EssaysFeatureLiberal Democracy in Question

The Tunisian Moving Seminar

Today, January 14th, exactly five years ago, Tunisian president Zin El-Abidine Ben Ali was the first Arab dictator to be removed by the will and strength of an Arab nation, ushering in a wave of Arab rebellions. Because of the negative and destructive course taken by these revolts in Egypt, Syria and Yemen, many deem it pointless, futile or indecent to try to speak of their achievements. Nonetheless, having …

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CapitalismFeatureLiberal Democracy in Question

The Politics of Fear and the Republican Debates

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s racist and xenophobic stance is repugnant, of course. But exclusionary attitudes are common across the Republican Party and largely shared by its nominees. The 2016 primary debates are reflective of the GOP candidates’ minimal or non-existent capacity for what Arendt called “representative thinking,” which includes the ability to inhabit other …

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CapitalismEssaysFeatureLiberal Democracy in Question

All Quiet on the Eastern Front: Part 2

Notes from a Pegida counter-demonstration in Dresden

“Say it loud and say it clear, refugees are welcome here.”

There is something exhilarating and powerful about walking through the dark, empty streets of Dresden’s old town chanting this slogan. A solitary message of support in a continent that is in a race to rebuild the old borders and impose new mobility restrictions with as much fanfare as it sought to dismantle them only twenty-five years earlier. Yet the message is also unnerving…

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CapitalismEssaysFeatureLiberal Democracy in Question

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Notes from a Pegida counter-demonstration in Dresden

It is 5.30 on a cold and rainy Monday evening in Dresden. To the casual tourist, there might be nothing extraordinary about the time or day of the week. The eerie tranquility of warmly flashing Christmas decorations, the ubiquitous smell of Glühwein, and the ingeniously crafted stands of the world famous Dresden Stiezelmarkt – all suggest that the city is ready to settle into a beloved holiday tradition…

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CapitalismEssaysLiberal Democracy in Question

Zuckerberg & Chan Are Us

Philanthrocapitalism and the public good

Almost forty-eight years to the day before Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced the creation of their limited liability company and pledged to give away 99% of their Facebook shares within their lifetimes, a lawyer lectured a roomful of stockbrokers on “How to Obtain Maximum Tax Advantages by Using Securities …

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EssaysLiberal Democracy in Question

Tunisia: Invisible Alienation, Visible Violence

A relational view of Tunisian youths

Analyzing the youth is notoriously a difficult task. How should we define this social group? Can we even speak of “the youth” in the singular? With regard to the Arab Uprisings (a phrase which I prefer to the loaded “Arab Spring”), many did not …

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EssaysLiberal Democracy in Question

Going Backward in Argentina

A country is not a corporation

The election of Mauricio Macri on November 22, 2015, to the presidency in Argentina by a slim 51% to 49% over Governor Daniel Scioli marks a sharp break with 12 years of progressive government and the reconstruction of the state after the neoliberal period of the 1990s. It is a …

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