Essays Archive - Page 99 of 131

Ripped From the Headlines

Exiles on 12th Street, Episode Seven

February 28, 2020 • by Claire Potter

What has happened to the news? As the proliferation of terms like “fake news” and “alternative facts” indicates, we can’t take everything we read at face value. So who can we trust? The seventh episode of Exiles on 12th Street investigates how news media has changed, and how the headlines ...

Democracy

Must A Leader Not Be Above the Law?

Understanding the a-legal Foundations of Trumpism

February 27, 2020 • by Jeffrey S. Librett

Having spent some years studying and teaching about the structure and functioning of Nazi ideology, and having written books on the Christian-Jewish relationship in German culture, as well as German Orientalism, I would like to apply some of what I may have learned about extreme right-wing ideologies to the current ...

North America

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

February 25, 2020 • by Andrew Arato

The final hurdle is the Constitution. This involves the separation of powers, a powerful Supreme Court, and federal decentralization. Each hurdle also suggests a temptation inherent in populist politics, which Sanders represents on the left, as Trump does on the right. Securing the Democratic nomination in 2020 is a tall order for ...

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

Philosophy

Black Socrates (1995)

February 25, 2020 • by Simon Critchley

It was a moment in my life when music and politics and philosophy converged in a kind of contrapuntal harmony. The black modernism of funk, soul, and reggae, went hand in hand with an anti-essentialist, anti-metaphysical idea of socialist strategy that was particularly indebted to the work of figures like Ernesto Laclau. My friends ...

North America

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Similarities — and Key Differences — with the Prospects for Sanders in 2020

February 25, 2020 • by Bruce Miroff

Now that Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, has emerged as the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 2020, the old warnings echo even louder. Veteran media commentator Chris Matthews is typical of alarmists in prophesying that Sanders as nominee would match McGovern in losing 49 states (presumably Vermont ...

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Past Present

COVID-19 and Protective Face Masks

Past Present Podcast, Episode 217

February 25, 2020 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: The threat of coronavirus has lately made protective face masks a fixture in many global cities. Natalia cited this Vox article about the hoarding of such masks. Neil referred to this Quartz piece about the broader use of face masks in Asian countries. In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History: Natalia recommended Mac ...

Politics

Is Democratic Socialism in America’s Future?

The success of every radical movement in American history has occurred when it is co-opted by the forces of reform.

February 25, 2020 • by Peter Dreier

More than at any time since World War I, Americans are talking about socialism. Conservatives fear it. Liberals question it. Many progressives and radicals embrace it. Why is that word, and its egalitarian vision, enjoying a resurgence in the United States? And does it mean that socialism is on the ...

Is Democratic Socialism in America’s Future?

Democracy

Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Democracy and The Public Square

February 24, 2020 • by Elzbieta Matynia

“Democracies are not going to defend themselves. It is we the citizens who have to defend them. I believe it is not too late.” -- Adam Michnik, New School Centennial Lecture, October 2019 How can we resist the retreat from our beleaguered democracies and hold onto the embattled freedom we still have? I ...

Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Democracy

The Cultural Counter Revolution in Brazil

Fascism’s advance in education

February 20, 2020 • by Daniel Peres

The government is not only restricting our freedom of expression, though. It is more than that. They are attacking our educational system, and thus attacking our common culture. Brazil is a very diverse country, in terms of culture, and unequal, in terms of wealth and opportunities. It is not at ...

The Cultural Counter Revolution in Brazil

Politics

The Contemporary Art of Lying

February 19, 2020 • by Anna-Karin Selberg

The moment Donald Trump assumed the presidency of the United States, journalists began counting his lies. According to The Washington Post they numbered no less than 4229 by the end of Summer 2018. Paradoxically, however, Trump is a president with high ‘truth-capital’. He is not a liar, according to his voters, but ...

Democracy

Democracy is Losing the Online Arms Race

How media monopolies have damaged the public sphere – and what we can do about it.

February 18, 2020 • by Howard Rheingold

I started writing about the potential for computer-mediated communication in 1987, decades before online communication became widely known as “social media.” My inquiries about where the largely benign online culture of the 1980s might go terribly wrong led me to the concept of the “public sphere,” which had received a ...

Democracy is Losing the Online Arms Race

Psyche

I Started Transitioning This Past Summer. The Hardest Part Is the Unearthing of Past Traumas

On trans identity, poetry, and fighting for the dignity of one’s body

February 18, 2020 • by Isa Guzman

i. i say morning off-white ceiling insect corpse light dent fixture twenty-year-old piece of double-sided tape breath breaking mirror sun through gate’s red curtain I say to the ceiling: “I wish I wasn’t here anymore.” My body hadn’t been cooperating with me. I was constantly tired. A long-term relationship had ended. My graduate ...

Essays

Ripped From the Headlines

Exiles on 12th Street, Episode Seven

Must A Leader Not Be Above the Law?

Understanding the a-legal Foundations of Trumpism

The Four Hurdles and The Four Temptations of Bernie Sanders

Black Socrates (1995)

The Specter of George McGovern’s Defeat in 1972

Similarities — and Key Differences — with the Prospects for Sanders in 2020

COVID-19 and Protective Face Masks

Past Present Podcast, Episode 217

Is Democratic Socialism in America’s Future?

The success of every radical movement in American history has occurred when it is co-opted by the forces of reform.

Solidarity Means Sharing In Active Freedom

Democracy and The Public Square

The Cultural Counter Revolution in Brazil

Fascism’s advance in education

The Contemporary Art of Lying

I Started Transitioning This Past Summer. The Hardest Part Is the Unearthing of Past Traumas

On trans identity, poetry, and fighting for the dignity of one’s body

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