Category: Blog post
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The Tragedy of the Platinum Jubilee
King Lear was written in 1608, three years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I. This era was often referred to as a ‘golden age’, yet around the time of the death of the heirless last Tudor, there was an unconscious feeling of anxiety felt throughout society which is reflected in some of Shakespeare’s plays. […]
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Too Good To Be True…
Having been a lout at school, it is fair to say I wasn’t of an academic mind. Or, when I come to think of it, I wasn’t of any mind! Leaving school with very less than average GCSEs didn’t bother me as I was going to be a musician or, as a back up, an […]
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The Ambiguous Death of Ethics
Ⅰ Covid-19 is yet to loosen its grip on the world, and even if it does the after-effects will be everlasting on the people that have lived through it. Many people whose relatives have died will not grieve as they normally could in other circumstances. We, as a society, may also have a delayed reaction […]
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Freed From Desire (Part II)
Between aesthetics and ethics Spanish poet Federico García Lorca said “To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.” but I would argue it is the decision to keep quiet itself that is harder. In his later work Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard explores anxiety that arises […]
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Freed From Desire
“There is one good thing: everyday life is currently making us philosophers, albeit stupid philosophers. I think it’s great that there are people, perfectly normal average people, who now protest against wearing masks and compare masks with muzzles and themselves with dogs. After all, they are thinking – perhaps for the first time in their […]
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Being and Baking (Part III)
In Being and Time Heidegger claims that we have been absorbed into the world’s gossip and eventually we live for other people rather than ourselves. We live to please others, try to convince them that we are a good person and worthy of their company. We lie to ourselves about who we really are and […]
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Being and Baking (Part II)
It is safe to say that psychoanalysts and philosophers don’t always get along, that statement has never been truer than when it comes to existentialism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. We are often distracted by things around us, often concepts of human making such as politics, work, religion, the economy and so on, they give our reality […]
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Being and Baking (Part Ⅰ)
When we are not deciding what to do with our lives, and sometimes with the lives of others, we are sending emails, thinking about the past, worrying about the future, predicting the consequences of actions, judging others, learning, chatting, socialising, networking or we might just be distracting ourselves. But are we ever just Being? and […]
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Hell Is Other People (on Social Media)
Ⅰ When we say we live in a merit-based society, it leads to the illusion that we are all equal. The belief this embodies is that people earn power, wealth, and respect individually on merit. That people can attain what they want through their own hard work and determination, normally via educational and professional routes […]
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And Just Like That…
Business ontology was described by Mark Fisher: “Over the past thirty years, capitalist realism has successfully installed a ‘business ontology’ in which it is simply obvious that everything in society, including healthcare and education, should be run as a business“. This mode of thought has led to the use of non-economic topics as a barrier […]
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Coronavirus/Poverty
Ⅰ The value of money means everything to some people and to others it means nothing. Now would you say money means nothing to poor or rich people? or a bit of both? We know money is printed on paper and if it were just a blank piece of paper it would mean nothing. The […]
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Return to a Cancelled Future
Growing up a wannabe rockstar in the UK I had various heroes; I’m sure you can imagine what influences they had on me. From smoking Marlboro reds to skinny jeans and long black emo fringes I was easily swayed by the whole DIY-look. Self cut mullets and ripped jeans made the rock scene accessible to […]
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La historia de Jeremy Corbyn y la tragedia de partido Laborista
Para cualquiera que no siguió las elecciones de 2019 en Reino Unido, el Partido Laborista perdió las elecciones por dos razones: la mala cobertura de los medios y nuestra posición sobre el Brexit. Fue un error del partido Laboralista no apoyar la decisión de la clase trabajadora para el Brexit, lo cual fue la decisión […]
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Atocha
Spain is famous for its plazas. Often thought of as places where thin, glamorous, hot-blooded Spaniards pass the night on wicker furnished terraces with large glasses of rioja wine, tapas in shallow terracotta bowls and the light humming of flamenco guitar in the background. Yet as you arrive in Madrid via the southern gateway to […]
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Selling your labour
This old Marxist phase does change how you feel when looking for a job. It can be both empowering and demotivating in equal measure or, depending on your position, it can be lopsided. If you are in a job for a number of years and you want to change, it isn’t so easy. First you […]
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What is Literature?
Having started a degree in English, I have been forced to rethink my concept of literature. Prior to completing the recommended reading, which was the first chapter of Terry Eagleton’s literary theory book, an easy way to summarize my view on literature would have been to say that it is all forms of fiction. My […]
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Idea-ology: Neo-liberalism, where it started (part 3)
Over the past 40 years, neoliberalism has demolished trade unions and stripped away financial restrictions which has led to more wealth for people with money and a stagnation in wages for the rest of us. President Reagan imposed this in the USA and Thatcher did so in the UK. In later years, neoliberalism repurposed the […]
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Idea-ology: Doctrine for the Masses (Part 2)
Neo-liberals believe that the free market is the best way to organise society. They claim that the government should be just an administrator, not a supervisor or a player in the market, even to the point that private companies should provide services such as hospitals, schools and prisons. This is a common misconception, or a […]
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Leyendas de Leganés: Don Juan de Austria, el Jon Snow de Leganés
¿Quién fue Don Juan de Austria? En Leganés hay comunidades, colegios, y una calle que se llama Juan de Austria. Y como Jon Snow de Juegos de Tronos, Juan fue un bastado del Rey y un luchador. Un héroe Cerca de 1545, el Rey Carlos I de España, también Santo Emperador Romano desde Alemania hasta […]
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Que es una ‘Centrist Dad’?
Hay un concepto en el mundo político anglo saxon que es un ‘centrist dad’ (padre centristas). Quiero introducir esto concepto a España porque es una idea fundamental por Twitter, memes y por una broma durante la cena de navidad cuando tu tío hablar sobre ‘que es posible’ en esto mundo. Un padre centralista normalmente es […]
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Leyendas de Leganés: Avenida Salvador Allende
En Leganés, hay una calle se llama Salvador Allende después del primer presidente marxista en Chile y América Latina. Allende fue elegido en eleciones democráticas en 1970. Allende quiso mejorar las condiciones para la clase obrera en su país. Mejorar la educación, el sistema de salud y nacionalizar las industrias más grandes en Chile. Pero […]
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#4MAYO Madrid Elections: an after-thought
With a 75% participation rate, the PP and Isabel Ayuso take 65 seats in the Madrid Comunidad elections, four short of a majority. She will need an abstention from Vox to become president, and is also likely to negotiate a confidence on supply agreement with them. Ayuso has eaten Cuidudanos alive and kept Vox at […]
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Nigel Farage is a bigger threat to the left than the Tories. Here’s why.
Nigel Farage is a bigger threat to the left than the Tories. Here’s why.
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Keir Starmer: Labour Aristocracy
Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer: “I don’t think there is a case for re-joining the EU…that is not realistic” Originally tweeted by BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) on January 10, 2021. On Sunday 10th January, Keir Starmer turned his back on a large group of people that voted for him in the leadership elections. Remain-backing Labour members […]
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Shove your ‘Hot Take’
Is anybody else tired? I certainly am. Following the threat to democracy, the ‘coup’, the backlash of populism (and any other over inflated name you want to give it) in the United States on Wednesday, all I have seen online so far are personal hot takes. These have mainly been poor interpretations of what was […]
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Cultural Marxism, Covid-19 and a Broken Ideology
On the 17th December, Liz Truss, the Secretary of State for International Trade, who is also minister for Women and Equality, gave a speech announcing the government’s new approach toward equality. As part of this announcement, the Secretary claimed that recent governments had concentrated on ‘empty gestures’ such as anti-racism and gender equality whilst ignoring […]
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Worth a Read: Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism
Worth a Read: Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism By Kirsten Ghodsee Bodley Head Publications If you think this is a story with steamy descriptions of Soviet spies turning capitalist men in the USA to spy for the Russian regime, or the story of woman’s liberation from the clutches of the Iron Curtain, it […]
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Ending the State Alarm and the Return of the Tourist
With the State of Alarm ending and tourists returning to Spain, there seems to be a feeling of worry in the air for some, and for others not so much. How do you feel?
Alan McGuire 