Sometimes words outlive their usefulness. Sometimes the gap between changing reality and the names we’ve given it grows so wide that they empty of all meaning or retain older meanings that only confuse us. “Election,” “presidential election campaign,” and “democracy” all seem like obvious candidates for name-change…
About the Author
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of A Nation Unmade by War (Dispatch Books) and The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He is a fellow of the Nation Institute and runs TomDispatch.com. His latest book is Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World. A fellow of the Type Media Center, his sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter at @TomDispatch