Tag Archive: democracy


In search of hope and sanity in a messed up world

Filed under: Books, Politics — Leave a comment
September 1, 2026

HYPERPOLITICS by Anton Jäger (Verso Books, 2026) HOW TO STAY SANE IN AN AGE OF DIVISION by Elif Shafak (Wellcome Collection, 2020)

I am constantly searching for books that make sense of our messed up world.

I don’t imagine for one minute that I am alone in this regard.

Above all, I am looking for some glimmers of optimism when all the evidence seems to indicate that the human race is doomed to repeat errors of the past and make still more calamitous mistakes in the future.

These two short books, 128 pages and 96 pages long respectively, are by writers who well aware of the scale of the task and under no illusions how urgent the predicament is.

The demise of any sense of collective values and rise of narcissistic individualism is vividly documented by Anton Jäger. He writes how “Today’s societies are composed of increasingly atomized and isolated individuals” and links this with the pace of living by observing that “atomization and acceleration go hand in hand.”

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The geeks will inherit the earth

Filed under: Books, Good causes, Politics — Leave a comment
December 22, 2019

PERMANENT RECORD by Edward Snowden (Henry Holt and Company, 2019)

3473Whether you regard Edward Snowden as a hero or villain, anybody who cares about privacy and freedom needs to read this book.

The recent ruling that profits of the memoir will go to the US government will, I’m sure, come as no great shock to its author. As is clear from the very first line of the book, the risks he took were not motivated by a desire for fame or money; he writes: “I used to work for the government, but now I work for the public.”

He sets out his mission statement for whistleblowing in equally lucid terms: “I was resolved to bring to light a single, all-encompassing fact: that my government had developed and deployed a global system of mass surveillance without the knowledge or consent of its citizenry.” To counter accusations that these actions were driven by self-interest, he states for the record: “what mattered wasn’t me, but rather the subversion of American democracy.” Continue reading →

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BERLUSCONI – A COUNTER RANT

Filed under: Italy, Politics, Television — Leave a comment
September 18, 2013

Silvio Berlusconi defecates live on Italian TV.

Silvio Berlusconi defecates live on Italian TV.

In Italy they are calling it a video message but the European press are rightly calling it a rant and a tirade.

Silvio Berlusconi, a man who knows no shame, is not merely ridiculous but dangerous.

He claims once more that he is an honest, decent man who is just trying to serve the country he loves.

Today he railed against the injustices he has had to endure but the very fact that he is allowed to voice this criticism in a 16 minute uninterrupted political discourse on national television is a further example of the corrupt and biased media which lie at the root of the Italy’s crisis. Continue reading →

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NOAM CHOMSKY : WHO BENEFITS FROM EDUCATION?

Filed under: Politics — 2 Comments
March 27, 2013

Cropped version of Noam chomsky.jpg.

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky’s lecture at the University of Arizona entitled ‘Education For Whom And For What? should be required viewing for educators, learners and open-minded world citizens.

In it, Chomsky exposes the way the minority who seek to maintain wealth and power have consistently worked against more enlightened principles of education. They are essentially enemies to the  idea that learning should be an active process of discovering and questioning in the quest for creative and independent thought.

Corporations and political parties have a vested interest in keeping the population passive and apathetic. Educated, active and curious citizens have a worrying tendency to question authority. Continue reading →

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