Tag: power

Politics is Visceral? (always has been) | A response to Tsakiris’ Aeon Article

September 21, 2020

“[…] Next red-flag is Tsakiris claim that how political language “has become saturated with emotion” (paragraph 2) ( (do we really need to reference history to show that even the claiming of this being a new claim is nothing new?), is “hard to square with Aristotle’s claim that human beings are ‘naturally rational’ creatures – ‘political animals’”. Tsakiris never really expands upon this point or looks into whether such a basic understanding of Aristotle is missing nuance that perhaps he would have gone into, and follows after implying Aristotle is wrong, that politics is about organising life for its own sake. But of course, we are doing it wrong says the psychologist naive as a first year political science student- and Tsakiris has the amazing solution which no one has thought of before!” Politics is visceral! … More Politics is Visceral? (always has been) | A response to Tsakiris’ Aeon Article

What Do Final Year BSc Sociology Students Actually Do? | Media & State Studies Seminar Part 3: Media Imperialism

June 25, 2016

“For this series, I would like to give a taste of what it is sociology, as one of the most denigrated sciences online, is actually like. The structure of this assignment, which I am reproducing here mostly unedited, was quite unusual compared to most work undertaken for this subject- essays and some fieldwork- but I think illustrates the variety of ways final year study is done.
In this seminar we discussed how more up to date theories of media imperialism must take into account the complexity of cultural transmission, how audiences actively interpret media according to their own cultural understandings and how new evidence conflicts or supports the media imperialism thesis.” … More What Do Final Year BSc Sociology Students Actually Do? | Media & State Studies Seminar Part 3: Media Imperialism

Terrorism, Government & Hypocrisy | Guest Article by writer Dylan Yoki

January 7, 2016

“The “War on Terror” has only served to create more terrorists. With this endless supply of enemies to combat and a civilian population ever fearful of the next terrorist attack, Western governments have curtailed civil liberties in the name of “national security”.” … More Terrorism, Government & Hypocrisy | Guest Article by writer Dylan Yoki

Critique of “US is an Oligarchy?” Part 3: Oligarchy and Public Policy

September 13, 2015

“The kinds of policy that would benefit a potential class of oligarchs is easily thought of when considering that their wealth is based on inequality. Policies that allow them to maintain their vastly unequal share of wealth also allow them to keep their vastly unequal share of political power. 3 main policy themes would be in the interests of an oligarchical class to manipulate- international economic policy, monetary policy and tax policy. This evidence shows that these policies currently and historically favour potential oligarchs- the solution is redistribution of wealth, and therefore redistribution of power.” … More Critique of “US is an Oligarchy?” Part 3: Oligarchy and Public Policy

On Makhaevism: Knowledge Capitalists and Authority-Discourses

September 6, 2015

“Jan Machajski’s big idea, Makhaevism recognised that simplified Marxist classifications of intellectuals as proletarian ignored the privilege they had due to them possessing an unfair monopoly on knowledge. An anarchist, he encouraged relentless questioning of authority. Foucault showed how knowledge discourses with public authority anonymously dominate individuals and legitimise governments. The solution to the problem of the knowledge capitalists is free education for all.” … More On Makhaevism: Knowledge Capitalists and Authority-Discourses

Critique of “US is an Oligarchy?” Part 2: The US case

September 2, 2015

“The following evidence could be quite shocking. These amounts of money are incomprehensible to mere plebs like us. Consider that every citizen has an individual power profile based on the power resources he or she can deploy. The power share of the top tenth of 1 percent of US households may well be sufficient to dominate politics on key issues of most intense interest to that group. They are bound together by material self-interest and political clout, not by social ties.” … More Critique of “US is an Oligarchy?” Part 2: The US case

Critique of “US is an Oligarchy?” Part 1: Theory of Oligarchy

August 27, 2015

“[race, women, gays, ethnicity, religion, morality, guns, or the environment] are issues of great importance to many ordinary citizens, but of only limited and cross-cutting concern to the wealthy. […] the skewed distribution of wealth in the United States is a source of oligarchy, and [one] that US political scientists […] ought to pay much more attention to these issues. […] The political left has been shouting about this the whole time and being ignored (or not given it’s fair share of publicity by the oligarchical mass media apparatus) perhaps because it isn’t part of the privileged intelligentsia that “labor as salaried advocates and defenders of core oligarchic interests”.” … More Critique of “US is an Oligarchy?” Part 1: Theory of Oligarchy