2018 2018 March 4th, Sex in the modern world: Can even a ‘yes, yes, yes’ actually mean ‘no?’, RT. 2018 January 22nd, Sex, Contracts, and Manners, The Philosophical Salon. 2018 January 22nd, As Trump, Bannon, Assange & Oprah make headlines: The Empire Strikes Back, RT. 2018 January 15th, Hegel on Donald Trump’s “Objective Read more…
When commentators analyze the new wave of women’s struggles, one of their conclusions is that “no means no” is not enough to lead to a “happy sex life.” This is because it still leaves space for more subtle forms of coercion. Recently, in The Guardian, we saw an exemplary case Read more…
In the West, at least, we are becoming massively aware of the extent of coercion and exploitation in sexual relations. However, we should also bear in mind the (no less massive) fact that millions of people on a daily basis flirt, play the game of seduction, with the clear aim Read more…
The global elite will use any means necessary to prevent the economic radicalization of the left. So “MeToo” and smears distract while tax evasion has become legitimate. Three widely reported recent events sum up our current sad predicament: the open conflict between Donald Trump and Steve Bannon, Oprah Winfrey’s speech Read more…
What can we learn from Hegel on Donald Trump and his liberal critics? Quite a lot, surprisingly. In his critical account of Romantic irony, Hegel scathingly dismisses it as an exercise of empty negativity, of the vain subjectivity which perceives itself as elevated over every objective content, making fun of Read more…
Pope Francis usually displays the right intuitions in matters theological and political. Recently, however, he committed a serious blunder in endorsing the idea, propagated by some Catholics, of changing a line in the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer’s contentious bit asks God to “lead us not into temptation”: “It is not Read more…
In the West, at least, everyone has become massively aware of the extent of coercion and exploitation in sexual relations. However, we should bear in mind also the (no less significant) fact that millions of people on a daily basis flirt and play the game of seduction, with the clear Read more…
Marx’s formula of religion as the opium of the people needs some serious rethinking today. It is true that radical Islam is an exemplary case of religion as the opium of the people: a false confrontation with capitalist modernity which allows some fundamentalist Muslims to dwell in their ideological dream Read more…
How are capitalism and the prospect of post-humanity related? Usually it is posited that capitalism is (more) historical, and our humanity, inclusive of sexual difference, more basic, even ahistorical. However, what we are witnessing today is nothing less than an attempt to integrate the passage to post-humanity into capitalism. This Read more…
The saber rattling and harsh rhetoric during the current nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula should remind mankind of something we have forgotten. Atomic weapons are terrifying things, and talk of using them should be a taboo subject. A week or so ago, I found myself reading Agatha Christie’s 80th, Read more…