Resources for November 12, 2014

Pugachevsky, Julia. "25 Quotes That Will Inspire You To Be A Fearless Writer." BuzzFeed (March 21, 2014)

Donahue, Phil. "Paralyzed Iraq War Vet Turned Peace Activist Tomas Young Dies on Eve of Veterans Day." Democracy Now (November 11, 2014)








"Andrew J. Bacevich: Political Science/Military History/International Relations." Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Peace and Conflict Studies Archive)

Beauchamp, Scott. "The American Soldier at the End of History." The Baffler (November 11, 2014)

Horowitz, Joy. "Too Jewish?: The Making of Fiddler on the Roof." Los Angeles Review of Books (October 30, 2014)

Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution (Website)

Aja, Alexandre. "The High Art of The Shining." Hero Complex (October 29, 2014)


Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day

demagogue \DEM-uh-gahg\

noun: a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power

EXAMPLES

The nation's voters ousted their incumbent president for a demagogue who persuasively capitalized on fears of another recession.

"Messrs. Cameron, Miliband and Clegg were personally far less popular in Scotland than the fluent demagogue Mr. Salmond. Did this older, gnarlier Scot ignite feelings of envy and inadequacy in the English trio's patrician breasts?" — Quentin Letts, Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2014

When the ancient Greeks used dēmagōgos (from dēmos, meaning "people," and agein, "to lead") they meant someone good—a leader who used outstanding oratorical skills to further the interests of the common people. Mid-17th-century writers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Dryden—and, later, Jonathan Swift—employed the English word that way. But, at the same time, the word took a negative turn, coming to suggest one who uses powers of persuasion to sway and mislead. "A plausible, insignificant word, in the mouth of an expert demagogue, is a dangerous and a dreadful weapon," declared Robert South, known for his sermons, in 1716.