Tag: History

Was Vichy France a Puppet Government or a Willing Nazi Collaborator?

The authoritarian government led by Marshal Pétain participated in Jewish expulsions and turned France into a quasi-police state Lorraine Boissoneault On November 8, 1942, in the thick of World War II, thousands of American soldiers landed on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, while others amassed in Algeria, only to take immediate gunfire from the French.… Read More Was Vichy France a Puppet Government or a Willing Nazi Collaborator?

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Alternatives to the nationalism of the conspicuously ignorant: Markha Valenta

First posted July 14, 2012 The word ‘nationalism’ itself dates from the early nineteenth century and marked the increasing use of national identity in order to make political claims. So to argue that national identity is pre-political is itself a political statement.  It is becoming chic among some of Europe’s young elites to call for… Read More Alternatives to the nationalism of the conspicuously ignorant: Markha Valenta

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Jimena Canales: This Philosopher Helped Ensure There Was No Nobel for Relativity

First posted June 06, 2016 Henri Bergson’s debate with Albert Einstein reached and swayed the 1921 Nobel committee. NB – it is remarkable that the Roman Catholic Church banned three of Bergsons books in June 1914; and the Nazi’s banned Einstein after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 – DS This Philosopher Helped Ensure There Was No Nobel for… Read More Jimena Canales: This Philosopher Helped Ensure There Was No Nobel for Relativity

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Breaking the cycle

Whether defending human rights on an international stage, checking facts from the frontline, processing traumatic experiences over a lifetime, or even questioning the language you have spoken since childhood – all matter in the collective fight for justice. Eurozine Editorial – Sarah Waring Invading and absconding with children, indoctrinating them, destroying artefacts and literature, forcibly… Read More Breaking the cycle

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Putin: from victory to victory until the final catastrophe!

“Past greatness and weep narrating it”. This verse by Solomos perfectly condenses and captures the feeling left – by enemies and friends alike – by this year’s 9 May parade in Moscow’s Red Square before Mr Putin and other members of his regime. Why? Because what distinguished this year’s parade was its desperate poverty compared… Read More Putin: from victory to victory until the final catastrophe!

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May 1968 – March 2023!

by Yorgos Mitralias At a time when those who declare, even among the French elites (!), that we are witnessing the emergence of a “new May 68” are multiplying, while noting that in the country now reigns …. “an insurrectional atmosphere”, one can now reasonably ask: to what extent does March 2023 resemble May 1968? [1]… Read More May 1968 – March 2023!

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Toxic agenda

Alan Morinis In February, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, had expressed his great joy at the revival of the Kumbh Mela pilgrimage in the locality of Tribeni in Hooghly district, West Bengal. At the time, Modi said, “[D]o you know why it is so special? It is special, since this practice has been revived after… Read More Toxic agenda

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UP govt officials ‘takeover’ non-government institution that propagates Gandhian values

Head of the Gandhi Vidya Sansthan said he had moved a petition before Allahabad High Court alleging the government action violated an earlier high court order. Piyush Srivastava Uttar Pradesh government officials and police allegedly barged into a non-government institution that propagates Gandhian values in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, and said they were… Read More UP govt officials ‘takeover’ non-government institution that propagates Gandhian values

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The Underlying Sadness Beneath the Glittering Coronation of Charles and Camilla

When British people say ‘we do pageantry like nobody else’, they are indirectly admitting that we depend disproportionately upon the past to give meaning to the present. Jeremy Seabrook It may have been the grey of the London sky and the tender green of new leaves on plane trees along the Mall that lent to… Read More The Underlying Sadness Beneath the Glittering Coronation of Charles and Camilla

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On Jonathan Strassfeld’s “Inventing Philosophy’s Other”

Erik Hmiel SOMETIME IN THE MID-1950s, the American philosopher Stanley Cavell, a new professor at the University of California, Berkeley, encountered an elderly colleague given over to resignation. The senior scholar, having recently retired from teaching, recalled to Cavell the moment when he realized the seeming limitations of his philosophical prowess. The occasion was the… Read More On Jonathan Strassfeld’s “Inventing Philosophy’s Other”

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