Imaginal Politics

To any follower of the news, it may seem these days harder than ever to figure out what is real and what is delusional, and whether the delusional is an individual psychopathology or perhaps something more general. As Chiara Bottici puts it: “We live in a society of spectacles that ...
Read More
Placeholder

Technology and the Spaces Between Us

Humanity and the digital world

I remember that afternoon distinctly. It was an overcast spring afternoon and the light was soft and cast beautiful shadows. I was sitting having a cup of qehvah on a side street of Main Market, Lahore, the only woman in a street filled with men. Most of them didn’t know how to ...

Read More
Placeholder

Let’s Change the Future

On reclaiming our humanity in times of fear

I have a strange feeling, like I’ve been here before.

Everything looks familiar. The highly coordinated Islamist attack on a “Western” nation; the bloodthirsty demand for revenge; the calls to war abroad and the suspension of liberties at home; the simplification of the world into ...

...

Read More
Placeholder

An Invitation to Clearmindedness

In times of terror and rage like ours, remaining sober is the vital thing. Murderous fanaticism is not Islam. Fringe and mainstream are different things. Engaging in wild generalizations and disseminating venomous stereotypes is a sure recipe for disaster. Any type of fundamentalism must be combated, resisted, opposed. We ought ...
Read More
Placeholder

Anthropocene Denial Bingo

“We’re fucked. The only question is how soon and how badly.” (16) This is the refreshingly candid way Roy Scranton starts his small, intense book, Learning to Die in the Anthropocene (City Lights Books, 2015). For Scranton, the first and last job of critical thought is to interrupt habits of ...
Read More
Anthropocene Denial Bingo

After the Victory of The Law and Justice Party

Envisioning a perfect right-wing religious Poland

Karl Marx famously claimed that history repeats itself twice, first as tragedy, then as farce. Sadly, the recent parliamentary elections in Poland seem to show that actually the opposite can happen as well. Although the 2005 parliamentary victory of the Law and Justice (PiS) party ended in a short-lived coalition ...

Read More
After the Victory of The Law and Justice Party

Neoliberal B Team Win Canadian Election

Assessing the conservative defeat

The decisive defeat of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government was the big news of the 2015 Canadian election. Harper resigned as party leader, and the dirty laundry of his heavily controlled campaign is now being aired publicly. The Harper reelection campaign drew deeply on racist and Islamaphobic politics, attacking ...

Read More
Neoliberal B Team Win Canadian Election

Romanian Tragedy, Romanian Miracle

Glimmers of hope in European politics

On Friday night a heavy metal concert at a downtown Bucharest night club burst literally into flames, as a spark from a pyrotechnic display set off a conflagration that caused panic and pandemonium among the roughly 400 young people trapped inside. Over thirty people were burned to ...

...

Read More
Romanian Tragedy, Romanian Miracle