Tag: capitalist state

The fire this time: Black youth and the spectacle of postracial violence

sanjay perera

by Henry A. Giroux “Let’s hope it isn’t too late to listen, listen intently, carefully, minds open, hearts full. Let’s hope.” – James Baldwin In 1963, James Baldwin published an essay entitled “The Negro Child – His Self-Image,” in The … Continue reading The fire this time: Black youth and the spectacle of postracial violence

Totalitarian Paranoia in the Post-Orwellian Surveillance State

sanjay perera

by Henry A. Giroux Surveillance, in any land where it is ubiquitous and inescapable, generates distrust and divisions among its citizens, curbs their readiness to speak freely to each other, and diminishes their willingness to even dare to think freely. — Ariel Dorfman The revelations of whistle-blowers such as Chelsea Manning, Jeremy Hammond and Edward Snowden about government lawlessness and corporate spying provide a new meaning if not a revitalized urgency and relevance to George Orwell’s dystopian fable 1984. Orwell offered his readers an image of the modern state that had become dystopian — one in which privacy as a civil … Continue reading Totalitarian Paranoia in the Post-Orwellian Surveillance State

Takeover

sanjay perera

by Steven Miller Capitalism in the 21st Century is no longer based largely on profits resulting from a real economy productive process, windfall financial gains are acquired through large scale speculative operations, without the occurrence of real economy activity, at the touch of a mouse button. — Michel Chussodovsky There are decisive moments in the history of capitalism when one form of wealth, one kind of property, becomes the most lucrative. The capitalists that control this property often become the dominant sector of the capitalist class and take control of the state, dictating policy to society. Marx writes, “The executive … Continue reading Takeover

To go beyond the capitalist state

sanjay perera

by Steve Fraser “All that is solid melts into air” is even truer about the hyper-flux of everyday life today than it was when those words first appeared in the Communist Manifesto more than a century and half ago. Truer, that is, with one major exception.  In our political life we are fixated on the past, forever looking backward. Arguably, national politics over the last half century has polarized between efforts to defend and restore the New Deal Order and relentless attempts to repeal it and replace it with something even older.  The liberal left has fought to extend or … Continue reading To go beyond the capitalist state