“I'm not pro-war. But I think war has been the dominant condition of humankind, and peace has been the anomaly - certainly sustained periods of peace that profit great masses of people - and I think war has worked, even awful hellish wars: worked to staunch fascist aggression in Europe, worked to preserve the Union after secession in the United States, etc. Not always, maybe not often, but to say never is to reject history in favor of a wishful unreality.” PeopleThinkingHas BeensWarStatesUnitedUnited StatesConditionsPeriodsMassEuropeUnionsProfitFavorsAwfulPreservesEtcRejectsHumankindAggressionDominantFascistsUnrealityAnomaliesSecessionPro War Author:Philip Gourevitch
“In 1933-34, the Belgians conducted a census in order to issue ‘ethnic’ identity cards, which labelled every Rwandan as either Hutu (85%) of Tutsi (14%) or Twa (1%). The identity cards made it virtually impossible for Hutus to become Tutsis, and permitted the Belgians to perfect the administration of an apartheid system rooted in the myth of Tutsi superiority… Whatever Hutu and Tutsi identity may have stood for in the pre-colonial state no longer mattered; the Belgians had made ‘ethnicity’ the defining feature of Rwandan existence.” MayMadeStatesOrderPerfectExistenceIssuesImpossibleIdentityMythCardsMade ItAdministrationFeaturesRootedSuperiorityDefiningApartheidEthnicityCensusBelgiansEthnic Identity Author:Philip Gourevitch
