As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, Maeve McGrath takes a look at how artists have depicted plagues and epidemics in times gone past.
Subjects Archives: Ideology
American Science: Triumph or Tragedy?
A historian of science himself, Conner is fully cognizant of the accomplishments of American science and technology. In an earlier book, A People’s History of Science: Miners, Midwives and “Low Mechanicks” (2005), he demonstrated the contributions of ordinary citizens to science, but he also warned of the corruptive potential of corporate money and military power.
Anti-Chinese racism sets stage for New McCarthyism
More than a dozen young visiting scholars from China had their visas abruptly terminated in a letter from administration of the University of North Texas (UNT), Denton, on August 26, in a letter dated …August 26!
Socialism’s increasing popularity doesn’t bring media out of McCarthy era
Ever since the Great Recession in 2008, and accelerating with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential run, there has been a resurgence of popularity and interest in socialism in the U.S., and an increasing skepticism of capitalism.
A response to McAfee: No, the “Environmental Kuznets Curve” won’t save us
A number of people have asked me to respond to a piece that Andrew McAfee wrote for Wired, promoting his book, which claims that rich countries – and specifically the United States – have accomplished the miracle of “green growth” and “dematerialization”, absolutely decoupling GDP from resource use.
Limits of mainstream economics today
Keynes’s criticisms of neoclassical economics set off a wide-ranging debate that came to define the terms of—and, ultimately, the limits of debate within—mainstream economics.
Mainstream economics today: Keynesian
Once it was created as a new theory of capitalism, neoclassical economics expanded its influence—in its original countries as well as elsewhere.
The case for a socialist Green New Deal
Proposals for a Green New Deal (GND) were multiplying even before the pandemic, but the economic crisis triggered by Coronavirus has given them a new urgency.
Noam Chomsky: Internationalism or Extinction
PI Council Member Noam Chomsky’s keynote speech at the Progressive International’s inaugural summit.
Lenin150 (Samizdat): A Lenin birthday book
2020 is the birthday year of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, whom most of us know as Lenin. If still alive, he would be 150 years old.
Thirty years unified Germany
This Saturday many Germans, party leaders and media pundits above all, will recall October 3, 1990, when their dreams of a unified Germany became reality.
Peru’s COVID-19 crisis
Strikes and demonstrations are on the rise across Peru, as the government’s COVID-19 response has resulted in the country bearing the highest per capita infection rate and death toll in the world.
The key to Viet Nam’s successful COVID-19 response
There were less than 400 cases of infection across the country during that period, most of them imported, and zero deaths, a remarkable accomplishment considering the country’s population of 96 million people and the fact that it shares a 1,450 km land border with China.
Accepting Israeli prize in 2018, RBG never mentioned Palestinians
The recent death of U.S. Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg (known popularly as ‘RBG’) has brought accolades from all over the world, especially from progressives who hailed her positions.
Hate: A key strategy of the Venezuelan opposition
Psychologist Fernando Giuliani analyses the retaliatory feelings of those who wish to annihilate the Bolivarian Revolution, which have been overheating during the pandemic.
The interconnectedness of everything-Capitalist contradictions and Marx’s metabolic rift theory
No person is an island. It takes a village. Circle of Life. We are stardust. Seven generations. These truisms reference connections between people and what we owe each other. Appealing to chaos theory, an action, no matter how small, dominoes around the world.
Nobel prize-winning economics of climate change is misleading and dangerous – here’s why
While climate scientists warn that climate change could be catastrophic, economists such as 2018 Nobel prize winner William Nordhaus assert that it will be nowhere near as damaging.
Remembering comrade and leftist academic David Graeber
His death was sudden and a shock to his students and the scores of people influenced by his ideas. In a world where most academics value theorizing over activism and choose to abstain from public protest, Graeber was vocal about his anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist views.
Ecosocialism: the elephant in the DSA room?
Allan Todd reviews Bigger than Bernie How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism by Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht, Verso
Freedom Rider: “Feet to the Fire” and other lies
When the Democratic Party ends its charade of a primary process and spits out the person most closely aligned with neo-liberal policies, the gas lighting begins.
