Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

This was originally published in November 2023 A geopolitical analysis divorced from sociology/international sociology , i.e. no link to class, class relations at home and capital accumulation. However, it is important not to lose track amidst what is happening now.

There is an opinion article on Middle East Monitor. Junaid S. Ahmad uses the word 'betrayal'. I think he is wrong. Every word has to be put beside its opposite when we look at life. Betrayal implies there was loyalty and faithfulness. That is misleading and no wonder there are still many people you see on the social media arguing for Arab unity and that Arab leaders should do something like building a united force, etc. Illusion is fundamental for the powerless . Arab regime have either used the Palestinian plight or ignored it altogether. Their interests and the interests of the Arab capitalists are so entangled with Western and Israeli interests. Then Ahmad frequently uses the phrase 'Muslim world'. There is no nuch a thing, as there is no such a thing as 'the free world'. There are different and very divided countries from Indonesia to Mauritania with not only different historical development, especially since the formal independence, but also even antagonist...

Via Joel Beinin [my italics] “Netanyahu is not Israel – his government does not represent us!” proclaims a recent open letter of 160 Israeli writers, academics and intellectuals. “A war without political goals is a war of deception. A war in which more than 15,600 children have been killed is immoral,” they assert. They believe that after the horrific October 7 massacre in the communities of the western Negev, Israel “set out to wage… a just war.” In contrast, “the war that began on March 18, with Israel's violation of the ceasefire and its failure to comply with the agreement to release the hostages” is not the same war. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health (MOH), Israeli forces killed at least 14,500 Palestinian children between October 7, 2023 and January 2025. While the Gaza MOH casualty figures are widely considered reasonably accurate, a study in the British medical journal Lancet concludes that they may actually undercount casualties by as much as 40%. Were the deaths of...

 Precious!

“Our deepest conceptualisation of the world to our ways of relating to one another, is in part a product of the (neo)imperial boomerang effect .”

Capitalism What does Eric Hobsbawm mean by “human beings are efficiently designed for a capitalist system of production”? Eric Hobsbawm, a prominent Marxist historian, discusses how human beings, in his view, are shaped and adapted to fit into capitalist economic systems. His statement implies that capitalism, with its emphasis on competition, efficiency, and profit-seeking, tends to reward certain behaviors and attributes that humans naturally possess or can develop. These include qualities like ambition, productivity, and a willingness to innovate and adapt to market demands. From Hobsbawm's perspective, capitalism harnesses human creativity and productivity through market mechanisms like supply and demand, private ownership of means of production, and the pursuit of profit. He suggests that these economic structures align with basic human instincts and capabilities, making capitalism a system that can effectively utilize human labor and ingenuity to drive economic growth and dev...

Europeans began to see themselves as "white" primarily during the early modern period, especially from the 17th century onward, in the context of colonial expansion, Atlantic slavery, and the development of racial thinking. Key Phases in the Construction of Whiteness: 1. Medieval Period (before 1500s): Europeans did not have a unified concept of "race" as we understand it today. Identity was based more on religion, ethnicity, language, and region (e.g., Christian vs. Muslim, English vs. French, noble vs. peasant). The idea of being “white” did not function as a self-identifier or category of solidarity. 2. 16th–17th Centuries: Early Colonialism and Slavery As Europeans colonized the Americas and encountered Indigenous peoples and African slaves, new hierarchies were constructed. The transatlantic slave trade and European justifications for slavery helped formalize distinctions between Europeans (later “whites”) and Africans or Indigenous peoples as “non-white” and i...

" The trade union movement has always been linked to the parties of the left and unfortunately the many right-wing governments we've had in Colombia have always claimed that anyone who is a leftist is a guerrilla, a terrorist," Mr Arias says. "And once you've established that, then people feel justified in attacking them."

Those creatures don’t breathe air, don’t eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money … The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it. —John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

What is interesting in engaging with ChatGPT is not the answers themselves as the way it does generate them. My questions and comments are in red. _______________ “Human species, intractably divided on questions of value and definitions of the best regime.” How accurate is this? The quote —  “human species, intractably divided on questions of value and definitions of the best regime”  — is broadly accurate and reflects a deep tension in political philosophy, anthropology, and international relations. Here’s a breakdown of how and why this is accurate: Why it's accurate Historical Evidence Across history and cultures, humans have been deeply divided over: What constitutes justice (e.g., divine law vs. secular law). What makes a good society (e.g., hierarchy vs. equality, liberty vs. order). Who should rule (e.g., monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, technocracy). Competing Philosophical Traditions From  Plato and Aristotle  to  Rawls, Foucault, and Fanon , political...

The female pilots that helped defeat the Nazis

“The militia  evolved  from a loosely organised criminal gang into a Salafi-jihadist group inspired by the Islamic State group.”

   عجز أمة بكاملها عن مد يد العون والمدد لضحايا الهمجية الصهيونية

Interaction with ChaGPT. My questions and comments are in red Is Conflict a Human Condition? Rethinking John Gray, Nassim Taleb, and Structural Causes of War — With Commentary User Question: What is the basic condition of the human species according to John Gray? John Gray: Conflict as a Human Condition John Gray, the British philosopher, argues that the basic condition of the human species is one of conflict and perpetual struggle . He suggests that violence, domination, and power-seeking are not deviations from human nature but deeply embedded in it . According to Gray: History is cyclical , not progressive. Human atrocities such as genocide, war, and oppression are recurring features. Civilization doesn't eradicate violence; it often amplifies it—by organizing it through nationalism, ideology, and bureaucracy. Enlightenment humanism (the idea that reason and progress can overcome human flaws) is a secular myth . Human psychology, tribalism, and evolutionary instincts make c...