Keeping Enemies

This is an observation that sounds like a reliable indicator of genuine privilege.

…the observation from William Dean Howells that the problem for a critic isn’t making enemies but keeping them...

I get the point, but none of us have trouble keeping enemies. We have been the declared enemies of the powerful since at least the 90s. I mean that they declared enmity for us; and they have never wavered. 

From a piece on the expansion of the surveillance state, in which the American government proves to have turned its formidable intelligence and influence apparatus against its own people. 

1 comment:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

The preacher Tony Campolo, who was a friend of the Gores and Clintons in the 90s, spoke before a church meeting I attended and said to the group in some wonderment, in admonishment to the evangelicals present, that Al Gore had asked "Why do they hate us?" as if this were something new for us to ponder and have a revelation about. I wanted to interrupt him and shout at the time, in front of the 500 present "Because they have hated us for years, with every sneering comment and roll of the eyes! We didn't start the fire!"

But I didn't because that would have been rude. I think I would now.