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Category: history

DeepSeek & Open Source:  How Western commentators misconstrue the world.
28/03/2025
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| General, history, Uncategorized

Western commentators have focussed on the role of open source as being free  as in beer. BBC reported on DeepSeek R1: ‘ “In January, it released its latest model, DeepSeek R1, which it said rivalled technology developed by ChatGPT-maker OpenAI in its capabilities, while costing far less to create. Its popularity and potential rattled investors, wiping billions of dollars off the market value of chip giant Nvidia – and called into question whether American firms would dominate the booming…

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( World changing ideas – addenda) Why neo-cons are fundamentally anti-capitalists
05/09/2024
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| Economics, history

Here the two themes of world changing ideas (philosophy and history) come together in a surprising manner. There is an idea that  it is rational to pursue one’s self interest which became a cornerstone in a culture war. It is a strange fact that what was originally almost mystical – ‘light of reason’ – has become a matter of calculation.  A coldly rational man is culturally today a person who subjects everything to calculation.   In Adam Smith it is…

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World changing ideas – 1 : History
29/08/2024
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| history

Generally speaking I would resist discussing emergent ideas until they were  more thoroughly worked out. This case is a little different. These ideas are not  recent but  over 50 years old. When I first had them 50 years ago  and discussed them  I was met with ‘ that is quite interesting … but beyond my area of speciality.’ In my eyes these ideas would upturn all contemporary history on the one hand and all contemporary philosophy on the other….

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‘Cry Havoc …
08/08/2024
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| history, Politics

My heart cries out in rage when I hear stories of the gang rape of Palestinian prisoners. We hear such dreadful stories and the people of Israel are openly supporting this descent into moral hell. (select link) Jonathan Ofir has written: ‘The level of sadism enacted upon Palestinians really defies description. Palestinians are now coming forth with the most graphic details about their sexual torture, like this victim on video (trigger warning):  “I’ve been shocked by electricity through my anus….

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Col Macgregor – Sevres to Lausanne : How not to think about the Ukraine war
13/06/2024
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| history, Policy, Politics
Col Macgregor

 One of the first issues when reviewing critical commentary on the Ukraine war that must be noted is that among these critical parties in the West the context and behaviour of the neo-cons are described as either delusional or irrational. Their politics are seen as based on post-WW2 rhetorics. Col Macgregor repeatedly describes the Europeans and neo-cons as ‘crazy’, ‘delusional’, and full of ‘complete folly and disaster’  in his webcast:1  Two issues arise. First is that claiming the other…

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Western Myths of globalisation
01/06/2021
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| history, Policy
[:en]globe[:]

It may be worthwhile to stand back and reflect a little on the term ‘globalisation’. One view would be: ‘Globalisation refers to the integration of markets in the global economy, leading to the increased interconnectedness of national economies. Markets where globalisation is particularly significant include financial markets, such as capital markets, money and credit markets, and insurance markets, commodity markets, including markets for oil, coffee, tin, and gold, and product markets, such as markets for motor vehicles and consumer electronics. ‘ https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Global_economics/Globalisation_introduction.html A deeper view from the Peterson Institute…

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BLM: POLICING AS RITUAL SACRIFICE
02/05/2021
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| history, Politics, Uncategorized

BLM: POLICING AS RITUAL SACRIFICE On two separate occasions I have explored the connection between US police killing and human sacrifice. I was unaware of the other important scholars who had already explored this idea. Brian Smith, formerly Professor of Religious Studies at UC Riverside writes: ‘’ …modern executions are more or less undeniably ritualised killings of a human being and so, of course, are those traditional religious practices termed ‘human sacrifices’. 1 Police killings in the US seem at…

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Joshua Glasgow: Confusing genocide and racism
01/10/2020
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| General, history, Politics
glasgow philosophy

Racism is assumed in most Western philosophy to be a singular and widespread phenomena. However we should consider whether racism is more like a virus or bacteria. It can evolve and adapt to different environments. In addition some virus and bacteria mutate from virulent to innocuous and back again. Racism could be a family of human behaviours. While we identify the virulent strain as objectionable any suggestion that elements of it are widespread might suggest that the underlying behaviour…

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Julian Baggini: Hume and the genteel racism of British philosophy
20/09/2020
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| General, history, Policy, Politics

Baggini has written a piece in Prospect magazine ‘   Is the University of Edinburgh right to “cancel” David Hume?’ 15 Sep 2020. He is seeking to defend Hume from accusations of racism while accepting his ‘unfortunate’ statements. He writes: ‘Hume was both a product of his time and like people of every time, had his blind spots.’ This statement implies that Hume’s views were uncontroversial during his time. This is completely untrue. His views were seriously challenged and…

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Cornel West – prophet or turncoat?
07/06/2020
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| history, Policy, Politics, Uncategorized
Prof Cornel West

Cornel West was once considered part of a triptych including  Skip Gates, and Anthony Appiah, representing the Black Academy. This triptych can be viewed as  either the leading edge of the Black Academy or a rogue’s gallery. Let us put this in context so as to understand the connection with Trump.  We need to understand the historical dynamics that generated this context.  For several decades ‘the conservative moment’  involved suppressing dissent of both left and right  by denying it…

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