Here is a great speech by essayist and journalist Christopher Hitchens. I came across it while researching Western attitudes toward free speech, specifically in the case of prosecuting individuals for professing certain beliefs. Essayist and author Christopher Hitchens Throughout his remarks, which follow the theme of questioning orthodoxy and protecting every element of free thought, Hitichens comments […]
Making the Switch to Ubuntu
Monopolies are never a good thing. Especially not when they’re reinforced by culture, society, and every aspect of business. For the operating system world, at first it was Microsoft. Slowly, it’s becoming Apple. In a world with a free market, a perfect monopoly would never actually come to fruition–it’s just unfortunate that we don’t live […]
Adam Curtis on The Rise and Fall of the TV Journalist
I’ve often written about the works of the BBC’s Adam Curtis, one of the most fascinating documentarians of our age. He came out with this diddy on journalism not too long ago. His thesis is that TV journalists originally set out to create a narrative of the world, but in the midst of chaos, they’ve basically reverted to […]
Who Is A ‘Liberal’?
If there is one thing which seems outdated in current political systems, it is the arcane use of political labels. One would assume these long-held classifications would be universal across different cultures, but it turns out they’re just as petty and random as the individual lines alternatively called “borders” by those who aim to control […]
The News Cycle Power Play and Bob Woodward the Spook
By accommodating to Central European Time, I’ve been lucky enough to place myself well ahead of the news cycle in the New World. I say lucky because it means I can be more productive while amalgamating into the European context with the help of Viennese smiles and kisses abound, all while avoiding the ludicrous news events […]
Marshal McLuhan and the Medium is the Message
I first read Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man during my days in Canadian upper education. The best way to understand McLuhan is as the ultimate meta scientist. His writings and observations influenced advertisers, educators, and television producers in all kinds of elite circles. If I can try my hand at summarizing his vast […]
Leben und Lieben in Wien, Part Zwei
What began as a curious trip to discover my philosophical and paternal roots has now cemented my life passions and pursuits. In early 2011, I arrived in Vienna, Austria to finish my last semester of undergraduate education. I expected to make a lot of friends, touch up on Austrian economics at the home university of […]
The State Deems Me a ‘Criminal’ For Totaling My Car
In order to move to a new country and start a new life, one needs permission from governments. It’s a sad fact of our immigrant-rich societies in the West, especially since we once celebrated the arrival of different cultures and peoples and enjoyed so much growth, ingenuity, and diversity in successive generations because of open […]
Manufacturing Dissent: The truth about the Syrian Civil War
Great documentary about the Western imperialistic push for civil war and unrest in Syria. What lies at the heart of the manufactured war? EN FRANÇAIS: