Over the last quarter-century David Peace has helped to shape the meaning of historical memory in this country. Since the publication in 1999 of the first volume of his Red Riding Quartet — a suite of novels narrating the decay of social democracy and the rise of Thatcherism in a scarcely fictionalised West Yorkshire setting — Peace’s […]
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It is ironic that one of the great challenges of political activism across borders is taking the obscure complexities of a globalised economy and making them legible and local. Even today, with so much direct visual evidence of exploitation and violence at our fingertips, apologists are quick to tell us that any given situation of […]
In 1977, Giorgio Moroder laid down the grid-like groove of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and established a new electronic paradigm for pop. So began a period of machine-made acceleration that remains the conceptual bedrock of every sound in Futuromania: Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines and Tomorrow’s Music Today, a book about our dreams of the […]
Sex, drugs, and midnight screenings of Eraserhead — Jane Giles and Ali Catterall’s freewheeling and nostalgic documentary Scala!!! tells the story of the (in)famous London cinema that served the city’s outcasts, punks, and misfits from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. For much of its existence, the Scala cinema was based in pre-regeneration King’s Cross, […]
In my recent article in Small Wars & Insurgencies, Uncovering the sources of revolutionary violence: the case of Colombia’s National Front (1958-1964), I highlight how failures to secure consent through a passive revolutionary process compelled the dominant classes to adopt coercive solutions.
The post Passive Revolution and Armed Struggle in Colombia appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).
Four explosive tales of blood, spit, and venom.
The post The Animals That Turn Bodily Fluids into Weapons appeared first on Nautilus.
Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa posted that he is in NYC - and now we know that he will appear on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday.
It’s not very convincing Trump is highly, highly unlikely to testify in his NY hush money trial but he has been arguing his case (sort of) outside the courthouse every day. The NY Times did a fact check and it’s a doozy He said: “He puts in an invoice, or whatever, a bill. And they pay it and they call it a legal expense. I got indicted for that. What else would you call it? Actually nobody’s been able to say what you’re supposed to call it.”— last Monday The Times calls this false. Of course prosecutors know what to call them. They’re invoices for reimbursement of the $130,000 (plus taxes and bonus) second mortgage Cohen used to pay off Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the election. They call Cohen’s payments “illegal campaign contributions” and the invoices “reimbursement intended to falsify business records.” In no way were they “legal expenses.” He said “Also the things that he got in trouble for were things that had nothing to do with me. He got in trouble. He went to jail. This had nothing to do with me.
The Democrats and the Republicans are outdoing each other to prove who can get us to World War III fastest. Joe Biden and the Congressional Democrats are making a convincing bid to be the leading warmongers. The Congressional Democrats just voted unanimously in a vote of 210 – 0 to extend the Ukraine War with Continue reading »
An invitation: imagine a country wherein, as a matter of policy orientation, its 41 universities have abdicated one of their principal founding roles – to be dominant sites of secular critique practised by people capable of living what they teach and committed to taking aim at the unequal, imperial, antidemocrática present. Imagine, too, that this Continue reading »
In Northeast Asia a system of confronting military alliances – US/Japan/South Korea/Philippines vs China/Russia/North Korea – gradually takes shape, calling to mind nothing so much as the alliance system constructed in Europe in the decade leading up to 1914. The one today is no more likely to lead to peace and regional cooperation than was Continue reading »
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leads a government supine in the face of Israeli genocide in Gaza. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, I refer to your interview by Sarah Ferguson on the ABC’s 7.30 Report, 2 April. You speak as if the Israel/Palestine crisis began on 7 October. You attribute blame for the carnage that follows Continue reading »
The regimes in Israel and Palestine both claim to be victims in the violence that engulfs them. Interpreting the situation through “victimhood” assists in understanding the human forces that arise from age-old conflicts and that continue to cause so much horrific suffering. Pope Francis is calling on people of goodwill to raise their voices for Continue reading »
Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have put their future in the Labor pantheon at high risk with their new protectionism. Sooner or later, a real Labor leader will emerge, and one of her first serious acts will be to turn the nation back towards its natural advantage in free trade. It will be harder for Continue reading »
Those with a dedicated interest in maintaining the status quo fear education in the wrong hands. America’s current moment illuminates trends in Australia’s education: from the draconian repression of US student protests against the probable genocide taking place in Gaza to the Republican campaign to destroy public education, we must take note. Campus protests against Continue reading »
Claims that industry assistance comes at a cost to other industries and consumers are too often right. Industry policy should therefore be limited to areas of identified market failure and requires tight evaluation of each case and that performance targets are met. Editor’s note: We apologise to the author, Michael Keating, and to our readers Continue reading »
The Australian Union movement is a movement of peace and respect for all races and nationalities. We oppose war, racism, and oppression. We act in solidarity. The Australian Union movement is horrified by the escalating violence and death toll of civilians in Gaza. The ACTU reiterates its statements and resolution of 19 October 2023 and Continue reading »
The Western world (18 % of the whole world) believe HAMAS is the terrorist of Gaza. That’s a result of mainstream media conflating HAMAS terrorism with legitimate aspirations for self-determination. It disregards the observation that one man’s terrorist may be another man’s freedom fighter in the Gaza strip. Most Westerners would also likely reject the Continue reading »
Stage Zero: Unwelcome Discovery
Your rather unrefined friend sends you a link to an AI-generated violin concerto.
“Cool, right?!” she texts, followed by the laughing emoji.
You touch the callus on your neck from your twenty-two years of playing violin. Suddenly, the memory of the ruler-wielding teacher you had before you started the Suzuki method invades your mind, and you wince, subconsciously hiding your knuckles.
You click on “Vibrant Expressive Baroque Concerto.”
Stage One: Denial
It’s not that good.
It sounds like the B-side of a knockoff of the Brandenburg Concertos.
Nobody wants pretty good music. Nobody wants a pretty good burger. This is New York, you tell yourself, we don’t do “pretty good.”
Stage Two: Anger
You are more of a depression person. Eat your moping croissants and skip directly to the next stage.
Dr. Elias Doonesbury is a fictional “veteran psychologist” warning the world about Trump’s dementia But the real question is if he has a stiff gait. That’s the real sign of someone unable to perform the duties of president.