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eric d meyer

Philosophy of Mind +4

After exiting academia, I am now an independent scholar with a B.A. from the University of Oregon and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991). I have published book reviews on the recent works of, inter alia, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Francois Laruelle, Peter Sloterdijk, and Rene Girard, and a book on the German philosopher Martin Heidegger: Questioning Martin Heidegger: On Western Metaphysics, Bhuddhist Ethics, and the Fate of the Sentient Earth (University Press, 2013). I am currently working on several projects, including books on: 1) sovereignty and sacrifice in Western Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic or Semitic culture

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The Last Temptation of Giorgio Agamben? The Antichrist, the Katechon, and the Mystery of Evil

General Theory of Victims FRANÇOIS LARUELLE, Translated by Jessie Hock and Alex Dubilet Malden, MA: Polity Press, 184 pp. $19.95 (paper)

Dialogue, 2016

Heidegger and the Myth of a Jewish World Conspiracy

Review of Kostas Axelos Introduction to a Future Way of Thought

September 11TH Fifteen Years After

The Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End of Days GIORGIO AGAMBEN, translated by Adam Kotsko Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017. 81 pp. $15.95 (pbk.) $50.00 (cloth)

Dialogue

Freedom to fail: Heidegger’s anarchy

British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2016

ments of experts’ interpretations has less need to do this. This tension is also apparent in Mark... more ments of experts’ interpretations has less need to do this. This tension is also apparent in Markus Gabriel’s chapter on Schelling: while the early part of the chapter provides a very clear account of Schelling’s philosophy of nature (using terms accessible to those unfamiliar with the latter’s work, but without ‘domesticating’ his central claims); the section on the Freedom essay presents an unorthodox reading of the text (as essentially an account of predication) with little or no discussion of the more standard views. Again, this is helpful and illuminating as a statement of Gabriel’s view (especially as so little of Gabriel’s work is currently accessible in English), but not as a general introduction to the text and debates which surround it. It is refreshing, though, to see the figures of this period all dealt with first and foremost as philosophers in their own right, and this again is in part due to the way that the text is structured. Many accounts of this period tend to follow a narrative in which whoever the writer takes to be the ‘star’ dominates, and other figures are then presented through the lens of this ‘star’ (they contributed to their development; they were surpassed by them; their views were devastatingly rejected by them; etc.). Having separate chapters by separate experts on each of the philosophers means that the text avoids this tendency, and each philosopher is treated in their own right rather than as a precursor or disciple of some other. The volume is also refreshing in its inclusion of figures who tend to receive less attention (such as Schleiermacher andDilthey), and of areas of philosophy in this period that are often overlooked (such as the feminist implications of Romanticism).

The One by Whom Scandal Comes (OWSC) RENÉ GIRARD, translated by M.B. DEBEVOISE East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University Press. 2014. 151 pp. $19.95.When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer (WTTB) RENÉ GIRARD, translated by TREVOR CRIBBEN MERRILL East Lansing, MI. Michigan Sta...

Dialogue, 2015

Philosophy and Non-Philosophy (DNP)LARUELLE FRANÇOIS, translated byAdkins TaylorMinneapolis MN. Univocal.2013.248pp. $24.95 (paperback)Dictionary of Non-Philosophy (PNP)LARUELLE FRANÇOIS, translated byAdkins TaylorMinneapolis MN. Univocal.2013.171pp. $24.95 (paperback)

Dialogue, 2014

Sublimation of Sacrificial Violence in Western Indo European Cultures during Karl Jaspers' Axial Period

Karl Jaspers describes The Axial Period (800-200 BCE) as a world-historical turning point in the ... more Karl Jaspers describes The Axial Period (800-200 BCE) as a world-historical turning point in the spiritual evolution of the human species, characterized by the rise of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Pythagoreanism, and the Hebrew prophets, without precisely identifying what defines this world-historical period. What defines The Axial Period, I argue with Jaspers, is the sublimation of sacrifice, through which the sacrificial killing of domestic animals, characteristic of primitive religions, is sublimated into the self-sacrificial disciplines of prayer, meditation, and asceticism. This sublimation of sacrifice involves a curiously duplicitous gesture, through which the sacred violence of primitive sacrifice is simultaneously sublimated into the self-sacrificial disciplines of the Western Indo-European religions, and demoted to the strictly physical violence of modern warfare, stripped of its sacred origins. I argue, against Jaspers, that there is no world-historical discontinuity between...

The Task of the Translator, or, How to Speak to Martin Heidegger’s Texts

Philosophy Today, 2013

Can Trumps Assassinations Be Considered Legal?

Idaho Falls Post Register, 2020

President Trump's targeted killing of Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US drone st... more President Trump's targeted killing of Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US drone strike near Baghdad Airport on January 3, 2020, has been criticized for the deficient intelligence upon which it was based and for his failure to consult the Congressional Gang of Eight before carrying out an action that might lead to a US-Iran war. It should also be observed, however, that Trump's action was facially illegal both under the executive orders banning assassination issued by US Presidents Ford Carter and Reagan and never repealed and under the 2001/2002 AUMFs that authorized the US war on terrorism.

Can We Avoid a US-Iran War

Idaho Falls Post Register , 2020

Since this op-ed was written, the US-Iran conflict, escalated by President Trump's assassination ... more Since this op-ed was written, the US-Iran conflict, escalated by President Trump's assassination of Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, appears to have deescalated, especially since Iran has admitted accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet. But the danger of a US-Iran war still persists, and it is still incumbent upon Congress to take steps to ensure that Trump's response to alleged Iranian provocations does not risk igniting a Middle East war.

No Child Left Behind? US Schools and the Mexican Drug War

Idaho Falls Post-Register, 2020

This op-ed considers the dangerous effects of the Mexican drug war on students in the American pu... more This op-ed considers the dangerous effects of the Mexican drug war on students in the American public school system and advocates community involvement in stopping drug trafficking. After the killing of a Mormon family in Sonora, Mexico, US President Donald J. Trump has threatened to designate the Mexican cartels terrorist organizations, foreboding a drastic escalation of US-Mexico tensions and the US war on drugs. The op-ed questions whether escalating conflict is a constructive response to the problem, but also argues that US communities have a stake in stopping drug trafficking, so that no child will be left behind as a consequence of adolescent drug-abuse.

Get US Out of Everywhere?

Idaho Falls Post Register, 2019

This op-ed is a sequel to my previous op-ed, "Get US Out of the UN?" The op-ed criticizes the ret... more This op-ed is a sequel to my previous op-ed, "Get US Out of the UN?" The op-ed criticizes the retreat from internationalism of US foreign policy under President Donald J. Trump. With all the furor over the Trump impeachment scandal, nobody is paying attention to the greater dangers to US foreign policy of the Trump administration, with its hostility to UN humanitarian missions and to US commitments to our supposed allies. Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Northern Syria, for example, does far greater harm to US credibility and stature than a petty phone call to the Ukrainian President, and is a stab in the back to US allies like the Kurds, who fought and defeated ISIS in the US war on terrorism. Trump's decision to withdraw from Northern Syria is also a betrayal of the Syrian people, who rose up against the Syrian regime during the Arab Spring protests in response to President Obama's 2009 Cairo Speech, but who suffered terribly from Obama's failure to back up his red line speech by preventing on the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons against civilians. But these stabs-in-the-back are only the latest in a long series of US betrayals of supposed allies dating back to the Vietnam War period, as this op-ed demonstrates with reference to my personal experience.in fifty years of opposing US foreign wars.

Review of Giorgio Agamben's Stasis: Civil War as a Political Pardigm

Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 2016

September 11th, 2001: New York City, USA... March 11th, 2004: Madrid, Spain. ..July 7th, 2005: Lo... more September 11th, 2001: New York City, USA... March 11th, 2004: Madrid, Spain. ..July 7th, 2005: London, England... November 13th, 2015: Paris, France... March 22nd, 2016: Brussels, Belgium... After more than a decade of Islamist terror attacks against the Western capitals, can the international war on terror still be theorized as a global civil war within the Western European world-system itself? This is the question posed by Giorgio Agamben’s 'Stasis: Civil War as a Political Paradigm,' based upon two seminars on civil war given at Princeton University shortly after the September 11th attacks. But Agamben does not really answer this question, since he restricts himself to examining the topic of civil war as it appears within Western political thought. This review then suggests that it is also questionable whether Western Eurocentric political theology is really capable of explaining the strangely foreign world-views and different motivations of the Muslim mujahideen terrorists and Islamist suicide bombers who clash with the Western States in the internecine civil war or sacrilegious unholy war of the contemporary international war on terror.

Agamben Lusodeicorpi Review Symposium Final

Symposium, 2016

What’s the big difference between metaphysics and politics? Giorgio Agamben’s The Use of Bodies, ... more What’s the big difference between metaphysics and politics? Giorgio Agamben’s The Use of Bodies, Antonio Negri says, is a big metaphysical book; and, whether he’s being ironic or not, it’s true: The Use of Bodies is a big metaphysical-political book, with the hyphen between the two terms designating both the conjunction and the disjunction between them. But The Use of Bodies is really three-books-in-one, two of which are political books, following up on the critique of bio-politics begun by Michel Foucault, and only one of which is a metaphysical book, following the destruction of metaphysics begun by Martin Heidegger, which attempts to excavate the whole archive of Western metaphysics in somewhat less than seventy pages. And these big metaphysical-political books are sandwiched in between brief biographical interludes featuring the private lives of Guy Debord, Michel Foucault, and Martin Heidegger, perhaps to disclose the gaps between “the form(s)-of-life” of philosophy, poetry and art, and “the use of bodies” in Western politics, which it is one of the grandiose ambitions of this big, important book, to expose, and, finally, to fill. Agamben’s basic thesis is that Western metaphysics is inhabited by a whole series of fractures or scissions between, for example, ontology and logic, essence and existence, or substance and subject, which are roughly equivalent to the schismatic split between public and private life in Western politics. Similarly, Western politics is likewise fraught with a corresponding series of fractures or scissions, which are equivalent to the division between “political life” and “bare life” in Aristotle’s Politics: a metaphysical-political division, Agamben argues, arising from “the zone of indistinction” upon which sovereign power is founded by its simultaneous exclusion and inclusion of the “bare life” in the political sphere. The Use of Bodies then attempts to expose the secret complicity between Western metaphysics and Western politics, to show that meta-physics really is meta-politics, and by politicizing metaphysics, also to transcend both politics and meta-politics, toward the future community described in Agamben’s earlier work, The Coming Community. Whether that effort at transcending, or rather deconstructing, those stubborn dichotomies or divisions in Western metaphysics and Western politics is successful or not is then the subject of this review.

EDMOmnibus Homo Sacer Review Pi RFinal

Philosophy in Review, 2018

This is a review of Giorgio Agamben's 'The Omnibus Homo Sacer': the complete 'Homo Sacer' series ... more This is a review of Giorgio Agamben's 'The Omnibus Homo Sacer': the complete 'Homo Sacer' series in one volume (1336 pp.!), here reviewed in under 2000 words. I ask whether the Homo Sacer series can be seen as held together by a single overarching theoretical system, or whether it is simply a compilation of texts thrown together under a single cover without structural integrity. I point out that there is a thematic tension between those chapters (books) of TOHS dealing with what Foucault calls 'the sovereign-and-law paradigm,' derived from Carl Schmidt and Walter Benjamin, and those chapters which deal with what Foucault calls 'the biopolitical paradigm.' I suggest that in TOHS, Agamben is struggling to answer certain basic questions: What is sovereign power? And what is sacred violence? Who or what is the homo sacer? And what makes the homo sacer sacred? And if sovereign violence somehow ‘makes’ the homo sacer sacred, by a sacrificial sacralization (a sacratio), how can the un-sacrificial killing of a sacrosanct individual constitute a ‘making sacred’ (a con-secratio), and not a ‘making un-sacred’ (an ex-secratio) of the homo sacer? I suggest that Agamben's paradoxical answer to these questions tends to collapse these binary opposites into each other, as it also collapses 'the sovereign-and-law paradigm' and 'the biopolitical paradigm' into the other, creating 'a zone of indistinction' where everything finally collapses into everything else. And finally, I ask whether Agamben's TOHS is a self-deconstructing text, which turns back upon itself in its final chapters and destroys whatever 'message' or 'moral' might be extracted from it, in a classic gesture of deconstructive panache. I hope the review is helpful for readers, like myself, struggling with getting a grasp on Agamben's magnum opus without simply throwing up their hands in despair at the sheer bulk and enormous erudition of TOHS.

EDMThe Last Temptationof Giorgio Agamebn

EDMReviewofBadiou'sTrump

The Last Temptation of Giorgio Agamben? The Antichrist, the Katechon, and the Mystery of Evil

General Theory of Victims FRANÇOIS LARUELLE, Translated by Jessie Hock and Alex Dubilet Malden, MA: Polity Press, 184 pp. $19.95 (paper)

Dialogue, 2016

Heidegger and the Myth of a Jewish World Conspiracy

Review of Kostas Axelos Introduction to a Future Way of Thought

September 11TH Fifteen Years After

The Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End of Days GIORGIO AGAMBEN, translated by Adam Kotsko Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017. 81 pp. $15.95 (pbk.) $50.00 (cloth)

Dialogue

Freedom to fail: Heidegger’s anarchy

British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2016

ments of experts’ interpretations has less need to do this. This tension is also apparent in Mark... more ments of experts’ interpretations has less need to do this. This tension is also apparent in Markus Gabriel’s chapter on Schelling: while the early part of the chapter provides a very clear account of Schelling’s philosophy of nature (using terms accessible to those unfamiliar with the latter’s work, but without ‘domesticating’ his central claims); the section on the Freedom essay presents an unorthodox reading of the text (as essentially an account of predication) with little or no discussion of the more standard views. Again, this is helpful and illuminating as a statement of Gabriel’s view (especially as so little of Gabriel’s work is currently accessible in English), but not as a general introduction to the text and debates which surround it. It is refreshing, though, to see the figures of this period all dealt with first and foremost as philosophers in their own right, and this again is in part due to the way that the text is structured. Many accounts of this period tend to follow a narrative in which whoever the writer takes to be the ‘star’ dominates, and other figures are then presented through the lens of this ‘star’ (they contributed to their development; they were surpassed by them; their views were devastatingly rejected by them; etc.). Having separate chapters by separate experts on each of the philosophers means that the text avoids this tendency, and each philosopher is treated in their own right rather than as a precursor or disciple of some other. The volume is also refreshing in its inclusion of figures who tend to receive less attention (such as Schleiermacher andDilthey), and of areas of philosophy in this period that are often overlooked (such as the feminist implications of Romanticism).

The One by Whom Scandal Comes (OWSC) RENÉ GIRARD, translated by M.B. DEBEVOISE East Lansing, MI. Michigan State University Press. 2014. 151 pp. $19.95.When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer (WTTB) RENÉ GIRARD, translated by TREVOR CRIBBEN MERRILL East Lansing, MI. Michigan Sta...

Dialogue, 2015

Philosophy and Non-Philosophy (DNP)LARUELLE FRANÇOIS, translated byAdkins TaylorMinneapolis MN. Univocal.2013.248pp. $24.95 (paperback)Dictionary of Non-Philosophy (PNP)LARUELLE FRANÇOIS, translated byAdkins TaylorMinneapolis MN. Univocal.2013.171pp. $24.95 (paperback)

Dialogue, 2014

Sublimation of Sacrificial Violence in Western Indo European Cultures during Karl Jaspers' Axial Period

Karl Jaspers describes The Axial Period (800-200 BCE) as a world-historical turning point in the ... more Karl Jaspers describes The Axial Period (800-200 BCE) as a world-historical turning point in the spiritual evolution of the human species, characterized by the rise of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Pythagoreanism, and the Hebrew prophets, without precisely identifying what defines this world-historical period. What defines The Axial Period, I argue with Jaspers, is the sublimation of sacrifice, through which the sacrificial killing of domestic animals, characteristic of primitive religions, is sublimated into the self-sacrificial disciplines of prayer, meditation, and asceticism. This sublimation of sacrifice involves a curiously duplicitous gesture, through which the sacred violence of primitive sacrifice is simultaneously sublimated into the self-sacrificial disciplines of the Western Indo-European religions, and demoted to the strictly physical violence of modern warfare, stripped of its sacred origins. I argue, against Jaspers, that there is no world-historical discontinuity between...

The Task of the Translator, or, How to Speak to Martin Heidegger’s Texts

Philosophy Today, 2013

Can Trumps Assassinations Be Considered Legal?

Idaho Falls Post Register, 2020

President Trump's targeted killing of Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US drone st... more President Trump's targeted killing of Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US drone strike near Baghdad Airport on January 3, 2020, has been criticized for the deficient intelligence upon which it was based and for his failure to consult the Congressional Gang of Eight before carrying out an action that might lead to a US-Iran war. It should also be observed, however, that Trump's action was facially illegal both under the executive orders banning assassination issued by US Presidents Ford Carter and Reagan and never repealed and under the 2001/2002 AUMFs that authorized the US war on terrorism.

Can We Avoid a US-Iran War

Idaho Falls Post Register , 2020

Since this op-ed was written, the US-Iran conflict, escalated by President Trump's assassination ... more Since this op-ed was written, the US-Iran conflict, escalated by President Trump's assassination of Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, appears to have deescalated, especially since Iran has admitted accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian passenger jet. But the danger of a US-Iran war still persists, and it is still incumbent upon Congress to take steps to ensure that Trump's response to alleged Iranian provocations does not risk igniting a Middle East war.

No Child Left Behind? US Schools and the Mexican Drug War

Idaho Falls Post-Register, 2020

This op-ed considers the dangerous effects of the Mexican drug war on students in the American pu... more This op-ed considers the dangerous effects of the Mexican drug war on students in the American public school system and advocates community involvement in stopping drug trafficking. After the killing of a Mormon family in Sonora, Mexico, US President Donald J. Trump has threatened to designate the Mexican cartels terrorist organizations, foreboding a drastic escalation of US-Mexico tensions and the US war on drugs. The op-ed questions whether escalating conflict is a constructive response to the problem, but also argues that US communities have a stake in stopping drug trafficking, so that no child will be left behind as a consequence of adolescent drug-abuse.

Get US Out of Everywhere?

Idaho Falls Post Register, 2019

This op-ed is a sequel to my previous op-ed, "Get US Out of the UN?" The op-ed criticizes the ret... more This op-ed is a sequel to my previous op-ed, "Get US Out of the UN?" The op-ed criticizes the retreat from internationalism of US foreign policy under President Donald J. Trump. With all the furor over the Trump impeachment scandal, nobody is paying attention to the greater dangers to US foreign policy of the Trump administration, with its hostility to UN humanitarian missions and to US commitments to our supposed allies. Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Northern Syria, for example, does far greater harm to US credibility and stature than a petty phone call to the Ukrainian President, and is a stab in the back to US allies like the Kurds, who fought and defeated ISIS in the US war on terrorism. Trump's decision to withdraw from Northern Syria is also a betrayal of the Syrian people, who rose up against the Syrian regime during the Arab Spring protests in response to President Obama's 2009 Cairo Speech, but who suffered terribly from Obama's failure to back up his red line speech by preventing on the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons against civilians. But these stabs-in-the-back are only the latest in a long series of US betrayals of supposed allies dating back to the Vietnam War period, as this op-ed demonstrates with reference to my personal experience.in fifty years of opposing US foreign wars.

Review of Giorgio Agamben's Stasis: Civil War as a Political Pardigm

Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 2016

September 11th, 2001: New York City, USA... March 11th, 2004: Madrid, Spain. ..July 7th, 2005: Lo... more September 11th, 2001: New York City, USA... March 11th, 2004: Madrid, Spain. ..July 7th, 2005: London, England... November 13th, 2015: Paris, France... March 22nd, 2016: Brussels, Belgium... After more than a decade of Islamist terror attacks against the Western capitals, can the international war on terror still be theorized as a global civil war within the Western European world-system itself? This is the question posed by Giorgio Agamben’s 'Stasis: Civil War as a Political Paradigm,' based upon two seminars on civil war given at Princeton University shortly after the September 11th attacks. But Agamben does not really answer this question, since he restricts himself to examining the topic of civil war as it appears within Western political thought. This review then suggests that it is also questionable whether Western Eurocentric political theology is really capable of explaining the strangely foreign world-views and different motivations of the Muslim mujahideen terrorists and Islamist suicide bombers who clash with the Western States in the internecine civil war or sacrilegious unholy war of the contemporary international war on terror.

Agamben Lusodeicorpi Review Symposium Final

Symposium, 2016

What’s the big difference between metaphysics and politics? Giorgio Agamben’s The Use of Bodies, ... more What’s the big difference between metaphysics and politics? Giorgio Agamben’s The Use of Bodies, Antonio Negri says, is a big metaphysical book; and, whether he’s being ironic or not, it’s true: The Use of Bodies is a big metaphysical-political book, with the hyphen between the two terms designating both the conjunction and the disjunction between them. But The Use of Bodies is really three-books-in-one, two of which are political books, following up on the critique of bio-politics begun by Michel Foucault, and only one of which is a metaphysical book, following the destruction of metaphysics begun by Martin Heidegger, which attempts to excavate the whole archive of Western metaphysics in somewhat less than seventy pages. And these big metaphysical-political books are sandwiched in between brief biographical interludes featuring the private lives of Guy Debord, Michel Foucault, and Martin Heidegger, perhaps to disclose the gaps between “the form(s)-of-life” of philosophy, poetry and art, and “the use of bodies” in Western politics, which it is one of the grandiose ambitions of this big, important book, to expose, and, finally, to fill. Agamben’s basic thesis is that Western metaphysics is inhabited by a whole series of fractures or scissions between, for example, ontology and logic, essence and existence, or substance and subject, which are roughly equivalent to the schismatic split between public and private life in Western politics. Similarly, Western politics is likewise fraught with a corresponding series of fractures or scissions, which are equivalent to the division between “political life” and “bare life” in Aristotle’s Politics: a metaphysical-political division, Agamben argues, arising from “the zone of indistinction” upon which sovereign power is founded by its simultaneous exclusion and inclusion of the “bare life” in the political sphere. The Use of Bodies then attempts to expose the secret complicity between Western metaphysics and Western politics, to show that meta-physics really is meta-politics, and by politicizing metaphysics, also to transcend both politics and meta-politics, toward the future community described in Agamben’s earlier work, The Coming Community. Whether that effort at transcending, or rather deconstructing, those stubborn dichotomies or divisions in Western metaphysics and Western politics is successful or not is then the subject of this review.

EDMOmnibus Homo Sacer Review Pi RFinal

Philosophy in Review, 2018

This is a review of Giorgio Agamben's 'The Omnibus Homo Sacer': the complete 'Homo Sacer' series ... more This is a review of Giorgio Agamben's 'The Omnibus Homo Sacer': the complete 'Homo Sacer' series in one volume (1336 pp.!), here reviewed in under 2000 words. I ask whether the Homo Sacer series can be seen as held together by a single overarching theoretical system, or whether it is simply a compilation of texts thrown together under a single cover without structural integrity. I point out that there is a thematic tension between those chapters (books) of TOHS dealing with what Foucault calls 'the sovereign-and-law paradigm,' derived from Carl Schmidt and Walter Benjamin, and those chapters which deal with what Foucault calls 'the biopolitical paradigm.' I suggest that in TOHS, Agamben is struggling to answer certain basic questions: What is sovereign power? And what is sacred violence? Who or what is the homo sacer? And what makes the homo sacer sacred? And if sovereign violence somehow ‘makes’ the homo sacer sacred, by a sacrificial sacralization (a sacratio), how can the un-sacrificial killing of a sacrosanct individual constitute a ‘making sacred’ (a con-secratio), and not a ‘making un-sacred’ (an ex-secratio) of the homo sacer? I suggest that Agamben's paradoxical answer to these questions tends to collapse these binary opposites into each other, as it also collapses 'the sovereign-and-law paradigm' and 'the biopolitical paradigm' into the other, creating 'a zone of indistinction' where everything finally collapses into everything else. And finally, I ask whether Agamben's TOHS is a self-deconstructing text, which turns back upon itself in its final chapters and destroys whatever 'message' or 'moral' might be extracted from it, in a classic gesture of deconstructive panache. I hope the review is helpful for readers, like myself, struggling with getting a grasp on Agamben's magnum opus without simply throwing up their hands in despair at the sheer bulk and enormous erudition of TOHS.

EDMThe Last Temptationof Giorgio Agamebn

EDMReviewofBadiou'sTrump

Omnibus Homo Sacer Review Dickinson final

Philosophy in Review Vol. 42 No. 4, 2022

This review of Colby Dickinson's 'Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer Series: A Critical Introduction an... more This review of Colby Dickinson's 'Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer Series: A Critical Introduction and Guide' attempts to provide a brief explication of the crucial terms of Agamben's work: sovereignty, sacrality/secularity, state of exception, bare life, etc. while also critiquing the metaphysical/theological bias of Agamben's concept of Western European (Christian) political theology. I read 'The Omnibus Homo Sacer' from a Feuerbachian/Marxist perspective that sees political theology as a displacement of sovereign violence from the worldly plane to the crypto-theological sphere and as a mystification of the actual social problems (class conflict, inequality, violence, etc.) it disguises behind its metaphysical terms (especially behind the obscure term, 'form-of-life'). And finally, I ask if in taking 'a theological right turn' in contemporary philosophy, Agamben's Homo Sacer series does not also take a giant step backward in critical thought: back to the benighted realm of the sacralization and mystification of sovereign power that preceded the invention of the critical theory of ideology in 19th and 20th Century Western philosophy.

Review of Giorgio Agamben's 'The Use of Bodies'

Marx & Philosophy Review of Books , 2017

Giorgio Agamben's 'The Use of Bodies' is the final volume in his Homo Sacer series, and the culmi... more Giorgio Agamben's 'The Use of Bodies' is the final volume in his Homo Sacer series, and the culmination of his attempts to create a Post-Marxist theoretical description of the conditions of sovereignty and subjection in the 21st century multinational technocratic capitalist system. Agamben continues the critique of sovereign power and its use of bodies begun in the first volume of the series, and derives from Aristotle's 'Politics' a description of the master/slave dialectic between sovereign and subject more nuanced than his earlier descriptions of the reduction of the homo sacer to bare life in the fascist and communist camps. In the central sections, Agamben takes on a deconstruction of the ontological split in subjectivity which is characteristic of Western metaphysical systems, and, in the final sections, proposes an aesthetic ontology of the 'forms-of-life' which he believes constutute a practice of opposition to sovereign power. But whether Agamben's theoretical method is adequate to describe the changed conditions of sovereignty and subjection in the contemporary multinational techocapitalist system, or to describe a political praxis of opposition to that system, are the questions raised by this review.

EDMThe Last Temptationof Giorgio Agamben

The Last Temptation of Giorgio Agamben, 2018

Giorgio Agamben's recent works have been preoccupied with a certain obscure passage from St. Paul... more Giorgio Agamben's recent works have been preoccupied with a certain obscure passage from St. Paul's 'Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,' which describes the portentous events that must occur before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ can take place---specifically, the appearance of a 'man of lawlessness' (the Antichrist?) and the exposure of who or what is currently restraining the 'man of lawlessness' from being exposed as the Antichrist: a mysterious agency called the 'katechon.' In 'The Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End of Days,' this obscure passage is connected with the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI through certain equally obscure references to the fourth century theologian, Tyconius, although the precise connection between these apocalyptic events and their mysterious agents remains obscure. This review attempts to shed some critical light upon this cryptic subject, both by considering the world-historical context of St. Paul's epistle, and by asking what role these apocalyptic figures play in Agamben's political theology. But, to begin with, the review also asks: Who, really, is the Antichrist? a scarcely rhetorical question that demands a sardonic answer. Although various candidates from contemporary politics are proposed, the review finally argues that the Antichrist and the katechon are not specific individuals or worldly institutions, but rather refer to world-historical trends within Western European Christian civilization itself that have resulted in what Friedrich Nietzsche called 'the devaluation of all higher values' and 'the desecration of the Christian moral world-view': an apocalyptic turn of events which Nietzsche equally sardonically referred to in 'The Antichrist.'

EDMReviewofBadiou'sTrump

Eric D. Meyer Review of Alain Badiou's Trump, 2019

In 'Trump,' Alain Badiou argues that ‘Trump must be interpreted as an ugly symptom of the global ... more In 'Trump,' Alain Badiou argues that ‘Trump must be interpreted as an ugly symptom of the global situation, not only of the United States, but of the world’ in which global capitalism has triumphed over the socialist alternative. More precisely, Badious argues, Trump is a symbol of ‘the decomposition of the classical political oligarchy’ (think: the Clintons) ‘and the appearance of what I have called democratic fascism’ in the Western democracies. Still more precisely, Trump is a symptom of the primary contradictions in the contemporary capitalist system, in which the world-historical dialectics of communism and capitalism have ceased to function, and world history has come to a staggering dead end. But has it? Only, I suggest, for those like Badiou stuck in the aftermath of the Chinese Cultural revolution and May '68.

After giving a critical review of Badiou's Maoism and the Paris May '68 student revolts, I then argue that the primary contradiction in the contemporary world-system is not that between communism and fascism, but that between the West (the First World) and the Rest (the Two/Thirds World), which is evident, for example, in the US war on terrorism and the Muslim backlash against it. In this context, US President Trump functions as a distraction, not onky from the continued domination of the global economy by the Western/US military industrial complex, but also from the clandestine and covert actions of the C.I.A. and the pentagon/JSOC, which are still carrying on the US war on terrorism, not only in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Niger and elsewhere. I conclude by asking whether, after the failure of the Arab Spring uprisings and the Turkish invasion of Afrin and Rojava, there is still a possibility of effective resistance against Western hegemony and Western-backed regimes in the Two/Thirds World.

The Last Temptation of Giorgio Agamben? Review of 'The Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End of Days'

Giorgio Agamben's recent works have been preoccupied with a certain obscure passage from St. Paul... more Giorgio Agamben's recent works have been preoccupied with a certain obscure passage from St. Paul's 'Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,' which describes the portentous events that must occur before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ can take place---specifically, the appearance of a 'man of lawlessness' (the Antichrist?) and the exposure of who or what is currently restraining the 'man of lawlessness' from being exposed as the Antichrist: a mysterious agency called the 'katechon.' In 'The Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End of Days,' this obscure passage is connected with the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI through certain equally obscure references to the fourth century theologian, Tyconius, although the precise connection between these apocalyptic events and their mysterious agents remains obscure. This review attempts to shed some critical light upon this cryptic subject, both by considering the world-historical context of St. Paul's epistle, and by asking what role these apocalyptic figures play in Agamben's political theology. But, to begin with, the review also asks: Who, really, is the Antichrist? a scarcely rhetorical question that demands a sardonic answer. Although various candidates from contemporary politics are proposed, the review finally argues that the Antichrist and the katechon are not specific individuals or worldly institutions, but rather refer to world-historical trends within Western European Christian civilization itself that have resulted in what Friedrich Nietzsche called 'the devaluation of all higher values' and 'the desecration of the Christian moral world-view': an apocalyptic turn of events which Nietzsche equally sardonically referred to in 'The Antichrist.'

Western Philosophers and the Russia-Ukraine War

This blog considers the responses of Jurgen Habermas and Giorgio Agamben to the Russia-Ukraine Wa... more This blog considers the responses of Jurgen Habermas and Giorgio Agamben to the Russia-Ukraine War. I give a brief reprise of their respective positions and I argue that they both are too idealistic to cope with the harsh realities of the contemporary situation. While the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a stark violation of international law, and the Ukrainians are waging a courageous resistance against it, I argue the current war is being driven more by the enormous profits being made by the Western military industrial complex, which has a vested interest in perpetuating the war. By contrast, I argue that the West should immediately begin applying all possible pressure on both sides (Putin and Zelensky) to stop the fighting before it escalates into a world war or a nuclear holocaust.,

Giorgio Agamben On the Right of Resistance

On the Right of Resistance, 2022

This is a rough translation (via Google Translate) of a blog post by Giorgio Agamben on June 2nd,... more This is a rough translation (via Google Translate) of a blog post by Giorgio Agamben on June 2nd, 2022. I have added a few brief notes for clarification. The questions addressed by the blog are whether a right of resistance to tyranny can be codified under the Italian Constitution, Christian just war theory, or international law (the Geneva Conventions) and whether resistance to tyranny can be distinguished from civil war. The blog thus follows from Agamben's argument in 'Stasis: Civil War as a Political Paradigm.'

A Modest Proposal to Stop the Russia-Ukraine War In a July 8 th , 2022 Foreign Affairs article, Barry R. Posen argues that the most likely outcome of

A Modest Proposal to Stop the Russia-Ukraine War, 2022

In a July 8th, 2022 Foreign Affairs article, Barry R. Posen argues that the most likely outcome o... more In a July 8th, 2022 Foreign Affairs article, Barry R. Posen argues that the most likely outcome of the Russia-Ukraine War---now well into its fourth month with no end in sight---is “a long, bloody, and ultimately indecisive war” that “would be costly not only in terms of the loss of human life and economic damage but also in terms of escalation—including the potential use of nuclear weapons.” As a result, he suggests that “Ukraine and the West should therefore reconsider their ambitions and shift from a strategy of winning the war toward a more realistic approach: finding a diplomatic compromise that ends the fighting.” Professor Posen’s analysis agrees with the suggestions I made in an op-ed a month or so ago, which I have been unable to publish. I am therefore posting it now, in hopes the suggestions I made might at least help to reduce the terrible costs of this bloody, deadlocked war, and perhaps contribute to stopping it.

The Sacrificeof Shunashepa Academiavers

Abstract: The clash between the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryans, the Pre-Rig Vedic Indo-Aryan tribes, and t... more Abstract: The clash between the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryans, the Pre-Rig Vedic Indo-Aryan tribes, and the Harappan civilization can be described as a world-historical dialectical conflict, in which the sovereign dominant culture subjugates the indigenous subcultures within its dominant caste system, through the ‘Sanskritization’ or ‘Aryanization’ of Ancient India. But the Pre-Rig Vedic and Harappan religions were not destroyed by the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryans, but were assimilated into Brahminic Hinduism, and reemerged, centuries later, in the Puranic bhakti cults of Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi. The conflict between the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryans, the Pre-Rig Vedic tribes, and the Harappan civilization, is depicted in the Shunashepa story of the Aitareya Brahmana, in which Shunashepa, a subaltern member of a Pre-Rig Vedic tribe, the Angirasas, is recruited as a sacrificial victim by the Brahminic priests, but escapes being sacrificed by reciting the Rig Vedic hymns to Varuna. The Shunashepa story then describes the master/slave dialectic through which a subaltern subject achieves upward mobility in the Brahminic caste system by sublimating and internalizing the sovereign sacrificial discourse, although that upward caste mobility requires that the subaltern subject abandon their indigenous subculture, as Shunashepa abandons his father to be adopted by the Vishvamitra. By contrast, the Rig Vedic Vrishakapi hymn describes the precisely opposite situation, in which a subaltern subject (Vrishakapi) is denied upward caste mobility and finally sacrificed by the Rig Vedic brahmins. But the Vrishakapi hymn, like the Shunashepa story, still testifies to the survival of Pre-Rig Vedic and Harappan cultures in Brahminic Hinduism.

Why Can't the World Stop the Syrian Civil War? A Modest Proposal for a Final Solution to the Syrian Conflict by

Why Can't the World Stop the Syrian Civil War? A Modest Proposal for a Final Solution to the Syrian Conflict, 2020

After watching the 2011 Syrian Arab Spring uprising descend into a Syrian civil war following US ... more After watching the 2011 Syrian Arab Spring uprising descend into a Syrian civil war following US President Barack Obama's failure to follow through on the promises he made in his 2009 Cairo speech, I felt obligated to try to propose a possible solution to the chaos and violence of the civil war that would result in a stable and just peace for Syrian civilians. And after studying the religious-ethnic conflicts that I believe lie behind the conflict, I came to believe that a UN-backed US/NATO plan for Syria, modeled upon the US/NATO intervention in the Bosnian civil war, was the only possible option for fulfilling that goal. But after the 2020 election of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden as US President, it has become clear that the Biden administration has no intention of fulfilling the promises of President Obama's Cairo speech or of attempting to correct what Secretary of State Blinken called 'the horrible mistakes' made under the previous regime I am therefore offering the complete draft of my modest proposal for a final solution to the Syrian civil war in the hope that it will make some slight contribution to stopping the war crimes and atrocities against civilians committed by all sides, but especially by the Bashar al-Assad regime, in this seemingly interminable and unstoppable conflict.

The Derek Chauvin/George Floyd Case: A Case of Race or Class?

On May 25th, 2020, a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, was caught on a bystander’s cell-... more On May 25th, 2020, a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, was caught on a bystander’s cell-phone video kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed suspect, George Floyd, while bystanders pleaded for the officer to let him stand up and Floyd repeatedly cried, “I can’t breathe.” A few minutes later, an ambulance arrived to transport Floyd to the Hennepin County Medical Center; but while in transport, Floyd entered cardiac arrest, and two Minneapolis firefighters who arrived to provide support found him unresponsive. An hour later, Floyd was pronounced dead at the emergency room of the Hennepin County Medical Center. The Derek Chauvin/George Floyd incident has sparked an eruption of protests by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters and civil rights activists, predicated on the assumption that the death in police custody of George Floyd was motivated by racial animus on the part of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and that that racial animus is symptomatic of systemic racism on the part of US police departments at large. There is no doubt substantial evidence that the United States has a problem with the use of excessive force by police officers against presumptively innocent suspects, resulting in serious injury or death. The question here is not whether excessive police violence against presumptively innocent suspects is unjustifiable,, but whether that police violence is motivated by racial animus and not by other systemic factors, especially socioeconomic inequality and social caste/class. This essay argues that the systemic violence of US police departments is a function of their role in enforcing the monopoly on violence of the dominant (predominantly white upper middle class) caste/class against the subordinate, subaltern classes, whether African American, Native American, or even 'poor white'; and that police violence can not be corrected by inflaming racial tensions or by defunding the police, but rather by increased training of police in self-disciplined, non-violent methods of deescalating conflict, and, finally, by correcting the inequalities of wealth, privilege, health, and social caste/class status that still plague the 21st Century United States of America.

What happened to the Sexual Revolution

This op-ed considers the drastic change in mores that has taken place between the Sexual Revoluti... more This op-ed considers the drastic change in mores that has taken place between the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and what I call the Sexual Counter-Revolution of 1990s America and the Post-September 11th world. I argue that the pressure to make young people identify as straight, gay, lesbian, or trans does not serve the purposes of sexual liberation, but is instead an attempt to impose socially-constructed stereotypes that restrict rather than expand young people's ability to make difficult choices about their sexual experience. I argue that despite the sexual revolution, young people still need basic education about the biological 'facts of life' before they can make difficult decisions about their gender or sexual identity without having those decisions made for them by supposed cultural authorities.

What is Subalternity? The Case of Adree Edmo (Part Two)

The case of Adree Edmo, a Native American individual born a biological male but alleged to be a t... more The case of Adree Edmo, a Native American individual born a biological male but alleged to be a transsexual woman currently incarcerated in an Idaho men’s prison, raises difficult questions regarding the subconscious internalization of the effects of cultural domination upon members of subaltern subcultures that deserve to be considered before accepting the opinion of the current authorities: that Edmo suffers from ‘gender dysphoria’ and therefore should be subjected to transsexual surgery and hormone therapy to supposedly confirm her/his socially-acquired gender identity. This diagnosis of Edmo’s condition is based upon currently accepted theories about gender and sexuality that may or may not accurately assess Edmo’s conditions or serve her/his needs as an individual, while evading the difficult questions that follow: Why does Edmo apparently so hate him/herself that s/he has several times attempted to commit suicide before being incarcerated, and twice while in prison attempted to castrate her/himself, exhibiting extreme aversion to her/his biological sexuality and physical body? And why should the current authorities, including the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the Ninth Circuit Court, respond to Edmo’s self-hatred, not by offering him/her counseling to accept and enjoy his/her biological sexuality, but by effectively acceding in Edmo’s self-loathing by ordering that s/he should, in effect, be surgically castrated? This essay suggests that the answer to these questions lies with the sordid history of Western European attempts to exterminate or assimilate Native Americans, as carried out by Christian missionaries and BIA anthropologists on the Native American reservations, with the disastrous aftereffects clearly symptomatically evident in the self-destructive behavior evident among certain elements of the Native American population in off-reservation towns like Gallup, New Mexico, or Rapid City, South Dakota. The essay then concludes by asking whether the court order of sex-reassignment surgery for Adree Edmo is a viable solution to Edmo's condition that serves her/his genuine psychological and physical needs, or whether it is simply a continuation of the sordid history of Western European colonization of Native Americans, including recent attempts to sterilize Native American women.

What Is Called Consciousness: A Simple Explanation in Seven Easy Steps

As is widely recognized but not adequately theorized, Western (Cartesian) theories of 'mind' and ... more As is widely recognized but not adequately theorized, Western (Cartesian) theories of 'mind' and 'body' are false (dualistic) fictions that fail to accurately describe the co-existence of consciousness with the physical body in biological organisms. This brief essay then takes a few first steps toward a non-dualistic theory of consciousness by explaining consciousness as a bioelectromagnetic field-effect that arises from the synchronous firing of synapses in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems of the biological organism, but is not strictly limited to the physical body, as an electrostatic field is not strictly limited to the magnet or generator that creates it.This theory helps to explain the existence of psychological and para-psychological phenomena like subconscious memory, extrasensory perception, and telepathy, and accounts for the ability of the biological organism to coordinate the enormously complex activities of its cellular and sensori-motor functions, while also carrying on a constant transmission and reception of signals with other biological organisms and the circumambient environment. Finally, the essay suggests that the whole earth's biosphere is an electromagnetic field that possesses properties similar to (although perhaps not identical with) the consciousness of biological organisms, and asks (without answering) the difficult question whether the whole physical cosmos might not also possess similar properties of sentience or consciousness. The author invites readers' comments.

What's to be done with the Democrats after Super Tuesday

After the Trump impeachment fiasco and the Iowa caucus meltdown, after Nancy Pelosi’s shredding o... more After the Trump impeachment fiasco and the Iowa caucus meltdown, after Nancy Pelosi’s shredding of the State of the Union Address and Hillary Clinton’s attacks on Bernie Sanders, the question is: Can the Democrats nominate a plausible candidate in the 2020 elections? After Super Tuesday, the Democrats are locked in a close race between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, with Biden winning endorsements by Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Mike Bloomberg. Maybe I’ll be wrong, but I’ll make a prediction. Who's the winning candidate? (Hint: It's not Bernie Sanders.)

How President Trump (And the Congressional Democrats) Can Avoid an Iran War

Several months ago, when Iran (or the Houthis?) launched a drone attack against Saudi ARAMCO, Pre... more Several months ago, when Iran (or the Houthis?) launched a drone attack against Saudi ARAMCO, President Trump stepped back from a retaliatory attack. But after several more Iranian provocations, Trump has now killed Quds Force commander, Qassim Soleimani, in a US drone strike. This is a major escalation of the US-Iran conflict, with dangerous implications for the US-Russia, Saudi-Iranian proxy wars throughout the region, and especially for US relations with the Iranian-backed Iraqi government of Abdel al-Mahdi, already endangered by Iraqi protests. In the op-ed, I suggested US Democrats take a moment off from the Trump impeachment fiasco to pass legislation placing strict limits on the executive branch''s capacity to start a US-Iraq war by calling upon the National Emergencies Act and the War Powers Act: a suggestion that, I hope, will now be observed to avoid a full-scale war.

What is Gender Dysphoria? The Case of Adree Edmo

The Ninth Circuit Court has ordered that the State of Idaho must provide sex re-assignment surger... more The Ninth Circuit Court has ordered that the State of Idaho must provide sex re-assignment surgery for Adree Edmo (nee Mason Dean Edmo), a Native American inmate of the Idaho Department of Corrections. This op-ed asks whether sex-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy are really in the best interests of the person suffering from so-called 'gender dysphoria,' which is prescribed by the current psychiatric authorities to correct a supposed disparity between socially-constructed gender stereotypes and the biological physical body, or whether there is not a certain pressure, in the contemporary climate, to impose these surgical procedures on persons suffering from sexual violence abuse and trauma, in conformity with the race/class/gender agenda of professional institutions like the American Psychiatric Association. I invite comments on this subject, provided they are not simply hostile hurtful or hateful, but sincerely intended to provoke further critical discussion.

"Get US Out of the UN? (op-ed)

This op-ed compares the Cold War hysteria of the US John Birch Society and other McCarthyite orga... more This op-ed compares the Cold War hysteria of the US John Birch Society and other McCarthyite organizations during the 1950s and 1960s, which viewed the United Nations as a communist conspiracy, to the current wave of anti-internationalism and isolationism propagated by US President Donald J. Trump, under the backwards-looking rubric of 'Making America Great Again.'. I also gently remind the reader that the Cold War threat of nuclear annihilation by mutually-assured destruction (MAD) that fueled the construction of backyard bomb-shelters during the 1950s Cold War era has not passed away, but is still promulgated by Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that can evade the capabilities of the US 'Star Wars' missile defense systems. This op-ed was submitted to a local newspaper, but after holding it for six month, the editor refused publication because I satirically refer to Germans Russians and Japanese, employing WWI slang, as 'Krauts,' 'Russkies,' and 'Japs,' to make the point that employing these dehumanizing terms makes it easier to kill people. I invite comments as to whether these terms are 'racial epithets' and not 'ethnic slurs,' and whether the censorship of the satiric use of obsolete slang terms does not display an excess of political correctness and an complete absence of a sense of humor. The op-ed is also a prequel to my published op-ed, "Get US Out of Everywhere?"

Apostropheof Difference Meyerrev.3-

Apostrophe of Difference, 2018

The apostrophe is 1) a diacritical mark denoting the elision or omission of a certain letter or ... more The apostrophe is 1) a diacritical mark denoting the elision or omission of a certain letter or letters in the surface form of certain words; or 2) a rhetorical trope describing the turning away of a writer or speaker from the present readers or listeners toward an absent audience, often the gods or the dead. In English, the apostrophe is associated with statements or propositions employing the copular verb, ‘to be, to exist,’ and/or the negative adverbial particle, ‘not,’ which predicate the existence or non-existence of beings or existents, suggesting that apostrophization symptomatizes the waning or attrition of the strong existential sense of the Western Indo-European verb: Sanskrit asti, Greek esti German ist, English ‘is,’ etc. This essay traces the etymology of predications of existence and non-existence back to the Proto-Indo-European verb-stem, *es- or *as- (*h[1]es-), from Parmenides’ esti gar einai and Aristotle’s to ti en einai through Aquinas’ Deus est ipsum esse to Heidegger’s Es ist das Sein, and considers whether the Anglo-American analytical critique of these statements or propositions in Western metaphysics as simply meaningless is accurate, or whether it is instead a symptom of the turning away from the strong existential sense of being or existence in the Western Indo-European languages.

Keywords: Heidegger, Derrida, metaphysics, Being, Indo-European languages, predication, copula, syntax, difference, apostrophe.

What'sthe USDoingwith Khalifa Haftarinthe Libyan Civil War

U.S. President Donald J. Trump has said that the U.S. has no role in the Libyan civil war. But wi... more U.S. President Donald J. Trump has said that the U.S. has no role in the Libyan civil war. But with General Khalifa Haftar poised to attack Tripoli and to attempt to overthrow the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord, it's worth asking what support Haftar is receiving, not only from the Saudis, Egypt, the U.A.E., and France, but also from the White House, the Pentagon, and the C.I.A. This op-ed explores the thirty-year background of U.S. involvement with Khalifa Haftar, first in the attempts to overthrow the Qaddafi regime in the 1990s and 2000s, and then during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, and asks what role the U.S. is currently playing in Haftar's attempts to make himself the Qaddafi or the Sisi of Post-Qaddafi Libya.

The Aryan Controversy Decided? Ancient Indian between the Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization

What are the prehistoric sources of Brahminic Hinduism and Ancient Indian Civilization? The attem... more What are the prehistoric sources of Brahminic Hinduism and Ancient Indian Civilization? The attempts to answer this question have given rise to the fractious debates of what's called 'The Aryan Controversy,' in which' Western scholars argue that Brahminic Hinduism is a result of the Rig Vedic Indo-Aryan (RVIA) conquest of the Indus Valley civilization (IVC), while Indigenist Indian intellectuals argue that Brahminic Hinduism, like the Sanskrit language and the Rig Veda, is a indigenous creation of the Harappan culture. Following Asko Parpola's 'The Roots of Hinduism,' this review essay argues that both the Rig Vedic-Indo Aryans and the Harappans played a significant role in the establishment of Brahminic Hinduism, and explores the diverse theories that have been devised to account for the world-historical dialectical relationship between the RVIA culture and the Harappan population. Although the IVC certainly predates the RVIA migrations from Central Asia by several millennia, the IVC was already in drastic decline by the second millennia BCE, when the RVIA tribes arrived in the Punjab; and the RVIA invasion of the Indus Valley resulted in a drastic transformation of the Harappan culture, whereby Brahminic Vedic sacrificial ritualism and the Sanskrit language were imposed upon the Harappan population. But the RVIA tribes were a small elite minority among the Harappan population, and within another thousand years, the Harappan population had swamped the RVIA invaders, resulting in the reemergence of the Pre-Rig Vedic Mesopotamian and Harappan elements which make up the greater part of 'village Hinduism.' After many thousand years of conquests of the Indian subcontinent by the RVIAs, the Greeks, the Mongols, the Mughals, and the British Empire, contemporary Hinduism thus testifies to the survival of Harappan (IVC) culture in the 21st Century Republic of India (est. 1947-1950).

Vladimir Voinovich's 'Tribunal: A Courtly Comedy in Three Acts tr. Eric D. Meyer (Introduction Only)

Vladimir Voinovich's 'Tribunal: A Courtly Comedy in Three Acts' translated with introduction and notes by Eric D. Meyer , 2021

Vladimir Voinovich’s 'Tribunal: A Courtly Comedy in Three Acts' is a wildly satiric send-up of th... more Vladimir Voinovich’s 'Tribunal: A Courtly Comedy in Three Acts' is a wildly satiric send-up of the 1960s/1970s Soviet show-trials by one of the most famous Soviet dissidents, who was also sometimes called 20th Century Russia’s ‘greatest living satirist.’ Based upon his reaction to the Sinyavski/Daniel trial in 1966, which caused him to begin to write scathingly critical letters to Premier Leonid Brezhnev and the Soviet Writer’s Union and finally resulted in his expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1981, Voinovich’s 'Tribunal' is a monument to the Soviet dissidents of the Cold War period and a sardonic critique of the censorship and persecution of dissident writers everywhere. My Introduction attempts to make Voinovich's scathing black humor accessible to a 21st Century readership for whom the 20th Century Soviet Union and the 1960s/1970s Soviet dissident trials may appear as distantly inaccessible as the 10th Century Byzantine Empire. Please note that the Introduction is copyrighted. The compete translation with introduction and notes is available from Anthem Press.