Back in the fall of 1989, when the Warsaw Pact regimes were falling like a row of dominoes, my graduate school friends and I joked about offering a new history course to be entitled “Europe Since Last Wednesday.” It seemed as if time itself was accelerating.
But if the conseuquences of actions are inevitably unpredictable and not fully knowable or controlable, doing the right thing is almost impossible to define, let alone pursue. Perhaps, because I am sitting here in Tel Aviv and because I am a political scientist, I wonder if a major issue is institutional particularly at the global level. For example, the institutional infrastructure, created for conflict resolution, at the end of WWII, is outdated. It no longer serves the purposes for which it was designed. Restruting it is complicated, expensive, but perhaps necessary and long overdue.
i suppose doing the right thing involves genocide denial, and minimising the ongoing mass death and suffering in Gaza in favour of electoral expediency. your scare quotes suggest contempt for those who see these as real and urgent concerns, and you turn to blaming voters, which is just a fundamental misunderstanding of democracy.
votes must be earned, and it's up to the democratic party to shift policy or messaging, not voters to suppress their conscience. protest votes and third-party votes are valid forms of political speech. to cast blame on those who could not in good conscience support a candidate complicit in what many see as an unfolding atrocity is to shift responsibility away from those in power who had the ability and obligation to act differently.
i’ve long appreciated the nuance of your writing, which is why this passage struck me so sharply. as the reality in Gaza becomes harder and harder to look away from, i hope you’ll revisit the assumptions behind this piece, and maybe reconsider who exactly is failing to do the right thing.
What is the right thing to do?
Well, first of all, not doing the wrong thing. After that, I'll follow Christ Murphy and Raskin.
But if the conseuquences of actions are inevitably unpredictable and not fully knowable or controlable, doing the right thing is almost impossible to define, let alone pursue. Perhaps, because I am sitting here in Tel Aviv and because I am a political scientist, I wonder if a major issue is institutional particularly at the global level. For example, the institutional infrastructure, created for conflict resolution, at the end of WWII, is outdated. It no longer serves the purposes for which it was designed. Restruting it is complicated, expensive, but perhaps necessary and long overdue.
Agree with you. But restructuring a la Trump is not the way to go.
i suppose doing the right thing involves genocide denial, and minimising the ongoing mass death and suffering in Gaza in favour of electoral expediency. your scare quotes suggest contempt for those who see these as real and urgent concerns, and you turn to blaming voters, which is just a fundamental misunderstanding of democracy.
votes must be earned, and it's up to the democratic party to shift policy or messaging, not voters to suppress their conscience. protest votes and third-party votes are valid forms of political speech. to cast blame on those who could not in good conscience support a candidate complicit in what many see as an unfolding atrocity is to shift responsibility away from those in power who had the ability and obligation to act differently.
i’ve long appreciated the nuance of your writing, which is why this passage struck me so sharply. as the reality in Gaza becomes harder and harder to look away from, i hope you’ll revisit the assumptions behind this piece, and maybe reconsider who exactly is failing to do the right thing.
Terrific post David, very thought provoking. Thanks!
Thanks!