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Article: Many now resigned to the new `American Empire'.
- Article from:
- Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)
- Article date:
- April 23, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Chicago Tribune. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Julia Keller and Marja Mills
On June 8, 1982, Ronald Reagan memorably referred to the Soviet Union as "the evil empire." His choice of "empire"_as opposed to words such as nation or state _ revealed more than just a yen for alliteration.
Reagan and his speechwriters knew that the word "empire" carried all sorts of negative associations and would cause little shivers of apprehension in some listeners. Empire meant imperialism, domination, oppression. Empire meant big and bad.
Similarly, when George Lucas needed a name for the nefarious cabal that opposed those noble Jedi warriors, he, too, went with "empire." And why not? "The word ...