Society for Sick Societies is a diagnostic project. Built as a series of episodes, each one of its vignettes sets out to analyze an expressed symptom of a sick society–a practice, pattern, gesture, proverb, or technique that seems to encapsulate … Continue reading “Society for Sick Societies: Media Itineraries”
Two events made this year’s month of March a densely political one in Italy. On 4 March, the general election resulted in a hung Parliament, but saw the definite political victory of Italy’s two main populist parties: the Five Star … Continue reading “From Trilateral to Troika, and from the Five-Pointed Star to the Five Star Movement”
British election nights have followed a certain pattern for decades. The polling stations close at 10 p.m. The ballot boxes are delivered to municipal sports halls across the country, where local government employees count the votes through the night, before … Continue reading “British Election Nights, Despair, and Hope: A Personal History”
All journalists and commentators predicted that the first round of the French presidential elections could bring about real surprises; but, in fact, it didn’t. Well, at least not really. Of course, with the qualification of Macron and Le Pen, it … Continue reading “French Elections: The Hour of Danger”
1. On Genre Flailing In a crisis we engage in genre flailing so that we don’t fall through the cracks of knowledge and noise into suicide or psychosis. In a crisis we improvise like crazy, where “like crazy” is a … Continue reading “Big Man”
On December 4th of last year, Italians voted “no” in a referendum on constitutional reforms that would have allowed Parliament to make bills into laws without Senate approval. A date that for the proponents of the reform should have ushered … Continue reading “The “No You Can’t” of Italian Neo-Marxist Dissent”
When they vote in January’s primaries, leftists in France must choose entre la peste et la cholera. On 21 May 2002, millions of French people watched with surprise, anger, or disgust as the face of Jean-Marie Le Pen appeared on … Continue reading “What Is the French Left to Do?”
I write not with the expertise of a political scientist or demographer, those emperors of data and partisan, capital ‘P’ politics whose new clothes—AKA ‘big data’-informed poll predictions—have only just been revealed to some (not others) as ruse. I write … Continue reading “Ballot Box as Klan Hood and the Rest of Us in the Wake of the Election of Donald Trump as 45th US President”
We asked Gus Stadler to recommend some Woody Guthrie songs. He did not fail us. ALL YOU FASCISTS BOUND TO LOSE THE JOLLY BANKER THIS LAND IS OUR LAND (with private property verse) BETTER WORLD A-COMIN’
