pfannkuchea

Moral Outrage

Written on June 25th, 2022, the following lines were my attempt to contribute something meaningful in a moment of total dread. It is not timely, nor is it timeless, but even now I think about one of the final lines, about a woman I will never meet, nor will I even know existed. This textContinue reading “Moral Outrage”

Sisyphus on Strike

My third semester has begun. Unlike when I first arrived, I am now fully cognizant of the despair and hopelessness that inhabits the halls of the tax haven’s university. But I began this semester happy. In Paris, I began reading Camus’s Myth of Sisyphus and I am (like most readers) in awe of his finalContinue reading “Sisyphus on Strike”

Germinal at the School of Acts

“Everyone needs a right of free movement, because the world belongs to no one; . . . goods move in large ships, even as human beings are deprived of the right to circulate . . .” Manifesto of the School of Acts. Aubervilliers, 2018. I’m not a prophet, but on the eve of the secondContinue reading “Germinal at the School of Acts”

The Third Republic, Thrice

My MA thesis is temporarily and spatially about the French Third Republic, but it is really about liberals. My question is simple: why are liberals like that? “Like what?,” you ask (really no one asks but I appreciate your indulgence), but on an instinctual level most of us on the left know what I meanContinue reading “The Third Republic, Thrice”

Speaking of Spheres of Influence

NB: Cody’s article pair’s well with Alex Aviña’s recent article in Foreign Exchanges. Speaking of Spheres of Influence, Since We Are All Up in Arms against Russia’s Insistence That It Has the Right to Impose its Will on Ukraine… During a press conference on January 19th, 2022, President Joe Biden called Latin America the United States’Continue reading “Speaking of Spheres of Influence”

For

I had a short conversation with a Belgo-Albanian friend the other day. She’s a fan of Raoul Hedebouw, a deputy in the Belgian parliament for their official communist party, The Workers’ Party of Belgium. He’s a good orator and she respects him for that, spot on with hypocrisy and a complete command of French andContinue reading “For”

Say, Don’t You Know Me? I’m Your Native Son: Clinton, Carl E. Person, and the 1911 Shopmen’s Strike (Part 3 of 3)

Written by Logan (Janicki) “This man is the most cold-blooded murderer ever caught in DeWitt County!” Louis Williams, State’s Attorney for DeWitt County, at the bail hearing for Carl Person, held May 25, 1914. “There is little for me to say. Mine has been a small part in this struggle.” Carl E. Person Tony MusserContinue reading “Say, Don’t You Know Me? I’m Your Native Son: Clinton, Carl E. Person, and the 1911 Shopmen’s Strike (Part 3 of 3)”

Too Badiou

Now I have spent over a month reading Badiou’s philosophical and literary texts, reading secondary literature about him, listening to his magnificent YouTube presentations, and even corresponding with scholars who know him. While my admiration for his breadth and stalwart adherence to his principles is unchanged, I now have some reservations about the soundness ofContinue reading “Too Badiou”

In Service of the Tax Haven

Why does the tax haven even have a university? There seem to be two answers. First, before 1997 (when the university’s doors opened), locals who wanted a university education had to go abroad. Most went to France, – including the prime minister where he proceeded to plagiarize his thesis – some went to Germany –Continue reading “In Service of the Tax Haven”

Conversion: What It’s All About (Part 4)

Before I leave this topic behind, I would like to sum up my theory. The conversion experience and its analogues (Badiou’s événement or the universal transformation of love at first sight, the coup de foudre, as well as the so-called mystical experience)—these are possible because the sphere of our experience does or did encompass certainContinue reading “Conversion: What It’s All About (Part 4)”