It seems like the starting point in any serious political activism these days (especially anarchist-flavored) is the acknowledgement that the Soviet Union was a failed model and that we shouldn’t replicate that model. Is the Soviet Union so terrible such
A Dialectic of Mathematics in Culture
Three links from today form a lovely trilogy. Thesis: A very poor one! The New York Times today asks the awesomely bad question: Is Algebra Necessary? Of course I will not stoop to answer the question. Rather we might ask
Words better than what they say
(A note on Hedges’ recent essay How to Think ) Wonderful in spirit, so much so that one can almost excuse the particular words he uses. But unfortunately the words, in keeping with a long-standing tradition of left strategic suicide,
Wikileaks and History
What I said at the rally for Julian Assange, 1 July 2012, outside the State Library of Victoria Thank you all for coming here today. Being a founding member of Wikileaks, though not involved for many years now, I want
Remarks at Rally for Julian Assange
Melbourne, 31/5/12 Six years ago my friend Julian Assange started telling me about his idea for an organisation. I thought it was a pretty good idea. As we understood it, the way information circulates in our society, and around the
Left and climate
Decadent left, eh? Well, there is certainly something to be said about a serious thoroughgoing left as opposed to a narrow interest-group one. But this is surely wrong, for instance, in arguing that the anti-Keystone pipeline movement is a narrow
Occupy: US and Australia
The whole movement of occupations is a massive global phenomenon, one barely knows where to begin in discussing it. It’s all over the place, in the sense of existing in cities everywhere, which is a good thing. It’s all over
The limits of tyrants
“Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been
"Libertarian" purity test
“Should all taxes be abolished?” “Should all legislation be replaced by judge-made law…?” “Should police be privatized?” “Should we abolish worker safety regulation?” “Should the law itself be privatized?” Mostly kooky, and good for a laugh I guess. Any serious
Post-reform strategy
On the repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy by the US congress, there was some argument as to the approach for the left to take. Some called it a red herring. My view is that, even if true,