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Jason Braun

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Jason Braun is currently reading

Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon

by Paul Rosolie (Goodreads Author)

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May 05, 2023 08:10AM

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World Order

by Henry Kissinger

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Jason Braun said: " “World Order” is another grim exhibit in the long gallery of Henry Kissinger’s self-serving reflections, a tome that masquerades as grand strategy while subtly rewriting history to suit the author’s dubious legacy. In this latest work, Kissinger atte “World Order” is another grim exhibit in the long gallery of Henry Kissinger’s self-serving reflections, a tome that masquerades as grand strategy while subtly rewriting history to suit the author’s dubious legacy. In this latest work, Kissinger attempts to don the cloak of a statesman-scholar, yet the reader is left with the unmistakable stench of a man still rationalizing his morally bankrupt decisions under the guise of realpolitik.

Kissinger would have you believe that the world is a chessboard and that he’s the only one with the strategic acumen to navigate its complexities. But this book, like much of his oeuvre, is less about imparting wisdom and more about vindicating his own sordid past. From Vietnam to Chile, East Timor to Cambodia, Kissinger’s fingerprints are all over the ugliest chapters of 20th-century history, and yet “World Order” conveniently sidesteps the consequences of his actions. Instead, he pontificates on the necessity of balance and stability, as if these abstract principles can excuse the bloodshed and chaos he so often left in his wake.

Kissinger’s prose is as oily as ever, slippery with the kind of obfuscation that would make Orwell wince. He talks of peace and diplomacy, but his track record is one of war crimes and covert operations. In “World Order,” he poses as a wise elder, offering prescriptions for global harmony, all while deftly avoiding the hard truths about his own role in creating the very disorder he now decries.

The book is rich with references to Metternich, Bismarck, and other historical figures Kissinger clearly fancies himself akin to, but it’s a transparent attempt to cast himself in the same light. The difference is that Metternich didn’t have to contend with the scrutiny of a world where his actions were broadcast in real time, nor did he live to see his every misstep documented and deconstructed by the very people whose lives were upended by his decisions. Kissinger, however, has had the benefit—or the curse—of witnessing his own fall from grace in the court of public opinion.

“World Order” might be lauded in some quarters as a profound treatise, but only by those willing to overlook the dark undercurrents that run through it. For the rest of us, it’s just another reminder that the man who would lecture the world on stability is the same one who did so much to shatter it. As ever, Kissinger’s writings are less a guide to understanding the world and more a window into the twisted logic that has justified his most heinous acts. ...more "

Aug 18, 2024 05:05AM · see review

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In Cold Blood

by Truman Capote

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Nov 04, 2017 10:27AM

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Jason’s Quotes

“Part the curtains of society’s racial, ethnic, religious, national, and cultural conflicts, and you find the human ego turning the knobs and pulling the levers. Now imagine a world in which everyone, but especially people with power and influence, holds an expanded view of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our problems would shrink—or never arise at all—and we could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of our predecessors who slaughtered one another because of them.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

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“If only ten or twenty Negroes had been put into slavery, we would call it injustice, but there were hundreds of thousands of them throughout the country. If this state of affairs had lasted for two or three years, we could say that it was unjust; but it lasted for more than two hundred years. Injustice which lasts for three long centuries and which exists among millions of people over thousands of square miles of territory, is injustice no longer; it is an accomplished fact of life.”
― Richard Wright, Native Son

tags: injustice, racism-in-america

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