Stanislav Markelov First posted February 21, 2019 When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish: Lao-Tzu, Chinese Philosopher (601-531 BC) This is the last article written by Russian activist lawyer Stanislav Markelov before he was shot dead in central Moscow a decade ago. On 19 January 2009, as Markelov and Baburova walked… Read More Patriotism as a diagnosis
Samuel Earle Faced with a future that presents itself as non-negotiable, the temptation is to turn towards the past First posted November 05, 2016 When Harry Potter discovers the Mirror of Erised in The Philosopher’s Stone—amirror that shows us our deepest dreams—he repeatedly returns to it in secret. Each night in its reflection he lives his… Read More The politics of nostalgia
First posted July 26, 2020 Neuroscience is finding what propaganda has long known: nostalgia doesn’t need real memories – an imagined past works too.. “He was still too young to know that the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of… Read More Felipe De Brigard: Nostalgia reimagined
Fascism thrives on gruesome caricature — and it’s tough to beat a pro-Trump Black rapper praising Adolf Hitler By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA On Thursday afternoon my editor asked me what thoughts I might have about the vile quarter of American humanity that includes Kanye West, Donald Trump, Nick Fuentes and now apparently the conspiracy theorist and podcaster… Read More Kanye’s tragicomic, antisemitic Alex Jones meltdown: Absurdism in the service of fascism
by Matthew Rose In the spring of 1941, as Hitler was laying plans for his invasion of the Soviet Union, Leo Strauss gave a lecture at the New School for Social Research as part of a seminar on “Experiences of the Second World War.” The lecture, which was not published until five decades later, marked one… Read More Leo Strauss and the Closed Society
First posted February 09, 2012 A photo of a lone man with his arms folded as hundreds around him perform a salute in Nazi Germany has resurfaced. The snap was taken in Hamburg in 1936, during the celebrations for the launch of a ship. In the crowd, one person refuses to raise his arm to… Read More Ordinary people. The courage to say NO
First posted August 27, 2019 Last year my daughter and I were on the train from Carlisle to Manchester. There was a stag party, loud and pretty annoying, and getting cross looks from some passengers. Then along comes an older lady, who couldn’t find her case. She was going from compartment to compartment, desperately searching. One… Read More The kindest thing I ever saw …
First posted August 03, 2019 NB: This story is moving because our time is filled with animosity. It reminds us that there are still amongst us those for whom compassion is a primary instinct. If there are people in danger at sea, sailors save them, without asking where they come from or the colour of their skin. The… Read More Sicilian fishermen risk prison to rescue migrants: ‘No human would turn away’
Akhtar Balouch Published March 23, 2015 First posted May 29, 2015 NB – This is a beautiful and moving story. It provides yet another example of human goodness, and reminds us how quick we are to pass it by, to overlook it, because we are so accustomed to negativity, denunciation and animosity. Beneath it (in the original) are scores… Read More Daya Ram Gidumal of Sindh: A silent servant, a silent sufferer. A good man
First posted September 06, 2020 NB: This is an example of how the micro-history of ordinary people can subvert all our stereotypes about animus based on race, ideology, religion and identity. Worth reading. DS. A love story between a 23 year-old black Army nurse and a 19 year-old white German POW during World War II? You… Read More Enemies in Love
After the truth-shower 