Democracy and the Internet. . .
Lorne over at Politics and its Discontents posted an excellent essay today on the decline of democracy that is occurring in part because of the death of newspapers and professional…
Kirby Evans
Capitalism’s Crisis . . . .
Economic and political instability are often impulses to change. Long waves of capitalism (originally outlined by Nikolai Kondratiev and then taken up by thinkers like Joseph Schumpeter and Ernest Mandel)…
Whither Democracy ?
I think that there is little doubt that Western democracy has 'lost it's way' a little bit, or is a state of increasing crisis. The roots of this crisis are,…
The Real Weakness of the Rightwing. . .
It seems that an increasing number of people are beginning to see the irony (and correlate hypocrisy) in the rightwing messaging around the issue of ‘terrorism.’ The right continually tells…
Aesthetic Politics and the new (neo) Liberal Era. . . . .
In the modern era particularly since the Victorian times onward, politics has been a surprisingly aesthetic matter. This is because the rich and powerful people who overwhelmingly control government and…
Affirmative Action, Merit, and Wealthy, Middle-Aged White Men. . .
Sometimes I think of Andrew Coyne as our national poster child for intellectual impairment. There are, as we are painfully aware, certainly more obtuse, dim-witted individuals on the national political…
Political Irony and Emotional Intelligence. . . .
It is interesting that it is only in the wake of Harper’s downfall that the full weight of the irony involved in the decade of Conservative rule begins to become…
Did we Reject Harper or his Agenda?
On the back side of an election loss the Conservative Party is desperately trying to spin a narrative that Canadians rejected Harper but not his rightwing agenda. We should be…
Going Forward after Harper’s Destruction of the Public Sphere. . . .
In the 1960s the German philosopher Jugen Habermas wrote a book entitled The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. When this book was finally translated around 1990 it helped to…
The Mediaeval Agenda of Conservatives. . .
I know people are probably too involved in election day to bother reading too many blogposts but as I read through the Blogging Tories posts to see how the Rightwing…
The Bizarre, not so Bizarre, Globe endorsement. . .
Surely the most bizarre culmination of the ten years of Harper’s political tenure was seen yesterday with the Globe and Mail’s surreal endorsement of the Conservative Party with the addendum…
Irony Impairment and the HarperCons. . . .
Well, so far this campaign has, at the very least, been interesting. As the ‘dump Harper’ forces cheer at what the polls seem to suggest is a late surge for…
Harper and Godwin’s Law. . .
All comparisons are, by their nature, imperfect. You can only compare things because they are, in one sense or another, dissimilar. If two things were the same, they would afford…
The Real Threat of Harper . . .
As we inch toward Election day and the NDP looks to be out of the running and much the anti-Harper vote edges toward the Liberals, many people are, I believe,…
Harper’s Poisoning of the Nation. . .
When I was seven or eight years old and living in California, I went on a school trip to a public swimming pool. Such experiences should be the material of…
The Fight Against Racism and Bigotry Continues. . .
Racists, even the worst, most blatant sort, tend to look for justifications for their hate. The most ignorant forms of racism rely on very basic forms of hate speech, reducing…
Political Shifts and the (apparent) Falling fortunes of the NDP . . . .
The apparent gradual decline in NDP fortunes over the course of this gruellingly long campaign has carried a morbid fascination for me. As polls stand today, the NDP are thoroughly…
We Have Met the Enemy. . .
An important part of my youth was spent in the United States in the 60s and 70s. I grew up against the backdrop of the fight to end legal segregation…
Harper’s Fear of the "other" . . .
The various racializing tropes to which Harper and his minions have begun to appeal in a desperate attempt to win the election (“UnCanadian,” “Old-Stock,” “Our Values,”) are intended as ‘power-markers.’…
More on the Question of Freedom and the Niqab. . .
It is interesting and bizarre to me how the foot-soldiers of the rightwing have continually railed against the so-called “nanny-state” and yet they are the first to call for state…