Tuesday, February 04, 2014

MDMXIV or MMXIV history repeating it's courses

The class war has been won by the rich Class warfare from Sydneyrella Washington

A superpower is challenged by a rival, a vital region is in turmoil. Europe is a mess, nationalist passions are inflamed. 1914? No2014... Lessons unlearned  I think we have to recognize that the instability and violence of the Balkan states in 1914 was the trigger for the war. It was not an excuse used by the Germans or anybody else. The region was pretty much out-of-control. I think the obvious parallel here is with the Middle East today, where again you have a number of smallish states, heavily armed, with religious differences, political differences, and instability. The situation is very difficult for the major powers to control. Rivalries

For Karl Marx, the proletarian revolutionwas to be global: “Workers of all lands, unite.” It never happened. Here’s why it still might... it is exactly because the rich and poor will look increasingly similar in Lagos and London that it's more likely that the workers of the world in 2030 will unite. As technology and trade level the playing field and bring humanity closer together, the world's projected 3.5 billion laborers may finally realize how much more they have in common with each other than with the über-wealthy elites in their own countries.  Marx is Back?

Novelty and the novel. Innovative writers – Cervantes, Swift – don’t merely create stylistic forms; they create new ways to tell the truth... Truth Dragons

Harold Rosenberg was perhaps first, and not last, to complain about artists getting degrees. But the M.F.A. is not what ails art. No, the problem is the hubris of artists... Degrees of Cold Rivers