Guy Debord’s Comments on the Society of the Spectacle issue #19, 1991 As late as 1979, Guy Debord could write about his 1967 book of theory, which is entitled The Society of the Spectacle: “There is no a word to be changed . . . . [Since 1967] the spectacle has done nothing but meet more exactly… Read More Guy Debord’s Comments on the Society of the Spectacle
First posted March 2013 But certainly for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, representation to reality, the appearance to the essence… illusion only is sacred, truth profane. Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the… Read More Hans Magnus Enzensberger: The Industrialization of the Mind
We have previously written about the debates over the political relevance of the Enlightenment today, drawing on Antoine Lilti’s critical review of the histories of Jonathan Israel. We present the English translation of his essay, which has import far beyond any disciplinary boundaries: Viewpoint Magazine David A. Bell: The Uses and Abuses of Enlightenment: AV lecture; January 2025 ***… Read More How Do We Write the Intellectual History of the Enlightenment? Spinozism, Radicalism, and Philosophy
Israel’s prime minister sees himself not only as the protector of Israel, but the saviour of the West. This, he believes, is how he should go down in history, writes former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas. Mr Netanyahu can brag all he wants about how he has changed the course of history and how he has saved… Read More Israel’s attack on Iran proves Netanyahu is an unhinged messiah
Kieran Setiya reviews Christoph Schuringa’s A Social History of Analytic Philosophy IS THE FORM of philosophy dominant in English-speaking universities covertly resistant to radical thought? Does it present as the work of pure reason what is in fact the function of an ideology complicit in oppression? In A Social History of Analytic Philosophy (2025), the philosopher Christoph… Read More The Politics of Apoliticism
It is necessary to see how news media has responded to the opposition leader’s article and how soon. Prem Shankar Jha It has taken the Election Commission four months to respond to opposition leader Rahul Gandhi’s first disturbing accusation at a press conference in February – that the Commission had somehow managed not to notice that there were… Read More Why the Response to Rahul Gandhi’s Accusation of a Stolen Election Is Less Than Convincing
A result of the military operations against Pakistan is that India’s strategic vulnerabilities now stand exposed to the world…. While Indian youth has been diverted to detecting beef-eaters, cattle-traders, ‘anti-nationals’, and targeting the minorities, Chinese youth is achieving generational leaps in AI. Our educators have been ideologically brainwashed to the extent that some are trying… Read More Post-Operation Sindoor blues dog Modi government
Søren Kierkegaard in “The Present Age” warns that the modern state seeks to eradicate conscience and shape and manipulate individuals into a pliable and indoctrinated “public.” This public is not real. It is a “monstrous abstraction, an all-embracing something which is nothing, a mirage.”… Thomas Paine writes that a despotic government is a fungus that… Read More Chris Hedges: The Rule of Idiots
The genocide is almost complete. When it is concluded it will have exposed the moral bankruptcy of Western civilization. The mantra of never again is a joke. The understanding that when we have the capacity to halt genocide and we do not, we are culpable, does not apply to us. Genocide is public policy Israeli forces kill… Read More Chris Hedges: The Last Days of Gaza
George Orwell Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language – so the argument runs – must inevitably share in the… Read More Politics and the English Language (1946)
After the truth-shower 