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Monthly Archives: May 2009
what’s to be done?
Eve Garrard, ghostwriter over at normblog, writes that
Anti-Semitism appears to be returning to Europe, including to the UK.
Note the title of this little polemic: “What is to be done?”–echoing the pre-revolutionary leninist pamphlets that called for the organization of workers and (in turn) the exorcism of Jewish interests from Russian society. It’s hard not [...]
the cartelization of information
As if on cue, the NYTimes is now running an article considering the ways that traditional media companies can turn a profit in the face of sinking ad revenues and dwindling subscriber numbers. It has this to say:
Internet service providers and media companies [could] sit down together and come up with legitimate offerings that consumers [...]
Posted in new circuits Tagged cartelization, google, net neutrality, new york times, pay walls Leave a comment
against net neutrality.
As per the last post, I’m thinking about media delivery on the internet, and I’ve come around to the idea that net neutrality is a bad idea.
Although most proponents point to the telecommunications and cable companies that are against it, nobody seems to have really thought the problem through to its logical conclusion.
Here it is, [...]
why print media is doomed
Lots of prevarications for and against the proposition that newspapers are doomed, but the numbers don’t seem to lie.
An easier way to tell is by anecdote: I was talking on the phone with my father the other day. He said, “I used to think that you needed to have a newspaper delivered to your house, [...]
vulgarity
Theodore Dalrymple (neé Anthony Daniels) has this to say on vulgarity in this month’s New Criterion:
Are there primary qualities so indisputable that all other qualities are ultimately reducible to combinations of them, so that we can know for certain, at least in theory, that we are all talking about precisely the same thing? Personally, I [...]
Posted in art, criticism Tagged anthony daniels, decadence, new criterion, theodore dalrymple, vulgarity Leave a comment
obama, statism and conservatism
This month’s New Criterion has a review of Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. Andrew McCarthy heralds the book as arriving “at its perfect moment.” He continues:
We are in the high tide of America’s Leftist ascendancy: the Obama evisceration of individual freedom and installation of authoritarian collectivism–at warp speed, driven by an ambition [...]
Posted in criticism, philosophy, politics Tagged conservatism, keynes, levin, liberalism, liberty and tyranny, new criterion, obama, statism Leave a comment
saturday
long, but interesting review of slavoj zizek’s magnum opus.
the 50 best songs of 2009, thus far (I agree with a sizable majority of the entries, so up it goes).
the new york review of books tackles money.
Theodore Kaczynski‘s manifesto: industrial society and its future discontents.
nuclear power and green energy
This morning I was in the bathroom when I received a call from a telemarketer. I’m not someone who’s going to deny someone who wants to sell something; I think that anyone ought to be heard out, and who knows, if what they have to sell is something that I need, I will buy it. [...]
Posted in politics, science Tagged energy policy, global warming, issues, legislation, nuclear power Leave a comment
white privilege
I was going through old bookforum archives when I came upon this article by Liz Walz about white privilege.
Her thesis is codified by the “three stages of acceptance” codified by Mennonite anti-racist ministries:
Realizing that racism is not a historical problem, it continues today. Although the Civil Rights movement made tremendous strides in legally ending segregation, [...]
Posted in philosophy, politics Tagged false consciousness, marxism, paternalism, racism, walz Leave a comment
solipsism in philosophy