What is distinctive about this world disorder is the degree to which it has occurred as an oscillation between vast contending powers and the narcissism and caprice of a man elevated to the US presidency.
It is important to put AI in its proper context. Though it is a fundamental development in the history of technology, it is something more and other than what one might call ‘stand-alone technology’, as could be said about the major developments of the printing press or even writing.
What is happening in Palestine is part of a wider process of upheaval as technology, state and capital turn against humanity. Recognising this as a fascism, we must also see its discontinuity with old political forms.
It is clear that those in the West charged with maintaining our security, and their media cheer-squad, are radically unprepared for what may now be a global disaster by other means.
The increasing visibility of a crisis in human life shows the inadequacy of current approaches on the Left. Only by going to the heart of contemporary processes, and their role within that crisis, can committed intellectuals develop a transformative approach.
It is not merely a matter of not knowing; it is knowing actively being suppressed by multiple mechanisms. In this respect Australia is an example of the role silence can play in making the formation of a certain kind of nation state possible.
The accusation that a government is criminal is usually a throw-away line, a sign of disaffection over some action that outsiders or opponents regard as immoral. It is not actually a legal claim. In its stronger forms, it may be a wish that the act in question could be addressed legally, but usually it is a statement based in political division.
To survive in this region Australia has to change its spots profoundly. It needs a form of cultural re-generation, in significant combination with its First Peoples, to justify its presence outside of the strategies of colonial power.
The hubris of science towards the everyday world is not a new phenomenon, but where the practices of technoscience now frame our world this tendency is radically escalated.
A strong case can be made that for half a generation Australia has been living a fantasy. Borrowing to finance nuclear submarines is only the latest example.
