Articles by Robert Koehler

We found 5 results.


Empire and Its Consequences
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 15 Oct 2012

This is the morality of empire, the morality of domination. We didn’t invent it; we just carry on the tradition, which goes back through colonialism and slavery to the Inquisition (“kill them all, let God sort them out”) to Rome (“they create a wasteland and call it peace”) and beyond, to the dawn of civilization. I think the consequences have finally caught up with us.

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Cancer of the Spirit
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 12 Mar 2012

Can we squeeze the glory out of the word “war”? Can we talk about savage irrationality and lifelong inner hell instead? Can we talk about the wreckage of two countries? Can we talk about spiritual cancer? In the extraordinary documentary On the Bridge — an unstinting look at the reality of war and the terror of PTSD.

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Happy Savages
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 20 Feb 2012

“John is a savage, but a happy, amenable savage.” Thus intones the voice on a ’50s-era newsreel clip in the documentary, showing footage of seven male Marshall Islanders who have been brought to the United States for radiation testing. “John is mayor of Rongelap Atoll. John reads, knows about God and is a pretty good mayor.” The film does a stunning job juxtaposing examples of our smug ignorance of South Sea culture with the reality of what we did to it. John the happy savage is actually John Anjain, who is one of many former residents of Rongelap Atoll interviewed in the film. He talks about his thyroid cancer, the thyroid cancer of three of his children and one grandson, and about the death of another son from leukemia.

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Wanted Dead or Alive
Robert Koehler – TRANSCEND Media Service, 16 May 2011

President Obama’s attempts this past week to call forth a heightened sense of national unity around Osama bin Laden’s assassination is a devil’s bargain because the need for more violence will never end. However, this need — for the next war, the next political assassination — always seems so reasonable. And as part of the bargain, “The meaning you’re making around violence is your own goodness.”

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GOLD FOR HUMANITY
Robert Koehler, 31 Mar 2009

When exactly did it happen — that "blinding flash of the obvious"? It may have been during lunch — outside, in a park in the nation’s capital on a beautiful, cherry-blossom afternoon — as public health theorist Ari Cowan held forth about working with maximum security prisoners in Washington state. Having described a program that […]

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