Looking Back at Mr Spectator, given Srebenica: A tail-piece

Clark, Robert (2008) Looking Back at Mr Spectator, given Srebenica: A tail-piece. Media History, 14 (3). pp. 373-388. ISSN 1368-8804

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Abstract

Robert Clark asks how we should understand Mr Spectator's belief in disengaged conversation and polite observation in the light of the spectatorial relationship struck by UN observers and journalists when confronting the Srebenica massacres. Through an examination of The Spectator's belief in free trade as conducive to the spread of peace and rationality, and consideration of Adam Smith's theory of the ‘impartial spectator’ in Theory of Moral Sentiments, Clark proposes that Mr Spectator's ideology necessarily occludes the extensive violence of eighteenth-century mercantilism, just as modern free traders, such as George W. Bush, deny the violence that is used to achieve their commercial ends. One consequence is an inability for Mr Spectator's descendants to know how to respond to unmeasurable horror.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	commerce,trade,reason,rationality,spectatorship,atrocity,sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/peace_justice_and_strong_institutions
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing
Depositing User:	EPrints Services
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2010 13:58
Last Modified:	16 Jan 2023 12:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/10319
DOI:	10.1080/13688800802472477

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