Home / Quotes / Quote by Judith Butler

Quote by Judith Butler

“The Gulf War was a clear precedent as well, and it let us begin to understand how the US government would go to war to secure strategic oil reserves and potential markets.”

Quote by Judith Butler

Author

Judith Butler is a renowned philosopher, born on February 24, 1956. Her research focuses on issues of gender, identity, and power, having a profound impact on postmodernism and gender theory. more

You May Also Like

“It is true that one was not allowed at the time to really ask, what would lead people to do this, from what sense of political outrage or injury? And in that way, the possibility of sympathetic identification was foreclosed. That does not mean that some people took quiet pleasure in certain icons of US capitalism coming down, even though they would oppose such action on moral and political grounds.”

People Way Mean Doe Action Political Certain Asks Pleasure Moral Possibility Quiet Capitalism Injury Icons Sympathetic Outrage Identification

Author:Judith Butler

“A different kind of pleasure surfaced in the aftermath, the pleasure of seeing the towers fall time and again, the experience of being entranced by the visual spectacle, and then also the very graphic forms of public mourning for exemplary citizens (taking place at the same time as the refusal to mourn the undocumented, the foreign, gay and lesbian lives lost there, for example). I am not sure that the guilt over the pleasure re-installed the good citizen.”

Kind Different Form Fall Lost Pleasure Seeing Example Citizens Gay Guilt All Time Not Sure Mourning Visuals Different Kinds Towers Refusal Mourn Graphic Aftermath Good Citizen Exemplary

Author:Judith Butler

“I think maybe the destructive pleasure got turned into the destructive pleasure of war (something we see still in the images of US soldiers urinating on the dead bodies of Taliban soldiers). Something of the pleasure in destruction gets unleashed, and then becomes part of war effort rationalised first as revenge (or justice defined as revenge). But then it takes new forms, as we see now.”

Thinking Firsts Stills War Body Form Justice Pleasure Effort Destruction Soldier Revenge Defined Destructive Art Of War Taliban Unleashed

Author:Judith Butler

“The pleasurable part of public mourning can also lead to a sense of self-sanctification that justifies in advance any war effort, whether or not the target and destruction are in any way related to the initial event.”

Way War Self Effort Events Destruction Related Mourning Justify Target Initials Sense Of Self Sanctification

Author:Judith Butler

“I think that many of the mobilizations against the wars waged by the US and its allies since 2001 have been non-violent and massive. We have seen them throughout European capitals and in the US, and in many other parts of the world as well. So it is not only imaginable, but already actual.”

Thinking World Wells Has Beens War Violent Massive Allies Non Violent Mobilization

Author:Judith Butler

“If you are asking whether states and state actors can only respond through revenge, then you are suggesting that diplomatic solutions are hopeless.”

Ifs States Actors Solutions Asking Revenge Hopeless Suggesting Diplomatic

Author:Judith Butler

“I wonder about economic sanctions, though, since that is a way that states engage in boycotts against one another.”

Way States Wonder Economic Sanctions Boycott Economic Sanctions

Author:Judith Butler

“Because Al-Qaeda has been a non-state centered organisation, many of these scenarios do not exactly apply. These are not wars between states. And yet, it seems to me that we make a mistake if we accept the view that states are fighting terrorism, since we have abundant evidence for accepting the idea of state terrorism, and what is most urgent is to track and expose how state terrorism operates under the rubric of "democracy."”

Ifs Has Beens Ideas War States Seems Fighting Views Mistake Accepting Democracy Evidence Track Terrorism Als Urgent Scenarios Organisation Al Qaeda Fighting Terrorism Rubrics

Author:Judith Butler

“There's an agreement that Syria should be a unified country, united; that it needs to be secular; that ISIL needs to be taken on; and that there needs to be a managed transition, but there is a difference obviously in what that means and what that outcome may or may not be.”

Needs Should May Mean Country Differences United Taken Outcomes Agreement Transition Secular Syria Unified Isil

Author:John F. Kerry

“Let me just say you could end this violence within a very short period of time, have a complete ceasefire - which Iran could control, which Russia could control, which Syria could control, and which we and our coalition friends could control - if one man would merely make it known to the world that he doesn't have to be part of the long-term future; he'll help manage Syria out of this mess and then go off into the sunset, as most people do after a period of public life. If he were to do that, then you could stop the violence and quickly move to management.”

People Ifs Men World Long Ends Helping Moving Term Known Violence Periods Let Me Management Russia Manage Mess Long Term Sunset Iran One Man Syria Public Life Coalitions Ceasefire

Author:John F. Kerry