Utopia, you are standing in it!

While long supporting the right of Americans to protest injustices peacefully, I’ve also decried the use of violence, whether that be hurting other people without provocation (including both demonstrators and police), destroying property, or looting. I consider this immoral because you are hurting others, or destroying their property, with no justification. Further, it’s also ineffective, at least judging by the several studies cited in the CNN report below.

While violent protests may in some cases achieve their aim, there’s no control experiment here: who knows whether peaceful protests might be even more effective? In fact, I can’t imagine a situation in which scenes of protestors burning cars or police stations, beating up people without provocation, or looting stores could move people to rectify injustices more strongly than when seeing many peaceful demonstrations that are, for instance, occurring now. Indeed, many people have warned—and I think this is true—that violence…

(1) (H/t: masgramondou). Matt Ridley tells the story of the 1890 Russian flu epidemic 

The killer came from the east in winter: fever, cough, sore throat, aching muscles, headache and sometimes death. It spread quickly to all parts of the globe, from city to city, using new transport networks. In many cities, the streets were empty and shops and schools deserted. A million died. The Russian influenza pandemic of 1889-90 may hold clues to what happens next — not least because the latest thinking is that it, too, may have been caused by a new coronavirus.

In addition to the new diseases of S[ARS], M[ERS], and C[COVID]-19, there are four other coronaviruses that infect people. They all cause common colds and are responsible for about one in five such sniffles, the rest being rhinoviruses and adenoviruses. As far as we can tell from their genes, two of these coronaviruses came…

Part III

Accession to the British Throne.

Though both England and Scotland recognised Anne as their queen, only the English Parliament had settled on Sophia, Electress of Hanover, as the heir presumptive. The Parliament of Scotland (the Estates) had not formally settled the succession question for the Scottish throne. In 1703, the Estates passed a bill declaring that their selection for Queen Anne’s successor would not be the same individual as the successor to the English throne, unless England granted full freedom of trade to Scottish merchants in England and its colonies.

Georg-Ludwig, Elector of Hanover

At first Royal Assent was withheld, but the following year Anne capitulated to the wishes of the Estates and assent was granted to the bill, which became the Act of Security 1704. In response the English Parliament passed measures that threatened to restrict Anglo-Scottish trade and cripple the Scottish economy if the Estates did…

Book Review

Jason Brennan, Why Not Capitalism? (Routledge, 2014) 120pp.

In 2009 G.A (Jerry) Cohen’s short book, Why Not Socialism? defending socialism was posthumously published by Princeton University Press. Jason Brennan’s book, just published by Routledge, is a response to Cohen. A more accurate title for the book might have been Why G.A. Cohen is Wrong. However, as Brennan is defending capitalism, and no doubt with an eye on sales, his own choice of title more suits his purpose.

While Brennan’s book can be read and understood by those without the background, it is a work of political philosophy and will be more appreciated by those with at least an elementary background in the work of twentieth century political philosophers, Robert Nozick, John Rawls, and G.A. Cohen.

A similarity between Cohen’s book and Brennan’s book is the cover design. If a book defending socialism can have a single red…

This is a cross post. It was originally published on Harry’s Place on July 2nd 2012, 2:27 pm

Roger Rosewell had been a full-time worker for International Socialists, the forerunner organisation to of the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (SWP), for five years in the 1970s.  He knew how the Party operated because he had been an operator. He used to direct shopfloor members and shop stewards in how to manipulate disputes between workers and management. He ultimately defected from the party and in 1982 his booklet, Dealing with the Marxist Threat to Industry, was published. It was here that Rosewell accused Trotskyist groups of “systematic, undemocratic, elitist manipulation” of workers. Reporting on this publication, John Ezard for The Guardian described the tactics that  Rosewell explained that the SWP and other Trotskysists used:

• Positioning shop stewards so that only they could see and count a show of hands.
• Deliberate cramming of indoor meetings into insufficiently large halls without seats so that workers could not see around them and could…

On March 23, 2017, I gave a talk to the philosophy society at Birkbeck College, University of London on feminist epistemology.  My talk was mainly about the feminist theory of domination and power as outlined by Catharine MacKinnon.  While I did not read my talk, had I read it, what I would have said would have been what is on the PDF below.

Ezra – Feminist Epistemology – An Expose – Talk – Birkbeck 170323