America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for EmpireTransaction Publishers, 31.12.2011 - 234 Seiten Urged on by a powerful ideological and political movement, George W. Bush committed the United States to a quest for empire. American values and principles were universal, he asserted, and should guide the transformation of the world. Claes Ryn sees this drive for virtuous empire as the triumph of forces that in the last several decades acquired decisive influence in both the American parties, the foreign policy establishment, and the media. Public intellectuals like William Bennett, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Michael Novak, Richard Perle, and Norman Podhoretz argued that the United States was an exceptional nation and should bring "democracy," "freedom," and "capitalism" to countries not yet enjoying them. Ryn finds the ideology of American empire strongly reminiscent of the French Jacobinism of the eighteenth century. He describes the drive for armed world hegemony as part of a larger ideological whole that both expresses and aggravates a crisis of democracy and, more generally, of American and Western civilization. America the Virtuous sees the new Jacobinism as symptomatic of America shedding an older sense of the need for restraints on power. Checks provided by the US Constitution have been greatly weakened with the erosion of traditional moral and other culture. |
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Seite xi
... Western civilization. As I began this work I soon realized that it was taking on a life of its own: I was not merely revising and supplementing the old study; I was writing a new book. In parts of the present volume it is still possible ...
... Western civilization. As I began this work I soon realized that it was taking on a life of its own: I was not merely revising and supplementing the old study; I was writing a new book. In parts of the present volume it is still possible ...
Seite 1
... old civilizations of the world but modern developments within them that are producing arrogance, inflexibility, intolerance, and belligerence. Such attitudes are more and more common within Western society itself, especially in the ...
... old civilizations of the world but modern developments within them that are producing arrogance, inflexibility, intolerance, and belligerence. Such attitudes are more and more common within Western society itself, especially in the ...
Seite 2
... old Western moral and cultural traditions but an unwillingness to heed them. A casual observer may be struck most by the lack of direction of the present evolution of Western civilization and by the confusion and mixed signals that it ...
... old Western moral and cultural traditions but an unwillingness to heed them. A casual observer may be struck most by the lack of direction of the present evolution of Western civilization and by the confusion and mixed signals that it ...
Seite 3
... Western world. In the second half of the twentieth century, a distinctively American form of Jacobinism evolved from the broader current of hostility to the old West. Its power grew steadily. Its ideology spans a broad range of issues ...
... Western world. In the second half of the twentieth century, a distinctively American form of Jacobinism evolved from the broader current of hostility to the old West. Its power grew steadily. Its ideology spans a broad range of issues ...
Seite 8
... Western past and as conceived by the Framers of the Constitution. The ideology wants to replace the historically ... old America but also use American military and economic might to implement their vision for humanity. Those desiring ...
... Western past and as conceived by the Framers of the Constitution. The ideology wants to replace the historically ... old America but also use American military and economic might to implement their vision for humanity. Those desiring ...
Inhalt
1 | |
The Crisis of Western Civilization andthe Rise of Jacobinism | 15 |
The New Jacobinism | 25 |
Creative Traditionalism or Radicalism? | 43 |
Democracy | 49 |
Contrasting Forms of Morality and Society | 55 |
Aristocratic and AntiAristocraticDemocracy | 59 |
The Father of Democratism | 71 |
Democracy in Peril | 97 |
The New Jacobins and American Democracy | 111 |
Democracy for the World | 123 |
Jacobin Capitalism | 145 |
Equality | 155 |
A Center that Cannot Hold | 165 |
Responsible Nationhood | 177 |
Needed | 189 |
Love of Ones Own and Love of the Common | 77 |
Moral Universality | 83 |
Pluralistic Political Morality | 89 |
Index | 213 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire Claes G. Ryn Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2017 |
America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire Claes G. Ryn Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2017 |
America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire Claes G. Ryn Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2003 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
abstract Allan Bloom Ameri American assertive become beliefs Bob Woodward Bush called capitalism central Charles Krauthammer Christian circumstances Claes G common conflict conservatives constitutional democracy decentralized defend democratism democratist desire diversity dominate Edmund Burke elites Enlightenment equality first foreign policy Framers free market freedom French Jacobins French Revolution George W global groups historical human ideas immigration individuals influence institutions intellectual interests Jean-Jacques Rousseau kind liberals liberty major majoritarian man’s ment military modern moral and cultural moral universality nature neo-Jacobin neoconservatives old Western opportunity particular person philosophical Plato plebiscitary popular government popular rule possible potential president problems radical reflected regimes responsibility role Rousseau sense social and political Social Contract Straussians thinking tion today’s Western traditional Western trends United unity universal principles virtue virtuous empire Washington Post West Western civilization Western democracy Western society Western world William Kristol