Tag: critical commentary

‘Christian nationalism’ in American politics: the Republican hotline to Jesus

By KATHRYN JOYCE Amid conservatives’ disappointed hopes for a “red wave” in the midterm elections, one of the biggest losses appeared, at first, to be the ideological movement of Christian nationalism. In Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano — who rejects the label “Christian nationalist” but perhaps best exemplifies it, with his campaign full of prophets, shofars and… Read More ‘Christian nationalism’ in American politics: the Republican hotline to Jesus

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Discipline the poor, protect the rich: same old Tories, same old class war

Aditya Chakrabortty What kind of government is this? You can almost see the puzzlement on pundits’ faces as they try to work it out. Is it the technocratic dictatorship of Jeremy Hunt, or the banal nastiness of pound-shop mafioso Gavin Williamson? Is it Rishi Sunak bro-hugging Emmanuel Macron, or Suella Braverman banging up “invaders”? Is… Read More Discipline the poor, protect the rich: same old Tories, same old class war

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Herman Daly: An Economist whom we dare not ignore

Infinite progress means the valuelessness of each moment of progress: Stanley Rosen; The Ancients & the Moderns: Rethinking Modernity (1989), Chapter One By Sam Pizzigati / Inequality.org Great thinkers, down through the ages, have regularly had to watch the movers and shakers of their epochs shrug off their core insights. One of our contemporary great thinkers… Read More Herman Daly: An Economist whom we dare not ignore

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The Captive Mind revisited

First posted January 24, 2017 Jerzy Krzyżanowski The Captive Mind (1953) has been compared to the two most revealing and penetrating works on the same subject previously published – Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon (1940) and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Milosz was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980. Read an interview with him in 2003, the year before he… Read More The Captive Mind revisited

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Defying capitalism and socialism, Kumarappa and Gandhi had imagined a decentralised Indian economy

First posted January 18, 2017 Venu Madhav Govindu & Deepak Malghan In November 1933, following his fast against a separate electorate on caste lines and the subsequent political settlement known as the Poona Pact, (Mohandas Karamchand) Gandhi embarked on a year-long nationwide campaign against untouchability. Thanks to his extensive travels across the country, he got… Read More Defying capitalism and socialism, Kumarappa and Gandhi had imagined a decentralised Indian economy

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Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist? Chris Hedges interviews political philosopher Sheldon Wolin

First posted August 04, 2015 Sheldon Wolin is one of the most highly respected political thinkers in Western academia. He is emeritus professor at Princeton, now aged 93. Wolin was a bomber pilot in the Pacific region with the USAF during the Second World War. He is known for coining the term inverted totalitarianism. His most… Read More Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist? Chris Hedges interviews political philosopher Sheldon Wolin

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Robert Kurz: The destructive origins of capitalism. The ‘military revolution’ in 16th century Europe

First posted February 16, 2018 There are innumerable versions of the birth of the modern era. Historians do not even agree about the date of this event. Some make modernity begin in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the so-called Renaissance (a concept invented in the 19th century by Jules Michelet, as the French historian… Read More Robert Kurz: The destructive origins of capitalism. The ‘military revolution’ in 16th century Europe

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Chris Hedges: The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them To Save It

Freedom for millions of enraged Americans has become the freedom to hate, the freedom to use words like “nigger,” “kike,” “spic,” “chink,” “raghead” and “fag;” the freedom to physically assault Muslims, undocumented workers, women, African-Americans, homosexuals and anyone who dares criticize their Christian fascism; the freedom to celebrate historical movements and figures that the college-educated… Read More Chris Hedges: The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them To Save It

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Apocalypse in the rear-view mirror

Magdalena Taube Krystian Woznicki The planet, as authoritarian capitalism’s plaything, is subject to real-world economic-ecological downward spirals. And yet exorbitant space exploration projects continue to build escapist dreams on extractivism. And the threat of nuclear war continues to push at the limits of tenuous environmental stability. Earthrise reloaded When the Tesla Gigafactory opened in Brandenburg, Elon… Read More Apocalypse in the rear-view mirror

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