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

[gwynnega]

Bwah!!

[sovay]

Bwah!!

I think the word McCain wanted was "extant," but I wouldn't even put money on it . . .

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

What, it sits about in a black turtleneck snapping its fingers, like Maynard G. Krebs?

Nine

[antikate.livejournal.com]

I would have guessed that he meant to say it would be a threat to Israel's [continued] existence, but it's hard to tell...

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

...my brain is trying to construct the mechanics of the Gaze Bomb now.

It's something like the missile launches and it lands and if you're in the radius you hear this chorus of there's toiletpaper on your shoe! and there goes your subjectivity. *g*

[sovay]

It's something like the missile launches and it lands and if you're in the radius you hear this chorus of there's toiletpaper on your shoe! and there goes your subjectivity.

*ksnerk*

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Oh dear.

I thought Les Jeux Sont Faits was a bit deadly, but that was mostly cos I'd rather have been reading Dumas or even Boulle's La Planète des Singes.

[sovay]

I would have guessed that he meant to say it would be a threat to Israel's [continued] existence, but it's hard to tell...

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

:D

[navrins]

No, "existential" is commonly used the way he used it. An "existential threat to" being "a threat to the very existence of."

But I'm still amused.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I lost.

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

Don't make me break out a can of Camus...

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

And of course the reference to the Bruces sketch reminds me of John Crowe Ransom's "Survey of Literature."

In all the good Greek of Plato
I lack my roast beef and potato.

A better man was Aristotle,
Pulling steady on the bottle.

...

[sovay]

An "existential threat to" being "a threat to the very existence of."

I understand that the first definition of "existential" in the OED is "of or pertaining to existence." I still maintain that ain't right.

Is it a coinage of this administration?

[sovay]

What, it sits about in a black turtleneck snapping its fingers, like Maynard G. Krebs?

That would in fact be terrifying. But probably not worth bombing over.

[sovay]

I lost.

. . . Which one were you?

[sovay]

I thought Les Jeux Sont Faits was a bit deadly, but that was mostly cos I'd rather have been reading Dumas or even Boulle's La Planète des Singes.

Fine; point it in the direction of McCain! Can we resurrect the Russell Tribunal?

[sovay]

A better man was Aristotle,
Pulling steady on the bottle.

"And malt does more than Milton can / To justify God's ways to man."

[sovay]

Don't make me break out a can of Camus...

The Bush Administration v. The Absurd!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Can we resurrect the Russell Tribunal?

We could certainly do worse.

[navrins]

It might be, but I don't particularly think so. Certainly if it is, it has come into common enough usage by now.

Googling the phrase might be more revealing, if one cared to read more of the results than I do.

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHA

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

And Socrates himself was permanently pissed!

St. Thomas Aquinas
Always considered wine as
A medicinal juice
That helped him to deduce.

Also, I'm reminded of this meme:
French Intellectuals to be Deployed in Afghanistan To Convince Taliban of Non-Existence of God

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

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. (Israel's heavily armed neighbors were talking about wanting to drive the country into the sea around that time, so political scientists on other continents speculated about whether it was an existential threat, or just old-fashioned hyperbole.) McCain's error was in using the term when he was not speaking to military officers or foreign policy specialists, who could be expected to be familiar with the jargon.

[sovay]

Hardened by numerous intellectual battles fought during their long occupation of Paris's Left Bank, their first action will be to establish a number of sidewalk cafes at strategic points near the front lines.

Win.

[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.

[sovay]

AHAHAHAHAHA

About right.

[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. :)