NM's blog

“Under the banner of " patriotic tech ", this new bloc is building the infrastructure of control—clouds, AI, finance, drones, satellites—an integrated system we call  the Authoritarian Stack.  It is faster, ideological, and fully privatized: a regime where corporate boards, not public law, set the rules…. “The revolving door no longer spins between government and industry—it locks them together into a new architecture of power .  “Unlike old authoritarianism built on fear and force, this new system rules through code, capital, and infrastructure — making resistance feel architecturally impossible.” Once again 'capitalism' is delinked from 'democracy'. In listing the capitalist companies and individuals, the author use the word democracy seperate from capitalism, implying that we have had 'democracy' (nit capitalist democracy), but now it is under threat. 

“Through an analysis of domestic factors, elements that are often presented as separate, or timeless, features of Middle Eastern politics, be they nationalism or religious fundamentalism, may turn out to be much more closely formed and transformed by their association with the state. Just as a more flexible and specific view of history has made historical analysis more effective, a more specific view of the state may, thereby, lead to a recognition of its greater influence.” The starting point is “the approach that is broadly derivative of historical sociology, and of the stronger insights of Marxism, and, by extension, of the international dimensions, at once of history as of contemporary politics and society, that historical sociology addresses. This perspective looks at the core components of a political and social order, the state, ideology and society, and focuses specifically on how institutions, be they of political or social/religious power, are established and maintained. It s...

Did what Bertrand Russell say in 1916 still relevant today? “Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.” —  Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 13: Freedom in Society.

“What relevance does it have for you or me that a long-dead French thinker believed neoliberalism offered a possible escape hatch from the particular problems of normative power? “Do Not Ask me Who I am”

“We have to break bourgeois right”