anne's dispatches from sydney

...

I just did an exam this morning, on International Political Economy- in which I had to understand  'realism'...

I remember the rage I felt, the time I  first heard the theory of Realism spoken of in an international politics class at Sydney University. I remember how the lecturer spoke complacently about the 'balance of power' theory to rationalise the buildup of nuclear warheads between nations. I couldn't believe how he spoke of it as if it was a normal way to think. I was sitting in my seat bristling with anger and wanting to interrupt his speech. But I didn't.

Instead, I grumbled to the person next to me after the lecture, and never again came back to the class. Not a very powerful response- rather it was a copout- exercising my consumer preferences rather than confronting the issue.

This for me was one experience of what Hannah Arendt calls 'the banality of evil'. The way that some ideas can be rationalised in everyday scholarship and everyday actions. In realism this is particularly endemic, because the school of thought is a mirror of the moral landscape of the present- and prescribes policy according to that moral landscape.

Now, today, I can understand why they rationalise teaching neo-realism- since it is such a common school of thought in think tanks and global policy institutes- effectively guiding the current Bush Administration in the US. Similarly, I now see the methodology of 'Realpolitik' in many situations.  Now I even distribute the literature of neo-cons to friends so that we can understand this cold and calculating frame of mind- that can hardly be classified as that of humanity.

posted by: anneinchaosland at 00:50 | link | comments |

Comments: