"Do the Nations of the World Really Want Peace?"

Happy holidays, book-burners!

In this new episode of Books Are Burning!, I discuss the first section of Immanuel Kant’s To Perpetual Peace, in which the renowned German Enlightenment philosopher presents his six preliminary articles for establishing peace among the nations of the world. In my somewhat rambling explication de texte—I’ve always said that I’m better on paper than in person—I return several times to the question posed above: do the powers that be actually desire world peace? Given the history of the two centuries plus since Kant’s death, it would appear that . . . well, you know the answer.

But if establishing peace on a global scale were really a desideratum, how would we go about it? Here I think is where Kant’s preliminary articles are instructive and worthy of careful study. I hope you find my intro to his seminal work useful and feel inspired to read it yourself.

During the pod I refer to William Blum’s excellent sourcebook Rogue State, which I hope to focus on in a future episode. Blum catalogues the many crimes of the US Empire—the coups, assassinations, and other illegal actions which Kant calls “dishonorable stratagems.” But these things are now publicly boasted about by such loathsome characters as Mike Pompeo, and even Wikipedia has a list of CIA-sponsored assassinations, known in the trade as “targeted killings.” Needless to say, such war crimes are an obstacle to the kind of peace Kant promotes.

I also allude in passing to lyrics from two songs which are relevant to Kant’s discourse on peace. Bonus points if you can name those tunes:

And so we're told this is the golden age
And gold is the reason for the wars we wage

Too easy? How about the following?

With, without
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?

Erratum: The OSS, which was the forerunner of the CIA, is an abbreviation of the Office of Strategic Services—not, as I say late in the broadcast, the Office of Special Services.

If you can’t be bothered to listen to the entire episode, here’s a very brief synopsis:

I’ll post the full episode and clips on YouTube in the next few days.

Meanwhile, on this festive Christmas day, let us sing along with John Lennon, who reminds us that war is over . . . if we want it: