of Exception 51
Arendt versus Agamben 55
Schmitt and Hobbes 59
Decision and Covenant 64
The Ordeal of Universalism 71
September 11 and Fables of the Left 78
First Response 78
Multilateral Ambivalence 81
Terrorism as Symptom 84
viii Contents
Chomskian Certitudes 87
Hardt and Negri’s Empire 94
The Multitude and Prophecy 98
Iraq: Delirium of War, Delusions of Peace 103
The Idealism of Means 103
The Idealism of Ends 106
Neither Left nor Right 110
The Atlantic Misalliance 117
Diplomatic Intrigues and Political Truths 122
Repudiations of the UN Left and Right 126
The Hobbesian Nightmare: Occupied Iraq 131
The Ordeal of Universalism 137
Democracy and War 137
Postnational Cosmopolitanism versus
Liberal Nationalism? 141
Kant with Hobbes 144
Habermas’s Agonwith Schmitt 146
Hobbes with Kant 152
Europe, or, the Empire of Rights 157
Islam’s Geo-Civil War 165
Global Neoliberal Religious Conservatism? 170
No Exit 177
Conclusion: Prelude to the Unknown 182
Ideas and Errors 182
Arendt with Berlin 183
Liberty without Democracy versus Democracy
without Liberty? 188
Democratic Striving and Sectarian Mobilization 191
Untimely Meditation 195
Index 201
I’m sentimental, if you know what I mean.
I love the country, but I can’t stand the scene.
—Leonard Cohen, Democracy