After last week’s European Parliament elections has everything changed or has absolutely nothing changed?
Tag: radical
Current trends in self-reproach & guilt serve interests of elites
Ethical and political “correctness” have reached extreme levels recently. This suits the powerful perfectly right now, but may come back to bite them soon.
Should the left’s answer to rightist populism really be a “Me Too”? Part II
Should the left’s answer to rightist populism really be a “Me Too”;? Part I Let’s take an (artificially) clear-cut case. Imagine a democracy, in which a large majority of voters succumb to the anti-immigrant populist propaganda and decide in a referendum to close borders to the refugees and make life more difficult for those who… Continue reading Should the left’s answer to rightist populism really be a “Me Too”? Part II
Political Correctness Goes to the Vatican
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 a good translation because it… Continue reading Political Correctness Goes to the Vatican
Don’t believe the liberals – there is no real choice between Le Pen and Macron
The title of a comment piece which appeared in The Guardian, the UK voice of the anti-Assange-pro-Hillary liberal left, says it all: “Le Pen is a far-right Holocaust revisionist. Macron isn’t. Hard choice?” Predictably, the text proper begins with: “Is being an investment banker analogous with being a Holocaust revisionist? Is neoliberalism on a par with… Continue reading Don’t believe the liberals – there is no real choice between Le Pen and Macron
Slavoj Zizek on Clinton, Trump and the Left’s Dilemma
José Saramago’s [amazon asin=0156032732&text=Seeing] tells the story of the strange events in the unnamed capital city of an unidentified democratic country. When the election day morning is marred by torrential rains, voter turnout is disturbingly low, but the weather breaks by mid-afternoon and the population heads en masse to their voting stations. The government’s relief… Continue reading Slavoj Zizek on Clinton, Trump and the Left’s Dilemma
Disorder under the heaven
Late in his life, Freud asked the famous question “Was will das Weib?”, “What does a woman want?”, admitting his perplexity when faced with the enigma of the feminine sexuality. A similar perplexity arouses today, apropos the Brexit referendum: what does Europe want? The true stakes of this referendum become clear if we locate it… Continue reading Disorder under the heaven
The Idea of Communism (Introduction)
The long night of the left is drawing to a close. The defeat, denunciations and despair of the 1980s and 1990s, the triumphalist ‘end of history’, the unipolar world of American hegemony — all are fast becoming old news. In Europe, in the year 2000, Jürgen Habermas and Ulrich Beck enthused about the European Union… Continue reading The Idea of Communism (Introduction)
Beyond Mandela Without Becoming Mugabe
[Transcript below video.] In view of the difficult situation in which we all, in Europe, are, now I have quite many things to say. So, let me begin. Today, the very idea of a radical social transformation appears as an impossible dream, but this term (impossible) should make us think. Impossible and possible are distributed… Continue reading Beyond Mandela Without Becoming Mugabe
In the Wake of Paris Attacks the Left Must Embrace Its Radical Western Roots
In the first half of 2015, Europe was preoccupied by radical emancipatory movements (Syriza and Podemos), while in the second half the attention shifted to the “humanitarian” topic of the refugees. Class struggle was literally repressed and replaced by the liberal-cultural topic of tolerance and solidarity. With the Paris terror killings on Friday, November 13,… Continue reading In the Wake of Paris Attacks the Left Must Embrace Its Radical Western Roots