Pre-class: Carr

Carr's discussion of the principle of equality (147-149) offers some interesting insights. I think his notion of the lack of equality in the international community, on its face, rings pretty true (though we can maybe explore this in class). What piqued my interest more, though, was his opening idea that equality may be "an absence of discrimination for reasons which are felt to be irrelevant" (147) gave me pause. The essence of his argument, to my mind, is that discrimination for irrelevant reasons (eg. skin color, ethnicity, inherent characteristics, etc.) actually does exist--a hard pill to swallow, but I think a fairly accurate one. Particularly damning in its resonance is his employment of the following Chamberlain quote:

If it was not that China was so far away and that the scenes which were taking place there were so remote from our everyday consciousness, the sentiments of pity, horror and indignation which would be aroused by a full observation of those events might drive this people to courses which perhaps they had never yet contemplated (148).

How true it is that the further we are from a conflict, and the more removed we are from the affected culture, the more subdued is our reaction to tragedy. Take, for example, the reaction to Hurricane Katrina versus the reaction to the December 2004 Tsunami. There was undoubtedly sadness and an outpouring of generosity toward those affected by the Tsunami, but the reaction paled in comparison to the reaction elicited by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. The rage, sadness, grief and (eventually) the outpouring of support appeared on a much larger scale. Indeed, much of the accusation was couched in terms of the 'irrelevant reasons' for discrimination. Also, think of the difference in the more marked US reactions to terrorist attacks in London and the more subdued reactions to the recent attack in Mumbai, India. Though we would all like to think that this has nothing to do with proximity to culture and some of the more 'irrelevant reasons,' Carr, to my mind, makes a good point.

A further thought:

I think it may be worth exploring whether it is worthwhile to apply characteristics of the 'individual-state' relationship to the 'state-international community' relationship. Carr addresses it at various points in the text (I will find them specifically by class), but it could make for some interesting discussion.