perfidy

Y' know? I just used the phrase "immanentizing the eschaton" yesterday! Ain't that a caution^✶In the space of half a day, two of our favorite phrases were introduced to the blog, both of which became categories.. 

Your point on arrogance is well taken. I'm not enough of a moral relativist to argue that practices like genocide, female circumcision, and going without a bath are right just because they are normal to some cultures. Still, I by nature (nurture?) tend to set the bar very very high when it comes to deciding who gets our blessing and who gets the hook. The idea of cleaning house-- slum clearance, in your parlance-- is an appealing one in the abstract, but as we learned in the cold war, our estimation of good and evil can vary with the seasons, and it still strikes me as a little arrogant. So be it. 

That being said, I really don't have an alternative to your model. The UN sure hasn't a leg to stand on-- not as long as Libya heads the Human Rights Commission and Iraq heads the Commission on Disarmament. What a joke.