The Dim Pause

🔗 Star Trek versus Imperialist Doctrine by Yanis Varoufakis

America’s liberal imperialist doctrine has been responsible for appalling carnage in places like Vietnam, Iraq, and Central America. But America has also produced a liberal anti-imperialist doctrine that remains ensconced in a TV series that has been captivating US audiences since 1966.

Currently reading: How Did We Get into This Mess? Politics, Equality, Nature by George Monbiot 📚

Compulsory worship of national symbols is the sure sign of a culture in decline - Article by Nesrine Malik, The Guardian 🔗

The Weaponisation of Labour Antisemitism 🔗 — David Graeber

Without Trace - George Monbiot 🔗

If you are not incandescent with rage, you haven’t grasped the scale of what has been done to us.

The State of It – George Monbiot 🔗

The Conservative promise to shrink the state was always a con. But it has seldom been as big a lie as it is today. Johnson grabs powers back from Parliament with both fists …

David Graeber, anthropologist and author of Bullshit Jobs, dies aged 59 🔗 — Excerpt: David Graeber, anthropologist and anarchist author of bestselling books on bureaucracy and economics including Bullshit Jobs: A Theory and Debt: The First 5,000 Years, has died aged 59.

Currently reading: Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present by Yanis Varoufakis 📚

Currently reading: Talking to My Daughter: A Brief History of Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis 📚

How maps in the media make us more negative about migrants 🔗 — Excerpt: It’s like one of those optical illusions: it looks like one face at first, but it’s actually two. Once you see the second face, you can never unsee it.  In this case, the illusion is how we view migration – it’s the maps we see so frequently that visualise migration for us.

Why Autonomy News? – Autonomy News 🔗 — Excerpt: The Autonomy News collective plans to produce original articles like this one on a fairly regular basis, as well as reposting content from elsewhere. In our first article we examine the current historical moment, and why there is a need for a site like this.

Covid-19 surveillance tech explained: 6 ways governments are monitoring the virus – and you 🔗 — Excerpt: Governments across the world face the same dilemma: how to contain the spread of Covid-19 while at the same time re-opening their shuttered societies. The stakes are immense. Open up too early and the death toll could sky-rocket, putting health systems under enormous strain.

Brace yourself for the most dangerous idea yet: most people are pretty decent 🔗 — Excerpt: Right now, more than ever, we need a hopeful view of human nature. While we’re right to keep our physical distance from those around us to stop the spread of the virus, we also need to believe that it’s these same people who will get us through it. We need to trust them.

UK General Election. Polling stations open from 7am to 10pm. 🗳️

You don’t need your polling card or ID to vote. You just need to turn up!

A wet and breezy morning at our polling station.

Labour’s Manifesto is fit for purpose. So, why are the middle classes so hostile to it? – link at The New Statesman 🔗

Media misrepresentations of the Labour party are being used strategically to create left wing folk devils and moral panic – link from Politics and Insights 🔗

He may be an anarchist who has voted only once in his life, but the comics legend Alan Moore is calling on his fans to oppose the “rapacious, smirking rightwing parasites” currently in government and join him in voting Labour.

Alan Moore drops anarchism to champion Labour against Tory ‘parasites’ – link 🔗

There’s a really good explanation of a Green New Deal for the UK on the Labour for a Green New Deal website, with a number of detailed policy documents packed with information. Also nice to see that the site itself is well designed. The Green New Deal Explained – link 🔗

The Great NHS Heist, a documentary film that I supported on GoFundMe, is being released online on 30th November.

The Great NHS Heist is a powerful account of how the nation’s proudest achievement, the National Health Service, has been fundamentally reshaped and undermined by successive governments in preparation for privatisation. The evidence of the heist is presented with a stark warning of the risks ahead through interviews with health care professionals, patients and experts in England and America.

A trailer is also available on YouTube.

A New Financial Order - Aaron Bastani Meets Yanis Varoufakis – link 🔗

Caroline Lucas & Yanis Varoufakis search for what went wrong with democracy — link 🔗

Wildcat and the Egghead: The life of Donald Rooum — link 🔗

Ne Travaillez Jamais! ca. 1965-66 - Situationniste Blog 🔗