Terrorism caused by US capitalism: says Villanova Professor

11:27 pm on September 16, 2007 by Infidelesto

Despicable anti-American, Bush obsessed educators in America.

Rick Eckstein is a Professor of Sociology at Villanova University and an instructor in the University’s Center for Peace and Justice Education.

Eckstein teaches the course “War, Imperialism and Terrorism,” in whose syllabus he makes clear his belief that terrorism stems not from militant Islamic fundamentalism, but rather from inequities born of American capitalism. The syllabus reads:

“In this class we will explore war, imperialism, and terrorism as reflections of national and international social inequality. As the U.S. wages its seemingly endless ‘war against terrorism,’ and its episodic wars on other nation-states, it is increasingly important that we look beyond slogans and good/evil dichotomies to understand why so many people are dying … in the name of peace and freedom. I think of this course as an antidote to our cultural emphasis of reducing complex social phenomena (such as war, imperialism, and terrorism) to moral dichotomies and/or personalities. There is a lot more to these social phenomena [than] ‘good vs. evil’ and crazy people. However, you should be warned that these more complex explanations often indict us as co-conspirators in the institutionalized violence so prevalent in our world.”

“During the next several weeks,” he adds, “we will explore the nature of capitalism and how the internal logic of this political economic system makes war, imperialism, and terrorism seem perfectly normal; kind of like economics and politics by other means!“

Oh and guess what his required readings are…

  • Lenin’s Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism
  • Gore Vidal’s Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta
  • Noam Chomsky’s polemic, Media Control

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