Seeking the Principles of Power and Danger

Absolutely brilliant, a hilarious ‘beat’ poem that nails how I feel on a number of subjects. Check out Tim Minchin and some of his other stuff .

The modern view of human rights is the result of successive struggles within Western society. Hence, in historical terms, human rights are a ‘Western’ construct. However this does not undermine the claim of cross-cultural validity, but merely problematizes the issue of cultural rights and their relation to the universal claims of the human rights tradition. This tension and the normative variety of cultural relativism have been crucial points of contestation in human rights theory. Thus, the extent to which human rights are inherently ‘Western’ in character is of vital importance to their practical implantation across cultural divisions. To address this issue, the historical origins of human rights will be briefly sketched and their cross-cultural legitimacy will be evaluated to determine the appropriate cultural designation of human rights. The question of historical origin, Micheline Ishay argues, is complicated because selection of this point ipso facto “privileges a specific...

Traversing through cyberspace today, I came across a little gem “ No Maps for These Territories ” featuring the man who coined the term cyberspace, cyberpunk novelist William Gibson . It’s a meditation on our nature as ‘mediated’ human-beings, the extent of technological saturation in our quotidian lives and our desire to produce extended networks of prosthetics. Not to mention, he delves into the process of writing and the nature of fiction, of the relationship between our conscious self and the unconsciousness. Well worth the watch, enjoy. EDIT: The youtube user who had hosted this removed it. However, here is the trailer:

I saw this one on PZ Myers’s blog and I had to share it around. Wonderful to see someone so young engage in some critical thinking. It warms my heart.

What’s the Aesopian insight of this little clip? It's perhaps the greatest film on YouTube . Except perhaps for this clip , which is essentially Vice magazin e in motion. My channel: Subjectivity101 .

Michael Hudson delivers a brilliant cutting analysis of Reagan’s economics, reform of the tax system and post-Reagan class war in the United States. If you haven’t seen or heard of “The Real News Network” , you should most definitely take a look. They provide a hardnosed and progressive take on contemporary events, vastly removed from the flippancy of much cable news analysis. -Previously on “A Night of Dostoevskian Smiles and Sadean excesses”, take a look at “Minsky and The Financial Crisis” .

The picture is of a pro-Wikileaks protest in Sydney. I don’t know who took the photo. The angle of the shot,the interplay of foreground and background, and the fact that everyone seems to be animated and smiling endear this picture to me.