Month: December 2024

Adam Tooze on Polycrisis and technocratic complacency. Interview with Ding Xiongfei from the Shanghai Review of Books

ADAM TOOZE Conducted in the summer of 2024 in Shanghai this interview with Ding Xionfei is the most far-reaching public discussion I have had had about the development of my writing and thinking since Perry Anderson’s review of my work. I want to thank Ding Xiongfei for his remarkable engagement and for permission to republish part… Read More Adam Tooze on Polycrisis and technocratic complacency. Interview with Ding Xiongfei from the Shanghai Review of Books

Dilip

Gideon Levy on Israel’s ‘Moral Blindness’: Gaza Babies Freeze, Strikes Kill Medical Workers, Reporters

This war should have ended a long time ago, and Israel continues and continues, really now without any purpose except of mass killing — killing and killing and killing for the sake of killing: Gideon Levy In northern Gaza, the director of the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital says five medical workers were among 50 people killed… Read More Gideon Levy on Israel’s ‘Moral Blindness’: Gaza Babies Freeze, Strikes Kill Medical Workers, Reporters

Dilip

In the Shadow of Catastrophe: An Interview

Apocalyptic thought in the aftermath of the world wars George Prochnik and Anson Rabinbach In what way does writing about catastrophe, either predictively or retrospectively, risk kindling a new blaze? Conversely, is it possible to identify aspects of such texts that work against the drive to catastrophe? Conventional wisdom suggests that temporal distance from historical… Read More In the Shadow of Catastrophe: An Interview

Dilip

Amiens Cathedral (Pipers play Amazing Grace. Memoriam for Armistice, 1918)

Pipers play Amazing Grace. Memoriam for Armistice, 1918 United Pipers for Peace, 1918-2018, was a gathering of around 400 bagpipers from across the globe to commemorate the centenary of the armistice of the First World War. In a short remembrance ceremony in Amiens Cathedral, Emma Brown sang Amazing Grace, followed by Pipe Major Tom Jamieson… Read More Amiens Cathedral (Pipers play Amazing Grace. Memoriam for Armistice, 1918)

Dilip

Ordinary Love

Song by U2 The sea wants to kiss the golden shoreThe sunlight warms your skinAll the beauty that’s been lost before wants to find us again I can’t fight you any more, it’s you I’m fighting forThe sea throws rock together but time leaves us polished stones We can’t fall any further ifWe can’t feel… Read More Ordinary Love

Dilip

Albert Einstein on Jews in Palestine (1932-49)

Letters and excerpts from Albert Einstein’s writings in which he repeatedly reiterated his opposition to the creation of a state for Jews, preferring the formation of a simple spiritual and cultural centre to serve the Jewish world and all humanity. Addresses on reconstruction in Palestine (1932) The crisis which the work of construction has had to… Read More Albert Einstein on Jews in Palestine (1932-49)

Dilip

A Second Trump Term is the Beginning of the End and That’s Not All Bad

Fascism is the final stage in the state’s life cycle after the orgy of imperialism, and the American Empire couldn’t die soon enough. Nicky Reid This is not a sane universe. This is Babylon during the end times. Rome is burning, so Caligula gets a second term while Nero plays “Rhiannon” on the violin. The… Read More A Second Trump Term is the Beginning of the End and That’s Not All Bad

Dilip