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Tag Archives: totalitarian regimes
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
Thinking Through Ukraine
I was at NATO when Russia invaded its neighbor, Georgia, in August 2008. The action caught anyone not paying attention by surprise. The experts knew it was long in coming. I’m sure the same is for the unfurling crisis in Ukraine, … Continue reading
The Interpreter of Comedies
The extended appearance of Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina on The Colbert Report Feb. 7 is worth watching for any number of reasons, top among them are hearing two victims of Vladimir Putin’s regime speaking in their own … 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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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
“A Theory of Deeds” Threatens the Russian State
Could helping your neighbor deem you an enemy of the state? The Duma, Russia’s legislature, is leaning that way by trying to regulate what de Tocqueville admired in early America: the “innumerable multitude of small undertakings” that constitute community, what … Continue reading