RedBedHead

Charlie Hebdo, Free Speech & Islamophobia: a response to Leigh Phillips

2015-01-14T09:29:00.001-08:00

Well, it's certainly been a while since I've posted anything but since I still have this blog thing in my name it seemed a better place to post something longer than just on facebook. There has been a lot of debate about the terrible massacre at Charlie Hebdo and what it means from the point of view of why it happened, the character of Charlie Hebdo itself (was it racist or not) and how to

Norm Kelly v Rob Ford: The Right Wing Mayor Is Dead. Long Live The Right Wing Mayor!

2013-11-19T08:58:00.002-08:00

Happier days for the populist right Well, it was indeed a circus at city hall yesterday. I wasn’t able to attend the performance live but did have the pleasure of watching some of it unfold via the miracle of the interwebs. Those Ford brothers sure know how to do a great imitation of The Sopranos – belligerent, bullying, pulling faces like a couple of 12-year old school yard pricks. Better

Ford Saga: Left Gives Cover To Right Wing Palace Coup

2013-11-14T02:00:00.000-08:00

Cuts, what cuts? It's all about bad behaviour photo credit: @HeartsOnTheLeft Not one word about cuts. Not one word about privatizing garbage collection. Nothing about his refusal to ever attend a single Gay Pride Parade. Zilch about his actual politics. No, everything is focused on his drinking, his drug use and his public displays of such activities. Oh, and in case you didn't notice:

Three Reasons Why Ford Should Stay

2013-11-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

Everyone’s clamouring for Ford to resign: he lied, he smoked crack, he was wasted on the job, the city needs a competent administration. Balls, I say. I’ve seen competent administrations and I can say for certain in the present climate that a “competent administration” will focus its attention on further austerity and attacking those who resist austerity. Need I remind that the entire left wing

Bye Bye Rob Ford, Hello Karen Stintz

2013-11-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

There is the sound of champagne corks being popped and cheers in the streets. Everyone smiles at each other and winks, knowing that soon it will all be over. The hated burgermeister is falling and no one, except perhaps his family, will be sad to see him go. And he has been felled by none other than that champion of democracy, Toronto Police Chief William Blair. Oh, wait a second. Bill Blair?

On Pythons & Media Generated Paranoia

2013-08-07T12:04:00.002-07:00

My partner and I have been talking much about the horribly tragic death of two boys in New Brunswick a couple of days ago. KP is snake-o-phobic and this just confirmed her worst fears, especially with a reptile shop around the corner that sells large snakes. For me, while it horrified me as a father of two young children to think of losing my kids so senselessly, what was also striking was how

Blogging, Democracy and Revolution

2013-08-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

I came across this well-written piece on the role of social media in social change, written by Jesse McLaren. I've often thought that the role of new media, social media etc etc has been under-theorized by Marxists. You tend to see stuff that goes in one of two directions: either an uncritical boosterism about social media as the motor of revolutions or completely dismissive and contemptuous.

Genes, Robots & The Internet: How Capitalism Revolutionizes The Planet

2013-07-10T04:42:00.002-07:00

I was hoping to get to this sooner but life intervened (and technology in the form of a sick computer), along with the second Egyptian revolution, which has been riveting, inspiring, frightening. Nonetheless I wanted to complete my thoughts on the question of Marxism, capitalism and technological advancement – at least this portion of it. In the future I want to write something on Ray Kurzweil

Massacre in Egypt: Is Revolution Worth The Price?

2013-07-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

As I sat down to write this post the news of a tragic massacre of at least 32 Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated protestors, and the injury of 300 more was plastered all over the internet. That much is clear, the rest is yet to be disentangled (if ever) from two completely opposing stories by the Egyptian military and people on the scene. This is now one more massacre in a two year revolutionary

Frankenfoods, Toothpaste, & Justin Bieber: Capitalism & Technology II

2013-06-19T04:48:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I argued that too often Marxists fail to recognize the ways in which capitalism remains dynamic and continues to advance technologically and socially. This one-sidedness distorts analyses and perspectives and threatens to give Marxism the feel of a millennial doomsday sect. Instead Marxism ought to be perceived as a powerful critical tool for explaining the contradictions

The Fall Of The House Of Ford

2013-06-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

Taking a moment to pray for peace You gotta admit that it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Rob Ford is a bully and a hypocrite - quick to condemn the perceived weakness of others, to pounce on the supposed privileges of unionized workers or the effete absurdity of riding a bicycle instead of driving an SUV in our congested city. And yet he is clearly a man with many personal flaws whose (

Deflected Marxism: The Poison Of The Intelligentsia

2013-06-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was thinking recently of an apocryphal story that was told to me many years ago as I sat in a dank basement drinking from a keg of beer. Apparently Lenin was listening to Beethoven with the Russian novelist Gorky and commented something along the lines: “ah, the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia. Sometimes they produce such beauty that one wants to reach out and pat them on the head. But you

Marxism, Capitalism & Technology

2013-05-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on Marxism & Technology Part I There is a joke about Marxist economists that goes something along the lines of “Marxists have predicted five of the last four recessions”. I was reminded of this joke recently as I debated with a comrade about capitalism and progress, specifically around technological advances in modern capitalism. I suppose that for Marxists, as radical critics of

I Heart Rob Ford

2013-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well, it’s been quite a week or two. Rob Ford supposedly smoking crack on video. Doug Ford’s past as a supposed hash dealer exposed – along with the drug related charges and violence connected with his other siblings. This follows and endless string of scandals, foibles and general foolishness on the part of the mayor of Toronto. What fun! There has been lots of handwringing

Marxism & Religion: Part 3

2013-04-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

Religion is the origin of all social thought – philosophy, science, law, ethics, etc. Like the social thought that we now consider secular, it is also imbued with a referent principle that provides a foundational justification for its imperatives and truth claims. For religion the foundational principle is the will of God, for liberal society it is natural law, for Marxism it is human

Marxism & Religion: Part 2 - From Hatred to Brotherhood

2013-04-11T08:05:00.001-07:00

Marxism is a child of the Enlightenment. It was born of the revolutions in politics, philosophy and economy that shook Europe and America from the 17th Century through to the 19th Century. As such it was tempered in part in the polemics and struggles against religious authority. After all, religion was the ideology of the European ruling classes, used to justify the right of kings and popes to do

Marxism and Religion: Part 1

2013-04-02T03:15:00.001-07:00

This is really a thumbnail sketch of trying to wrap my head around a Marxist approach to religion. This really comes out of the experience, evolving from the approach pioneered in contemporary times by Chris Harman, of relating to imperialism in the Middle East and the role of Islamism in the resistance to that imperialism. In many ways that relationship is a clear signpost as to how Marxists

Is The SWP A Dead Duck: Part 2

2013-03-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

It isn’t only in the nations, like the former USSR, that bureaucracy can use its control of wealth and power to defeat grassroots challengers. What happened with the rise of Stalinism was an historically profound human tragedy. But the process of bureaucracy developing independence from its original base can occur on a much smaller scale and this holds lessons for revolutionaries grappling with

Egypt: Tension, Conflict & Chaos Rein On Eve Of Vote

2012-12-14T14:59:00.000-08:00