No Shangri-La

Zizek on the Tibet/China Question:

What if the promised second stage, the democracy that follows the authoritarian vale of tears, never arrives? This, perhaps, is what is so unsettling about China today: the suspicion that its authoritarian capitalism is not merely a reminder of our past – of the process of capitalist accumulation which, in Europe, took place from the 16th to the 18th century – but a sign of our future? What if the combination of the Asian knout and the European stock market proves economically more efficient than liberal capitalism? What if democracy, as we understand it, is no longer the condition and motor of economic development, but an obstacle to it?

I recommend reading the entire letter.

(Via The Weblog.)

—Bryan Klausmeyer 1 Comment

Revolution of the Hungry

Bill Van Auken writing for the World Socialist Web Site:

What is emerging in the crisis over food prices is a tumultuous manifestation of a breakdown of the global capitalist order. The catastrophe facing billions of people around the globe cannot be resolved within the confines of a system based on private profit and the nation state.

The revolutionary implications of this crisis are beginning to dawn on elements within the ruling establishment itself. In an article published Monday, the influential US magazine Time noted: “The idea of the starving masses driven by their desperation to take to the streets and overthrow the ancien regime has seemed impossibly quaint since capitalism triumphed so decisively in the Cold War… And yet, the headlines of the past month suggest that skyrocketing food prices are threatening the stability of a growing number of governments around the world.”

(Via I cite.)

—Bryan Klausmeyer

Leonard Cohen Live

According to Live Daily, Leonard Cohen is launching his first tour in 15 years next month with a series of concerts performed in Canada. His band includes bassist Roscoe Beck, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Neil Larsen, guitarists Bob Metzger and Javier Mas, stringed instrumentalist Christine Wu, drummer Rafael Gayol and multi-instrumentalist Dino Soldo. Tickets available here.

(Via Advanced Theory.)

—Bryan Klausmeyer

Idiot of the Century: William Kristol

In his most recent op-ed column comparing Obama and Marx, William “They’ll Greet Us As Liberators” Kristol once again proves, as if there was any doubt, that he is the biggest blowhard in contemporary political discourse. Perhaps the biggest blowhard in the world.

(Via The Weblog.)

UPDATE: Wonkette has a great commentary on this.

—Bryan Klausmeyer

“Stalags”

Taking their name from the Nazi prison camps in which they were set, Stalags were Israeli pornographic paperbacks featuring Nazi themes.

This is ripe for a Lacanian reading.

—Bryan Klausmeyer 1 Comment

Memory Chips For All!

Gary Marcus writing for the New York Times:

However difficult the practicalities, there’s no reason in principle why a future generation of neural prostheticists couldn’t pick up where nature left off, incorporating Google-like master maps into neural implants. This in turn would allow us to search our own memories — not just those on the Web — with something like the efficiency and reliability of a computer search engine.

In between recycling ideas that have already been discussed and developed at great length by a number of other talented scientists and writers, Gary Marcus seems to have lost sight of his own words:

How much would you pay to have a small memory chip implanted in your brain if that chip would double the capacity of your short-term memory?

Apparently, the idea that some people would be able to afford memory chips while others wouldn’t does not present “in principle” any sort of ethical dilemma. This insight is so stupidly obvious I feel rather embarrassed for pointing it out, but evidently the Times has lower expectations than that, or at the very least an alternative agenda.

—Bryan Klausmeyer

Book Club of Champions

Mike Levy writing for In These Times:

Guizhou University sits on the outskirts of Guiyang City, the sleepy capital of China’s poorest province… Life at Gui Da, as the school is locally known, is economically, socially, culturally and politically removed from life in America. Despite this, the school is home to an informal — and unlikely — group: a Kurt Vonnegut Fan Club.

“We don’t understand all of what Vonnegut wrote,” the club’s president, Isabel Yuan, told me, “But we think reading him helps us understand America.” Isabel and I spoke over a steaming pot of bitter pu’ er tea in a restaurant not far from the Gui Da campus. She sat upright, her black eyes focused on the porcelain cup in her hand. “Vonnegut,” she continued, “is our window into the American mind.”

Fantastic article.

—Bryan Klausmeyer 2 Comments

You Have To Burn The Rope

Remember when games were simple? Remember when they weren’t full of motion-sensing gobelty gook and shiney pidgeys and hours upon hours of exploratory value? Remember when games were fun? Mazapan.se does. Rediscover the joy of rigid linear gameplay. Travel the winding tunnels, jump through the air like a wet acrobat, face the Grinning Colosus. And then burn the rope.

—Zach Cullen 1 Comment

Radiohead’s Bangers and Mash

Fuck them. They’re too good.

—Mark Elliot Cullen