27
04, 2018
Racist Ideas, Justice, and Freedom: A Review and Reflection on Ibram Kendi’s ‘Stamped from the Beginning’
Stamped From the Beginning is filled with implications for political theory, both regarding distributive justice, and how we conceptualize freedom, showing limits to the typical bifurcation of freedom into its positive and negative variants.
25
04, 2018
Naked, Shivering Creatures: A Look Behind Burke’s “Pleasing Illusions”
Burke argues that life without such prejudice is brutish and crude. Sans prejudice we would be left with nothing but our “naked shivering nature,” alone and afraid.
20
04, 2018
Femininity and the Emasculation of Western Politics
In the past, proponents of equality resisted caricatures of the sexes and encouraged resistance to stereotypical perceptions of masculinity and femininity.
9
04, 2018
A Quick Word on How Social Media is Rewiring the Democratic Ganglion
All major political epochs have their corresponding media epochs: the reformation and the printing press, the nation state and the broadsheet newspaper, nationalism and the pamphlet. We now find ourselves at such an epoch, somewhere between the global village and the filter bubble.
9
03, 2018
On the Biblical God: A Brief ‘Transreligious’ Reflection
The God of the Bible – or, better, God as he is literally depicted in the Bible – does not exist. The evidence for this is overwhelming. Perhaps the most telling is, simply, that if such an entity existed he would make it clear to us.
9
03, 2018
Which Way, Kenya: Presidential, Parliamentary, or Hybrid System of Government?
The recent proposal to reform the constitutional framework in Kenya with the introduction of a one-term ceremonial president and creation of an executive Prime Minister raises the question about whether a presidential, parliamentary or hybrid system would serve the country better.
2
03, 2018
Tolerance
“Be tolerant” is today’s oft-heard moral imperative. This principle of tolerance sounds good, but careful thinkers should ask: Is it sound?
23
02, 2018
Trump & the Politics of Conscience
A politician should enter office saying, “we will not compromise on this, this, and this,” only to find themselves, by force of circumstance and political education, compromising on many of them. To be able to hold this contradiction together with no loss of integrity or decency is the task of any good leader. Thus, a politician who does not even have any ostensibly unshakable values to shake is not only unfit – they are precisely unfit, in the most basic way.
16
02, 2018
The Malaise of Liberalism
Liberals need to be able to answer the question: Why liberalism today? What kind of life does liberalism help to enable, and why is it desirable?
9
02, 2018
“To Art Its Freedom”: Right-Wing Arts Policy in the New Austria
Art can be a challenge to power, or be power’s instrument. Sometimes it can even end up being both. This last is what happened recently in Austria, where a new, right-wing government has adopted the motto of an art movement that formed in Vienna in 1897, precisely in opposition to conservative leadership.