The Age of Illusions
A conversation with Andrew Bacevich about American foreign policy after the Cold War. Listen today at 2 pm on WBUR or anytime at our site.
In January, Chris Lydon and the historian Andrew Bacevich had a conversation about the U.S.A.’s volatile sense of itself in the wake of the Cold War. They spoke as part of the Cambridge Forum series, before an audience at the First Parish Church. Bacevich held forth eloquently and powerfully, elaborating on history with a scope that included hundred of years, in order to articulate the miserable condition of ongoing American war.
Here’s some of what you’ll hear from Bacevich in our new show:
The conviction that it is incumbent upon America to determine the course of history has a long pedigree. We can trace its origins at least as far back as John Winthrop’s famous sermon of 1630, when he charged his doughty band of followers with establishing a city upon a hill destined to illuminate the entire globe. Well, that claim came roaring back after 1989 when it appeared that no obstacles remained to prevent the United States from completing its providentially assigned saving mission.
Pursuant to that mission, four big ideas emerged to form the basis of U.S. policy in the wake of the Cold War. And, at the risk of spoiling the story for you, those ideas were: first, a belief in the capacity of corporate capitalism operating on a global scale to create unprecedented wealth in which all would share (the one-word name for this was globalization); second, a belief in American military supremacy thought to be beyond challenge, to serve as an instrument enabling the so-called indispensable nation to keep order and spread American values; third, a belief in a radically expanded conception of individual freedom unmoored from traditional norms — this new definition of freedom was heavy on rights and privileges and notably light on duties and obligations; fourth, a belief that history had charged the president of the United States with serving as the Great Helmsman.
Watch: WHAT DID JACK DO?
The news is serious and history is grim, and so any hesitation over watching a new David Lynch movie would be understandable. BUT: this past month Lynch released via Netflix a film that is at least as funny as it is distressing.
In WHAT DID JACK DO?, David Lynch’s character interrogates a capuchin monkey named Jack. Eventually it becomes clearer what Jack has been up to, but never too clear: they speak (Jack also talks) in unhinged clichés or near clichés, often without clearly communicating to each other.
Shot dreamily in a flickering kind of black-and-white, its two characters sitting with a coffee on the table between them, this thing is somehow soothing and delirious.
Listen: Miranda Popkey
Topics of Conversation, the new novel by Miranda Popkey, has gotten a lot of thoughtful analysis lately, including here, from the New Yorker. Our producer Adam Colman recently spoke with Popkey about literature’s use for exploring big questions, about the power of TV’s Frasier, and more.
Memorably, Popkey explains here how writers are at risk of becoming monstrous. They can lie to themselves, she says, through their own storytelling. It’s a sharp point about narrative, its risks, and its potential; her novel reflects that kind of consideration of storytelling.
Patreon subscribers can hear their conversation here!
Read: Mark Twain on American Imperialism
WHAT DID JACK DO? shows you how all kinds of thinking and feeling can accompany comedy—laughter prompted by absurdity might rumble you toward kaleidoscopic novelty. A lot of our best writers and filmmakers have recognized this power of comedy. An example: Mark Twain, the skilled satirist who opposed the U.S. conquest of the Philippines between 1899 and 1902, during which an estimated 200,000 Filipino civilians died. Stephen Kinzer has written about Twain’s anti-imperialism in The True Flag. Here’s a passage from the New York Times review of Kinzer’s book:
Roosevelt and the imperialists found their greatest nemesis in Mark Twain. Twain condemned all efforts by Western nations to carve up the non-Western world. Writing of the Boxer rebellion against Europeans and Americans in China, he declared: “My sympathies are with the Chinese. They have been villainously dealt with by the sceptered thieves of Europe, and I hope they will drive all of the foreigners out and keep them out for good.” Twain’s genius for satire showed in his widely publicized polemics for the anti-imperialist cause. In a 1901 essay for the North American Review, reprinted as a pamphlet by the Anti-Imperialist League, Twain said: “And as for a flag for the Philippine Province, it is easily managed. We can have a special one — our states do it: We can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and crossbones.”
Read: The Plot Against America
We’ve learned of the upcoming HBO adaptation of Philip Roth’s instant classic, The Plot Against America, by David Simon, creator of The Wire. It stars Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan, and John Turturro, and it debuts on March 16th. This show’s getting us thinking of more conversations—about the historical intersections between American isolationism and bigotry (notoriously represented by Charles Lindbergh); the role of hate in U.S. politics; and the kinds of stories we turn to in our fraught historical moment.
Listen: Bach’s Cello Suites for violin
We’ve announced that we have a limited number of free tickets to Grammy-winner Johnny Gandelsman’s February 8 MIT performance of Bach’s complete Cello Suites, arranged for violin. These are for our Patreon subscribers, so if you’re not one already, subscribe now, here:
https://www.patreon.com/radioopensource/
Support independent media and also seek out the possibility of free tickets!
This week’s ephemeral library
Our friend Pat Tomaino on the Case for Bernie. Ryan Lizza on unexpected joy at a Trump rally in Iowa. Adam Shatz: Real Men Go To Tehran. P. Carl on Becoming a Man. Elena Ferrante’s new novel “The Lying Life of Adults” is flying off the shelves in Florence. Arrives in the U.S. in June.
Kobe and Gianna Bryant have been memorialized in a new mural in Cambridge’s Graffiti Alley from artist Brandalizm.
That’s all for this week, folks. We’re hitting the mean streets of New Hampshire on Tuesday ahead of the first in the nation vote. What do you want to know?
See you next week!
The First in the Nation Podcasters!
