Category: Thinkers
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Claude Lefort, Political Philosopher, by Alan N. Shapiro
Politics as it is practiced in America is obsolete. It is a simulation of democracy. It seems to have very little to do with democracy any more. How do we get back to (or, more accurately, move forward to) being a real democracy? Here’s my answer: By understanding the lifework of Claude Lefort.
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Baudrillard, Globalization and Terrorism, by Douglas Kellner
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent Terror War, Jean Baudrillard has written a series of reflections on the contemporary moment that have evoked the excitement and controversy of his earlier work. For many years, Baudrillard had complained that the contemporary era has been one of “weak events.”
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Baudrillard und Trek-nologie, von Alan N. Shapiro
Beginnen wir mit dem Ende der sechziger Jahre in New York, dem Ort meiner Kindheit. Als guter Jude sollte ich eine jüdische Erziehung bekommen. Stattdessen liebte ich Star Trek. Alles, was ich weiß, habe ich von Star Trek gelernt. Unter anderem auch, die Naturwissenschaften zu lieben. Das machte mich zu einem guten Amerikaner.
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Beaubourg, Quai Branly, and the Simulacrum of Jean Baudrillard, by René Capovin
Although I am not a big Quentin Tarantino fan, I absolutely loved Inglourious Basterds. One of the things that I loved about it is that four languages – French, English, German, and Italian – all play important roles in the film. So now for some quadrophonic Baudrillard.
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Baudrillard and Trek-nology (Or Everything I Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek and Reading Jean Baudrillard), by Alan N. Shapiro
We should be greatly mistaken were we to view science fiction as an escape from everyday reality: on the contrary, it is an extrapolation from the irrational tendencies of that reality through the free exercise of narrative invention.
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Journal Entry: The Void, by Mary Fox
What follows is neither philosophical, nor academic. It is, however, both self-indulgent and self-referential, as a journal can only be. It presents no “truths” and it is peppered with inconsistencies and flaws, because I am.