Communism, History, Media, Political, Publication, Commentary, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Communism, History, Media, Political, Publication, Commentary, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

A Closer Look At “The Enemy of the People”

"With so much recent mainstream press evocation of Joseph Stalin and claims of “enemy of the people” comparisons to Donald Trump we thought it timely to share some recent thoughts on the subject from journalist, professor and writer Saswat Pattanayak. As an additional side note, and given what Pattanayak exposes about the nature and history of the association of a phrase, rather than with Stalin some of us would be more familiar with the play by Henrik Ibsen and further note that this is also where the late Dr. John Henrik Clarke got the inspiration for the spelling of his own middle name." (Dr. Jared Ball, iMixWhatILike)

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Culture, Media, Philosophy, Publication, Racism, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Media, Philosophy, Publication, Racism, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

The need for Political Correctness

The censorship argument just as the artistic expressions themselves needs to be politically correct - the position must spring from the point of raised consciousness where the needs of the times - taking into consideration various locations of exploitations and associated struggles for social justice - are well understood and articulated.

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Culture, History, Media, Philosophy, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, History, Media, Philosophy, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Fashion Dialectics

Benjamin belonged to the interwar period that witnessed rise of fascism, actively aided by European intellectuals who were hostile to the masses. The bourgeois was disdainful of the “mass society”, and the ways in which new electronic media were displaying potentials for mass liberations. Its high-brow standards were being threatened by the low-brow tastes of American consumer capitalism.

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Culture, History, Media, Philosophy, Technology, Political, Saswat, Academic Saswat Pattanayak Culture, History, Media, Philosophy, Technology, Political, Saswat, Academic Saswat Pattanayak

Lesson from Snowden: Myth of the Free Press

What is essential is to recognize what I.F. Stone used to say: that, all governments lie. All administrations resort to lies. That, international diplomacy is nothing but a systematization of lies. What is crucial is to acknowledge that individual freedom is always going to be limited so long as a state exists. That, it is not just the communist and overtly authoritarian regimes which manipulate individual rights to free speech and privacy, but the western liberal democracies have also always done so.

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The Market

One could argue that capitalism transcending all barriers and uniting us in our greed is supposed to be a good thing. After all, until this stage is reached, there would be no way to successfully combat its ills so that a higher stage of human development can be aspired for.

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Culture, Feminism, Media, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Feminism, Media, Political, Publication, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Our Rape, Their Rape

Many progressives have questioned why Delhi, why now and why the middle class? Isn’t the middle class, after all, the biggest perpetrator of violence against women? The answer is perhaps a tad simplistic – culturally enslaved by the corporate media, the bourgeois elements in Indian society usually wake up only to the “breaking news” and “shocking news”. And therefore the concerns are genuine – that the middle class might even disappear from the map of activism as soon as the media cease coverages of this specific “event”.

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Media, News, Political, Saswat, Racism, Commentary, Feminism, Academic Saswat Pattanayak Media, News, Political, Saswat, Racism, Commentary, Feminism, Academic Saswat Pattanayak

Misplaced Tears of a Militarist President, the Reactionary Pursuits of Gun Control, and Unquestioned Faith in Patriarchy Normative

The good liberals never cease to amaze. They want the wars abroad, but they don’t want the wars at home. They want other children to die, just not theirs. They want to be able to buy the guns themselves, just not allow the rest.

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Culture, Feminism, Religion, Saswat, Biography Saswat Pattanayak Culture, Feminism, Religion, Saswat, Biography Saswat Pattanayak

Jab Tak Hai Jaan :: A tribute to Yash Chopra

Unlike all the movies in the past that have taken up such a topic where the god is challenged, in Jab Tak Hai Jaan, the god eventually loses. Jesus would have won, had Shah Rukh died while diffusing the last bomb because Katrina had broken all her divine promises. Chopra deliberately had this unpalatable but a necessary ending where a man openly and unrepentantly challenges the divine plan, and prevails.

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Media, Political, History, Communism, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak Media, Political, History, Communism, Saswat Saswat Pattanayak

Media Lies and Libyan Lives

Cold War history has been so colored by western media propaganda that it has ceased to be Cold. As an unintended ramification and possible consequence of the old habits of generating fear psychoses and war justifications, the numbers continue to get inflated even today. In the case of Libya, before the issue is relegated to dustbins of history and before Gaddafi is eternally depicted as the dictator he was not, it is crucial to seek for answers regarding the number of actual deaths.

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