The Dead Men Society

Old men, experienced, mature and war oriented, orchestrate war, and the masses follow willingly. Quite different to the cultural concept of "Dead Poets Society" they do not indulge in art, but in destruction, annihilation. War is not only a big business. War is the fulfillment of their deep lying drives: to strike, to kill, to conquer, to reign by war.

After the attacks by France, the United Kingdom, and the US against Syria, which were based on the unproven assertions, that the Assad-Regime had employed once again chemical weapons against its own people. In rapid speed the vassals and satelite states of the US acknowledged this "fact" - without questioning the credibility of the power who notoriously used and uses desinformation and fabricated propaganda to cover their actions. The official program is: believe it. Believe it, as we believed the facts about weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein, the most prominent falsity of the US.
If the credibility of the embedded mass media is questioned, the critics are denounced as Anti-semitic war mongers, as stupid American haters, as agents of Moscow. "Lügenpresse" ist wrong by the simple fact that many of the Right or extreme Right share this view. No, the embedded press is right and correct, the tasks of the US are necessary and human, Israel is a democracy and not to be criticized - unless one is an Anti-semite, a Neonazi or agent of Moscow.

This simple world view justifies any action. "Any" includes any form of war. The right is with the power and the power is with the US. Join in or be destroyed, put out of action, of life, of future because the future is with the US. The "friends" of the US are eager to play their part in this war game, especially Great Britain and France. The Germans, these re-educated non-people built by non-persons, leave it by words so far, but underwrite any action in the name of dignity and freedom. They have learned their lessons and have converted into dogs, who listen to their master's voice, and who lick their boots.

If one consults the quality press in Germany or Switzerland, one doesn't finde one critical question oder comment on the maneuver which coins the Western politics. The situation in the UK or US is almost the same; but at least some media show a kind of independence and display criticism.

Theresa May faces anger over Syria raids as Trump declares ‘mission accomplished’

UK opposition leaders insist that parliament should have been consulted before airstrikes 

 

Toby Helm, Martin Chulov, Sabrina Siddiqui and Michael Savage

THE GUARDIAN, Sat 14 Apr 2018 20.57 BST 

 

John (“Bomb Iran”) Bolton, the New Warmonger in the White House

By Robin Wright

NEW YORKER, March 23, 2018

American Air Strikes in Syria Do Nothing to Further Justice for the Victims of the Attack on Douma

There is no legal justification for the current US troop presence in Syria, let alone additional air strikes.

By Phyllis Bennis
THE NATION, April 13, 2018

John Bolton’s Extremism Is Perfectly Aligned With the Most Bellicose Israeli Policies

Whether he consciously puts Israel’s interests first or whether he believes they are identical to US interests doesn’t really matter—the outcome is the same.

By Mairav Zonszein

THE NATION, April 13, 2018

(Even THE NATION follows the "common" language of the Syrian chemical weapon attac but questions the context by highlighting some background aspects.)

The only political magazine that is clear and outspoken in their reporting and judgements remains COUNTERPUNCH, where the Israel lobby hasn't won her hateful influence, where the usual embedded journalism is countered.

See some articles from the weekend-edition:

Weekend Edition
April 13, 2018
Friday - Sunday:

 

Patrick Cockburn

Big Noise: Apocalyptic Tweets, Limited Strikes

Stanley L. Cohen

When Zionism Rubs Up Against Reality

Mel Goodman

Trump’s First Big Test: a Crisis for All of Us

 

 

 

Nukes and the Global Schism

Nukes and the Global Schism
Robert Koehler, Counterpunch, July 14, 2017

The United States boycotted the U.N. negotiations to ban — everywhere across Planet Earth — nuclear weapons. So did eight other countries. Guess which ones?

The international debate over this historic treaty, which became reality a week ago by a margin of 122 to 1, revealed how deeply split the nations of the world are — not by borders or language or religion or political ideology or control of wealth, but by possession of nuclear weapons and the accompanying belief in their absolute necessity for national security, despite the absolute insecurity they inflict on the whole planet.

John Berger 88th birthday

Woraus der Mensch Hoffnung schöpft: eine Begegnung mit dem Schriftsteller John Berger vor seinem 88. Geburtstag.

John Berger - Der Philosoph der einfachen Dinge
Pepe Egger, Der Tgesspiegel, 29.10.2014


John Peter Berger (born 5 November 1926) is an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a university text.

Wikipedia
Photography from Wikipedia

Frankreichs größter Kleinverleger Maurice Nadeau in Paris gestorben

Am 16.6.2013 starb im Alter von 102 Jahren der berühmte Kleinverleger Maurice Nadeau.
Kurzmeldung in der NZZ, 19.6.2013

Wikipédia

La Quinzaine littéraire
les éditions Maurice Nadeau
Un homme multiple centré sur la littérature


Nachtrag:

Gegen den heiligen Ernst des Kulturbetriebs
NACHRUF Er war einer der Großen der französischen Literatur: Der Schriftsteller und Verleger Maurice Nadeau ist tot
TAZ, 20.6.2013

Jean-François Lyotards 15. Todestag

Jean-François Lyotard (* 10. August 1924 in Versailles; † 21. April 1998 in Paris) war ein französischer Philosoph und Literaturtheoretiker. Bekanntheit erlangte er vor allem als Theoretiker der Postmoderne. Lyotards Schriften lassen sich grob in drei Phasen einteilen: frühe phänomenologische, politische und Schriften, die auch den Strukturalismus kritisieren. Es folgte eine Auseinandersetzung mit libidinösen Fragen. In seinem Spätwerk wandte sich Lyotard dann dem Postmodernismus und dem Problem des Anderen zu.

Wikipedia
Wikipédia
Abbildung aus Wikipedia (Bracha L. Ettinger)

Henri Thomas ' 100. Geburtstag

Henri Thomas (December 7, 1912, Anglemont, Vosges – November 3, 1993, Paris) was a French writer and poet.

Wikipedia

Wikipédia

Ebooks gratuits * Livres électroniques gratuits

Pour lire Céline en numérique, faut-il être un pirate?

Slate.fr

Ebooks gratuits * Livres électroniques gratuits

You're looking for a book?

Many people wish to bestow someone a book but are insecure concerning their selection. What should be given away as a gift? What is proper, beautiful, enteraining, worthwhile etc.?

I recommend the latest publication by the British author, artist and art critic John Berger:

Bento's Sketchbook

by John Berger

A meditation, in words and images, on the practice of drawing, by the author of Ways of Seeing.

The seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza—also known as Benedict or Bento de Spinoza—spent the most intense years of his short life writing. A sporadic draughtsman, he also carried with him a sketchbook. After his sudden death, his friends rescued letters, manuscripts, notes—but no drawings.
For years, John Berger has imagined finding Bento's sketchbook without knowing what its pages might hold, but wanting to see the drawings alongside his surviving words. When one day a friend gave Berger a beautiful, virgin sketchbook, John said “This is Bento's!” and he began to draw, taking his inspiration from the philosopher's vision.
The result is Bento's Sketchbook—an exploration of the practice of drawing and a meditation on how art guides our gaze to the world: to flowers, to the human body, to the pitilessness of the new world order and the forms of resistance to it.

Hardback, 176 pages
ISBN: 9781844676842
May 2011
£14.99


Writer and critic John Berger donated his archive to the British Library in 2008 but it was not possible to thank him officially for his generosity until he came on 23 May 2011 to give a reading from his latest book, Bento's Sketchbook.

John Peter Berger (born 5 November 1926) is an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a university text.
Wikipedia

John Berger was born in London in 1926. His many books, innovative in form and far-reaching in their historical and political insight, include To the Wedding (published in a rejacketed edition in April 2009), King, and the Booker Prize-winning novel, G. Amongst his outstanding studies of art and photography are Another Way of Telling, The Success and Failure of Picasso, Titian: Nymph and Shepherd (with Katya Berger) and the internationally acclaimed Ways of Seeing. He lives and works in a small village in the French Alps, the setting for his trilogy Into Their Labours (Pig Earth, Once in Europa and Lilac and Flag). His collection of essays The Shape of a Pocket was published in 2001. His latest novel, From A to X, was published in 2008.

About Looking, published by Bloomsbury in April 2009, is the follow-up to the seminal Ways of Seeing, one of the most influential books on art.

Berger is a Marxist, an advocat of dignity and freedom. He not only is an art critic but a critic generally, politically. He took explicit stands against Israel concerning their suppression of Palestinians. He is outspoken and courageous.

John Berger: a life in writing
'I wanted to write about looking at the world, so this book is about helping people to see what is around us, both the marvellous and the terrible'
Nicholas Wroe, The Guardian, 23 April 2011

John Berger: A und X Ein Gespräch gegen die Abwertung der Welt
Worte sind stärker als Trennungsschmerz: Der englische Schriftsteller John Berger erzählt in „A und X“ eine Liebesgeschichte - und verrät sein Vademecum gegen die Verwundungen der Moderne.
Thomas David, FAZ, 28.01.2011

Pour un moratoire sur les prix littéraires

A l'approche de Noël, dans des librairies gangrenées malgré elles par l'esprit de lucre, on nous sert la haine sous forme de livres tièdes. En tant qu'auteur d'une douzaine d'ouvrages et directeur éditorial d'une maison d'édition indépendante, je dois vous parler de l'agonie du livre et notamment du roman contemporain, ainsi que de ses assassins présumés : une poignée d'éditeurs parisiens conservateurs, avec la complicité des jurés moribonds des prix littéraires dominants et des critiques littéraires les plus installés, souvent écrivains eux-mêmes. Tout ce beau monde se tient par la barbichette des intérêts croisés.
Pour un moratoire sur les prix littéraires
par Luis de Miranda, auteur et éditeur
LE MONDE, 22.11.11

Luis de Miranda - Wikipédia

Die Paris Review-Interviews in deutscher Auswahl

«Von Schriftstellern für Schriftsteller»
Dialog auf höchster Ebene – eine Auswahl von Literaten-Interviews aus der «Paris Review»
Michael Schmitt in der NZZ vom 12.11.2011:

Die 1953 gegründete «Paris Review» will Literatur auf hohem Niveau vermitteln. Interviews mit namhaften Autorinnen und Autoren dienen dabei als Lockspeise für ein grösseres Publikum. Eine Auswahl dieser Gespräche liegt nun auf Deutsch vor.

* * *
Zwischen 2006 und 2009 erschienen The Paris Review Interviews I to IV:

The Paris Review Interviews, I
$16.00
Picador, 2006
Paperback; 510 pages

The first volume in the new four-volume selection of The Paris Review interviews, with an introduction by Philip Gourevitch. The book features interviews with:
Dorothy Parker
Truman Capote
Ernest Hemingway
T. S. Eliot
Saul Bellow
Jorge Luis Borges
Kurt Vonnegut
James M. Cain
Rebecca West
Elizabeth Bishop
Robert Stone
Robert Gottlieb
Richard Price
Billy Wilder
Jack Gilbert
Joan Didion

The New York Times calls The Paris Review interviews “the most remarkable and extensive interviewing project we possess” and the Times Literary Supplement of London says, "This book will intrigue and delight any serious reader or writer. It may even inspire.”

The Paris Review Interviews, II
$16.00
Picador, 2007
Paperback; 512 pages

The second volume in the new four-volume selection of The Paris Review interviews, with an introduction by Orhan Pamuk. The book features interviews with:
Graham Greene
James Thurber
William Faulkner
Robert Lowell
I. B. Singer
Eudora Welty
John Gardner
William Gaddis
Philip Larkin
James Baldwin
Gabriel García Márquez
Harold Bloom
Toni Morrison
Alice Munro
Peter Carey
Stephen King

The Paris Review Interviews, III
$16.00
Picador, 2008
Paperback; 446 pages

The third volume in the new four-volume selection of The Paris Review interviews, with an introduction by Margaret Atwood. The book features interviews with:
Ralph Ellison
Georges Simenon
Isak Dinesen
Evelyn Waugh
Ted Hughes
Harold Pinter
John Cheever
Chinua Achebe
Jean Rhys
Raymond Carver
William Carlos Williams
Joyce Carol Oates
Jan Morris
Martin Amis
Salman Rushdie
Norman Mailer

The Paris Review Interviews, IV
$14.00
Picador, 2009
Paperback; 478 pages

The final volume in the new four-volume selection of The Paris Review interviews, with an introduction by Salman Rushdie. The book features interviews with:
William Styron
Marianne Moore
Ezra Pound
Jack Kerouac
E. B. White
P. G. Wodehouse
John Ashbery
Philip Roth
Maya Angelou
Stephen Sondheim
V. S. Naipaul
Paul Auster
Haruki Murakami
Orhan Pamuk
David Grossman
Marilynne Robinson