Civic war and the corruption of the citizen

About this book

"In this book, Peter Alexander Meyers leads us through the social processes by which shock incites terror, terror invites war, war invokes emergency, and emergency supports unchecked power. He then reveals how the domestic political culture created by the Cold War has driven these developments forward since the events of September 11, 2001, contending that our failure to acknowledge that this Cold War continues today is precisely what makes it so dangerous." "Meyers argues that the mantra of our time - "everything changed on 9/11!" - is false and pernicious. By contrast, Civic War and the Corruption of the Citizen provides a novel account of long-term transformations in the citizen's experience of war, the constitution of political powers, and public uses of communication, and from that firm historical basis explains how a convergence of these social facts became the pretext for unprecedented opportunism and irresponsibility after 9/11. Where others have observed that our rights are under attack, Meyers digs deeper and finds that today "government by the people" itself is at risk."--BOOK JACKET.