Emerson's Superhero
After offering some preliminary remarks on the notion of what makes
a “captive mind,” the article shifts its attention to one of the most signi
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ficant and yet relatively neglected early essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson,
the essay “War.” This text, I argue, deserves not only to be considered
the (largely forgotten) founding document of the American anti-war
movement, but it remains important even today, as it sheds light
on the inevitable contradictions and double-binds any serious move
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