Jim > Recent Status Updates

“Needless to say, the dissolution of the existing system is the precondition for such qualitative change.”

... the chief use of schooling is to break the spirit...

“one of the ‘achievements’ of the modern world is to incorporate war directly into the social system, while defining the enemy as outside it”

“My guess is that most people feel guilty at not doing what they are told, even though they think it is wrong, and even though they mistrust those who give the orders. They feel guilty at trusting their own mistrust.”

“I shall give you an example, a story ... that I regard it as only slightly excessively normal. A boy of three is held by his mother out of a sixth-storey window by his neck. His mother says: ‘See how much I love you.’ The demonstration being that if she did not love him she would drop him.”
Is this what the US government thought on September 11th? "We love you so we will aid in killing you for your own benefit"...

“We do not have to ask why an increasing number of the world’s inhabitants hate us Europeans and the U.S.A.”

Frightening how this reads like it was written last year, talking about right now.

Interesting, yet unsurprising, that when the oppressors get killed there is a almost too-accurate count, but when the oppressed get killed the number "varies" or "lacks reliability".

Detoured to some great ebooks, but back to my own books again!

“...if we really want to end anti-Muslim racism, we need to be willing to dismantle US-led militarism, warmongering, and empire building.”
True that!

Bizarre how the Rwandan Genocide mirrors the Nazi Final Solution in its exceedingly detailed documentation...

Sad how the death of tens of thousands of Somalis, Rwandans, and Ugandans got almost zero press, but the death of 18 US soldiers was "the breaking point"...

Why does it so often seem that the West's reasoning for "spreading democracy" is just to have fewer impediments to global rule and more humans to grind down for Capitalism?

Subtitled: "How White European Males Fucked the World for Profit and Power".

Finally decided to read this. Written quite a while ago, but is said to be rather still relevant, theoretically speaking.

USofA's Reproductive Access problems:
White Men have never had to fight FOR anything, it's always been assumed whatever they want is theirs. Including women's bodies. So when women fight for Reproductive Access they immediately resist. Women as agents of their own lives? Not on WM watch!
White Women are the face of Reproductive Access (via feminism) but already have access, and won't advocate for those who do not.

rights vs. access.
choice vs. slavery.
own your body vs. state-mandated living.
communism vs. leo-liberal capitalism.

if the justice system of the USofA is concerned with truth and is based on a foundation of laws, why doesn't every single person charged with a crime get the absolute best legal representation?

Intellectually intriguing idea. Huge fan of Badiou's work.

A compelling and emotional read with beautiful writing.

Love it already! Books!!!!!!

I am loving the smarty science facts a lot. Being me, the personal anecdotes are just OK.

Rather more lighthearted than I expected. Still, I am hardly 10% in...

Fantastic, intriguing, revolutionary. Requires full attention and re-reading at times.
Perfect!

This is so dense and academic. Whew! I am getting a bit more comfortable intellectually, but I think it is more directed to those with serious foundations in Marx's writings, of which I have "not so much" or "not enough". Ha!

Love how Balibar refuses to dumb down his work in this updated edition. Some things just can't be simplified.

A challenge.

Another brain-bleeder from Verso Books. Whew! This is DENSE.

Realized I needed to read this before "Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left" to get the full effect!

I found Weil's essay a bit tepid and meandering. Overuse of direct quotes from the 'Iliad' filled 1/3 of the page count, padding a not-very-scholarly analysis of "force".