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Tag Archives: Communism
A Patent Omission
A recent story by the Planet Money team at NPR posed the question: what would happen to business and innovation if there were no patents? For those who don’t follow the rise and flow of intellectual property law, this has been a … Continue reading
Plenums and Power (Power v. Force III)
The past two weeks have been astounding to witness in Ukraine and Bosnia- Herzegovina. While I haven’t been able to follow quite as intimately what has happened in Ukraine, media reporting from that country has been very good. In Bosnia … Continue reading
Posted in North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Politics and Political Theory, The Former Yugoslavia
Tagged Arab Spring, Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Communism, current-events, EU, European Union, force, hannah arendt, NATO, nature of politics, politics, repressive regimes, transitional justice, Ukraine, western political philosophy, Yugoslavia
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Punk Is Not Dead
Today my review essay of Masha Gessen’s latest book, Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot, appears in the Los Angeles Review of Books. The book is a testament to the courage of the members of the group who … Continue reading
“We have met the enemy and he is us”
Attending a conference of public diplomacy professionals and academics last week at the U.S. State Department, a particular comment made by a participant during one of the main sessions struck me. He described the positive outcome of a recent YES … Continue reading
Posted in Public Diplomacy
Tagged aesthetics and politics, American culture, Communism, current-events, Hollywood, international relations, propaganda, Public Diplomacy, soft power, State Department, strategic communications, totalitarian regimes, U.S. State Department, United States
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Lou Reed and the Power of Art
Lou Reed died today at 71. The standard obituaries have noted his profound influence on popular music since the 1960s and 1970s. Dig a little deeper and you might find, as The New Republic did, that he affected political leaders like Vaclav … Continue reading
Posted in Politics and Political Theory
Tagged aesthetics and politics, Communism, current-events, Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Lou Reed, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, nature of politics, Plastic People of the Universe, politics, totalitarian regimes, Vaclav Havel, Velvet Revolution, Velvet Underground
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American Republic, Now Available from Amazon
I’m pleased to announce that my book, American Republic: Essays on the Nature of Politics, is now available in Kindle and paperback from Amazon.com. American Republic includes the original book, plus three essays that first appeared on this site: “The Plastics and … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Politics and Political Theory
Tagged aesthetics and politics, Books, Carl Schmitt, Communism, george orwell, hannah arendt, language, literature, nature of politics, political faith, political language, politics, religion, repressive regimes, totalitarian regimes, western political philosophy
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In Egypt, Force v. Power (II)
It’s been sickening listening to usually sensible and decent people try to justify the ugly ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected head of state. Watch David Brooks, for example, speaking on PBS’ Newshour, contort himself into a principle for the outcome of … Continue reading
Politics, Propaganda and Pornography on the Web in China
A recent New York Review of Books post by Perry Link is worth reading to learn the lengths and depths to which the Chinese government will go to control content and opinion on the Internet in that country. China has learned to … Continue reading
What The Washington Post gets wrong about The Daily Show in China
The April 9 Washington Post ran this blog post by Max Fisher about the unprecedented number of video viewings in China of a recent Daily Show segment on North Korea. (You can watch the original clip Daily Show clip here. I’m having … Continue reading
The Problem of Propaganda
Last week, the Vietnamese government sentenced two musicians on the charge of “anti-state propaganda,” apparently the first case in recent memory that Hanoi imprisoned artists under the charge. But within the month the government put on trial three writers on the same charge of … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Politics and Political Theory, Public Diplomacy
Tagged aesthetics and politics, Communism, freedom of expression, hannah arendt, Hoang Nhat Thong and Viet Khang, human-rights, nature of politics, Nazi, propaganda, Public Diplomacy, repressive regimes, strategic communications, totalitarian regimes, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Vietnam, western political philosophy
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