Saturday, November 21, 2015

Illusions of Managing History: The Enduring Relevance of Reinhold Niebuhr

I am planning on posting a lot more about Reinhold Niebuhr in the future.

To begin here is a lecture given in 2007 at Boston University by Andrew Bacevich,




And, for a change, here it is in text form from Bill Moyer's website.

The video has question and answers, some of which are important.  One that could hardly be more timely is when, in answer to a question about what we owed the Iraqi people from our invasion of their country, he makes a proposal that we allow their refugees to immigrate to our country as a small part in repaying our moral obligation.  It was at about 1:17, hearing him talking about it getting the anti-immigrant people in a swivet was satisfying in a way.  And that was in 2007.

He alluded to it in the beginning, but this lecture was given shortly after his son was killed by an IED in Iraq, in a war Bracevich opposed.

There is so much in this lecture that is even more important today.  I will probably write more about what he said.

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