Simone Weil’s thoughts on the unmaking of the self.. the postwar publication of the great bulk of her writings, including The Need for Roots, was overseen by one of her greatest admirers, Albert Camus. By Robert Zaretsky Eighty years ago on this date, one of the 20th century’s most unusual and unsettling thinkers died at… Read More The Decreationist
First posted January 06, 2019 To mark the centenary of the first world war’s end, Peter Jackson has created a visually staggering thought experiment; an immersive deep-dive into what it was like for ordinary British soldiers on the western front. This he has done using state-of-the-art digital technology to restore flickery old black-and-white archive footage of the servicemen’s… Read More They Shall Not Grow Old – Peter Jackson’s electrifying journey into the trenches of the Great War
You do not grow crops, you do not eat coconut, you do not drink the water: Stephen Palumbi, marine scientist The film Oppenheimer has shone a spotlight on the dawn of US nuclear weapons tests. In the Marshall Islands, where 23 of those earth-shattering blasts happened, people have never been able to forget Lucy Sherriff… Read More Endless fallout: the Pacific idyll still facing nuclear blight 77 years on
Simone Weil’s life illustrates the capacity to give up the things we feel we’re owed – such as a carbon-intensive consumer-driven lifestyle Justine Toh Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The saying takes on new meaning after the hottest July ever, devastating wildfires in Greece and Canada, and the declaration by the UN secretary general, António Guterres,… Read More The world is burning. Who can convince the comfortable classes of the radical sacrifices needed?
NB: This story is heartbreaking as well as wondrous, it leaves me speechless. Nothing can be said aside from wonderment at the joy and tragedy of human life. God bless you María Angélica, God bless you Jimmy Lippert Thyden, enjoy the miracle of finding each other after four decades. We all love you too. DS… Read More ‘Hi, Mom. I love you’: US man kidnapped as a baby in Pinochet’s Chile reunited with family
NB: This is one of the most moving tributes to Albert Camus that I have read. It is also crystal clear. DS He had succeeded in saying in his fevered way and in an argument as taut as a bow why, despite the fury and horror of history, man is an absolute; and he had… Read More ALBERT CAMUS: by Nicola Chiaromonte
In the wake of the July 26 coup in Niger, the world’s spotlight has once again turned to the expansion of private military and security companies (PMSCs) across Africa. Following the removal of the relatively pro-Western government, Niger’s new military rulers asked Russian PMSC Wagner to help defend against a possible military intervention by the Economic Community of… Read More Private military companies continue to expand in Africa
Jawhar Sircar There is no doubt that the increasing politicisation of the bureaucracy has been corroding, for quite some time, the pillars on which fair and efficient administration rest. The pains taken by the founding fathers of our constitution to protect and insulate the civil service from political interference had ensured a large degree of… Read More Modi is hell bent on building an administrative system that treats him as King
Any attempt to reimagine or recreate a constitution may fall woefully short in its objective if ‘freedoms’ are threatened and ‘unfreedoms’ are instilled by a usurper of power Deepanshu Mohan Source: The Wire In an attempt to initiate a discussion on the ‘new’ foundations of the Indian Constitution, chief economic advisor to the prime minister Bibek… Read More Safeguarding Academic Freedom Is the Bedrock of India’s Constitutional Morality
By Daniel Johnson Spinoza: Life and Legacy, by Jonathan Israel In mediaeval scholasticism, Aristotle’s reputation was such that he was usually referred to simply as “the Philosopher”. Amongst the moderns, this book makes the case for treating Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) similarly. If there is no philosopher but Spinoza, Jonathan Israel is his prophet. Spinoza: Life and… Read More A brilliant biography of an elusive genius
