Political theory in world history

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Internationalism: A breviary
By Perry Anderson, New Left Review, Editorial, March–April 2002. Whatever sense is given to internationalism, its meaning logically depends on some prior conception of nationalism, since it only has currency as a back-construction referring to its opposite. Yet while nationalism is of all modern political phenomena the most value-contested—judgements of its record standardly varying across a 180-degree span.
Would the West actually be happier with less? The world downscaled
By Serge Latouche, Le Monde diplomatique, December 2003. What if the very idea of growth—accumulating riches, destroying the environment and worsening social inequality—is a trap? Maybe we need to aim to create a society that is based on quality not quantity, on cooperation and not competition.
Power, Propaganda and Conscience in The War on Terror
UWA Extension Summer School Lecture by John Pilger, Winthrop Hall, The University of Western Australia, 12 January 2004. It's possible to assess fairly how our world is controlled and divided, and manipulated—and how language and debate are distorted and a false consciousness developed. When we speak of this in regard to totalitarian societies and dictatorships, we call it brainwashing. It's a notion we almost never apply to our own societies.
A New Gandhian Moment?
By Richard Falk, 1 February 2004. We may be approaching a Gandhian Moment where there occurs a worldwide revulsion against war and violence. Should this hopeful possibility be actualised, it will almost certainly be a result of that other side of Gandhi's vision, the struggle against the forces of oppression.
A tale of terrorists
By Mumia Abu-Jamal, from death row, 8 June 2004. The distinction between retail terrorism and state terrorism. When a state unleashes its power against innocents, it's acceptable collateral damage; when a group does it, it's animalistic evil and sheer barbarity. The media's innate bias in favor of nation-states and corporate power makes state violence the norm and thus makes it virtually invisible.
Leviathan: Identity Interactions between Society and Technology
By H.B. Paksoy, July 2004. Lectures prepared for the Course entitled Rewriting History: Emerging Identities and Nationalism in Central Asia. At the Central European University, Budapest, July 2004. How and for what purpose technology is created? How does technology serve humanity? What does humanity expect from technology? How are those relations regulated and by whom?
Governing with the wiggle of a Mustache
By H. B. Paksoy, Budapest, July 2004. Lectures prepared for the Central European University, Budapest, July 2004. In the scheduled Course entitled Rewriting History: Emerging Identities and Nationalism in Central Asia, H.B. Paksoy, D. Phil. Under the rule of ‘whisker governance’ many organizations are fostered by sycophants. When there is no recourse to an independent judiciary, whose interests are also shared by the population, then no one person's life is safe.