Телеграм канал «Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)»

Lauren O'Neill-Butler - The War of Art: A History of Artists' Protest In America

How artists have changed America through direct action Artists in America have long battled against injustices, believing that art can in fact "do more." The War of Art tells this history of artist-led activism and the global political and aesthetic debates of the 1960s to the present. In contrast to the financialized art market and celebrity artists, the book explores the power of collective effort from protesting to philanthropy, and from wheat pasting to planting a field of wheat. Lauren O'Neill-Butler charts the postwar development of artists' protest and connects these struggles to a long tradition of feminism and civil rights activism. The book offers portraits of the key individuals and groups of artists who have campaigned for solidarity, housing, LGBTQ+, HIV/AIDS awareness, and against Indigenous injustice and the exclusion of women in the art world. This the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC), Women Artists in Revolution (WAR), David Wojnarowicz's work with ACT UP, Top Value Television (TVTV), Agnes Denes, Edgar Heap of Birds, Dyke Action Machine! (DAM!), fierce pussy, Project Row Houses, and Nan Goldin's Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN). Based upon in-depth oral histories with the key figures in these movements, and illustrated throughout, The War of Art is an essential corrective to the idea that art history excludes politics.

Jacques Rancière - Distant Freedom: Essay on Chekhov

Chekhov's fiction offers a subtle yet powerful message: another life is possible. Something can always happen to our lives a possibility that breaks the monotony of servitude and points to a different, more liberated existence. This is the way to approach all these brief tales of lost lives, nights filled with tears and joy, landscapes, or love, against the cynicism of those who believe that time is destined to replicate the same. In these glimmers, new forms of life arise noble and sensible shapes that we occasionally perceive and may strive to unfold if we have the courage to do so.

Jacques Rancière, using Chekhov's stories as a lens, sees literature not as a source of knowledge but as a catalyst for reshaping the fabric of being. He illuminates the profound capability of literature: positioning us within the landscape of freedom, transparent about the distance it holds from the reality of servitude, yet unwavering in the standards it sets, inviting us to strive towards them.

Лев Волошин - Лягушка, рожденная под кокосом

О книге Бенедикта Андерсона «Призраки наций»

На русском языке вышла еще одна книга Бенедикта Андерсона, научные идеи которого не ограничиваются формулой про нации и воображение — у него было много других соображений касательно Юго-Восточной Азии, колониализма, политического насилия и других интересных предметов.

https://gorky.media/reviews/lyagushka-rozhdennaya-pod-kokosom

Clara E. Mattei - Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention

Capitalism isn't inevitable, scientific, or natural it's a relatively young system that can be replaced. In this radical rethinking of economics, Clara Mattei argues that enduring problems such as poverty, unemployment, and inflation are not bugs in the economy but core features. They are justified with pseudoscientific models, fabrications built to support a capitalist economy that unfairly rewards people with the most resources.

The tools of economic experts budget cuts, interest rate hikes, and regressive taxes are sold as apolitical but disguise a bleak reality: they maintain our capitalist system, reinforcing inequality. Central bankers raise interest rates knowing this will cause a recession and pain to working families. Governments slash tax collection jobs in the name of balanced budgets, which actually shields the wealthy from tax enforcement and creates budget shortfalls used to justify cuts in social services. Textbooks teach that unemployment must rise to fix inflation. But this model creates conditions that force people to accept crummy jobs and low pay.

In the wake of World War I, when the world’s economy was in turmoil, economics was elevated to a scientific discipline, legitimized through mathematical formulas and new economic institutions considered too sophisticated for the average person to understand. Today’s economic institutions, from the Fed to the IMF, wield immense power over monetary policy yet are shielded from democratic scrutiny. Why should we accept a system that delegates crucial decisions that impact our lives to institutions in which we have no say?

All the major problems today from a healthcare system that prioritizes profits over well-being to the rise of ultranationalism are rooted in an economic system that fails to serve the common good. In this revelatory manifesto, Mattei sets out a revolutionary vision that may one day allow us to achieve true economic freedom and finally escape from capitalism.