By Cynthia Chung “ ‘Science?’….’Yes,’ Mustapha Mond was saying, ‘that’s another item in the cost of stability. It isn’t only art that’s incompatible with happiness; it’s also science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled…I’m interested in truth, I like science. But truth’s a menace, science is a public…
Author: ibykus20
Escaping the Brave New World: Fleeing Huxley’s Island
In this episode of the “Escaping the Brave New World” poets Adam Sedia and David Gosselin revisit Aldous Huxley’s famous work, A Brave New World. That we find ourselves in a culture very much like the one found in his dystopian novel is not a contentious argument, and it is one many people would agree with….
Why H.G. Wells’ ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ Has Arrived Today
By Cynthia Chung “It has become apparent that whole masses of human population are, as a whole, inferior in their claim upon the future, to other masses, that they cannot be given opportunities or trusted with power as the superior peoples are trusted, that their characteristic weaknesses are contagious and detrimental to the civilizing fabric,…
The Strange Case and Many Faces of James Burnham
By Cynthia Chung “[James Burnham is] the real intellectual founder of the neoconservative movement and the original proselytizer, in America, of the theory of ‘totalitarianism.’” – Christopher Hitchens, “For the Sake of Argument: Essay and Minority Reports” It is understandably the source of some confusion as to how a former high level Trotskyist became the…
The U.S. Pivot to Asia: Cold War Lessons From Vietnam for Today
By Cynthia Chung In part one of this series, I discussed how a massive U.S. arms stockpile in Okinawa, Japan that was originally intended to be used for the planned American invasion of Japan was cancelled once the two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. L. Fletcher Prouty, who served as Chief of Special…
Beyond Oil: How the UAE’s HOPE Mars Mission Is Breaking the Arab World Out of the Crisis of Scarcity
By Cynthia Chung Something truly remarkable happened on Feb. 9th, 2021, which I fear has not been fully comprehended by most of the Western hemisphere in terms of its massive implications as a game-changer in geopolitics for the Middle East. Here in the West, we have become accustomed to our jaded denigration of space exploration. It…
Discourse On the Debt of Africa, Thirty-Three Years On
by PD Lawton Today, Africa stands at the cross-roads. This is the last opportunity for the continent`s leadership to decide the fate of 1.3 billion people. This is the most crucial moment in Africa`s history. The choice on one hand, is to continue following IMF diktat and agree to a future of economic policy that benefits the…
An Introduction to Friedrich Schiller: Theater Considered as a Moral Institution
by Cynthia Chung I know of only one secret to guarding man against depravity, and that is: to arm his heart against weakness. – Friedrich Schiller’s Theater Considered as a Moral Institution As within any period of time, the question is repeatedly asked “What is the Role of the Artist?” That is, what is the…
Who Really Runs the Middle East?
By Cynthia Chung This article is a redacted version of an original publication on The Saker. Whose “Arab Awakening”? “The renunciation will not be easy. Jewish hopes have been raised to such a pitch that the non-fulfilment of the Zionist dream of a Jewish state in Palestine will cause intense disillusionment and bitterness. The manifold…
Beyond the Lines: Shelley’s “Ozymandias”
By Adam Sedia Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” is one of his shortest works, but also one of his best known, anthologized to the point of ubiquity. But it deserves every bit of the reputation it has gained. Short, yet powerful and descriptive, it illustrates the sonnet at its best. And it is one of the…
