PoliticsPrior to the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, I deliberately avoided the areas of politics dealing with security. I have always had a great deal of faith in the potential of a democratic state to effect powerful and positive change in the lives of its citizens. My political views focused on developing that potential in the pursuit of justice, prosperity and peace. I eschewed the study of security issues, as I firmly believed that those modes of discourse were the regressive remnants of a political era dominated by fear, an era that had been swept away decisively.
I have since discovered that it was my hopes and not that era that had been swept away.
The security wonks are back, quite literally with a vengeance. The potential for the more enlightened future for which I had hoped was squandered by the Clinton administration. Now, we face a presidency bent on erecting a security state in which public discourse is reduced to jingoistic symbolism and in which policy has the intellectual sophistication of a Hollywood western. The clearest sign of the times is that a former general is the secretary of state and, ironically, is the only dove in the administration. I once saw a future in which I might hope for the best. Now I can plainly see that people of good conscience must act to avert the worst.