Tag: the human mind

Disappointed, disenchanted, defiant: inside the world of the West Bank’s angry armed youths

The truth never dies but is made to live as a beggar: Yiddish proverb / Speak the truth. Stop the killing The world of Mohammed al-Musseimi was not very wide. The 15-year-old lived with his aunt and grandmother in a gloomy house almost without windows in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.… Read More Disappointed, disenchanted, defiant: inside the world of the West Bank’s angry armed youths

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‘What’s your rate’. Northeast women still have it bad in Delhi. Nothing has changed in 9 years

NB: This a damn shame, even worse is that it has been going on for decades; and despite promises by the police and various administrations to educate the public and punish the offenders, nothing changes. Calling people chinki‘s and prostitutes because of the way they look is racist and misogynist. Those politicians who go on… Read More ‘What’s your rate’. Northeast women still have it bad in Delhi. Nothing has changed in 9 years

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Debora MacKenzie: End of nations – is there an alternative to countries?

First posted October 01, 2016 Try, for a moment, to envisage a world without countries. Imagine a map not divided into neat, coloured patches, each with clear borders, governments, laws. Try to describe anything our society does – trade, travel, science, sport, maintaining peace and security – without mentioning countries. Try to describe yourself: you have… Read More Debora MacKenzie: End of nations – is there an alternative to countries?

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Diana Muir Appelbaum: Rootless Roma: The benefits of nationalism, as illustrated by its absence

First posted July 04, 2017 At the core of the Roma’s troubles is the fact that they are a people without a land – but with a twist. To say that a people is without a land can mean at least three things. It can mean that, for one reason or another, a people does… Read More Diana Muir Appelbaum: Rootless Roma: The benefits of nationalism, as illustrated by its absence

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In a distressing world, moments of beauty seem elusive. I found one in a Sydney theatre

Paul Daley Given humankind’s recent showcasing of its infinite capacity to inflict misery upon itself, joy sometimes seems so elusive as to be borderline extinct. It sometimes feels near impossible to find moments of beauty, let alone a line of them, in such a distressing world. And, so, given that beauty may now be a… Read More In a distressing world, moments of beauty seem elusive. I found one in a Sydney theatre

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The news has become intolerable and inhumane. Democracy’s vital feedback mechanism is broken

Julianne Schultz It is little wonder that people are turning off the news in record numbers. The images are often unwatchable, the descriptions beyond imagining, the scale incomprehensible. Everywhere you look the cruelty of the human spirit is on display. Newsreaders have adjusted their scripts. They used to say, “Some viewers might find the next… Read More The news has become intolerable and inhumane. Democracy’s vital feedback mechanism is broken

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Claudia Koontz: Hitler’s Assault on the Golden Rule

First posted December 29, 2011 The Third George J. Wittenstein Lecture: Hitler’s Assault on the Golden Rule  To ‘resist’, from the Latin resistere, means to stand fast, to uphold principles against pressure to abandon them Claudia Koonz discusses the appeal of the Nazis’ mandate to ‘Love only the neighbour who is like thyself’ Using examples… Read More Claudia Koontz: Hitler’s Assault on the Golden Rule

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Whither philosophy?

The discipline today finds itself precariously balanced between incomprehensible specialisation and cheap self-help Siobhan Lyons As long as there has been such a subject as philosophy, there have been people who hated and despised it,’ reads the opening line of Bernard Williams’s article ‘On Hating and Despising Philosophy’ (1996). Almost 30 years later, philosophy is… Read More Whither philosophy?

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