Another thought-provoking post, Bill. My co-worker mentioned this the other day, and then coupled it by discussing President Biden's potential trip to Saudi Arabia to see if oil prices could be lowered. I hadn't heard about it, but since I get all of my news headlines from Twitter, the people in my algorithms probably just weren't discussing it.
Also, I greatly appreciated your email yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised when my girlfriend told me to check my inbox. I'm a little embarrassed that I talk about you so much that she knew that something like that would make a good gift. Whatever the case, thank you very much for the birthday greetings, and many thanks for all you do. Your Substack has been an invaluable resource to both myself & my students over the past year, as well as the decades' worth of books, articles, and lectures that you've produced. You are a giant, and your imprint on American history scholarship will not soon be forgotten.
Excellent criteria for sure. Similar to a Catholic understanding of formal/material cooperation with evil and the elements of its sinfulness. It would be nice if people would rationally determine how close to evil one wishes to cooperate instead of pure emotion.
Once again, the need for clear historians in these arguments shines greatly in the LIV debate. The golf media has beclowned themselves with insipid repetitive article in between congratulating each other for their "Variations on a theme by Chamblee." While there might be some motivation to protect the Tour they cover, most of it is total historical ignorance.
1936 Berlin is a great example of "Sports Washing," although we like to put a fierce (and rightful) hindsight lens on the Games. Boycotting of games (the African nations boycotting when the "White Redoubt" nations competed) many times have just as much political strategies and fundings as do pushing for international competitions. Reading the editorials around the NZ-ZA rugby competition in the 1970s is fascinating when you see the full embrace of stopping the sport by the Communist bloc (who was not remotely a fan of "civil rights" if their own track record was shown).
Obviously, the ignoring of China in these current outrages is also telling as is the corporate blacklisting of this new tour, despite all of the them fully engaged in businesses with numerous unsavory governments. Again, some good historical material would be determining if people are better isolated or part of the international community. For every Hungary vs. Albania, there is China vs. Yugoslavia. Also, there are the forgotten protests. The UK boycotted cricket with Mugabe's Zimbabwe in 2000 for human rights abuses. Two Zim players even led a protest with armbands that forced them to defect, but good luck finding that harrowing story in your "Sports Protest" anthologies. Again, our discourse has evolved from Becker's "Everyman his own Historian" to "Is Any Man an Historian..."
Hard to determine what the "right answer" is, but Dr. Brands's idea of understanding of the world being Fallen and money being a neutral good is probably the best way to keep from financial scrupulosity.
Another thought-provoking post, Bill. My co-worker mentioned this the other day, and then coupled it by discussing President Biden's potential trip to Saudi Arabia to see if oil prices could be lowered. I hadn't heard about it, but since I get all of my news headlines from Twitter, the people in my algorithms probably just weren't discussing it.
Also, I greatly appreciated your email yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised when my girlfriend told me to check my inbox. I'm a little embarrassed that I talk about you so much that she knew that something like that would make a good gift. Whatever the case, thank you very much for the birthday greetings, and many thanks for all you do. Your Substack has been an invaluable resource to both myself & my students over the past year, as well as the decades' worth of books, articles, and lectures that you've produced. You are a giant, and your imprint on American history scholarship will not soon be forgotten.
Excellent criteria for sure. Similar to a Catholic understanding of formal/material cooperation with evil and the elements of its sinfulness. It would be nice if people would rationally determine how close to evil one wishes to cooperate instead of pure emotion.
Once again, the need for clear historians in these arguments shines greatly in the LIV debate. The golf media has beclowned themselves with insipid repetitive article in between congratulating each other for their "Variations on a theme by Chamblee." While there might be some motivation to protect the Tour they cover, most of it is total historical ignorance.
1936 Berlin is a great example of "Sports Washing," although we like to put a fierce (and rightful) hindsight lens on the Games. Boycotting of games (the African nations boycotting when the "White Redoubt" nations competed) many times have just as much political strategies and fundings as do pushing for international competitions. Reading the editorials around the NZ-ZA rugby competition in the 1970s is fascinating when you see the full embrace of stopping the sport by the Communist bloc (who was not remotely a fan of "civil rights" if their own track record was shown).
Obviously, the ignoring of China in these current outrages is also telling as is the corporate blacklisting of this new tour, despite all of the them fully engaged in businesses with numerous unsavory governments. Again, some good historical material would be determining if people are better isolated or part of the international community. For every Hungary vs. Albania, there is China vs. Yugoslavia. Also, there are the forgotten protests. The UK boycotted cricket with Mugabe's Zimbabwe in 2000 for human rights abuses. Two Zim players even led a protest with armbands that forced them to defect, but good luck finding that harrowing story in your "Sports Protest" anthologies. Again, our discourse has evolved from Becker's "Everyman his own Historian" to "Is Any Man an Historian..."
Hard to determine what the "right answer" is, but Dr. Brands's idea of understanding of the world being Fallen and money being a neutral good is probably the best way to keep from financial scrupulosity.