Eleanor Heartney.”Will to Power”, 28 page exhibitions catalogue. Chicago: Chicago Cultural Center + Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, 2012.
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In many ways, [USE the World [A Manifesto’s] language, reasonable on the surface, but tied to a
wildly absurd conclusion, is reminiscent of the 18th century
satirist Jonathan Swift’s famous essay, A
Modest Proposal. Like Mills, Swift uses the apparently rational arguments
to lead the reader toward a shockingly inhumane social proposition. In Swift’s case this is a solution to the
problem of Irish poverty that involves serving up the children of the poor as
gourmet meals. In a similar way, the USE Manifesto begins by noting that the US
must stop feigning benevolence toward the rest of the world and start acting in
a way that serves its own interests. From there it goes on to detail the
benefits to the United States in taking over such countries as Iceland, South
Korea, Qatar and Iraq. As with A Modest
Proposal, the tone is almost boringly bureaucratic and the references to
similar acts in U.S. history make it seem quite logical. Like Swift, Mills is
daring his audience to take the statements at face value, thus forcing them to
own up to their own darker impulses.
— Eleanor Heartney
