A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed

[sovay]

"If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it is an existential threat to Israel."

Sartre v. Palestine! Film at 11!

Comments

[sovay]

Political science has used it as a term of art for a long time. I think it started with the H-bomb, when people were distinguishing between threats to completely destroy a country, and the traditional threats about doing damage and taking stuff.

Thanks. Given this administration's willingness to trample on language, I assumed it was a recent bastardization.

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

Given this administration's willingness to trample on language, I assumed it was a recent bastardization.

I thought this could be the case as well, or that he just messed up, OR that he really had some weird concept going on there. I'm so glad you posted this because really I never heard "existential" used this way. I'd been pondering his use for two days. I don't like it, existential used that way. No, don't like it. :)