Radicalism

Chemical weapons in a class war?

Posted by on January 28th, 2008

Bruce E. Levine has an interesting article over at Alternet on the use of psychiatric medication to tame defiant youth. Some tantalizing excerpts:
For a generation now, disruptive young Americans who rebel against authority figures have been increasingly diagnosed with mental illnesses and medicated with psychiatric (psychotropic) drugs.
Disruptive young people who are medicated with Ritalin, Adderall and other amphetamines routinely report that these drugs make them “care less” about their boredom, resentments and other negative emotions, thus making them more [...] read more >

Deep Economy or Undermining Capitalism?

Posted by on April 11th, 2007

Two weeks ago, after complaining to my daughter about how much I would dislike it, I bought Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy (New York, Henry Holt: 2007) from my local Amherst book store. Already familiar with his ideas from his various other writings (including The End of Nature; Staying Human in an Engineered Age; and various New Yorker articles), I suspected that his new book would be well written, an effective attack on much that ails us as a society, and [...] read more >

Econ-Atrocity {special History of Thought series} C.L.R. James: The Future in the Present

Posted by on April 14th, 2004

By Geert Dhondt, Staff Economist
Madness surrounds all of us. Luckily the world is full of contradictions. While capitalism, barbarism and madness might seem all around us, so is its opposite, its negation. Thus, if we look hard enough we can recognize the new society in the present and we will be able to see the emergence of revolutionary possibilities. In the U.S., C.L.R. James was one of the first to clearly articulate the importance of independent Black struggles in creating [...] read more >

Econ-Atrocity {special History of Thought series} Leon Trotsky, Theorist and Revolutionary

Posted by on March 31st, 2004

By Alejandro Reuss
Mention the name of Leon Trotsky and you might be asked, “Didn’t he have an affair with Frida Kahlo?” (He did.) Or, “Wasn’t he murdered with an ice pick?” (He was.)
He was also, however, known to dabble in revolutionary politics.
The triumph of Stalin and his falsification of history have obscured Trotsky’s importance, writing him out of the Russian Revolution and airbrushing him from photos of the era (especially those showing him with Lenin). Trotsky was a principal leader [...] read more >

Econ-Atrocity {special History of Thought series} Prince Kropotkin

Posted by on March 17th, 2004

By Suresh Naidu, CPE Staff Economist
Piotr Kropotkin is famous within two groups that one never sees at the same party. The biologists and evolutionary anthropologists who derive inspiration from Kropotkin’s research into the evolution of human sociality rarely intersect with the anarchists and political theorists who respect Kropotkin’s views on revolutionary change and the abolition of the state and private property. However, there was no disparity for Kropotkin, who derived many of his political beliefs from his studies of human [...] read more >