Tag: ideology

Robert Urquhart: Capital accumulation as eternal recurrence: theology of the bad infinity

The uneasy cohabitation of science and theology in neoclassical economics is an indication of its ideological character If the lion had consciousness, his rage at the antelope he wants to eat would be ideology: Theodor Adorno; Negative Dialectics. Extract: Neoclassical economics — most notably in the model of general equilibrium — gives an exhaustive quantitative… Read More Robert Urquhart: Capital accumulation as eternal recurrence: theology of the bad infinity

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Pakistan’s political crisis: Where is the country headed?

Haroon Janjua in Islamabad The conflict between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his predecessor Imran Khan seems to be escalating in Pakistan amid the worst economic crisis in decades. For weeks, police have been clashing with the supporters of Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, as the former cricket star fights a dozen of legal cases. Khan was ousted by a vote of… Read More Pakistan’s political crisis: Where is the country headed?

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A poisonous dictatorship has been built in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring

Sihem Bensedrine I was relieved when Hervé, a young man from Ivory Coast who occasionally helps me around the house, finally called. It had been four agonising days of radio silence. Since his landlady had evicted him, he had been wandering the streets of Raoued, a suburb of Tunis, trying to avoid the marauding gangs.… Read More A poisonous dictatorship has been built in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring

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Why the ‘Mother of Democracy’ brooks no criticism

Bharat Bhushan The belligerence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s MPs against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is not letting Parliament function. This is unprecedented, and especially galling because Parliament needs to pass the Budget in this session, irrespective of whether Gandhi apologises for comments made in the United Kingdom on the erosion of democracy in India. Forget his… Read More Why the ‘Mother of Democracy’ brooks no criticism

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Downfall of a British institution: London Metropolitan police found to be racist, sexist and homophobic

It may be an understatement to say this is a cataclysmic disaster that has befallen the Metropolitan police, the people it serves, the trust it has squandered and the bullied and overworked staff repeated leaders have let down. Lady Casey’s report details the fall of a British institution, tumbling harder than any organisation at the centre… Read More Downfall of a British institution: London Metropolitan police found to be racist, sexist and homophobic

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2023 B.G. Verghese Memorial Lecture: Nafrat se Itni Mohabbat Kyo? Why Do We Love to Hate?

Chameli Devi Jain Award 2023 – India International Centre The Lady Vanishes Gandhi’s Assassin. By Dhirendra K Jha Four Indian intellectuals who were murdered for their ideas (2013-2017) George Orwell: Ignorance is Strength; Freedom is Slavery; War is Peace George Orwell – Freedom of the Park (1945) George Orwell’s Final Warning: “If you want a picture of the… Read More 2023 B.G. Verghese Memorial Lecture: Nafrat se Itni Mohabbat Kyo? Why Do We Love to Hate?

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Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism & New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han. Review (2017)

An examination of the internet age suggests that we should cultivate the heresies of secrets and silence Stuart Jeffries During a commercial break in the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple broadcast an ad directed by Ridley Scott. Glum, grey workers sat in a vast grey hall listening to Big Brother’s declamations on a huge screen. Then a… Read More Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism & New Technologies of Power by Byung-Chul Han. Review (2017)

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March 18, 1871: Revolt of the Paris Commune; March 18, 1921: The Bolsheviks crush the Kronstadt sailors’ rebellion against tyranny

Paris Commune: The revolt dividing France 150 years on Over 150 years after the Paris Commune, rival passions flare over how to remember the city’s brief and much-romanticised experiment in power to the people. The first act of the city’s famous insurrection came on 18 March 1871, when crowds stopped troops from requisitioning cannons parked… Read More March 18, 1871: Revolt of the Paris Commune; March 18, 1921: The Bolsheviks crush the Kronstadt sailors’ rebellion against tyranny

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Formula Pinochet: Chilean Lessons for Russian Liberal Reformers during the Soviet Collapse

Tobias Rupprecht Journal of Contemporary History: Vol. 51, No. 1, Special Section: The Dark Side of Transnationalism (January 2016) Numerous references to the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet run through Soviet and Russian political discourse from the 1970s to the late 1990s. Official representations of Pinochet, a carefully constructed bogeyman of Soviet domestic and foreign… Read More Formula Pinochet: Chilean Lessons for Russian Liberal Reformers during the Soviet Collapse

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