[Peace-discuss] Estabrook talks at Channing Murray

[Jan & Durl Kruse]

Subject: Estabrook talks at Channing 
Murray








THREE TALKS ON AMERICAN POLITICS
Channing-Murray Foundation
1209 W. Oregon, Urbana
These talks are conceived as approximately 40-minute presentations followed 
by discussion. They are meant to begin with a broad chronological scope and then 
to focus down to the present. The first will consider the period from the end of 
the Second World War to today; the second, from the end of the Cold War; and the 
third will consider the situation at home and abroad in the spring of 2004, with 
some suggestions of what's ahead.
All presentations are free and open to the public.
Refreshments will be served following the program.
[1] The Myth of American Benevolence - 7 pm, April 7
As the only undamaged major country at the end of World War II, the United 
States was in a position to establish an unprecedented hegemony over the world 
in the next two generations. We generally accept the notion that the US did so 
in pursuit of democracy, economic development, and stability. But a closer look 
suggests that the US actively opposed democracy, wrecked economies, and 
overthrew governments that were unwilling to follow orders. The paramount excuse 
for American policy, that the US had to oppose the machinations of worldwide 
Communism, requires examination. What were we up to?
[2] The Continuities of American Policy - 7 pm, April 21
The last quarter of the 20th century saw a transformation of world economy 
and geopolitics: the US was confronted with a rivals in the Europe and Northeast 
Asia. The Cold War was functional for the both the US and USSR, and the internal 
collapse of the USSR and of "actually-existing socialism" in Eastern Europe 
necessitated a change in the ideological cover (but not the goals and methods) 
of American policy. Republican and Democratic administrations showed some 
differences but more continuities in pursuit of these objectives -- notably in 
the Middle East.
[3] The Coming October Surprise - 7 pm, May 5
The attacks of 9/11/2001 were crimes whose principal victims were working 
people, but those who said that they changed everything had not been paying 
attention. A barely-elected and remarkably undistinguished US administration was 
able to use this greater Reichstag fire to put into effect the policies -- by no 
means new -- of the most extreme wing in American politics. Their success in 
convincing Americans to back attacks on two largely defenseless countries -- and 
in covering over with jingoism policies that impoverish the majority of 
Americans -- suggests frightening possibilities ahead.
============================================================== 
C. G. Estabrook, Ph.D., Visiting Scholar University of Illinois at 
Urbana-Champaign [MC-190] 
office: 217.244.4105 mobile: 217.369.5471 home: 217.359.9466 
 www.carlforcongress.org 

 

---Jan    Durl Kruse

--- durljan at earthlink.net 
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