The Child and the Escape of the Good
German below During the years directly after the 2nd World War Theodor W. Adorno wrote Minima Moralia – a text which is a hardly matched mirror for the forsaken political world we are living in today. But Adorno kept the hope alive, the impossibility of reasoning in its favor notwithstanding, as this example of his musings about two famous childhood lullabies may show. Frohe Weihnacht, Merry Christmas, t.a. Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, Part III – Translation, E.F.N. Jephcott Regressions – My earliest memory of Brahms, and certainly not only mine, is ‘Cradle Song’. Complete misunderstanding of the text: I Read More
He Never Gave Up
reposted from Dilip’s blog After the truth‑shower Julian Assange again risks his life defying the CIA and Pentagon to testify against them to a 46-nation gathering in Europe By Dilip on 13th October 2024 With myriad crimes committed against those invaded and occupied in the Middle East, those spied upon everywhere, and those trying to expose these abuses, not a single perpetrator has ever been prosecuted or even investigated… If the impunity of genocidal Israel on its current rampage through the Middle East puzzles you, keep in mind that the West as a whole has a much larger, long-standing culture Read More
Sermon for Gaza
By Chris Hedges This is a sermon I gave Sunday April 28 at a service held at the encampment for Gaza at Princeton University. The service was organized by students from Princeton Theological Seminary. This is a sermon I gave Sunday April 28 at a service held at the encampment for Gaza at Princeton University. The service was organized by students from Princeton Theological Seminary.͏͏͏͏͏͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ Read More
Omnicidal Plutocrats
by George Monbiot One of the problems we face in persuading people to love and protect the living world is the language in which this love is expressed. Few of the terms we use vividly describe either the planet we are trying to defend or the threats it faces. Take “the environment”: a cold, abstract and distancing term that creates no pictures in the mind. Have you ever seen an “environment”? Or “climate change”, such a mild and neutral term to describe an existential catastrophe. It’s like calling an invading army “unexpected visitors”. I’ve been pressing for more effective language Read More
The last of their kind: The women with a unique way of life
The world, the future, our hearts—everything grows smaller and harder from this war.
—-Anne Boyer, Resignation Letter from the New York Times I have resigned as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine. The Israeli state’s U.S-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. There is no safety in it or from it, not for Israel, not for the United States or Europe, and especially not for the many Jewish people slandered by those who claim falsely to fight in their names. Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers. The world, the future, our hearts—everything grows smaller and harder from this war. It is not only a war Read More
Open Heart Circles
Last month Podcast to Restore Your Faith in Humanity featured Willy Vandamme and Lut Wouters, whose heartbreaking experience with their daughter lead to the formation of the circles; Dimi Dumortier, QG and our podcaster, runs a circle in Leuven himself – means this podcast was a kind of pro domo thing for him and that’s probably why he refrained from advertising it. The podcast is about two things ostracized in our today’s society, the D- and L-words: Death and Love. It is a most sensitive elaboration of how to make it possible to find back to a greater community and Read More
The Worsening of the Status Quo
Noam Chomsky, at 94 as sharp as ever and a true Qilin/Guardian recently commenting on the state of affairs – you may want to read carefully. We are wishing him and all of you a Happy Easter, may the light shine in darkness…..
Alternet.orghttps://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-savage-capitalist-lunatics/
At the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination
Excerpt reposted from Dilip’s blog After the Truth – Shower I commented: The Mahatma is nodding his head in appreciation, I’m sure. An essay as sharp and correct as you always write and with a deeply moving end unveiling the predicament of the times we got ourselves stuck in… …… Italy, Germany’s Third Reich, the Peoples Republic of China, or the Islamic regimes of Iran or Saudi Arabia (I remain focused on the question of law, and do not intend to conflate the peculiarities of these regimes). Tyranny stamps out human freedom. Ideological tyranny attempts to strangulate the human mind Read More
A Guardian of Humanity, indeed…
….. Therefore I do not put my faith in any new institution, but in the individuals all over the world who think clearly, feel nobly, and act rightly, thus becoming the channels of moral truth. Our moral ideals do not work with chisels and hammers. Like trees, they spread their roots in the soil and their branches in the sky, without consulting any architect for their plans….. Reposted from Dilip’s blog with thanks, tom