occasional reflections on culture & politics
We are living in a world with many dangers, threats and uncertainties. And yet, panic, fear or depression would be the wrong answer. The only thing that really helps anyone is cautious optimism. You may ask, how can you be optimistic? It is a legitimate question. On the surface, I seem to be worried about… Continue reading #202: Fear Not: Why We Need to be Optimistic About the Future
Whenever we speak, it is important to be precise. Communication depends on it. Words have a meaning for a reason, and once we change the meaning of words in our society, we risk not being able to describe things accurately. Words are words, violence is violence. Some words may call out for violence directly, but… Continue reading #187: Words Are Not Violence
I. Game of Thrones has been a mainstay of recent television mania. Each year, the excitement built up more and more, and for the very last season, expectations were high, and, as it goes with genre shows, fans had their very concrete ideas about how things should develop. This now is a very belated, spoiler-filled… Continue reading #54: The Dictator as False Messiah: A Belated Review of Game Of Thrones Season 8
In Wagner's Parsifal, king Amfortas, who guards the grail, has a wound that does not heal. It has been inflicted by the (evil) sorcerer Klingsor who has used the king's own spear against him. The grail may help, but there are difficulties. Is this maybe a good metaphor for the Coronavirus? The virus has appeared… Continue reading #37: Coronavirus, the Amfortas Wound?
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 