‘A Trump campaign with Bernie Sanders principles.’ Ye’s presidential platform ‘If the poor people all unite, then it’s much harder to control us.’ Andrew Tate, who grew up in extremely impoverished circumstances ‘Capitalists posin’ as compassionate be offendin’ me.’ Kendrick Lamar, ‘Savior’ ‘I’ve got to formulate a plot / Or end up in jail or … Continue reading The critique of capital, then and now: Why the ‘right’ is the new left, and Ye is the new Roosevelt
Tag: Capitalism
The fourth wave: A feminist manifesto for ‘incels’
The feminist movement, as conceived in popular consciousness, has gone through three waves. The first wave brought political rights to women after the First World War, and was preceded by both peaceful and direct-action protest — labelled effectively as terrorism at the time by the patriarchal press. The second wave brought economic rights to women … Continue reading The fourth wave: A feminist manifesto for ‘incels’
Word of the Day: Biko
First published on my legacy blog, Principia Politica, adapted from an essay submitted while studying as a first-year undergraduate student at University of Cambridge, 2018-19. The essay was awarded the mark of first. 'It will not be long before the blacks relate their poverty to their blackness in concrete terms. Because of the tradition forced … Continue reading Word of the Day: Biko
Word of the Day: Du Bois
First published on my legacy blog, Principia Politica, adapted from an essay submitted while studying as a first-year undergraduate student at University of Cambridge, 2018-19. The essay was awarded the mark of first. W.E.B. Du Bois, like Steve Biko and Frantz Fanon, looks at three dimensions of racial inequality: 1) structural, 2) psychological, and 3) moral. Meet … Continue reading Word of the Day: Du Bois
Word of the Day: Fanon
First published on my legacy blog, Principia Politica, adapted from an essay submitted while studying as a first-year undergraduate student at University of Cambridge, 2018-19. The essay was awarded the mark of first. Frantz Fanon believed in Third-World Marxism. Marxism teaches that big changes of society are, at the end of the day, the result … Continue reading Word of the Day: Fanon
Ultratotalitarianism: The great evil of our times, and why we must fight it
Our era is characterised by a phenomenon I term ultratotalitarianism. It is the culmination of the logic of modernity, a long process of surpassing the unity of Christianity with capitalist anarchy, backed up by state authority. The dynamism of the market economy and the stability of the modern state constitute the two pillars of modern … Continue reading Ultratotalitarianism: The great evil of our times, and why we must fight it
Mask Off: The demonisation of Kanye West — a very provisional, tentative thought piece
Disclaimer 1: Please have sympathy on my soul, dear reader. I know this world is unkind to heretics to whatever is fashionable nowadays, but I am not exactly fashionable, and I care not for the ‘views’ of media gurus or well-spoken sophists. I am an ex-student, a lonely soul, and — much more importantly, my … Continue reading Mask Off: The demonisation of Kanye West — a very provisional, tentative thought piece
The music industry to come: What’s next for the greatest show on Earth
Written on 23-24 November 2022. Music is evolving. That much is clear. Netflix’s ‘The Playlist’ depicts the last era of class and generational warfare in the market of music. On the one hand were the young and the poor, fighting for their rights to consume and produce music without losing out to the winners, the … Continue reading The music industry to come: What’s next for the greatest show on Earth
Neumann’s ‘Behemoth’ and the rebirth of totalitarian-monopoly capitalism
Franz Neumann published one of the earliest books on the totalitarian state, entitled Behemoth. It is a startling representation of the divided state of Nazi Germany, one that challenges established conventions on totalitarianism. According to conventional interpretations both then and now, totalitarianism represents a singular entity, a powerful state echoing the ‘reall Unitie’ of Hobbes’ … Continue reading Neumann’s ‘Behemoth’ and the rebirth of totalitarian-monopoly capitalism
Everything ends: Explaining the modern world
First published in spring 2020. It’s fashionable to explain today’s world through two prisms: modern politics and modern economics—or the modern state and capitalism. Even the words sound slightly intimidating. So instead of defining them from a dictionary, I would like to give a historical account of how these pillars of the modern world evolved. … Continue reading Everything ends: Explaining the modern world
Edmund Wilson 