[lit-ideas] Re: A political thought (continued)
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:16:19 -0700 (PDT)
--- John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Here is another bit from Mark Lilla's Harpers review
> of Raymond Aron's
> _Dawn of Universal History_ that seems particularly
> relevant to what is
> going on around us.
>
> ========
(snipped) As was typical of him, Aron avoided terms
like
> "honor" and "justice,"
> and began with a cool historical analysis of the
> course of European
> colonialism and its unsustainability in the modern
> world. In an age of
> global politics and economics, remaining in Algeria
> would have
> necessitated either raising the standard of living
> in Alteria to that
> of France or tolerating massive immigration, options
> Aron considered
> economically impossible and culturally unwise. In an
> era ruled by
> nationalist and egalitarian ideologies, however,
> keeping Algeria in a
> dependent, servile state was equally untenable.
Even
> if the Algerians,
> in terms of a crudely economic "standard of living,"
> would be worse off
> after independence than they had been as colonial
> subjects, the fact
> that they had come to see themselves as a nation
> deserving of
> independence had to be acknowledged and respected.
This creates an impression that France made a decision
to grant Algeria independence based on rational
economic, political and cultural considerations. In
fact, there was a war that lasted 6 years, which took
the lives of 300 000 Algerians (by moderate
estimates), and 24 000 French soldiers as well. France
had to commit some 400 000 troops to Algeria. Such an
engagement was domestically and internationally
unsustainable.
>
> These are, of course, words that Americans eager for
> quick
> solutions--idealists both left and right--will find
> hard to stomach.
> Unfortunately, they may, it appears, be altogether
> valid. If so, we
> have a long and messy struggle ahead of us, a
> struggle that will demand
> every bit of imagination, will and courage we can
> muster--and not just
> in Iraq.
How about withdrawing instead ?
O.K.
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