Sort of an average weekend ... my wife's mom (so I guess that's my mother-in-law?) and my sister-in-law (all of a petulant 16 years old) were in town. They do lots of shopping and what not, so I tend to spend most of the weekend on my own, only joining them for the occasional dinner. But, it's ok - I got some stuff done: did some work for my research assistant position, started trucking through The Spirit of the Laws (which is really, really repetitive), and I even got a haircut. So there ya go.
One thing I really love about the summer is that I don't feel bad making time for novels. Sure, I've got lots to do - but I feel like I *deserve* some good reading once the summer heat rolls in. About a week ago, I finally sat down with Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Holy shit - what a fantastic book. Maguire's "biography" of the "Wicked Witch" of the West is actually a really interesting examintion of who sets the terms of "good/evil" and the manipulations that states exercise upon their own populations. It's interesting stuff, and Maguire is a great world builder. (Though, I suppose technically he's just using Frank L. Baum's creation, Maguire still adds a canny realism that makes Oz sing in a way Baum never managed.)
The week yawns before me , promsing more Montesquieu and the Federalist papers. Reading all this political theory, while a bit tortuous and stressful at times, is so damn fun.
One thing I really love about the summer is that I don't feel bad making time for novels. Sure, I've got lots to do - but I feel like I *deserve* some good reading once the summer heat rolls in. About a week ago, I finally sat down with Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Holy shit - what a fantastic book. Maguire's "biography" of the "Wicked Witch" of the West is actually a really interesting examintion of who sets the terms of "good/evil" and the manipulations that states exercise upon their own populations. It's interesting stuff, and Maguire is a great world builder. (Though, I suppose technically he's just using Frank L. Baum's creation, Maguire still adds a canny realism that makes Oz sing in a way Baum never managed.)
The week yawns before me , promsing more Montesquieu and the Federalist papers. Reading all this political theory, while a bit tortuous and stressful at times, is so damn fun.
I'm going to Cali for a wedding. Two of my best friends in the world are getting hitched. It should be a totaly blast! Unfortunately I only have time for 3 days, but I'm going to make the most of it.
Good luck with Montesquieu. Just thinking about that book makes me tired.
I went back and read your last post. Hmm. Much as I hate to tilt to the jingoists, I think you may be giving the hippy-dippies a bit too much credit on some counts.
As you point out, most active terrorists are wealthy(er) and (more) educated. And, in fact, I was just reading an interesting discussion of a couple studies that dispute the link between terrorism and poverty.
What the studies *did* show, apparently (haven't yet paid to get a full copy from the publisher, so I'm irresponsibly speaking off the executive summary) is a statistical link between terrorism and political disenfranchisement, and economic stagnation (rather than absolute economic well-being).
The problem for the HD approach is that, yeah, while these are non-military problems, they're ones that mere aid isn't going to solve. Stagnation can be helped by 'priming the pump' with aid in some circumstances, but it's as much a matter of corruption and mismanagment than anything else (e.g., Burma should NOT be poor). And enfranchisement requires (of course) structural political change, too.
But this is dangerous territory. I just got an email off an academic listserv saying that we should have just funded "nonviolent pro-democracy groups" in Iraq rather than invading. That sounds all fine and good, but most regimes generating terrorists aren't going to sit nonviolently by while democracy and anti-corruption movements build. And then what? We *could* resign ourselves to isolation, and maybe be less of a target - but if we want to take an active role in thwarting these ideologies, we're going to need a big stick pretty often, I think.