We must invent a humane world in which to live and die with dignity. This entails both an economics and a consciousness of black freedom
economics
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
China’s long, unfinished 20th century and its global implications
By 2050, China is predicted to have an economy twice the size of the US economy. What will this shift in power mean for trade and international relations?
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Equality, General, Health, Media, Tech
Theoretical psychology: A direct attack on neoliberalism in Copenhagen
Copenhagen is a beautiful city. It is also a financial black hole for South Africans. With a currency that is constantly edging lower against international currencies because of an inept and corrupt ANC government which cannot manage the country’s economic relations in such a way that its toxic internal political conflicts do not impact negatively […]
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, General, News/Politics
Pandora’s box has opened…again!
Everyone knows the story, or myth, of Pandora (etymologically meaning ‘all-gifted’ or perhaps ‘all-giving’), who was ancient Greek mythology’s counterpart to Eve of the Old Testament — that is, the first woman created by the gods (out of earth, or clay), all of whom gave her a gift of some kind. Her notoriety derives from […]
Posted inEquality, General, Health, News/Politics
Inequality and violent protests in South Africa
In 2014 I wrote a piece for this site on the work of psychoanalyst, Paul Verhaeghe, specifically the book in which he writes about the link between inequality in a market-based society and health problems across a wide spectrum. In addition to stress and anxiety symptoms, Verhaeghe pointed to something confirmed by other researchers too, […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Marx at 200: As relevant as ever
Today (5 May 2018) is the 200th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth in the German city of Trier, and all over the world people are celebrating his contribution to our self-understanding through the political, economic and social theories he (sometimes with his friend and colleague, Friedrich Engels) penned during his lifetime. The anniversary celebrations are […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Equality, General, Health, Tech
Optimism vs. realism regarding the future
The TIME magazine of 15 January, 2018, titled ‘The Optimists’, is edited by Bill Gates, one of the two richest individuals on the planet – this alone already (at least partly) explains his optimism, which is understandably not necessarily shared with people in positions of less economic power. Reading it is an object lesson in […]
Posted inEquality, General, Health, News/Politics
The decline of the American Empire
It is no exaggeration to say that America ain’t what it used to be. Several articles I have read recently indicate this, whether they focus on Trump’s disastrous presidency, on social or educational matters. One in particular caught my attention yesterday (see here), and another this morning (see here), both of which draw one’s attention […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Does theory guarantee emancipatory action?
The triumph of neoliberalism globally, with the exception of a few pockets of resistance, signifies the weakness of theory, that is, of the claims that theory is endowed with the resources to transform the world through a kind of enlightenment followed by emancipatory action. What evidence is there, however, that neoliberal capitalism reigns supreme in […]
Posted inBusiness, General
The essence of neoliberalism
France’s pre-eminent sociologist and social theorist Pierre Bourdieu, who died not so long ago, did not pull his punches when it came to identifying the hegemonic economic system of the present, neoliberalism, ruthlessly as a “utopia of endless exploitation”. In an article titled “The essence of neoliberalism” (in Le Monde Diplomatique, December 1998) he puts […]
Posted inBusiness, Environment, Equality, General
The age of anger
A friend of mine – Avril Gardiner, art-fundi and owner-curator of the Liebrecht at gallery in Somerset-West – recently reminded me of a piece by Bryan Walsh in TIME magazine of 20 February (2017: pp. 15-16), in which Walsh talks about what he calls “this age of anger” in the context of the claim that […]