Author: Dilip

I'm a scholar, writer and teacher; and my blog is designed for intellectual exploration. It carries no advertisements and requires no cash subscription

Iran protests: Jailed activist Sepideh Qolian describes brutality in letter

One of Iran’s most prominent female activists has described how confessions are forced out of prisoners, in a letter written inside a notorious jail. Sepideh Qolian has been serving a five-year sentence since 2018 after being convicted of acting “against national security” for supporting a strike. Writing from Evin prison, she describes the brutal treatment… Read More Iran protests: Jailed activist Sepideh Qolian describes brutality in letter

Dilip

Israelis protest “Thuggish” “Fascist” new Government, as it Proceeds to Ensconce Apartheid toward Palestinians

JUAN COLE Last Saturday evening, activists said that on Sunday, 20,000 Israelis staged demonstrations and marches against the new Netanyahu government, which has given powerful ministries to the small Religious Zionist and Jewish Power blocs of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, respectively. Both are given to racist and intolerant statements about persons of Palestinian heritage, who constitute… Read More Israelis protest “Thuggish” “Fascist” new Government, as it Proceeds to Ensconce Apartheid toward Palestinians

Dilip

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ in Golden Globes race

Kevin Tschierse It’s the first non-English language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.” German director Edward Berger has taken it upon himself to venture a German interpretation that launched internationally on Netflix in October 2022.  Some critics have praised the remake as a successful anti-war drama, while others criticize the… Read More ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ in Golden Globes race

Dilip

Transition Theory

Tim Barker A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism by Jairus Banaji (2020) Capitalism is either eternal or it isn’t. There are people who defend the first view, or something close to it – the 2014 multivolume Cambridge History of Capitalism opens in Babylonia, circa 1000 BCE – but it is much more plausible that capitalism, like most… Read More Transition Theory

Dilip

‘Only a God Can Save Us’: Martin Heidegger & Nazism. A Film by Jeffrey Van Davis

NB: This is an interesting historical documentary; and the comments are also thought provoking. (I do not agree with everything said here: for instance the suggestion – at about 1 hr 11 m – that Hannah Arendt’s phrase ‘the banality of evil’ was a way of suppressing the horror of Nazism, or that she blamed… Read More ‘Only a God Can Save Us’: Martin Heidegger & Nazism. A Film by Jeffrey Van Davis

Dilip

Netanyahu Ushers in the Most Anti-Palestinian Government in Israel’s History

By Marjorie Cohn / Truthout Benjamin Netanyahu has been sworn in for his sixth term as prime minister of Israel. While his prior tenures resulted in the commission of war crimes against the Palestinian people, Netanyahu’s new regime promises to be the most right-wing and religiously conservative in Israel’s history. Netanyahu won reelection despite facing criminal charges for bribery, fraud… Read More Netanyahu Ushers in the Most Anti-Palestinian Government in Israel’s History

Dilip

A New Labor Regime

Chirayu Jain The BJP’s new labor reforms, the construction industry, and the mounting challenges for India’s trade unions Like the tax and agrarian legislation, the four new Labour Codes—the Labour Code on Wages of 2019, the Labour Code on Industrial Relations of 2020, Labour Code on Social Security of 2020 and Occupational Safety, Health and… Read More A New Labor Regime

Dilip

Year One: A Philosophical Recounting

Review of Susan Buck-Morss, Year One: A Philosophical Recounting Buck-Morss imagines universal history outside of its traditional parochialism. By Nasrin Olla Philosophers of the enlightenment such as Rousseau, Kant and Hegel imagined their projects as universal in reach and scale. Whether these philosophers were writing about the social contract, the foundations of moral law or… Read More Year One: A Philosophical Recounting

Dilip