Ideology of Power

There are many reasons why one would kill oneself. Many, if not all, stem from this root – (1) the feeling of worthlessness. A symptom of the pervasive disconnect between ‘aspiration’, in the most general sense of the word, and ‘reality’ is this niggling sense of despair and melancholy that could alternatively be understood as a ‘feeling of worthlessness’. The simplicity offends some; it suggests to others that it is a problem easy to overcome. It bears noting, however, that if the world we live in, with its myriad technologies, cannot easily grapple with this most insidious emotion, then perhaps a simple solution is nowhere in sight at all. (2) Perhaps looking at this from a solution-oriented perspective betrays a misunderstanding of people caught in the web – it may not be a ‘problem’ they want to solve. For them, suicide might even be a completely rational solution to apparently irresolvable conundrums. It is emotional distress weighed up against, and overwhelming, the capacity ...

The eminent linguist Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, pours invective at the accepted political narrative promulgated by the then-Obama Administration. Written before the possibility of President Trump’s electoral victory cast its ominous shadow over American politics, Chomsky’s book peels apart the hypocrisy of the American government, evident (provided, that is, one had the requisite information) since the onset of the Cold War. In an incisive and searing analysis of contemporary American policies, Chomsky persuasively substantiates his point: that America, for all its talk of morality and freedom, actively works against the proliferation of the values treasured at home. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent end of the ideological conflict, America has found itself embroiled in one military quagmire after another, destabilizing and radicalizing the very regions and peoples it criticizes for harboring terrorist...

Contemporary politics has been rocked by the advent of ‘fake news’ and the relentless circulation of ‘alternative facts’. One cannot help but mention Donald J. Trump, loved and worshiped by some, yet hated and scorned by others; his election made liberal use of the penchant to believe whatever was said authoritatively, regardless of the truth, with little attempt by voters to discern the veracity of any piece of information they were fed. This perception of Trump by his votaries, as the final authority on fact, was only buttressed by the vitriolic backlash of the mainstream liberal media, who became so blatantly skewed in their representation of Trump and (more importantly) of his supposedly racist and supremacist popular supporters that it only served to ossify their obduracy. I do not claim that Trump falsified and sensationalized a narrative and imposed it singlehandedly on his unthinking entourage; rather, while the statistics presented seem no doubt cherry-picked and exag...

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan is one of those books that has contributed saliently to daily vocabulary: the phrase ‘Black Swan’ is now pretty much standard fare when describing such events, which though were considered highly improbable before it happened, nevertheless occurred with blinding ferocity – throwing a wrench in the predictions of those handy but misleading ‘Gaussian Curve’ models. The Black Swan proves an intelligent read, and rather than forcing one to agree, it shows its conclusions through a transparent process of reasoning and substantiation. The analogies are as entertaining as they are invaluable in clarifying core concepts, and unlike many philosophers who dispense with making their work accessible, Taleb seems to place great importance in making himself understood by the layman.

A.C. Grayling shows himself the consummate rational atheist in The God Argument , arguing deeply and profoundly his stance. His book is broadly divided into two parts; the first is dedicated to scoping out the arguments for and against religion and religiosity – the notion of a divine being that suppresses men's baser inclinations, Grayling says, is superfluous, even unnecessary. The second proposes a shift away from religiosity, or the penchant to believe in some god that arbitrarily imposes precepts onto the denizens of the earth, and toward humanism. Humanism, he argues, presents one’s moral and ethical values as the conclusion of one’s own deliberation and considered judgments, arrived at through Reason. After all, ‘that is what is meant by living autonomously – taking responsibility, thinking things through.'

It has been a rocky journey since election night, where (now President) Trump shocked the world in a miraculous upset victory over Hillary Clinton. The writing had been on the wall, and the complacency of the media outlets had obscured the root of the problem, making it seem as though a Clinton win was inevitable – a supposed fait accompli . As is always the case, political analysts and strategists, with the advantage of hindsight, have perspicuously adduced myriad reasons and factors accounting for Trump’s win. Whatever transpired, our business is in the present, where Trump’s first days have been just as controversial as his presidential campaign. Now the target for much invective, the most entertaining of which has been the Women’s March, Trump’s executive actions have spanned almost the entire breadth of his campaign promises, his most recent one being a temporary ban on all immigration from seven primarily Muslim countries: ‘Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen’...

It is obvious that different individuals have different and sometimes widely varying predispositions to taking certain perspectives. Such perspectives have given rise to categorizations of people as 'Optimists' and 'Pessimists'; it is almost a given that optimism is considered a crucial deciding factor in the success, happiness and even longevity. Overweening optimism, however, often blinkers a person to the pitfalls of life. The straightforward answer that optimism is always better than pessimism needs greater thought.

The deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile as a result of police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota respectively has violently refocused the scrutiny of the press upon the issue of police brutality. The inflammatory nature of the situation has been greatly exacerbated by its racial element: both dead men were black, and both deaths have been broadcasted across social media as irrefutable truth of white supremacist elements in government. Activists emphasize the uncanny similarities of both situations in which white police officers 'murder' black men in situations that could ostensibly be construed as misunderstandings. Indeed it seems a 'race war' is brewing, with armed, white police officers apparently abusing the authority invested into them by the state to kill innocent civilians. Nowhere is the backlash of the situation more apparent than in Dallas, where two snipers had engaged in a shootout with officers, killing five and injuring many more; the race issu...

An 800-page report and $7 million later, the House Select Committee on Benghazi has found no new evidence on the circumstances of the attack: more importantly for the Republicans, they are no closer to indicting Hillary Clinton or diminishing her presidential prospects. This is telling, given that this has amounted to being, according to David M. Herszenhorn, perhaps one of the most 'bitterly partisan congressional investigations in history'. The committee was led by South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, who among other things accused Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State, and the Obama Administration of purposefully withholding evidence and stymieing earlier investigations into the culpability of the Defense Department, Central Intelligence Agency and State Department in their failure to protect the personnel stationed at the outpost. Taken in its entirety however, the report does precious little to substantiate accusations of negligence on the part of Clinton; it presents ...

Training The beginner fitness-aspirant is usually greatly motivated, focusing on his objectives with admirable single-mindedness. Whatever the case may be, this initial enthusiasm never lasts for long, eventually being submerged by tedious workloads and distracting relationships. Consistent effort always leads to greater success and achievement than does obsession interspersed by periodic withdrawals, in life as in fitness. Dogged focus and supreme exertion hardly works if it fizzles out after a short time. To this end, it is recommended to follow an already established program rather than specially designing a personal workout plan – at least initially. This saves time and energy, allowing one not only to jump straight to what matters but also to become used to the routine of fitness and health.

Frederick the Great (1712-1786) (also Frederick II and the King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786) perhaps epitomized the 'Great Men' of history, whose force of personality and charisma left lasting impression on the German legacy. Possessed of a mysterious character whose true nature cannot be fully discerned from his writings, Frederick was a loquacious yet mysterious persona. Frederick harbored personal animus toward his militaristic, controlling father (Frederick William), not least because of the trauma he suffered under his care. The conflict between controlling father and wayward son was a recurring theme in the story of succession of the Hohenzollern family. Yet even in light of the perennial tensions between Hohenzollern monarch and Crown Prince, according to the renown historian Christopher Clark, ‘never had the struggle between father and son been waged with such emotional and psychological intensity’.

M uch ado has been made about freedom in the past 70 years since the world emerged from the tragic conflagration of World War II. The relations between countries, dictated by the New World Order that emerged then, still reigns today, reflected and observed in multifaceted international issues, through massive financial crises and in the grating conservatism of international institutions, which have acted more as guarantors of Western hegemony than as impartial custodians of the international interest. The 'Freedoms' we are fed and consequently influenced to praise are derived from Western, or more specifically American, values. Due to the relentlessly pervasive iterations of the Western way of life portrayed on every media platform imaginable, every country must be willing to cede at least some cultural or spiritual authority to the West, no matter how authoritarian. This is inevitable given geopolitical realities, but more importantly also because of its almost universal reson...

Despite the bluster of the Republican presidential nominee, it seems quite unlikely that recent poll results on the popularity and support of his campaign can universally be discounted. The recent ABC/Washington Post Poll brought matters to a head, showing an immense 12% lead for Hillary over Trump. Of course, poll results vary (probably a result of both sample bias or political maneuver, but in what proportion is anyone's guess), yet there seems to be a consensus no matter which poll one looks at: Clinton is firmly in the lead. Of course, with about a hundred days left till the start of the primaries, there is hardly any certainty about the results; the volatility of recent events attests to that fact. From the Orlando shooting to Brexit, to the resulting fallout in the financial markets where more than $2 trillion in equities was wiped out, the last few weeks has been spectacularly chaotic. Politics is a vast public undertaking, relying on mass communication to  galvanize  ...

Britain’s commitment to leaving the European Union (EU) was concretized today, legitimized by the democratic process. Having put the decision of whether to Leave or Remain to a referendum, the voting of which was held yesterday on the 23 rd of June, British Prime Minister David Cameron inadvertently opened the path to a British ‘secession’ from the EU; now the shockwaves of that decision are rocking the economies the world over, with Cameron announcing his resignation. A few minutes after the US markets opened, the DOW dropped 500 points, although the descent was arrested. The DOW Futures went down 700 points, and bank stocks have almost universally been adversely affected. There is no point in disputing the seriousness or the monumental nature of the ‘Brexit’. All the fears that accompanied the ‘Grexit’ scare attend to the current crisis as well, and perhaps even more, given Britain’s ostensibly more pivotal role on the international stage, at least in relation to Greece. There are fe...

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was a French diplomat and renowned statesman who navigated the choppy and often lethal waters of international relations. His rare skill at diplomacy is even now feted by scholars and statesmen alike.

A large part of politics is concerned with advertising. It might seem slightly distasteful that candidates making a bid for leadership positions in society, supposedly people with firm moral fiber and incorruptible characters, could be involved in self-promotion. Yet it is a truism. The endeavor is steeped in accusations ranging from the extreme of racist or misogynistic, through hypocrisy, to lighter imputations of disingenuousness and lying. Self-promotion becomes self aggrandizement: promises to fix all the ills afflicting society from poverty to fundamentalism are made regardless of the capacity to fulfill them, made only to pander to the electorate. Grandiloquence must be held together by a minimum of coherence, but the good politician knows to control his rhetoric and avoid becoming entrapped in inflexible vows – in other words lying, but painting it in other ways.  That advertisement glosses over the truth or that it involves fabricating white lies and manipulating the prese...

The tragic event of the Orlando shooting, currently making waves around the world, poses grave but crucial questions to any person living in a heterogeneous society. Given that countries have been subject to the powerful trend of globalization since the 1970s and the corresponding large movements of people, technology and culture across borders, no country can ignore the implications of cultural and ethnic schisms. And that is exactly the issue afflicting America, that melting pot of cultures which has become polarized between the strengthening voice of radical reactionaries and the weakening moderate faction. The backlash is particularly marked against Muslims by virtue of the heightening fears of terrorism: the Orlando shooting, carried out by professed Islamic Fundamentalist (though it is not clear if he had official connections with ISIS) Omar Mateen, is the 'deadliest mass shooting in US history', according to Frank Bruni, and it constitutes 'attacks on freedom itself...

During my stint as an NCO in the military, I was tasked with the unenviable but essential duty of training soldiers' physical fitness to ensure that they were able to discharge their military duties.

The past weeks have been eventful in the way of celebrity deaths. Two in particular catch the headlines: Muhammad Ali’s death presumably from the medical complications of old age and Christina Grimmie’s murder by a ‘fan’ after a concert in Orlando. The latter is this article’s principal consideration, but both are important in scoping out the nature of fame and its relation to the media.

In the course of a life, one always manages to find certain recurring personalities. Whether influenced by the familiar rhetoric espousing liberty or rejecting its teachings, more people than ever seem committed to vociferous argument. It is unclear whether this is symptomatic of a Western litigiousness or a mere consequence of the knowledge revolution (courtesy of the Internet), but the clamour is undeniable. Where political correctness holds sway, people argue that they lack rights, that rights are contravened and that they have been victimized every which way. This argument is reiterated until people no longer think it, they believe it. This belief spills over into cultish behaviour, and sometimes morphs into zealotry. Such people argue to be given certain rights or success on a silver platter for no other reason than that they feel they deserve it. This is the excess of self-confidence that one is liable to find today. Yet the lessons of History teach us that balance - the abi...

Ideology of power is run by Yann, whose interest lays primarily in philosophy. To state an important axiom: the impulse to survive is inextricable from the compulsion (psychological or physiological) to dominate, to assert or to impose. Such urges which have guided Humanity have been vilified and celebrated at different junctures throughout history, sometimes both simultaneously. Regardless of good or evil (or in spite of such insipid characterisations), and leaving simple value judgements to news pundits, Yann attempts to illustrate in broad strokes the topography of power and competition.