occasional reflections on culture & politics
There is an occasional tendency to view the past with a certain sense of nostalgia and even benevolence. “Things couldn’t possibly have been as bad, certainly, now things are worse than ever before.” Etc. Unfortunately, this has recently also affected the GDR, the so-called German Democratic Republic (former Socialist/Communist East Germany) – especially when it… Continue reading #217: Thoughts on June 17: The GDR Was an Inhumane Dictatorship
Under the guise of celebrating the 77th year of victory over Nazi Germany, Russia has continued to deny its own home-grown brand of totalitarianism and to sanitize the savage brutality of the Soviet Union. Before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, the Soviets were allied with him and happy to wage war on Poland, Finland, Latvia,… Continue reading #163: Putin’s Russia Celebrates Its Own Fascism
Dear Russia, your president is lying to you. That happens sometimes, politicians are not always honest for a variety of reasons. Your president is stealing from you. That also sometimes happens. Your president is ruining you reputation. That also sometimes happens. Your president is doing something that you would really not approve of if you… Continue reading #155: Dear Russia: Make It Stop
President Putin has famously said that the “breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.” Only a former KGB agent could come up with this idiotic statement. Such an ignorant analysis can only come from a position that is deeply imperialistic, totalitarian and ignorant of history. Lenin was right… Continue reading #146: The Fall of the Soviet Union Was the Greatest Event of the Late 20th Century
Francis Fukuyama has been much ridiculed for allegedly claiming that we had reached the “end of history” in the 1990s after the victory of democracy over socialism. His argument, however, was more complex, and consisted rather in an update of Hegel’s analysis of the consequences of the dual victory of Napoleonic France (and its proclaimed… Continue reading #83: The Purpose of History, or, We Need to Explain Democracy Better
There have been plenty of attempts to redefine the Left/Right paradigm that still seems to reign supreme in most people's minds, especially in journalism. Originally established in the French National Assembly in 1789, it divided parliamentarians between those in support of the French Revolution on the left, and the supporters of the Establishment on the… Continue reading #46: We Need to Move Beyond the Left/Right Paradigm
There seems to be a notion out there that there are different stages of being left-wing or progressive. This goes back, of course, to Hegelian ideas about the Spirit of History, the End of History, and stages of development, which, in some way, were given a materialist spin by Marxism. Anybody who believes that somehow,… Continue reading #18: What’s Left: Communism, Socialism, Progressivism, Social Democracy, and the Value of Dissent
Erratic Attempts 