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What both the state and the capitalist economy oppose is an understanding of what might be called the true nature of things (using the phrase without metaphysical pretensions), especially injustices and exploitative practices.

Richard A. Falk

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Richard A. Falk
Age: 94
Born: 1930
Born: November 13
Human Rights Activist
Peace Activist
Professor
University Teacher
New York City
New York
Richard A. Falk
True
Injustice
Injustices
Nature
Using
Pretension
States
Especially
Oppose
Might
Economy
Metaphysical
Without
Called
Practices
Things
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Understanding
Capitalist
Exploitative
State
Phrases
Pretensions

More quotes by Richard A. Falk

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Already there exists a growing international concern that Israel has become an apartheid state pursuing policies manifesting a settler colonial mentality. Such perceptions pose a challenge to postcolonial international society that will not be indefinitely ignored, especially if Palestinians achieve greater unity and tactical focus.
Richard A. Falk
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At present, the United States, with over 700 foreign military bases, navies in every ocean, a programme to militarise space, and drone bases planned for all regions of the world, is increasingly perceived in relation to its hard power diplomacy, a threat to political independence and stability for many countries.
Richard A. Falk
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Looked at objectively, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths resulting from political violence are produced by what should be understood as state terror. Terrorism also serves as an excuse to avoid diplomacy and the peaceful resolution of conflict.
Richard A. Falk
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The British leadership has acknowledged that it only became possible to end the violence in North Ireland when it stopped thinking of the [Irish Republican Army] as a terrorist organization and began treating it as a political actor with genuine grievances that deserved to be addressed.
Richard A. Falk
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It should be appreciated that this whole effort to hold leaders of states criminally responsible is a rather radical challenge to territorial sovereignty and a repudiation of the whole related ethos of 'sovereign immunity'.
Richard A. Falk
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Nothing is more important than restoring a high degree of autonomy to educational experiences so that those who grow up in this society and troubled world have the best available tools to grasp the challenges that imperil our national and human future.
Richard A. Falk
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The Goldstone Report establishes the credibility of the accusations directed at Israel with respect to its tactics used during the 2008 - 09 attacks on Gaza, but was not able to facilitate the next step that would have involved activating accountability mechanisms either within Israel or at the level of international society.
Richard A. Falk
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As Gandhi famously responded when asked about Western civilization, I wish they had one, the same applies to international community: I wish there was one.
Richard A. Falk
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I think the impacts of 9/11 on academic freedom vary greatly depending on locale and time (softening with the passage of time), and even within the same community, and likely within the same schools. This variability makes it difficult to offer generalized responses without accompanying caveats.
Richard A. Falk
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On the cautionary side, Universal Jurisdiction could be used to achieve some kind of ideologically motivated criminalisation of 'the other' that would discredit and derail a constructive effort to develop a credible meta-law that governs the behaviour of leaders of sovereign states.
Richard A. Falk
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Cumulatively, American society is sliding toward a new form of 'authoritarian democracy'. Elections continue, free speech is generally protected, institutions operate in accordance with the Constitution, but the reality of state - society relations is dramatically altered by the counter-terrorist claims of emergency rule and the right of exception.
Richard A. Falk
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Hamas retains the right to defend Gaza by the use of the weaponry at its disposal, and is thus not committed to nonviolence, but it does offer the possibility of greater peace and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians if the label of terrorism was abandoned and the search for accommodation was commenced in good faith.
Richard A. Falk
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To be a hegemon is inherently ambiguous, usually implying some mixture of dominance and legitimacy, that is, being seen as contributing global leadership in a generally benevolent manner.
Richard A. Falk
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Both Israel and the United States have mounted attacks on 'lawfare', that is, counter-hegemonic uses of international law to question policies associated with the occupation of Palestine and criminal tactics of warfare.
Richard A. Falk
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The capitalist priority is efficiency of capital and profitability, which is generally inconsistent with protecting the vulnerabilities of people and nature.
Richard A. Falk
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When Daniel Gorenstein was chair, he did mathematics from 5am to 12noon, spending the second half of his working day on administration. When I was chair, I also spent half of my time on research: every other minute.
Richard A. Falk
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Capitalism is in crisis both morally, due to widening disparities of income and wealth and disclosures of abusive practices, and ecologically, due to its refusal to make business adjustments in accounting procedures that pass the consequences of emissions to the public and the future.
Richard A. Falk
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An aggravating feature of this post-9/11 atmosphere is to cast suspicions on Muslims and on Islam as a religion that is interpreted as either inherently violent or death-oriented, with a particular animus against America and Americans.
Richard A. Falk
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On the one side, I welcome prosecutions of individuals such as Pinochet, and would welcome the indictment, prosecution, and punishment of Kissinger. On the other side is the geopolitical reality that only those in the global South are likely to experience the impact of Universal Jurisdiction.
Richard A. Falk
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As such the meaning of hegemony is subject to varying interpretations depending on how the historical role of the United States is interpreted.
Richard A. Falk