Category: Uncategorized

Kalundi Serumaga – On Reinventing Europe: An Open Letter to Mr George Soros

Link to an article/letter by Kalundi Serumaga:

“On Reinventing Europe: An Open Letter to Mr George Soros”

 

This pieces raises many excellent points.  But it is also worth pointing out some questionable aspects of its theoretical framework and recommendations.  First, while the article characterizes the essence of Europe as Bonapartism, it does so by applying philosophical standards that originated in Europe, or at least drew from European precedents.  While it may well be fair to call the current hegemonic ideology of Europe (and elsewhere) Bonapartist, to treat all of Europe as monolithic and without counter-currents seems rather reductionist.  Second, the “tasks for EU civil society” include “2. Find out what your countries truly owe, and make them pay it back”  This is basically both a politics of victimhood and an expression of ressentiment.  Frantz Fanon once wrote, “The colonized man is an envious man.”  That seems accurate in this context, but as a statement of limitation of vision.  The last chapter of Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks explicitly rejected Serumaga’s approach, and that is a big part of why Fanon is a stronger theoretical reference point than what is expressed in Serumaga’s article.  Lastly, the article concludes by saying, “It is time for the North to (once again, after Ancient Egypt) learn from the South.”  This is a dubious offhand assertion of identity politics, yet again in the service of the valorization of victimhood status and ressentiment.  It is problematic mainly because, in a cynical way, “[w]e thus enter a cruel world of brutal power games masked as a noble struggle of victims against oppression.”

Georg Lukács Quote

“It is an old truth of Marxism that every human activity should be judged according to the objective meaning in the total context, and not according to what the agent believes the importance of his activity to be.”

Georg Lukács, “Realism in the Balance” (1938) (reprinted in Aesthetics and Politics)

Note also Lucius Cassius’ legal principle, recorded by Cicero in Pro Roscio Amerino, “Cui bono?”.

For the exact opposite position, see The Fountainhead

John Berger – The Primitive and the Professional Quote

“The distinction between profession and craft is at first difficult to make, yet it is of great importance.  The craftsman survives so long as the standards for judging his work are shared by different classes.  The professional appears when it is necessary for the craftsman to leave his class and ’emigrate’ to the ruling class, whose standards of judgement [sic] are different.”

John Berger, “The Primitive and the Professional,” New Society 1976 (reprinted in About Looking).

Bruce Lerro – Big Brother Facebook

Link to an article by Bruce Lerro:

“Big Brother Facebook: Drawing Down the Iron Curtain on Yankeedom”

 

Bonus links: “RYM Shitheads” (describes how another, less popular web site has taken a very similar approach) and “The Limits of the Web in an Age of Communicative Capitalism” and “Why ‘Russian Meddling” Is a Trojan Horse” Quote and “Democrats and the Crisis of Legitimacy” and “Technology Giants Hold Censorship Meeting With US Intelligence Agencies” and “Facebook’s New Propaganda Partners”

Erwin Chemerinsky – Arbitration Agreements Ruling Is a Significant Loss for Workers

Link to an article by Erwin Chemerinsky:

“Arbitration Agreements Ruling Is a Significant Loss for Workers”

 

Chemerinsky’s article is well-reasoned, though it should be emphasized that all judges on the U.S. supreme court are pro-capitalist and pro-business, differing only in degree about how many restrictions can be imposed on business.

 

Bonus links: “Stop Calling It an Arbitration Agreement—Employers Are Forcing Workers to Give Up Their Rights” and “Grand Theft Paycheck: The Large Corporations Shortchanging Their Workers’ Wages” and …And the Poor Get Prison