It’s often said that the best anthropological study of the United States by a European is Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1835 classic “Democracy in America.” Granted, the eminent French political thinker and historian probably didn’t spend an inordinate amount of time downing cheap vodka from Rite Aid, bumming around on the beach, blowing stupid amounts of […]
Author Archives: Matthew Kennard
Celebrate same-sex marriages
What do the motley crew of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Jesus Christ and Malcolm X all have in common? Are you struggling? Let me give you a little hand. These men ““ and a growing list of other historical heavyweights ““ are all being slowly coaxed out of the closet by kindly academic historians. Yes, […]
U.S., Britain are hypocrites
The British election that took place two weeks ago was remarkably unremarkable in every way except one. In one constituency in London, a man named George Galloway was elected to the British Parliament. He was representing the nascent Respect Party, and he stole a safe Labour Party seat that had been held since 1945, overturning […]
Blair’s track record horrifying
There’s an election today that is infinitely important. It will be an ideological litmus test. The winners will embark on a career that will change the conditions of the people who voted them in. That election is for the Undergraduate Students Association Council, which today leisurely saunters into its final lap. On the other side […]
Time is running out for mankind
The late Ernst Mayer, one of the most revered biologists of the 20th century, said a few years ago that “the average life expectancy of a species is about 100,000 years.” This should worry us interminably because our own species, homo sapiens sapiens, has had the intelligence to establish civilizations for around that same period. […]
Anti-Bush, not anti-American
This week, after a little playful goading, I feel it is time to broach a subject that has become a phenomenon in the political discourse of right-wing America: the ideology of supposed “anti-Americanism.” On Tuesday, a contributor to the Daily Bruin wrote that it was “high time that Matthew Kennard explain why he is in […]
Don’t cross UCLA workers’ picket lines
If you eat in the dinning halls on campus, it’s no exaggeration to say that your actions today will have a huge effect on thousands of lives. Today is the first day of strikes by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, which represents the UCLA dining hall staff and thousands of […]