The campaign of erasure banishes intellectual inquiry and the dispassionate examination of history. It celebrates magical thinking… The Israeli government bans public commemorations of the Nakba… a day of mourning for Palestinians who seek to remember the massacres and expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians carried out by Jewish terrorist militias in 1948 for this reason. Palestinians… Read More Israel’s Assassination of Memory
One word, in particular, stood out to researchers as a kind of linguistic watermark. “Delve” has become an academic shibboleth, a neon sign in the middle of every conversation flashing ChatGPT was here. NB: I’ve found ‘delve‘ occuring very frequently in students assignments. DS Sara Parker Join any Zoom call, walk into any lecture hall, or… Read More You sound like ChatGPT
pilgrimage journal the Great Beast From Simone Weil’s Gravity and Grace: The Great Beast [society, the collective] is the only object of idolatry, the only ersatz of God, the only imitation of something which is infinitely far from me and which is I myself. It is impossible for me to take myself as an end or, in consequence,… Read More the Great Beast
Mario Praz (1896-1982) was an Italian-born critic of art & literature, and scholar of English literature. His best-known book, La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica (The Romantic Agony, 1933) written in 1930 was a comprehensive survey of the erotic and morbid themes that characterized European authors of the late 18th &… Read More Mario Praz: The Romantic Agony (1933)
Goodbye Professor Naim By Vidya Rao Re-reading, now, his essay on ‘The Art of the Urdu Marsiya’, I realise once more what a wonderful teacher CM Naim must have been. I, sadly, never had the privilege of being his student. But, then to have known him briefly, even if only as an editor—that was privilege… Read More Remembering C.M. Naim, A Scholar Extraordinary. Vidya Rao and Shefalli Jha
First posted June 16, 2016 NB: Two perceptive comments on Modi in America: Kesavan notices his pathetic yearning to be accepted at the high table of the Anglophone powers; Chatterjee sees through to the symbolism of his homage to US soldiers killed during the Vietnam war. For those who may not know it, the RSS referred to the American intervention as… Read More Mukul Kesavan: Speaking in tongues – Narendra Modi & the Anglosphere / Garga Chatterjee: Modi salutes US military casualties in the Vietnam War (2016)
Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece’s Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophical Masterpiece James Romm For my money, there is no more captivating view in all Italy than the vast panorama of the harbour of Syracuse, framed by its majestic, honey-coloured Baroque buildings. The city’s origins go back to the eighth… Read More Roots of The Republic
A little-known philosopher’s deep influence over the avant-garde, neoconservatives, and the European Union…. ‘His work on behalf of a resistance group in Puy-en-Velay got him arrested by the Gestapo; anticipating his future talents as a negotiator, he managed to talk his way out of the firing squad.’ The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève BY Marco… Read More Hegel Dust
America’s epistemic challenges run deeper than social media. (NB: It’s not just an American problem) Dan Williams Many people sense that the United States is undergoing an epistemic crisis, a breakdown in the country’s collective capacity to agree on basic facts, distinguish truth from falsehood, and adhere to norms of rational debate. “The Yellow Press,” by… Read More Scapegoating the Algorithm
https://www.instagram.com/heartfelt_writing_journey/reels/ ************************* Ik haseen gaaon Habib Jalib Ik haseen gaaon tha kinaar-e-aab… Kitna dildaar tha, dayaar-e-aab / Kya ajab, beniaaz basti thay… Muflisi mein bhi aik masti thay… / Kitne dildaar thay hamaaray dost… Woh bechaaray, woh besahaaray dost ++++++++++++ A beautiful village by the banks of the river… / How dear was that watery… Read More Old friends
After the truth-shower 