DC Dispatches » polemicists http://www.dcdispatches.com Sic semper something or other. Sat, 01 Oct 2011 21:54:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 The rhetoric of escalation and Orwell http://www.dcdispatches.com/2009/12/13/rhetoric-of-escalation-orwell/ http://www.dcdispatches.com/2009/12/13/rhetoric-of-escalation-orwell/#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:02:38 +0000 Matthew Bradley http://www.dcdispatches.com/?p=376 Continue reading →]]> Obama’s own hypocrisy undercuts the alleged nobility of his Nobel acceptance speech, the purposeful blindness of some of those who are dismayed by it undercuts their dismay, and the constant creep of collective amnesia that allows for others support the escalation of war and the “logic” offered by Obama is Oslo undercuts our safety.

Long out of practice in even attempting to write, I am reading a selection of Orwell’s essays (both the polemic and the trite review and in between) rather than expanding on my own declaration of opinion. Maybe I will learn something. The two volumes are what I might’ve once called provocatively titled: All Art Is Propaganda and Facing Unpleasant Facts. But now they’re just remedial guides for dealing with the world.

In the meantime, I share these selections from contemporary polemicists who I think did a good and more timely job: challenging both the silly dismay of some Democrats in what they seem to perceive as Obama’s betrayal (it isn’t one, he campaigned on escalating the Afghan war) and the others who find Obama’s justification of escalation as a proper way to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, consistent with what he cited himself in the course of his speech.

Head-Roc at the "Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally" outside of the White House

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