Essays Archive - Page 129 of 131

The Powerlessness of the Powerful

Living in post – truth, seeking alternatives, examining Nicolae Ceausescu and Donald Trump

September 14, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

This was most dramatically revealed in the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu on December 21, 1989. As this video documents. A mass rally in support of the leader morphed into a demonstration against the regime, apparently in a flash, though this was not as spontaneous as it appeared at first. In private, ...

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Rethinking the Human in the Digital Age

An Excerpt from Patricia Ticineto Clough’s latest book

August 14, 2018 • by Patricia Ticineto Clough

A commentary by Ticineto Clough on her latest book, in which she puts her concept of the user unconscious in relation to Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto”, can be found here. The turns in philosophy, media studies, and critical theory to the posthuman, the nonhuman, and the ahuman befit both a post-national ...

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Moral Blindness and Immigration in America

The Trump administration’s inhumane approach to immigration

July 12, 2018 • by Siobhan Kattago

Reactions to Donald Trump’s immigration policies -- whether in the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Muslim ban, rejection of domestic and gang violence as valid reasons for asylum or, more pointedly, the separation of families seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexican border, have primarily focused on the architects of such policies ...

Moral Blindness and Immigration in America

Democracy

Revolution, Democracy, and Restoration Revisited

In Poland and beyond

July 11, 2018 • by Elzbieta Matynia

To be sure, the time is out of joint, and we feel as lost as Hamlet does when he bursts out: Oh, that ever I was born to set it right! Indeed, things appear not as they ought to, and one wonders how to set them right. Although this is a view from afar, painted ...

Democracy

Democracy and the Uterus

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Bodily Autonomy

July 6, 2018 • by Maria Bucur

I was born out of a policy that forbade women to have control over their bodies until they raised 4 children. Under communist Romania, starting in 1967 and until 1989, many babies were born because women were refused control over their sexuality and abortion was made illegal. Most women wanted ...

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Sabotage as Environmental Activism

Why sabotage of pipelines is a justifiable and effective form of resistance to capitalism and climate change

July 3, 2018 • by R. H. Lossin

--Henri Lefebvre, “Space: Social Product and Use Value” (1970) On July 23, 2017, two members of the Catholic Worker Movement, Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya claimed responsibility for sabotaging construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in Iowa and parts of South Dakota. They had burned several pieces of heavy machinery ...

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Post-truth or Moral Truth?

The populist claim to authenticity

May 31, 2018 • by Lone Sorensen

“Enemy agents” is how the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) described the media in 2015. The EFF are an increasingly influential populist opposition party in South Africa, famous for their disruptive action and their calls for former president Jacob Zuma to #PayBackTheMoney he allegedly embezzled. In their attacks on the press ...

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From Velvet Revolution to Velvet Dictatorship

Reflections on Democratic Regression

May 3, 2018 • by Adam Michnik

Let me start by describing how communism died. The first thing to perish was the communist faith. And this faith had two dimensions. It was a faith in the project of a just world, a world of solidarity and freedom. And it was a conviction that people had finally deciphered ...

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Translating Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Work

An interview with David Stromberg

April 30, 2018 • by David Stromberg

You can read the translated essay "Socrates and His Teaching" here on Public Seminar. Q & A with David Stromberg 1. How did you come to be a reader and translator of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s work? How did you find Singer, or how did Singer find you? I don’t know when I ...

Translating Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Work

Migration

A Civics Lesson for Trump and Sessions

Sanctuary Cities and the Trump Administration

April 25, 2018 • by John Lawrence

As if we needed any further reminders of the reckless disregard for law and the Constitution rampant in the Trump Era, a panel of Republican federal judges has forcefully rejected efforts to punish so-called Sanctuary Cities by curtailing federal grant funds. It is a fair barometer to assume that when ...

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The Children’s Rights Movement Takes Off

What the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child offers students

March 16, 2018 • by Yvonne M. Vissing

And so it begins. Finally. Students in Florida who survived a school shooting are using their voices and demanding that lawmakers listen to them. They’re joined by other young people around the country who also feel they have rights that aren’t being protected. It was only a matter of time before young people ...

The Children’s Rights Movement Takes Off

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Black Insurgency, Anti-Racism, and the Student Mobilization Against Guns

The similarities and differences of these social movements

March 2, 2018 • by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

I have seen many comments on social media about the significant difference in how the emergence of the student mobilizations against gun violence has been greeted compared to the Black insurgency of Black Lives Matter. It is an important discussion to have because if these current mobilizations hope to grow into ...

Essays

The Powerlessness of the Powerful

Living in post – truth, seeking alternatives, examining Nicolae Ceausescu and Donald Trump

Rethinking the Human in the Digital Age

An Excerpt from Patricia Ticineto Clough’s latest book

Moral Blindness and Immigration in America

The Trump administration’s inhumane approach to immigration

Revolution, Democracy, and Restoration Revisited

In Poland and beyond

Democracy and the Uterus

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Bodily Autonomy

Sabotage as Environmental Activism

Why sabotage of pipelines is a justifiable and effective form of resistance to capitalism and climate change

Post-truth or Moral Truth?

The populist claim to authenticity

From Velvet Revolution to Velvet Dictatorship

Reflections on Democratic Regression

Translating Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Work

An interview with David Stromberg

A Civics Lesson for Trump and Sessions

Sanctuary Cities and the Trump Administration

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