Tag: critical theory

Albert Einstein and Lev Landau: Scientific geniuses as well as anti-capitalists and anti-Stalinists

Almost everyone knows the name of Einstein, but that of Lev Landau is familiar only to a few followers of the exact sciences. And yet, both of them share several common features: They occupy first-rank positions in the short list of the greatest geniuses of the past century. They distinguished themselves by their freedom of thought and… Read More Albert Einstein and Lev Landau: Scientific geniuses as well as anti-capitalists and anti-Stalinists

Dilip

Go back to Afghanistan? Men like McMaster and Panetta are addicted to war / How the American empire dug its own grave / Let’s Take the Profit Out of War

All empires die. The end is usually unpleasant. The American empire, humiliated in Afghanistan, as it was in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, the Bay of Pigs and in Vietnam, is blind to its own declining strength, ineptitude and savagery. Its entire economy, a military Keynesianism, revolves around the war industry. Military spending and war are… Read More Go back to Afghanistan? Men like McMaster and Panetta are addicted to war / How the American empire dug its own grave / Let’s Take the Profit Out of War

Dilip

Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann – Repetition and rupture: Reinhart Koselleck, theorist of history

In the summer of 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, the British historian Eric Hobsbawm travelled to the British occupation zone of Germany to re-educate young Germans. A recent graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, where he had also joined the Communist Party, Hobsbawm was working on his PhD dissertation and… Read More Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann – Repetition and rupture: Reinhart Koselleck, theorist of history

Dilip

Partha Chatterjee: No one, not even Indians, can claim to be part of an ancient nation

There are no ancient nations anywhere in the world. All nations (rāstra) are modern. Ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient India – all of them may have had great civilisations whose architecture, art, and literature are objects of admiration. But they were not nations. To realise this truth, you will have to forget for the… Read More Partha Chatterjee: No one, not even Indians, can claim to be part of an ancient nation

Dilip

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the sins of empire // Anti-Taliban Forces Say They've Taken 3 Districts In North Afghanistan

American empire has been stuck in a place where, to use Polybius’s words, “it can neither endure its condition, nor the means to overcome it.” In the context of Afghanistan, learned strategic thinkers and broadsheets of imperial privilege like The New York Times, will fulminate over roads not taken. But this exercise, as valuable as… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta: The American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the sins of empire // Anti-Taliban Forces Say They've Taken 3 Districts In North Afghanistan

Dilip

Gautam Mukhopadhaya: What Kabul means in Delhi

Three questions loom uppermost in the minds of observers in India. First, what accounts for the near-total capitulation of the 300,000-350,000 US and NATO trained and equipped Afghan Army and Police forces, the ANDSF, without much of a fight barring a few honourable exceptions in Lashkargah, Herat and Taloqan, against lightly armed insurgents estimated to… Read More Gautam Mukhopadhaya: What Kabul means in Delhi

Dilip

George Monbiot – Asymmetric force: Pegasus spyware is the latest tool autocrats are using to stay in power

Democracy depends on an equality of arms. If governments acquire political weapons unavailable to their opponents, they become harder to dislodge. They now possess so many that I begin to wonder how an efficient autocracy, once established, might ever again be overthrown. The Pegasus spyware, whose widespread use by governments the Guardian has helped reveal, is… Read More George Monbiot – Asymmetric force: Pegasus spyware is the latest tool autocrats are using to stay in power

Dilip

Marie-Eve Loiselle & Ayelet Shachar: Borders, bodies and see-all technologies / Nasim Ahmed: Calls to hold Israel and NSO Group Accountable for hacking scandal, as UAE role bulks large

Use of high-tech surveillance is on the rise: in a moment when controlling the spread of COVID-19 is paramount, a global regime of technologically enabled exclusion has been bolstered. But what might be the long-term implications of accepting being tracked before we even move? ‘Draw me a border, if you please’. What image comes to mind?… Read More Marie-Eve Loiselle & Ayelet Shachar: Borders, bodies and see-all technologies / Nasim Ahmed: Calls to hold Israel and NSO Group Accountable for hacking scandal, as UAE role bulks large

Dilip