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

William Taylor: Melting Mongolian ice reveals fragile clues about how past people lived

In the world’s high mountain regions, life needs ice. From the Rockies to the Himalayas, glaciers and other accumulations of snow and ice persist throughout the year. Often found on shaded slopes protected from the sun, these ice patches transform barren peaks into biological hot spots. As an archaeologist, I value these snow and ice… Read More William Taylor: Melting Mongolian ice reveals fragile clues about how past people lived

Dilip

Book review – The Philosopher’s Trail: On Samantha Rose Hill’s “Hannah Arendt”

Arendt shows us “how to think the world anew […] how to hold ourselves accountable for our actions, how to think critically without succumbing to ideology,” Hill writes. “Only when we do this, she says, will we be able to love the world.”    The peak of her pariahdom came when she covered Adolf Eichmann’s… Read More Book review – The Philosopher’s Trail: On Samantha Rose Hill’s “Hannah Arendt”

Dilip

CODE RED for Humanity – The IPCC report is clear: nothing short of transforming society will avert catastrophe

NB: In the midst of an unprecedented global catastrophe, political leadership is engaged in ruthless quest for power, destruction of democratic institutions, clampdown on honest journalism, instigating communal and racial hatred, and increasing defence budgets. Whenever society faces mortal danger, we attack the poor, invent enemies and scapegoats on all sides, and engage in verbal… Read More CODE RED for Humanity – The IPCC report is clear: nothing short of transforming society will avert catastrophe

Dilip

August 6 & 9, Hiroshima & Nagasaki: Mythmaking and Atomic Destruction / Blinded by the Light: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Jacques Pauwels: Mythmaking and the Atomic Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki    Truman and his advisors thus fell under the spell of what the renowned American historian William Appleman Williams has called a “vision of omnipotence”. They convinced themselves that the new weapon would enable them to force their will on the Soviet Union. The… Read More August 6 & 9, Hiroshima & Nagasaki: Mythmaking and Atomic Destruction / Blinded by the Light: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Dilip

Jonathan Freedland: Trumpism is now in the American bloodstream / Rosanna Arquette: ‘I fear the world will fall into the hands of fascist dictators'

Tragically, to the world’s most powerful democracy and all those who, for better or worse, are tugged like the tides by its lunar pull, Trump still matters. He cannot yet be consigned to the past, because he is affecting the present and looms over the future. The clearest evidence is the expectation that he will… Read More Jonathan Freedland: Trumpism is now in the American bloodstream / Rosanna Arquette: ‘I fear the world will fall into the hands of fascist dictators'

Dilip

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) – The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí

As his fame grew, Dalí’s reputation was undermined by his outrageous pronouncements. He confessed that he dreamed of Adolph Hitler “as a woman” whose flesh “ravished me.” Although he insisted he rejected Hitlerism despite such fantasies, the Surrealists, who were allied to the French Communist Party, expelled him in 1939. He also later extolled Spain’s… Read More Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) – The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí

Dilip

Andrew Bacevich: The defining lie at the heart of American foreign policy / Pratap Bhanu Mehta: US vs China is the new Cold War

“The thirty-year interregnum of U.S. global hegemony,” writes David Bromwich in the journal Raritan, “has been exposed as a fraud, a decoy, a cheat, [and] a sell.” Today, he continues, “the armies of the cheated are struggling to find the word for something that happened and happened wrong.” In fact, the armies of the cheated know exactly… Read More Andrew Bacevich: The defining lie at the heart of American foreign policy / Pratap Bhanu Mehta: US vs China is the new Cold War

Dilip

Apoorvanand; Gauhar Raza: The bully that is destroying India’s academic culture

The withdrawal of Dr Hari Singh Gour University in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, from an international seminar on “Cultural and Linguistic Hurdles in the Achievement of Scientific Temper” due to bullying by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the local police must not be treated lightly. The university had approved the topic, the collaboration and the speakers,… Read More Apoorvanand; Gauhar Raza: The bully that is destroying India’s academic culture

Dilip