“Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life” with Richard Beck

Richard Beck was 14 years old when planes flew into the Twin Towers on 9/11. He grew up in a Philadelphia suburb as a “mainstream liberal Democrat,” and during high school, was more concerned with music than politics. After graduating from Harvard, Beck moved to New York, where he still resides, and began contributing to the progressive journal n+1, a print and digital magazine of literature, culture, and politics.

In this podcast, we discuss his new book, “Homeland: The War on Terror in American Life,” a groundbreaking history of how the decades-long war on terror changed virtually every aspect of American life.

Key Themes Discussed:

1. Impunity Culture: A major shift was the open defense of previously clandestine or denied practices (like torture) by officials from both parties (Bush and Obama administrations). This created a precedent where powerful figures face no consequences for their actions.
2. Media & Propaganda: The press became "stenographers" for power, exemplified by Judith Miller's reporting in the New York Times, which helped propagandize the case for war.
3. Political Culture: A climate of intense nationalism and suppression of dissent was created (e.g., the backlash against the Dixie Chicks).
4. Pop Culture as a Reflection: Superhero movies (e.g., Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Iron Man) are analyzed as cultural products that processed the anxieties of the War on Terror, glorifying special forces-type heroes and wrestling with themes of torture, surveillance, and extra-legal violence.
5. New Atheism: The movement (Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins, etc.) is criticized for devolving into a racist, Islamophobic project that framed the conflict as a "clash of civilizations," similar to the Bush administration's rhetoric.
6. The Economic Purpose ("The Missing Why"): A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the book's third section, which argues that the War on Terror had a deeper economic logic.
7. The Illusion of Democracy: The hosts and Beck reference a study suggesting that U.S. government policy has no statistical relationship to public opinion, arguing that the undemocratic trends exacerbated by the War on Terror were long underway.

 

Get the Book: https://www.kingsbookstore.com/book/9780593240229

Mentioned:  https://www.nplusonemag.com/

Greg’s Blog: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

Pat’s Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/about

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