Truth Wars: The Politics of Climate Change, Military Intervention and Financial Crisis

232 Pages·2015·2.85 MB·English

by  Peter Lee (auth.)

Truth Wars

Truth Wars
The Politics of Climate Change, Military
Intervention and Financial Crisis
Peter Lee
Principal Lecturer in Ethics and Political Theory,
University of Portsmouth, UK
© Peter Lee 2015
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-137-29848-5 ISBN 978-1-137-29849-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137298492
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
For Lorna, Samantha and Fiona
Certainty is a false friend in the quest for truth.

Contents
Preface v iii
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
Part I Politics, Truth and Climate Change
1 Climate, Science and Truth 15
2 Politics and Climate Truth 35
3 One World, Two Visions 5 5
Part II Politics, Truth and Military Intervention
4 Tyranny, Freedom, Democracy 77
5 Gendering Military Intervention 97
6 Drone Wars 114
Part III Politics, Truth and the Global
Financial Crisis
7 It’s All Your Fault 133
8 Governing Greed 150
9 Who Mentioned the War? 167
10 Epilogue 186
Notes 1 91
Bibliography 2 15
Index 221
vii
Preface
One of the most enjoyable aspects of researching and writing this book
has been the reaction of friends, colleagues or even complete stran-
gers when I have mentioned that it explores the relationship between
politics and truth. There has been a remarkably similar response on
almost every occasion: nervous laughter followed by, ‘Well that will
be a short book!’ A common perception seems to be that politics – in
particular, the governing done by professional politicians – is charac-
terised by dishonesty, deception and untruths. Given the frequently
self-interested antics of elected representatives it is easy to see why such
attitudes prevail. ‘They just tell you what they think you want to hear,
so you will do what they want,’ is another accusation that is thrown at
politicians, as though everyone does not play that particular game on
a daily basis: telling others what we think they want to hear in order to
shape their behaviour in some way.
Yet politics is much broader, more inclusive, than the actions carried
out by governments and professional politicians. Politics permeates
every aspect of life, from its most public to its most private and intimate
aspects. And the more I paid attention, I mean r eally paid attention, the
more it became clear that truth – or at least claims and counter-claims
concerning truth – pervades every aspect of politics, from the personal
to the global. I will go further and make a truth claim of my own (inevi-
tably contestable), that the essence of politics is a perpetual, overlap-
ping series of truth wars, fought for the purpose of shaping individual
conduct, attitudes and identities. These truth wars take many forms and
are prompted by competing claims across multiple domains, including
political ideology, religious belief and practice, scientific discovery, the
application of logic, philosophical ideals, moral frameworks, economic
theory, product advertising, cultural norms and countless more.
The scale of global crises only intensifies the ferocity of the truth wars
at their core because of the potentially vast human, environmental and
economic costs, and the competing interests, involved. The three crises
chosen as the focus of this book – climate change, military intervention
and global financial crisis – highlight different aspects of the way truth is
created, presented, deployed and disputed in the course of shaping, and
encouraging us to self-shape, our lives in particular ways. Complicating
matters further is the way that language is used in the process. Language
viii
Preface ix
does not merely describe the social world in which we live, it c reates that
world. Similarly, language does not simply describe truth, it is used to
create and shape truth in specific contexts. By exploring three twenty-
first century truth wars, I do not set out to show you, the reader, what
the truth is about any of them. Rather, I try to demonstrate how, and
the extent to which, truth is constructed, sustained and disputed in the
process of shaping the way individuals understand themselves, major
political crises, and the relationship between the two.