Germany Year 1968: Democratic Turning Point or Annus Terriblis? Germany’s debate over the rebellious sixties has everything to do with the present
“The upper hand in the interpretation of the past determines who will hold power in the future; this is why the historical view of the victor is always so vigorously contested.” — German historian Edgar Wolfrum There’s no place like Germany for wrenching, introspective public debates over national history and collective memory. This phenomenon itself…
Read More“Anarchy is For Lovers”: On Progress and Conflict, Friendship and Fighting: Winter Social Movement Reading, between Adorno and Benjamin, Women’s Marches, and a Few Notes on This Moment
On my way home from one of the crazy trips I took to DC over the Kavanaugh confirmation battle in the fall of 2018, I wondered about all the years of actions in DC. Our trips to fight wars, presidents, and looming fascism, to try to make democracy work for people. Most of the time,…
Read MoreThe Right-Wing Myth of “Gender Ideology”
In March of 2022, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the controversial “Parental Rights in Education” bill – informally known as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” The bill specifically prohibits “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity…in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is…
Read More“Fragments of Paradise . . .” A Conversation with Jonas Mekas
On January 23, 2019, the Lithuanian filmmaker, poet, critic, and curator, Jonas Mekas, passed away. Mekas arrived in the United States in 1949 after having spent years in forced labor camps in Nazi Germany and, following the War, displaced persons camps. He went on to help establish major institutions of American avant-garde cinema, including Anthology…
Read MoreThe Novel in Ireland and the Language Question: Joyce’s Complex Legacy
The undiminished impact of Joyce in world literature, as well as the great critical and commercial popularity of contemporary Irish fiction, can blind us to the fact that the novel has an uneasy place in the Irish literary tradition. For more than a century, Irish fiction has enjoyed popularity and esteem on the world literary…
Read MoreThe Global Grievance Network: How Viral Masculinity Endangers Everyone
“Cyber misogyny” is sort of what it sounds like, a catch-all term for various forms of woman-hate spewing over the internet. Dig deeper, however, and you discover something unexpected. Women and girls may be its main targets, but they are not alone. Men and boys are harmed by it too. It can devastate entire communities,…
Read MoreThe Social Forum in Belem Do Para
As is known, the World Social Forum was created by an initiative of social movements in 2001, as a counterpiece to the World Economic Forum of Davos, a celebrated conference of the financial and political elites of the Western capitalist world. The WSF soon became an important planetary meeting place for popular movements – trade…
Read MoreReview Essay: Robert Plomin, Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2018
The primary paradigm for psychiatry at the moment is founded on the premise that mental disorders are largely a result of genetic, biologic causes, and therefore treatment rationales and understanding of mental illness are firmly rooted in this paradigm. Genetic research purports to demonstrate the truth of its premise. This research however, is beginning to…
Read More“You’ll Come with Me”: Humans and Animals in Times of War
Many are the phenomena that can light the path towards the emancipation of oppressed beings. Among them, there are sometimes processes that society spontaneously generates, and that can develop in unexpected circumstances. Something of this kind is happening now. The circumstance is war, and the oppressed beings are nonhuman animals. Pen Farthing and the Flight…
Read MoreReview: Bruce Franklin: Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War. Rutgers University Press, 2018
Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” remains the anthem of our times. We have been living with wars all our lives. World War II and Korea were central events for the generation before us. Vietnam was the defining experience for my American generation—whether we fought there, lost loved ones there, supported or fought against that vicious…
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