Ideas whose time has come: A Conversation with Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo

Ramin Jahanbegloo, one of Iran’s preeminent intellectual figures, is currently behind bars in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where he has been held in solitary confinement since April 27th, 2006, with no formal charges brought against him. Among the hundreds of scholars across the globe who have signed an Open Letter to Iran’s president demanding Ramin’s…

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The History Of Human Rights: From Ancient Times To The Globalization Era (berkeley: University Of California Press, 2004), By Micheline Ishay

Judging by the queries about the book from usually indifferent New York City Subway riders, The History of Human Rights certainly has an interested audience outside the academy. To be sure, considering the “slaughter bench of history,” and the twentieth century’s innovations of mass murder, the development and institutionalization of human rights the book charts…

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Poetry by Alicia Ostriker & Andy Clausen

Alicia Ostriker “A Walker in the City” “Coda: Into the Street” Andy Clausen “Insurgency” A Walker in the City What you see is what you get, an inventory of garbage lying loose– the poor are always with us, but the rich lurk behind one-way glass in limousines and an entire class of attractive youth increasingly…

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The Hat: Arendt Meets Heidegger – A Short Play

Context for the Text Two outstanding intellects of the 20th century, Hannah Arendt, the political theorist (1906-1975), and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), the philosopher, met in 1924 at the University of Marburg, Germany. They both went on to write major contributions to 20th century thinking. Arendt is most famous perhaps for her Origins of Totalitarianism, and…

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Are Human Rights Human? 

The history of what we call moral progress can for the most part be seen as the history of the substitution of hierarchical visions with presumptions in favor of equality. The recent irruption into the social scene of the animal question is part of this ongoing process–a process that is usually characterized by a direct…

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V For Vendetta, Graphic Enough?

You say you wanna a revolution? Well, you know – or readers of a certain age will know – that even beloved old reactionary Walt Disney was a passionate fan of revolutionaries, if they were of the right lily white breed. Exhibit A is the stirring 1950s Disney TV series ‘Johnny Tremain,’ chronicling a handsome…

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What’s The Matter With Capitalism?

The Demise of the Critique of Capitalism Capitalism’s effects on society, culture, individuality, politics are vast and all-encompassing.  It is impossible to explore all of its dynamics in a single essay, but there is above all a salient reality that we can glimpse through any critical analysis of capitalism in modern life, especially in America.  That…

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Three Books On Terrorism

Terrorism is a low-cost tactic of coercion and fear that almost anyone anywhere can adopt. It takes only a few highly motivated individuals to shatter the security of millions. It is also a tactic that drives governments to extremes of paranoia and into morally repugnant terrain. So great is the fear of this method of…

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Torture In Our Time

Civilizing Steps The impression of pain, then, may increase to such a degree that, occupying the mind entirely, it will compel the sufferer to use the shortest method of  freeing himself from torment….He will accuse himself of crimes of which he  is innocent so that the very means employed to distinguish the innocent from  the…

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Fooled Again: How The Right Stole The 2004 Election & Why They’ll Steal The Next One Too (unless We Stop Them), By Mark Crispin Miller

Fooled Again?  Hell, we were more than fooled, we were screwed.  It is hard for me to review this book from the dispassionate stance of my day job as a social scientist. Perhaps such “objectivity” is not possible. Rather, I read the book as a vindication for a progressive activist who felt dumfounded on election…

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