Tag: critical theory

Five Questions on the Shameful Proceedings Against Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal. By Madan B. Lokur, former judge of the Supreme Court

Appalling. That’s the only way to describe the manner in which the proceedings against Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha have been conducted and are being conducted by the police and prosecution till now. In the process, the underbelly of our criminal justice system stands exposed in some respects, and it’s a pretty… Read More Five Questions on the Shameful Proceedings Against Natasha Narwal, Devangana Kalita, Asif Iqbal. By Madan B. Lokur, former judge of the Supreme Court

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Mark Bauerlein: TRUTH, READING, DECADENCE

…..    French theorists judged this approach naive. They challenged any presumption of stable significance in the literary object. Derrida pushed a radical skepticism that targeted the very idea of core meaning, original intention, or truth in or behind or before or under the work itself. The one-million-times-cited sentences on decentering in “Structure, Sign, and Play in… Read More Mark Bauerlein: TRUTH, READING, DECADENCE

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‘It is obscene’: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pens blistering essay against social media sanctimony

Sometimes… silence makes a lie begin to take on the shimmer of truth…   Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has written a detailed essay about the conduct of young people on social media “who are choking on sanctimony and lacking in compassion”, who she says are part of a generation “so terrified of having the wrong opinions that… Read More ‘It is obscene’: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie pens blistering essay against social media sanctimony

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Bharat Bhushan: It suits the RSS to allow BJP to encourage defections from other parties

NB: Some weeks ago, the RSS’ student front the ABVP got a Kerala professor suspended for calling the RSS a proto-fascist organisation. Actually the progenitors of Hindutva were eager admirers of Nazism and Fascism. Here is the research article on Hindutva’s fascist connection from the 1930’s. Also relevant is Desraj Goyals seminal book on the RSS Some information for Israelis… Read More Bharat Bhushan: It suits the RSS to allow BJP to encourage defections from other parties

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“I can most highly recommend the Gestapo to everyone” – Sigmund Freud, 1938

“What progress we are making! In the middle ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.”   Late in May 1938, an 82-year old Sigmund Freud and his family were in Vienna eagerly awaiting the final details to be sorted before they could leave their country for good. There was no… Read More “I can most highly recommend the Gestapo to everyone” – Sigmund Freud, 1938

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LIV GRJEBINE: Politicized science drove lunar exploration — but polarized scientific views are worse than ever

People often assume that the objectivity of science requires it to be isolated from governmental politics. However, scientists have always gotten involved in politics as advisers and through shaping public opinion. And science itself – how scientists are funded and how they choose their research priorities – is a political affair. The coronavirus pandemic showed both the benefits and risks of this relationship – from the controversies surrounding hydroxychloroquine to the efforts… Read More LIV GRJEBINE: Politicized science drove lunar exploration — but polarized scientific views are worse than ever

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Arjun Appadurai: Ripping Apart the Central Vista Is Nothing Short of the Reconquest of Delhi / Romi Khosla: Central Vista Project is Government’s Desire to Change History

The will cannot will backwards… That time does not run backward, that is his wrath; ‘that which was’ is the name of the stone he cannot move. And so he moves stones out of wrath and displeasure, and he wreaks revenge on whatever does not feel wrath and displeasure as he does. Thus the will,… Read More Arjun Appadurai: Ripping Apart the Central Vista Is Nothing Short of the Reconquest of Delhi / Romi Khosla: Central Vista Project is Government’s Desire to Change History

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Tim Schwab: The Fall of the House of Gates?

Will the world be significantly better or different if Bill Gates steps down from the foundation, and Melinda takes the reins of this deeply undemocratic, totally unaccountable, aggressively nontransparent political organization – one that zealously solicits accolades for the miserly sums of money it donates at a glacially slow pace? Or if another “good billionaire”… Read More Tim Schwab: The Fall of the House of Gates?

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