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Tag: Mao Tse-Tung

Chairman Mao and the Cosmopirates

If I could stand above the heavens,
I would draw my sword
And cut you in three parts:
One piece for Europe,
One piece for America,
One piece left for China.
Then peace would rule the world.

Published December 12, 2012
Categorized as Books, Featured, History, International Relations, Neo-Imperialism, Philosophy, War Tagged Carl Schmitt, Mao Tse-Tung, Nomos

From the Featured Archives

The Marriage of Equality and Inequality – 3: Brave New Worlds
(4)
May 19, 2012
Culture & Entertainment, Marriage of Equality and Inequality, Philosophy, Politics, Religiongay marriage marriage equality Same-Sex Marriage Traditional Marriage
The Marriage of Equality and Inequality – 3: Brave New Worlds
(4)
May 19, 2012
Culture & Entertainment, Marriage of Equality and Inequality, Philosophy, Politics, Religiongay marriage marriage equality Same-Sex Marriage Traditional Marriage

The civilization-level question may point toward a technologically enabled defeat of organic kinship or, alternatively, its resurgence amidst the collapse of the Western or liberal-progressive model, but it may take a very long time for such a deep-going process - a matter of "generations" in more ways than one - to work itself out. At our moment, marriage equality remains a peculiar twilight phenomenon, part revision, part eclipse.

Continued

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Commodity of Commodities
(9)
January 27, 2012
Philosophy, PoliticsClimate Change Democratic capitalism Socialism
Commodity of Commodities
(9)
January 27, 2012
Philosophy, PoliticsClimate Change Democratic capitalism Socialism

Avoiding climate catastrophe requires of democratic capitalism that it embrace its own absolute contradiction - catastrophically.

Continued

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Messiah >> Joker >> Zombie >> Man
(5)
August 19, 2009
Art, MoviesBarack Obama Obama Obamanaut Obamanauts Obamessiah Poster Race Zombie
Messiah >> Joker >> Zombie >> Man
(5)
August 19, 2009
Art, MoviesBarack Obama Obama Obamanaut Obamanauts Obamessiah Poster Race Zombie

The process of social psychological reconciliation can be as unforgiving as conventional monetary accounting, but remains infinitely unpredictable, compounding interest perversely - like a sadistic loan shark, like the Joker. That the actor who played the part in The Dark Knight died before the film was released adds even greater horror to the pallidly morbid visage - not as some crude call for assassination or lynching, Obamanaut, but as a death notice for the candidate's seeming promise: The Obamessiah we raised up becoming a zombie clown, an immortal Beelzobama, or maybe just a Lizard People - an excuse for mournful laughter, if ever there was one, perhaps until the day or days, to our relief or regret, a human being at last emerges.

Continued

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Noted & Quoted

Keith Spencer: …data shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate – Salon.com
(3)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election
Keith Spencer: …data shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate – Salon.com
(3)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

TV pundits and op-ed writers of every major newspaper epitomize how the Democratic establishment has already reached a consensus: the 2020 nominee must be a centrist, a Joe Biden, Cory Booker or Kamala Harris–type, preferably. They say that Joe Biden should "run because [his] populist image fits the Democrats’ most successful political strategy of the past generation" (David Leonhardt, New York Times), and though Biden "would be far from an ideal president," he "looks most like the person who could beat Trump" (David Ignatius, Washington Post). Likewise, the same elite pundit class is working overtime to torpedo left-Democratic candidates like Sanders.

For someone who was not acquainted with Piketty's paper, the argument for a centrist Democrat might sound compelling. If the country has tilted to the right, should we elect a candidate closer to the middle than the fringe? If the electorate resembles a left-to-right line, and each voter has a bracketed range of acceptability in which they vote, this would make perfect sense. The only problem is that it doesn't work like that, as Piketty shows.

The reason is that nominating centrist Democrats who don't speak to class issues will result in a great swathe of voters simply not voting. Conversely, right-wing candidates who speak to class issues, but who do so by harnessing a false consciousness — i.e. blaming immigrants and minorities for capitalism's ills, rather than capitalists — will win those same voters who would have voted for a more class-conscious left candidate. Piketty calls this a "bifurcated" voting situation, meaning many voters will connect either with far-right xenophobic nationalists or left-egalitarian internationalists, but perhaps nothing in-between.

From: There is hard data that shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate | Salon.com

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Eli Zaretsky: Trump’s Charisma – LRB Blog
(5)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election
Eli Zaretsky: Trump’s Charisma – LRB Blog
(5)
Political Philosophy, Politics2020 Election

Understanding Trump’s charisma offers important clues to understanding the problems that the Democrats need to address. Most important, the Democratic candidate must convey a sense that he or she will fulfil the promise of 2008: not piecemeal reform but a genuine, full-scale change in America’s way of thinking. It’s also crucial to recognise that, like Britain, America is at a turning point and must go in one direction or another. Finally, the candidate must speak to Americans’ sense of self-respect linked to social justice and inclusion. While Weber’s analysis of charisma arose from the German situation, it has special relevance to the United States of America, the first mass democracy, whose Constitution invented the institution of the presidency as a recognition of the indispensable role that unique individuals play in history.

From: Trump’s Charisma

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Matt Yglesias: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying – Vox
(0)
Operation American Greatness
Matt Yglesias: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying – Vox
(0)
Operation American Greatness

[E]ven Fox didn’t tout Bartiromo’s big scoops on Trump’s legislative agenda, because 10 months into the Trump presidency, nobody is so foolish as to believe that him saying, “We’re doing a big infrastructure bill,” means that the Trump administration is, in fact, doing a big infrastructure bill. The president just mouths off at turns ignorantly and dishonestly, and nobody pays much attention to it unless he says something unusually inflammatory.On some level, it’s a little bit funny. On another level, Puerto Rico is still languishing in the dark without power (and in many cases without safe drinking water) with no end in sight. Trump is less popular at this point in his administration than any previous president despite a generally benign economic climate, and shows no sign of changing course. Perhaps it will all work out for the best, and someday we’ll look back and chuckle about the time when we had a president who didn’t know anything about anything that was happening and could never be counted on to make coherent, factual statements on any subject. But traditionally, we haven’t elected presidents like that — for what have always seemed like pretty good reasons — and the risks of compounding disaster are still very much out there.

From: Trump’s latest big interview is both funny and terrifying - Vox

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Extraordinary Comments

  • 2013-02-02 8:42 am
    Voegelin’s Gnosis, Part 2: Crossing
    bob

    John 3:16 encapsulates a question, is belief static or dynamic? I believe threfore I am saved. Or, I believe and every action [...]

  • 2015-06-24 12:54 pm
    Confederates in Love
    Chris

    You'll notice that in my post I hardly mention what happened in Charleston. This is because me Charleston is just one violent projection of this [...]

  • 2015-05-23 9:49 am
    They also blog who only sit and comment… (Commentariat 2)
    trumwill

    These changes look like they will be fantastic. I already like the ability to go further back. When might we see the lower-left icons?

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