Montreal (Special to Informed Comment) – Anton Chekhov famously advised young playwrights that “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.” For the past twenty years Vladimir Putin—a deeply paranoid megalomaniac who has by now completely isolated himself from his own […]
Free at Last! How my Electric Car let me Escape the clutches of Big Carbon and Mideast Oil Dictatorships
Montreal (Special to Informed Comment) – As someone who regularly teaches courses on both Middle Eastern and environmental subjects, I have long been keenly aware of the double implications of participating in an economy that simultaneously destroys the planet while supporting human rights-abusing dictatorships. From the moment the first electric vehicles hit the market I […]
The Fundamentalist Religion of the Market and COVID-19
Discussions on the role of religion in the contemporary world generally fail to take into consideration an argument advanced by David Loy more than twenty years ago: namely, that the dominant faith system practiced across the globe today is in fact that of so-called “free-market” capitalism, a self-serving ideology forcibly imposed by a worldwide plutocracy […]
What does it Mean that South Ossetia is Celebrating Independence?
By Richard Foltz | – Tskhinval, Republic of South Ossetia (Informed Comment) – On May 29 South Ossetians celebrated the signing of their declaration of independence in 1992. Given that South Ossetia’s statehood has been recognized by only five UN member states, this event could hardly be expected to make international news. And yet, given […]