Instrumental Reason and Left Politics (tags)
In the neoliberal variant of capitalism, postmodern pluralism dominates and with it a reason that is no longer trusted to understand the whole.. For instrumental reason, the actual world is always the best of all possible worlds since the question of a better world cannot arise in it. No problem arises that makes another, not yet existing world necessary or desirable.
Jesus made fun of individualism and profit-oriented economic systems. Winning people to trust the infinite, invisible and transcendent God was surely his central goal. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?”“No sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s consent..."
Against the cannabilism of capital (tags)
Herbert Marcuse: The One-Dimensional Man (tags)
"Manipulation of needs" is one of the control instruments. Rulers change needs through manipulation. False needs are needs imposed from above like production and consumption of useless things. The need for freedom no longer exists in developed capitalist countries.
Authoritarian Capitalism and Digital Demagogue (tags)
Trump is not an individual phenomenon but one of many structural manifestations of the sudden change of neoliberalism into authoritarian capitalism.
Book Review: "The New Bonapartists" (tags)
In the figure of Bonaparte, the state made itself independent over society at a time when the bourgeoisie lost the capacity to rule the nation and the working class had not yet gained that ability.
In San Francisco, "Dispatches Against Displacement" -- a review (tags)
A work by a prominent San Francisco housing activist in a context of ongoing defeat for San Francisco renters...
Democracy and socialism (tags)
Democracy is the most popular word in the vocabulary of politics but also the most brazenly abused.
Total opposition - interview with anarchist writer Paul Cudenec (tags)
In an interview with The Vast Minority, writer Paul Cudenec calls for anarchists to unite in "total opposition" to the global capitalist system.
Memorandums on Alternative Economic Policy (tags)
The social state, solidarity, sharing and social justice open doors while neoliberal deregulation leads to exploding inequality, generalized insecurity and disappearance of the public spirit.
Memories Of Madison - My Life In The New Left (tags)
"The Young Republicans were all dressed up—men in suits and ties, women in dresses—and looked like they were attending a business meeting at the country club. Even though the Young Republicans were all white and most of them came from Wisconsin, I can’t say that I related to them much. But I felt even more alien at the meeting of the antiwar committee. The attendees were dressed in a much more Bohemian style and there was a lot of intense talk about politics. And they were Jewish."
Los Sojales son de la Policía (tags)
Un ministro del dictador Stroessner acuñó la célebre frase: “La Calle es de la Policía”. Hoy la frase acorde al momento, que tácitamente han proferido el obispo Fernando Lugo y su ministro del Interior Rafael Filizzola, sería “Los Sojales son de la policía”.
Barack Obama and the "End" of Racism (tags)
Obama doesn’t represent peace – he represents an expansion of war and the power of Empire. He’s even more extreme on this than Bush himself, except in his public rhetoric. He doesn’t represent the real and legitimate needs, desires and hopes of Black people - he refuses to speak openly of the most fundamental issues affecting Black people. He doesn’t represent the “end of racism,” but the perpetuation of oppression in a new guise.
Vivisection of Neoliberalism (tags)
"Therer is no such thing as society," said Margaret Thatcher. "The neoliberal understanding of democracy is marked by skepticism and open hostility." (Ptak) That market pressures are often more severe and oppressive is repressedf as long as possible.
The Future of Work-driven Society (tags)
When less and less time needs to be spent working for a living in Western industrialised countries, this partial freedom of gainful occupation is increasingly becoming a problem for those dismissed. The vision of working less and living longer is a utopia that is also realistic.
The weakness of God is stronger than men (1Cor1,25). The soft will overcome the hard (Lao-Tse)..What is usually regarded as important in the world fades into insignifi-cance. Here tenderness is subversion! The last becomes first and the first becomes last
Report from Teoria Critica, an Italian theorical research weblog
Offensive and Defensive Aggression: Herbert Marcuse (tags)
In this 1970 interview in the midst of the Vietnam aggression, Marcuse insists that affirmation of life is the distinction between offensive and defensive aggression. The phy-sician cutting off a leg and a pilot ordering passengers are defensive aggression.
The social construction of consciousness (tags)
This paper gives a theoretical discussion of the source and methodology of the social construction of consciousness. The first section introduces the piece. The second establishes the relationship between "interests" and "consciousness." The third describes growing inequality in the US. The fourth develops the structural source of consciousness. The fifth details the interlocking nature of politics and economy in the US. The sixth section discusses how our consciousness can be constructed. The final section offers some solutions.