tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post5034740533715476176..comments2024-03-08T13:21:43.158-05:00Comments on Saideman's Semi-Spew: Being Realistic about RealistsSteve Saidemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09881915512311951902noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post-37581798467963295842014-04-21T12:19:47.182-04:002014-04-21T12:19:47.182-04:00The old battle of the sexes game can be seen as se...The old battle of the sexes game can be seen as sexist--that man wants to do one activity, woman wants to do another. But that is of entirely a different order of magnitude than the stuff reported in Kennan's diaries. Some of the passages that are highlighted are not that old (although kennan was), like the way he referred to Monica Lewinsky. <br /><br />It is one thing to be somewhat ignorant, another thing to be very hateful. Kennan was the latter. Your examples very much the former.Steve Saidemanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09881915512311951902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8446351548038522890.post-5991354965842116502014-04-21T11:37:26.853-04:002014-04-21T11:37:26.853-04:00Racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic. Can'...Racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic. Can't we say this using contemporary standards about many of Kennan's generation? Kennan was clearly an elitist though we should note he has plenty of comments later in his career expressing his desire that his country act in a moral way -- Hans Morgethau also discovered morality. I would point to Robert Jervis and the Logic of Images in IR. He has a couple of passages related to signalling: both explained using sexual situations. In the first a man (the boss) is making a subtle advance on his secretary (a woman)- the lesson being how two parties send signals in such a way that they can deny that anything was ever meant. The second "asking for a light" in a "gay bar" is a come on but the speaker doesn't know that. Either of these examples could be called sexist or homophobic. I see no reason to make those charges directly about Jervis. Many of his generation writing circa 1970 would have used similar examples. I do wonder what female or gay students made of it all.Vladimirhttp://cirovskiv.blogspot.canoreply@blogger.com