tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post4418767592219284497..comments2024-03-03T13:55:46.243-08:00Comments on Ambling Along the Aqueduct: Just the facts, ma'amTimmi Duchamphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00673465487533328661noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post-12406317761979136362011-01-30T13:18:21.621-08:002011-01-30T13:18:21.621-08:00Kristin, that's an important point. I certainl...Kristin, that's an important point. I certainly was wrong to use the word "asserted." What he was doing, on second thought, was prevaricating, in the way politicians do. The word, really, is disavowed. Which opens a whole other can of worms...Timmi Duchamphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00673465487533328661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post-80945370016642744732011-01-30T09:58:00.859-08:002011-01-30T09:58:00.859-08:00Biden's comment was carefully worded: "I ...Biden's comment was carefully worded: "I would not refer to him as a dictator."<br /><br />That doesn't mean that Mubarek is or isn't, just that Biden won't say he is - after all, Mubarek is an ally.<br /><br />Oh, these politicians.Kristinhttp://kristinking.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post-86631655536121603002011-01-29T19:30:55.930-08:002011-01-29T19:30:55.930-08:00It's still informed by (or analogous to) the n...It's still informed by (or analogous to) the norm, when one attributes agency to a country, of using that country's name when referring to actions of its power elite. My habit of saying "Israeli policy" or "Israel's leaders" rather than "Israel" (or even "the Israelis") just comes of political timidity: one doesn't want to end up like Finkelstein or Petersen-Overton. I try to set an example for students by using "our government" rather than "we" so that they don't feel so invested in (or culpable for) U.S. policies; but you can't easily stop saying "the United States [did this or that]." I wish it were possible: I've seen that kind of metonymy lead to formulations like "Cuba is an oppressive country: we should nuke it" (IIRC, they brought Susan Eisenhower to the White House in the mid-Eighties to explain to Reagan the difference between the Soviet gov't and the Soviet people).Joshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15914730499199048197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post-58245336621171079572011-01-29T18:19:49.508-08:002011-01-29T18:19:49.508-08:00But you know, back in early modern times, the name...But you know, back in early modern times, the name of a country and the name of a ruler were often used interchangeably because people actually believed that the ruler embodied the sovereignty of the country. The grounds for doing so were religious. (There are all sorts of things most people today don't understand about the religious wars of the 16th & 17th centuries because the underlying assumptions about what we now consider mere "institutions" are so foreign to modern thinking.)<br /><br />I tend to think that the culture of the US State Dept is considerably more cynical than that. The ongoing release of cables by Wikileaks pretty much backs up my assumption that ex-ambassadors have no illusions about who benefits from the vast sums of military "aid" the US has been bestowing on the Mubarak regime (& certain favored US contracts) for lo these many years. <br /><br />By the bye, have you noticed that the words being scrawled all over Cairo are "Mubarak must fall"? Now in this case, I'm certain "Mubarak" in this case stands for not only the man himself, but also includes all his henchmen, cronies, & co-kleptocrats. Mubarak seems to be preparing to leave Suleiman-- a Sedgewick figure, if there ever was one-- running the show: presumably to kill as many people as it takes to crush the rebellion, since the army is holding back. (Can Al Jazeera be correct when it claims that the Saudis refused Mubarak but the Israelis have okayed his spending his exile in Israel? It's plausible, but rumors tend to fly at times like these, & it could be a canard.)Timmi Duchamphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00673465487533328661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5360814020056871156.post-12740581301063335692011-01-29T10:23:00.319-08:002011-01-29T10:23:00.319-08:00Maybe the name of a country is a metonym for its r...Maybe the name of a country is a metonym for its ruler, like in <i>Hamlet</i>. That's how these people think.Joshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15914730499199048197noreply@blogger.com