krebscycle

Fred de Boer has an essay up on his admiration for Ron Paul and how the mean people berate him about it. Fourteen paragraphs – not including updates. Here’s some starting phrases/sentences for each paragraph – except for the 4 that do not begin with I or we.

1. When I was a child,
2. When I was thirteen
3. We met an old man there.
4. Then we drove home and I went back to sleep.
5. I don’t know if that grave
6. –
7. I hardly need to tell you
8. I know very well how this will go over. I know that this kind of talk is anathema to a new American liberalism that values only jokey cynicism
9. Were I to allow comments on this post, I would immediately be greeted by the usual contention that I am being sanctimonious or self-righteous [Editor: NO! ]
   
10. I could never vote for Ron Paul, for a thousand reasons. I have been arguing against many of his policies and the worldview that generated them for the entirety of my adult life. But I have to value his voice in the national debate because almost no other national political figures will raise these issues at all. I would love if these issues were being expressed by politicians and pundits who combined them with righteous views on domestic policy.
11. –
12. –
13. –
14. I want those who profess belief in liberalism and egalitarianism to recognize that they are failing those principles every time they ignore our conduct overseas, or ridicule those who criticize it. What I will settle for is an answer to the question: what would they have us do

I don’t want to overstate my case, but to me, I think, he thinks it is all about him and the attitude he needs to strike. And here is Žižek

The big demonstrations in London and Washington against the US attack on Iraq a few years ago offer an exemplary case of this strange symbiotic relationship between power and resistance. Their paradoxical outcome was that both sides were satisfied. The protesters saved their beautiful souls: they made it clear that they don’t agree with the government’s policy on Iraq. Those in power calmly accepted it, even profited from it: not only did the protests in no way prevent the already-made decision to attack Iraq; they also served to legitimise it. Thus George Bush’s reaction to mass demonstrations protesting his visit to London, in effect: ‘You see, this is what we are fighting for, so that what people are doing here – protesting against their government policy – will be possible also in Iraq!’ [ In LRB in 2007]