Roger Bromley reflects on how the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement, which arose out of very different circumstances and in very different places, have both challenged the individualism of neoliberalism by seeking to reclaim public spaces, demonstrating the power of assembly, and acting collectively.
In the second of his essays on "Screening Thought" Paul Taylor explores the wider constraints imposed on serious thinking by the media. Despite the problems caused by Zizek's popularity, his celebrity-intellectual persona still retains an important aspect of “the return of the repressed” - abstract thought's stubborn survival in a heavily mediated age.
In 'Hermeneutic Communism', Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala offer a radical recasting of Marx’s theories that openly challenges calls, such as those by Negri and Hardt, for a return of the revolutionary left. Lev Marder argues this could be a Communist Manifesto for the 21st Century.
A poll published today reveals a third of Alabama and Mississippi voters say interracial marriage should be made illegal, whereas half think Obama is a Muslim, and two thirds do not believe in evolution. Hicham Yezza asks: is it time for humanitarian intervention?