Jeff Sparrow's Blog, page 8
September 14, 2011
some new articles
Just put up two new pieces: one on the strange relationship between neoliberalism and neoconservatism, and the even stranger one between Australian fascists and the supporters of Max Brenner.
September 8, 2011
the Republican id
Watching the debate between the various Republican presidential contenders, it's hard not to think of General Astray's slogan from the Spanish Civil War: 'Muera la inteligencia! Viva la muerte!' Look at what happens at 0.10. 'Death to the intellectuals! Long live death!'
September 3, 2011
the energy god freestyling
This made me smile.
August 27, 2011
Jay Rosen: 'Don't you think that's a little strange?'
The text of Jay Rosen's Big Idea presentation from the MWF is available in full. There's lots to like in it: his instinctive revulsion at a TV program called Insiders on which journalists interview journalists, his dissection of the 'cult of saviness', his argument about the cult of innocence that plays out in 'he said, she said' journalism. Here, for instance, is his analysis of a recent (and, as he says, not especially obnoxious) piece on the Labor Party and gay marriage:
The insiders are worried about how their conference is going to "play" in the media. They are trying to make the story come out a certain way. Reporters grant them anonymity so these struggles can be publicized. But if today's media report about politics is about how the media will be reporting a political event tomorrow, there's obviously something circular in that. And this is how it begins to make sense to call the journalists "insiders." Everyone is engaged in the production of media narratives. Journalists and politicians are both "inside" the story making machinery.
The thrust of his piece is clearly right — and for evidence of that you only have to look at the response from an insider journalist, denouncing Rosen for outlining how the media works since … that's just how it works.
I do think, though, that Rosen's analysis doesn't go far enough. For while the 'how' matters, the more important question is 'why'. Yes, the political media is dysfunctional and, yes, it seems to be getting worse. But what's behind that degeneration?
Here's my attempt at an answer, from a Drum piece some time back.
August 26, 2011
tings and times
Some events to which I am in varying degrees connected.
Overland at the Melbourne Writers Festival
27 August 2011 | 2:30pm – 3:30pm | Venue: ACMI The Cube
Launch of Overland 204
Sophie Cunningham does the honours as radical literary journal Overland launches its 204th edition, which features Malalai Joya on Afghanistan and the West, John Martinkus on a kidnapping in Iraq, new writing by emerging female authors and much, much more.
Free, no booking required.
Proudly supported by Victoria University
28 August 2011| 4:00pm – 5:00pm | Venue: BMW Edge
Information Overload
Has the endlessly ballooning internet sacrificed quality of information for quantity? Net culture researcher Suelette Dreyfus (Hacker), citizen journalism advocate Jay Rosen (Rebooting the News) and Jeremy Goldkorn (danwei.org) discuss the limits of helpful data and whether the net, while changing lives, is also changing our social structures. Chaired by Jeff Sparrow.
Proudly supported by Meanland and the Australian Centre on China in the World
2 September 2011 | 4:00pm – 5:00pm | Venue: ACMI The Cub
In Conversation: Joseph Braude
New Republic columnist Joseph Braude's powerful dissection of modern Morocco, The Honoured Dead, arose from his pursuit of justice in an apparent routine murder case. He explores his investigations, from the wealthiest homes in the country, to the Berber heartland and the migrant backstreets of Casablanca, with Overland magazine's Jeff Sparrow.
Free, no booking required.
3 September 2011 | 6:30pm – 7:30pm | Venue: BMW Edge
Big Ideas: Malalai Joya on 'Ten Years After 9/11 – Pakistan Afghanistan and the Struggle for Democracy'
Malalai Joya shot to prominence in 2005 as a female parliamentarian in the National Assembly of Afghanistan. Since then, she's defied death threats from warlords and Islamists to speak out for the rights of women, and against corruption and foreign occupation. In this seminal address, a week before the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, she talks about what militarism and the 'war on terror' has meant for ordinary people in a region wracked by violence.
4 September 2011 | 2:30pm – 3:30pm | Venue: BMW Edge
The Pity of War: Afghanistan and Iraq
Former Afghan politician Malalai Joya, one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World 2010, respected journalists John Martinkus and Karen Middleton, and Overland editor discuss conflict and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the consequences of two wars that never seem to end.
Overland at the Brisbane Writers Festival
10 September
New Writing: Literary Magazines
Description: e.e. cummings once said that running a literary magazine was like pushing your head through a straw. Leading Australian literary magazine editors Peter Rose, David Brooks and Jeff Sparrow discuss staying relevant yet sustainable.
11 September
The Digital Revolution: Who Pays?
Deriving an income from the online distribution of books, blogs, news and more remains elusive. Henry Rosenbloom, Jeff Sparrow and Sophie Cunningham discuss the opportunities and challenges of doing business on the net.
August 19, 2011
August 18, 2011
played for chumps, over and over again
I've put together a piece about neoconservatism and neoliberalism for the Drum. As some people have already pointed out, it's a bit of an oversimplification, but I think the main point holds.
August 12, 2011
neoliberalism and rioting
A piece up at Counterpunch.
August 9, 2011
the ongoing persecution of David Hicks
My latest piece is up at the Drum.
August 5, 2011
more from Oslo: background to the massacre
Another email from Mike Seltzer in Oslo, this time with background information on 'Fjordman', the Islamophobic blogger Breivik so admired. There's more on Fjordman here and here; Mike's perspective (slightly edited) is below:
More supporting evidence for putting Breivik and his clones into a class perspective.
His ideological mentor, Fjordman, cited 111 times in the manifesto, was forced out from under his rock by police yesterday since he and Breivik had communicated via email.
Then his name was leaked (Oslo police and the tabloids work hand in hand) and this morning he is revealed in an interview forced I am sure on him by one of the tabloids.
Here is the short English version of the interview:
I have already checked on his family background. His father ran a record and "hippie" shop in Ålesund and then turned into a concert arranger for jazz and rock concerts.
The interesting thing class wise about this chap is that his only jobs (2) have been at municipal day centers for psychiatric patients which basically means low paid aide job, mopping up, etc.But in Norway, these are the kinds of jobs that, since the 1970s, immigrants from the Third World take (ie, the kind of jobs Norwegians don't want, is what is commonly heard).My ex-brother in law, a plumber, was very skeptical about immigration from third world, until he got burned and ended up in hospital here for about a month: nearly all his contacts with staff were from the Third World and he came out a confirmed anti-racist.
It's also interesting that this chap apparently has no girl friend and basically works at this low paid job and then goes home and takes on his Fjordman cloak and then goes after Muslims. His main argument, which he gets into nearly all blogs, is that all politicians and journalists who allow immigration – and especially Muslim immigants – are traitors and should be treated accordingly. Some of us interpret that in relation to the fact that the only executions carried out in Norway were after World War II when Quisling and some of his key helpers were shot for treason.
Twenty minutes after the bomb went off, this chap was on the net happily proclaiming that the Labour government got what was coming to them: he hoped that they were in the government building that was destroyed.
