Benjamin's Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Richard Kazis Benjamin’s age of mechanical reproduction by Richard Kazis from Jump Cut, no. 15, 1977, pp. 23-25 copyright Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 1977, 2004 “Marx says that revolutions are the locomotives of world history. But the situation may be quite different. Perhaps revolutions are not the train ride, but the human race grabbing for the emergency brake.” In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in the work of a little-known German literary and cultural critic, Walter Benjamin. Benjamin, like so many of his contemporaries in the German intellectual circles, grew up in an upper middle class, culturally assimilated, Jewish family in Berlin. In 1915, Benjamin met Gershom Scholem. In the 1920s, Benjamin developed relationships with both T.W. “discipline himself (sic) until his suffering no longer opens onto the precipitous road of hate, rather onto the ascending path of prayer.” The rise of fascism in Europe was the political backdrop to Benjamin’s radicalization.
Page not found Berto Jongman Russia Stunned After Japanese Plan To Evacuate 40 Million Revealed China said to offer up the “ghost cities” immediately capable of ingesting this number. By: Sorcha Faal WhatDoesItMean.com, 15 April 2012 A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by the Foreign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger” of life threatening radiation poisoning and could very well likely be faced with forced evacuations away from their countries eastern most located cities…including the world’s largest one, Tokyo. The Kuril Islands are located in Russia’s Sakhalin Oblast region and stretch approximately 1,300 km (810 miles) northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. Read full article.
Italian Futurism and Fascism The connection between Italian Futurism and fascism is well known. Alan Woods looks at the psychology of the Italian bourgeois and petit bourgeois intellectuals in the period before and during the First World War that gave rise to this singular phenomenon. It is an object lesson on how art and politics can become inextricably linked, and how this mixture arises from a definite social and class basis. During my recent speaking tour of Austria, I was taken to visit an exhibition of Italian futurist art in Vienna. It was a very revealing experience. The connection between Italian Futurism and fascism is well known, but here for the first time I was able to see with complete clarity the psychology of the Italian bourgeois and petit bourgeois intellectuals in the period before and during the First World War that gave rise to this singular phenomenon. This is not to say that the two things are the same, or that the relation between them is automatic and direct. Britain and Europe before 1914
Everything you ever wanted to know about anarchism This classic statement of anarchism was written by a diverse group of anarchists in Cardiff around 1980 and it is an interesting historical record of the optimism of mainstream anarchist thought at that time. There is probably more rubbish talked about anarchism than any other political idea. Actually, it has nothing to do with a belief in chaos, death and destruction. Anarchists do not normally carry bombs, nor do they ascribe any virtue to beating up old ladies. It is no accident that the sinister image of the mad anarchist is so accepted. The alleged necessity of authority is so firmly planted in the average mind that anarchy, which means simply 'no government' is almost unthinkable to most people. Yet there are a limitless range of possible societies without the State. Various sorts of anarchists have differing ideas on exactly how society ought to be organised. Very few people seem to understand anarchism, even though it is a very simple, straightforward idea. Large Scale Campaigns
The Authoritarian Personality by Erich Fromm 1957 Erich Fromm 1957 The Authoritarian Personality First published: in Deutsche Universitätszeitung, Band 12 (Nr. 9, 1957), pp. 3-4;Translated: by Florian Nadge;CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2011. What do we mean by “authoritarian personality”? We usually see a clear difference between the individual who wants to rule, control, or restrain others and the individual who tends to submit, obey, or to be humiliated. To use a somewhat friendlier term, we might talk of the leader and his followers. What they have in common, what defines the essence of the authoritarian personality is an inability: the inability to rely on one’s self, to be independent, to put it in other words: to endure freedom. The opposite of the authoritarian character is the mature person: a person who does not need to cling to others because he actively embraces and grasps the world, the people, and the things around him. Love means recognizing the world as an emotional experience.
PARALLAX - StumbleUpon Glastonbury plays host to tax protest at a sort of homecoming for U2 The last time U2 were booked to play Glastonbury a low-flying aircraft towed an anti-CND banner past the newly erected pyramid stage. It was 1982, the first muddy year, and Bono's band didn't turn up. The activist-pilot was later fined £400 for flying without a licence. On Friday the Dublin-based rock band finally made it to the stage to find a crowd knee-deep in mud, again, and a protest directed closer to home Art Uncut planned to disrupt the performance in protest at the band's 2006 decision to move their tax affairs from Ireland to the Netherlands, and rumours spread of siege towers and stage invasions. But the protest group's efforts, if visible, were shortlived. The festival's founder, 75-year-old Michael Eavis, had earlier told Glastonbury's resurrected radical newspaper the event was about "socialism with a small s". Eavis used the 1981 event – arguably his most radical moment – to raise funds for the anti-nuclear movement, naming that year's festival Glastonbury CND.
L'Islande invente la Wiki-Constitution - Monde Démocratie L'Islande invente la Wiki-Constitution C'est une première mondiale: l'Islande veut se doter d'un nouveau texte constitutionnel, et tout le monde peut participer. Via Internet et les réseaux sociaux, citoyens islandais et étrangers font évoluer le projet en débattant et en soumettant leurs propositions... Des membres du Conseil constitutionnel interagissent avec les internautes © Skrifstofa Stjórnlagaráðs / flickr Frappée de plein fouet par la crise économique, l'Islande avait besoin d'un nouveau souffle. L'Islande met en pratique le "crowdsourcing", néologisme apparu en 2006 qui désigne le fait d'utiliser le savoir-faire et la créativité d'un grand nombre d'internautes afin de réaliser un projet. Tous sont égaux. "Le public voit la Constitution naître devant ses yeux. Sur le site Stjórnlagaráð, les citoyens sont ainsi directement mis à contribution, et sur tous les sujets. Une démocratie véritable Sur la page Facebook, ce sont les internautes étrangers qui ont pris le pouvoir.
Proto-Facism in America - A Review Proto-Fascism in America: Neoliberalism and the Demise of Democracy - A Review by Adam Fletcher "War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength." - George Orwell in 1984. This book is an intelligent, defining account of our times. Scholar Henry Giroux effectively and concisely exposes the tyranny of the Bush Administration, and indisputably links corporations to the highjacking of American democracy. Giroux explains that part of this new approach is connecting the apparent intransigence of the public today to the larger forces of the anti-community: crass consumerism and the multi-national corporations which have driven the marketplace into every aspect of public life: education, health care, and the duties of the government across the board. Through this lens Giroux identifies the Bush Administration as hostile towards young people, by militarizing public schools, over-incarcerating young people of color, and defunding youth programs. Authors: Henry Giroux
The real definition of Terrorism The FBI yesterday announced it has secured an indictment against Faruq Khalil Muhammad ‘Isa, a 38-year-old citizen of Iraq currently in Canada, from which the U.S. is seeking his extradition. The headline on the FBI’s Press Release tells the basic story: “Alleged Terrorist Indicted in New York for the Murder of Five American Soldiers.” The criminal complaint previously filed under seal provides the details: ‘Isa is charged with “providing material support to a terrorist conspiracy” because he allegedly supported a 2008 attack on a U.S. military base in Mosul that killed 5 American soldiers. In other words, if the U.S. invades and occupies your country, and you respond by fighting back against the invading army — the ultimate definition of a “military, not civilian target” — then you are a . . . Here is how the complaint, in the first paragraph, summarizes the Terrorism charge against ‘Isa: By “outside of the United States,” the Government means: inside Iraq, ‘Isa’s country.
Towards Marxian Internet Studies | Fuchs | tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-operation Towards Marxian Internet Studies Christian Fuchs Abstract This article gives an overview of example approaches of Critical Internet Studies and points out key concepts of this field. Critical Cyberculture Studies and Critical Political Economy/Critical Theory of the Internet are identified as two approaches in Critical Internet Studies. The paper also discusses the role of 11 Marxian concepts for Critical Internet Studies. Keywords Critical Internet Studies, Critical Cyberculture Studies, Critical Theory of the Internet, Critical Political Economy of the Internet, Karl Marx, Marx is Back Full Text: PDF tripleC is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal (ISSN: 1726-670X).
Top 10 Online Tools to Connect With the Obama Administration Shaun Dakin is the CEO and Founder of The National Political Do Not Contact Registry. With the arrival of the first truly technologically savvy President in Washington, DC many people have high expectations of both the President and Congress. After all, during the election MyBarackObama.com became the hub for the campaign and supporters to do more than simply donate money online; it allowed users to organize themselves, create walk and call lists, post blogs, donate money and to tell the candidate what they wanted him to do and become. The reality is that outside of the Presidential campaign, much of government remains stuck in the technology dark ages. So, what tools exist for interacting with this President 2.0? Sites that Obama and his administration control: 1. Whitehouse.gov - Whitehouse.gov is the official website of the President of the United States (POTUS). Bottom line? 2. Change.gov - Change.gov was “stood up” in military parlance, two days after the election. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 1.
Qu'est-ce que le travail ? | Les dossiers Un entretien lumineux et profond avec le philosophe André GORZ (1923-2007) sur l'emploi, le temps libre, et plus encore. Indispensable ! Au sens anthropologique, on appelle habituellement «travail» l’activité par laquelle les humains façonnent et transforment leur milieu de vie. Au sens philosophique, le concept de «travail» englobe les dimensions multiples de l’activité humaine. Après le ponos, il y a la poiesis : le travail de l’artisan, de l’artiste, du «producteur». Enfin, il y a le travail comme praxis, que Hannah Arendt appelle «l’agir» (Handeln). Il peut sans doute y avoir des chevauchements et des interpénétrations entre ces dimensions de l’activité humaine. Le salariat, ou la dépossession du travail L’important, c’est que, dans ces définitions, le travail est quelque chose qu’on fait dans un but dont on est conscient. C’est en ce sens que le travail dont nous parlons quand nous disons que nous «avons» et «n’avons pas» un travail, est une invention du capitalisme. La peur du vide
Part 3 - T. A. Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism "...this time however I come as the victorious Dionysus, who will turn the world into a holiday...Not that I have much time..." --Nietzsche (from his last "insane" letter to Cosima Wagner) Pirate Utopias THE SEA-ROVERS AND CORSAIRS of the 18th century created an "information network" that spanned the globe: primitive and devoted primarily to grim business, the net nevertheless functioned admirably. Some years ago I looked through a lot of secondary material on piracy hoping to find a study of these enclaves--but it appeared as if no historian has yet found them worthy of analysis. Recently Bruce Sterling, one of the leading exponents of Cyberpunk science fiction, published a near-future romance based on the assumption that the decay of political systems will lead to a decentralized proliferation of experiments in living: giant worker-owned corporations, independent enclaves devoted to "data piracy," Green-Social-Democrat enclaves, Zerowork enclaves, anarchist liberated zones, etc. 1. 2.