Political radicalisation and a profound sense of grief

A very thoughtful article by Robert Jensen on his personal process of political radicalisation. Rather than two pathways that readily come to mind, the one of hands-on activism and that of intellectual endeavour, he talks about a profound sense of grief for the pain in the world without whom joy cannot exist.

Getting radicalized, slow and [...]

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Chuck D and wife Gaye Theresa Johnson discuss rap, Malcom X, Obama and black political tradition

Excellent interview with Chuck D and his wife Gaye Theresa Johnson. It raises to our awareness the importance of black radical politics and black activism for a history that is not America’s as white liberals claim, but that is that of the black people in that country. Obama might be a symbol of that struggle, [...]

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Noam Chomsky: season of travesties – freedom and democracy in mid-2009

Noam Chomsky’s ZSpace Page / ZSpace
June 2009 was marked by a number of significant events, including two elections in the Middle East: in Lebanon, then Iran. The events are significant, and the reactions to them, highly instructive.
The election in Lebanon was greeted with euphoria. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman gushed that he is [...]

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Atheism needs to become more sophisticated

Given the intricacies of the human mind, dialogue can be quite fascinating. Here we have Terry Eagleton being interviewed on Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, two of the current ueber-atheists.
Eagleton could have a lot in common with them given his Marxist background that could make him see any religion, while having historical relevance, an illusion. [...]

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Majority of Eastern Germans feel life was better under communism

Young Germans, longing for life in the former German Democratic Republic
The following article is quite arrogant and condescending and clearly is written with a biased perspective that uncritically favours Germany’s political system of today. Nevertheless, it gives interesting glimpses into some of the advantages the former communist Germany offered its citizens over life in [...]

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On psychotherapy and the potential and limits of personal power

I don’t wanna raise the spectre of NLP here, but there could definitely be some poignancy in this hilarious “MadTV Bob Newhart/Mo Collins STOP IT” skit in regards to the relationship between clients and therapists: both sides for their own reasons very often depend on prolonging the journey. The latter for [...]

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Chuck D & DJ Johnny Juice on the myths used to create hip hop

more about “The Real News Network – Chuck D & Joh…“, posted with vodpod
The REAL News Network in its series of Chuck D interviewing political activist DJs is following up its first part by having Chuck D talking to another forming member of Public Enemy, Johnny Juice, on Hip Hop creating myths – from [...]

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Pagan values and value dilemmas

I’m not very familiar with paganism, but I certainly appreciate aspects of the pagan approach to spirituality infinitely more than that of many religions. There is of course the belief in the sacredness of the Earth, there are notions like the principles of unity or co-creation, virtues such as beauty, simple living, service, wisdom and [...]

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Books: Alanna Hartzok – The Earth Belongs To Everyone

Alanna Hartzok, a U.S. environmental and economic reformer, has put articles and essays of more than 20 years into a book called The Earth Belongs To Everyone, which also discussed the idea of the citizens’ dividend, and green economics.

She described how corporate-led globalisation was and is pushing people off their lands, patenting seeds for private [...]

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Palestine: What it’s all about (Never Before Campaign)

A truly moving video by the ‘Never Before Campaign’: in the midst of the struggle, and the dust of battle, many people still don’t realize what this is all about … it is not only about land and rights …

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The oppressive regime in Iran is bad, but so is the CIA

I’m no supporter of oppression or any other form of state violence and brutality. But let’s stop being hypocritical and become fair instead: while the Western world is rightly up in arms against state sponsored ruthlessness and barbarity in Iran, let’s ask the question: where is the same outcry and fervour [...]

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Gaia or Medea: is Earth driven by maintaining life or fostering self-destruction?

(Image: Sarah Howell)
I don’t think it’s an either/or question but one of difficult to predict cycles with uncertain outcomes. Scientists nevertheless try to come up with simplistic explanation for highly complex systems evolutions; the Gaia hypothesis is one of those, and the New Scientists’ article below uses the Medea metaphor to coin what it considers [...]

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Be a man, be a white person, be an American – or be a human being

Valerie Patterson – Abortion Men
A great way of saying that we need a new project called ‘radical structural analysis’. In the process, argues Robert Jensen, we will find an unsustainable system profoundly characterised by domination and subordination, which are reflected in how we live our lives in areas like race, gender and sexuality, the capitalist economy, [...]

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Conservatives use “racism” to drive a wedge between black and white working class communities

By Daniels, Ron
Ron Daniels’s ZSpace Page
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When rabid right wing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and conservative guru Newt Gingrich initially attacked Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor as a “racist,” they were using a time-tested strategy to appeal to Whites who believe their “rights” are being threatened by Blacks and people of [...]

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Quotations from Thomas Berry

The following quotations were taken from a Seven Pillars tribute to Thomas Berry, who recently passed away. They reveal a deep and profound cosmological understanding of our planet and the universe it is part of and for our species to relinquish the hubris that makes us think we are the crown of all life forms.

The [...]

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An anti-capitalist manifesto

Apart from it being Euro-centric (although it speaks out against Euro-centrism), this manifesto puts its finger with high precision on the causes for the many emergencies we are confronted by: the financial, economic, climate, social, food and energy crises  as well as the ongoing wars are by and large products of a rapacious and obscene [...]

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From Airbus to Afghanistan, Israel, Peru, Antarctica and Clinton/Bush as war criminals …

… and much more – a long list of articles on current political topics by Global Research. I like GR because its critical perspective shines a torchlight onto the otherwise pretty meaningless and superficial news coverage of the mainstream press. The articles listed below were posted between the 2nd and 12th of June 2009.

And if [...]

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A cosmological timeline

Visualisation of the Big Bang
I had this piece sitting on my ‘to-publish’ list for a couple of weeks now. It was created by a friend of mine, to be written into a 30m long brass spiral, which is the main feature of the floor for a ritual space she has created at her and her [...]

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List of current articles on the global economic and social crisis

The list represents a collection of recent articles by the Global Research Institute:
Sid Shniad, Daniel Estulin, James Petras & Russ Baker on The Global Research News Hour- Host: Stephen Lendman. Program Details, June 1-5 – 2009-06-05
Biopiracy, GM Seeds & Rural India
- by Priya Kumar – 2009-06-02
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The Economic Crisis in Australia
- by Peter Murray [...]

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There is a place and time for everything

… and some times both are very dangerous indeed. I could think of the Spanish inquisition, but also in our times of the murders of Ian Tomlinson and Jean Charles de Menezes by British police or many other forms of terrorism sponsored by ‘the authorities’ – be they church or state or both.
[Image nicked from [...]

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