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

Sinicisation

When Alain Badiou claims that democracy is our fetish, this statement is to be taken in the precise Freudian sense, not just to mean that we elevate democracy into an untouchable Absolute. ‘Democracy’ is the last thing we see before confronting the ‘lack’ constitutive of the social field, the fact that ‘there is no class… Continue reading Sinicisation

Slavoj Zizek: What does it mean to be a great thinker today?

[Partial transcript from the end of the video is below] And here I even agree with my friend, although a right-winger – but you can learn from conservative intelligent right-wingers – Peter Sloterdijk, who said the problem today is we don’t have enough alienation. We have … we should break this politically correct, multi-culti stupidity… Continue reading Slavoj Zizek: What does it mean to be a great thinker today?

Mandela’s Socialist Failure

In the last two decades of his life, Nelson Mandela was celebrated as a model of how to liberate a country from the colonial yoke without succumbing to the temptation of dictatorial power and anti-capitalist posturing. In short, Mandela was not Mugabe, South Africa remained a multi-party democracy with free press and a vibrant economy… Continue reading Mandela’s Socialist Failure

Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism; On the Political Tragedy of Vaclav Havel

[Review of [amazon asin=B01K0TINR2&text=Václav Havel: A Political Tragedy in Six Acts] by John Keane] In 1974, Paul Theroux visited Vietnam, after the peace agreement and the withdrawal of the US Army, but before the Communist takeover. He writes about it in [amazon asin=0141189142&text=The Great Railway Bazaar]. A couple of hundred US soldiers were still there… Continue reading Attempts to Escape the Logic of Capitalism; On the Political Tragedy of Vaclav Havel