Edmund Burke on arbitrary power

[tikistitch]

We're reluctant to pimp a book before we've even finished reading it, but Mr. Tikistitch got us this absolutely amazing book, The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life for our bday (soon to be out in paperback!!!), and it's so wonderful, when we finish it, we'll probably wanna just pick it up and start reading again.

The book is a biography of a Jew who pretended to be a Muslim--in Nazi Germany! But that's not the half of it. So far we've followed Lev Nussimbaum, a.k.a. Essad Bey, from a boyhood in Azerbajan, escaping the Russian Revolution through Central Asia, Turkey, and exile in Paris and beyond. Every page is loaded with intense stuff they never taught us in history class (like, the unsavory origin of the term "young Turks," and why the best fencers in 1890s Austria were all Jewish). And a lot of stuff resonates with current events.

Just to give you a taste, here's a quote from political philosopher Edmund Burke that Lev included in one of his own books on the Russian Revolution. (Yes, among other things, Lev was a prolific author.) Burke was speaking on the impeachment of a governor-general of India, who excused his horrific behavior by claiming that he had been granted "arbitrary power" to govern India. Burke's ringing takedown, as quoted in The Orientalist:

My Lords, the East India Company have not arbitrary power to give him; the King has no arbitrary power to give him; your Lordships have not; nor the Commons; nor the whole legislature. We have no arbitrary power to give, because arbitrary power is a thing which neither any man can hold nor any man can give....Those who give and those who receive arbitrary power are alike criminal.

We read this on the bus to work this morning, and could only think, daaaaaamn, where's Edmund Burke when we need him?

Comments

[nitasee.livejournal.com]

I've seen that book but didn't realize how interesting it is! I must add that to my Amazon want list. Or just pick it up with the next Borders 25% off coupon. Nifty.

[tikistitch.livejournal.com]

When Powell's Books employees all posted their top ten lists for last year, I noticed this book popped up on several people's lists. I'd never heard of it before, and Powell's is teh kewlest, so I decided to give it a try.