I like Howard Zinn. I like him a lot. And if you haven’t read his A People’s History of the United States you need to — right now. It’s a great book.
Al Jazeera interviewed Zinn the other day. Here are a few selected quotes.
“[The US] is an empire which is on the one hand the most powerful empire that ever existed; on the other hand an empire that is crumbling - an empire that has no future … because the rest of the world is alienated and simply because this empire is top-heavy with military commitments, with bases around the world, with the exhaustion of its own resources at home. [This is] leading to more and more discontent and home, so I think the American empire will go the way of other empires and I think it is on its way now.”
“If there is any hope, the hope lies in the American people. [It] lies in American people becoming resentful enough and indignant enough over what has happened to their country, over the loss of dignity in the world, over the starving of human resources in the United States, the starving of education and health, the takeover of the political mechanism by corporate power and the result this has on the everyday lives of the American people. … I think all of this may very well build up into a movement of rebellion. … I well see, if the United States keeps heading in the same direction, a new popular movement. That is the only hope for the United States.”
“[T]he US influence is declining, its power is declining. However strong a military machine it is, power does not ultimately depend on a military machine. So power is declining. Ultimately power rests on the moral legitimacy of a system and the United States has been losing moral legitimacy. My hope is that the American people will rouse themselves and change this situation, for the benefit of themselves and for the benefit of the rest of the world.”
Good stuff. We need more people out there like Howard Zinn.
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