by
Robert Jensen
April
2004, City Lights Publishers
ISBN
0-87286-432-4 160pp
$11.95
As we approach the elections of 2004,
U.S. progressives are faced with the challenge of how to confront our
unresponsive and apparently untouchable power structures. With millions of
anti-war demonstrators glibly dismissed as a “focus group,” and with the
collapse of political and intellectual dialogue into slogans and imperatives
used to stifle protest — “Support the Troops,” We Are the Greatest Nation
On Earth,” etc. — a state of hopelessness and cynicism can become
overwhelming.
Citizens
of the Empire
probes deeply into the sense of disempowerment that has resulted from the
Left’s inability to halt the violent and repressive course of post-9/11 U.S.
policy. In this passionate and very personal exploration of what it means to be
a citizen of the world’s most powerful, affluent and militarized nation in an
era of imperial expansion, Jensen offers a potent antidote to leftists’
despair over the future of democracy.
In a
plainspoken deconstruction of the dominant political rhetoric —intentionally
crafted to depress political discourse and activism — Jensen reveals the
contradictions and falsehoods of the prevailing myths by using common-sense
analogies that provide the reader with a clear-thinking rebuttal and a way to
move forward with progressive political work and discussions.
With
an ethical framework that integrates political, intellectual and emotional
responses to the disheartening events of the past two years, Jensen examines the
ways in which society has been led to this point and offers renewed hope for
constructive engagement.
Robert
Jensen is a professor of media law, ethics and politics at the University of
Texas, Austin. He is the author of Writing
Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream, among
other books. He also writes for popular media, and his opinion and analytic
pieces on foreign policy, politics and race have appeared in papers and
magazines throughout the United States.
City Lights Books is a publisher of fiction, essays, memoirs, translations, poetry, and books on social and political issues. We publish a dozen new books a year and are committed to providing the finest works of vanguard literature and oppositional politics. http://www.citylights.com/CLpub.html