Gaza: The Dream and the Nightmare
Trump’s Gazan dream is to overlay the complex human history with his own narcissistic real-estate fantasy. But for Maia Carter Hallward, co-author of a new contemporary history of Gaza, this once vibrant Mediterranean entrepôt linking Africa, Asia and Europe is now defined more by nightmare than dreams. “In peace studies, we talk about positive peace, which has rights, liberties, the ability to reach human potential - and we talk about negative peace, which is the absence of war,” Carter Hallward says. “I would say we have none of those in Gaza right now.” No negative peace, no absence of war. For Carter Hallward, that - alongside the more than 70,000 dead Palestinians - captures today’s Gazan tragedy.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
In Praise of Valiant American Women
How Barbie Dolls Up the Plasticity of our Surreal Times
Can the Men Be Saved?
The Gutenberg Parenthesis
Why Julian Barnes Will Never Write a Memoir or Autobiography
Why Conservatives Should Fear & Loathe AI
How To Be a Wise Teacher
The Netscape Moment When AI Gets a Brain
Imaging the Animal World as Nature's Great Maintenance Crew
Why the "very very excellent" OPPENHEIMER is a complicated film for our complex times
The Hidden History of American Democracy
Episode 1610: Our Oppenheimer Moment
Episode 1609: Why America Dominates the World