{"id":601,"date":"2004-04-13T08:55:32","date_gmt":"2004-04-13T15:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/04\/across_the_rubicon\/"},"modified":"2004-04-13T08:55:32","modified_gmt":"2004-04-13T15:55:32","slug":"across_the_rubicon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/04\/across_the_rubicon.html","title":{"rendered":"ACROSS THE RUBICON"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did anybody see Chalmers Johnson Sunday night on C-Span2 Book
\nTV<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>? It was a rerun of an interview done in March at the Los Angeles
\nPublic Library by Warren Olney (of L.A. radio station KCRW), and it was mesmerizing. All Olney
\nhad to do was listen. <\/P>
\n

Johnson recently published “The Sorrows of
\nEmpire.”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>  His thesis in the book, as it was on C-Span, is
\nthat 1) the United States is a modern empire,”thriving on fear and military domination” as ancient
\nRome once did, 2) the U.S. empire has already crossed the Rubicon on the way to oblivion, and
\n3) our Maximum Leader is speeding us on our way.<\/P>
\n

As C-Span summarized it<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A>, Johnson “argues that the
\nultimate purpose of U.S. military bases is not to maintain stability or promote democracy, but to
\ndefend U.S. hegemony. He traces U.S. world domination from the Cold War to today, then claims
\nAmerican militarism is irreversibly damaging its Constitution and the trust of its
\npeople.” This continues an argument he began in “Blowback,”<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> another of his books.<\/P>
\n

Although Johnson taught history for decades at U.C. Berkeley, beginning in 1962, he
\nopposed the ’60s counterculture. What makes him doubly credible as a witness for the prosecution
\nis that he was also a CIA consultant in those years. So he can’t be accused of being a leftwing
\nmaniac. He’s not only a brilliant historian, he’s what’s called “a biting writer.” <\/P>
\n

Johnson certainly had bite on C-Span. It reminded me — as have the hearings of the 9\/11
\ncommission — that Gore Vidal’s critics, especially Ron Rosenbaum, owe Vidal an apology
\nfor calling him a paranoid nut last year when he called our Maximum Leader and his cronies “the
\nBush junta.”<\/P>
\n

Postscript:<\/STRONG> George Mattingly writes: “Jan, no, didn’t
\ncatch Chalmers Johnson on CSPAN2 Sunday night. (Confession: I was out at the San Francisco
\nJazzfest<\/FONT><\/EM><\/B><\/A> catching Toots Thieleman, Kenny Werner, Airto, and
\nOscar Castro-Neves. Werner was so mesmerizing on piano that Toots proposed to him — at how
\nold? 185? — saying “Kenny I am in love with you and this is the city for men to marry is it not?” A
\ncrackup — and a great concert. ) I’m off to get a copy of SORROWS OF EMPIRE — thanks for
\nthat tip: Just what I’m looking for (and absolutely right to give the nod to Gore Vidal, the most
\nunder-rated voice going). While I confess I’m an under-payer (as in zero), your column is one I
\nWOULD pay for.” <\/P>
\n

Thanks, George. I’m glad somebody besides my mother takes me seriously. To be
\ntruthful, even she had doubts.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did anybody see Chalmers Johnson Sunday night on C-Span2 Book TV? It was a rerun of an interview done in March at the Los Angeles Public Library by Warren Olney (of L.A. radio station KCRW), and it was mesmerizing. All Olney had to do was listen. Johnson recently published “The Sorrows of Empire.”  His thesis in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-9H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}