Author: John Medearis File Type: pdf Is infrequent voting the most we can expect from a free citizenry? Would democracy be more robust if our political discourse were more deliberative? John Medeariss trenchant and trend-bucking work of political philosophy argues that democracies face significant challenges that go beyond civic lethargy and unreasonable debate. Democracy is inherently a fragile state of affairs, he reminds us. Revisiting fundamental questions about the system in theory and practice, Why Democracy Is Oppositional helps us see why preserving democracy has always beenand will always bea struggle. As citizens of democracies seek political control over their destinies, they confront forces that threaten to dominate their lives. These forces may take the form of runaway financial markets, powerful special interests, expanding militaries, or dysfunctional legislatures. But citizens of democracies help create the very institutions that overwhelm them. Hostile threats do not generally come from the outside but are the product of citizens own collective activities. Medearis contends that democratic action perpetually arises to reclaim egalitarian control over social forces and institutions that have become alienated from large numbers of citizens. Democracy is therefore necessarily oppositional. Concerted, contentious political activities of all kinds are fundamental to it, while consensus and easy compromise are rarities. Recovering insights from political theorists such as Karl Marx and John Dewey, Why Democracy Is Oppositional addresses contemporary issues ranging from the global financial crisis and economic inequality to drone warfare and mass incarceration. **
Author: Leo Gough
File Type: epub
The title of this 1955 book refers to a story about a visitor to New York who admired the yachts of the bankers and brokers. Naively, he asked where all the customers yachts were. Of course, none of the customers could afford yachts, even though they dutifully followed the advice of their bankers and brokers. Full of wise contrarian advice and offering a true look at the world of investing, Where are the Customers Yachts? continues to open the eyes of investors to the reality of Wall Street today. Leo Goughs interpretation of Where are the Customers Yachts? illustrates the timeless nature of Fred Schweds insights. Bringing them to life through 52 modern case studies, this brilliant interpretation is an entertaining accompaniment to one of the most eye-opening books on investment ever written. **
Author: Michael Bishop
File Type: pdf
Philosophers defend theories of what well-being is but ignore what psychologists have learned about it, while psychologists learn about well-being but lack a theory of what it is. In The Good Life, Michael Bishop brings together these complementary investigations and proposes a powerful, new theory for understanding well-being. The network theory holds that to have well-being is to be stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle of positive emotions, attitudes, traits and accomplishments. For someone with well-being, these states -- states such as joy and contentment, optimism and adventurousness, extraversion and perseverance, strong relationships, professional success and good health -- build upon and foster each other. They form a kind of positive causal network (PCN), so that a person high in well-being finds herself in a positive cycle or groove. A person with a lesser degree of well-being might possess only fragments of such a network -- some positive feelings, attitudes, traits or successes, but not enough to kick start a full-blown, self-perpetuating network. Although recent years have seen an explosion of psychological research into well-being, this discipline, often called Positive Psychology, has no consensus definition. The network theory provides a new framework for understanding Positive Psychology. When psychologists investigate correlations and causal connections among positive emotions, attitudes, traits, and accomplishments, they are studying the structure of PCNs. And when they identify states that establish, strengthen or extinguish PCNs, they are studying the dynamics of PCNs. Positive Psychology, then, is the study of the structure and dynamics of positive causal networks. The Good Life represents a new, inclusive approach to the study of well-being, an approach committed to the proposition that discovering the nature of well-being requires the knowledge and skills of both the philosopher in her armchair and the scientist in her lab. The resulting theory provides a powerful, unified foundation for future scientific and philosophical investigations into well-being and the good life. **
Author: Howard Zinn
File Type: pdf
Three renowned historians present stirring tales of labor Howard Zinn tells the grim tale of the Ludlow Massacre, a drama of beleaguered immigrant workers, Mother Jones, and the politics of corporate power in the age of the robber barons. Dana Frank brings to light the little-known story of a successful sit-in conducted by the counter girls at the Detroit Woolworths during the Great Depression. Robin D. G. Kelleys story of a movie theater musicians strike in New York asks what defines work in times of changing technology. Three Strikes brings to life the heroic men and women who put their jobs, bodies, and lives on the line to win a better life for all working Americans. Zinn, Frank, and Kelley show us that while the country and the union movement have changed greatly in the last hundred years, our struggle to close the divide between rich and poor remains the same. John Sweeney, president, AFL-CIO Provocative analysis of still relevant issues, as the passionate, sometimes violent demonstrations at international meetings of the global economy demonstrate. Mary Carroll, Booklist Highly readable, well-researched narratives of dramatic action Leon Fink, Chicago Tribune
Author: Marissia Fragkou
File Type: pdf
Presenting a rigorous critical investigation of the reinvigoration of the political in contemporary British theatre, Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre provides a fresh understanding of how theatre has engaged with precarity, affect, risk, intimacy, care and relationality in recent times. The study makes a compelling case for reading precarity as a sticky theatrical trope which carries the potential to re-animate our understanding of identity politics and responsibility for the lives of Others in an age of uncertainty. Approaching precarity as an ecology cutting across various practices, themes and aesthetics, the book features a comprehensive selection of theatre examples staged in the UK since the 1990s. Works by debbie tucker green, Alistair McDowall, Complicite, Simon Stephens, Stans Cafe, Mike Bartlett, Caryl Churchill, The Paper Birds, and Belarus Free Theatre are put in dialogue with interdisciplinary feminist vocabularies developed by Judith Butler, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant and Isabell Lorey. In focusing on areas such as children and youth at risk, human rights, environmental ethics and the politics of debt, the study makes a vital contribution to the burgeoning field of politics and theatre in the 21st century. **
Author: Brooks Jackson
File Type: epub
Americans are bombarded daily with mixed messages, half-truths, misleading statements, and out-and-out fabrications masquerading as facts. The news mediaonce the vaunted watchdogs of our republicare often too timid or distracted to identify these deceptions.unSpun is the secret decoder ring for the twenty-first-century world of disinformation. Written by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the founders of the acclaimed website FactCheck.org, unSpun reveals the secrets of separating facts from disinformation, such as the warning signs of spin, hype, and bogus news common tricks used to deceive us how to find trustworthy and objective sources of informationTelling fact from fiction shouldnt be a difficult task. With this book and a healthy dose of skepticism, anyone can cut through the haze of biased media reportage to be a savvier consumer and a better-informed citizen.Read this book and you will not go unarmed into the political wars ahead of us. Jackson and Jamieson equip us to be our own truth squad, and that just might be the salvation of democracy. Bill MoyersTHE DEFINITIVE B.S. DETECTORAN ABSOLUTELY INVALUABLE GUIDEBOOK.Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and political analyst, NewsHour with Jim LehrerunSpun is an essential guide to cutting through the political fog. Just in time for the 2008 campaign, Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson have written a citizens guide to avoiding the malarkey of partisan politics.Mara Liasson, NPR national political correspondentThe Internet may be a wildly effective means of communication and an invaluable source of knowledge, but it has also become a new virtual haven for scammersfinancial, political, even personal. Better than anything written before, unSpun shows us how to recognize these scams and protect ourselves from them.Craig Newmark, founder and customer service representative, Craigslist.org
Author: Oliver Taplin
File Type: pdf
Sophocles stands as one of the greatest dramatists of all time, influencing a vast array of artists and thinkers over the centuries. Disturbing and unrelenting, his tragedies portray what Matthew Arnold referred to as the turbid ebb and flow of human misery, allowing the audience to stand on the verge of the abyss and confront the waste and disorder of human existence. The heroic myths reinterpreted in the plays locate them within a world in which the extremes of human emotion in its darkest hours can be freely explored. It is, however, the creativity of Sophocles plays which prevents them from descending into unbridled chaos or despair. The unflinching engagement with heartrending suffering reveals strengths held within the carefully crafted poetry, lyricism, and movement. There is, as Taplin writes, no blinking, no evasion, no palliative. ... Out of apparently meaningless suffering comes meaning and form. This original and distinctive verse translation of four of Sophocles plays conveys the vitality of his poetry and the vigour of the plays as performed showpieces, encouraging the reader to relish the sound of the spoken verse and the potential for song within the lyrics. Each play is accompanied by an introduction and substantial notes on points of fact and interpretation, drawing on the translators many years of lecturing on Sophocles at the University of Oxford. *Oedipus the King*, often regarded as the archetypal tragedy, follows Oedipus, the man of sorrow, who has unwittingly chosen to enact his prophesied course by murdering his father and marrying his mother. *Aias* (or Ajax) tells the story of the warrior whose larger-than-life greatness brings him to harrowing humiliation and then to honourable burial. *Philoctetes* sees a once-noble hero, nursing his resentment during ten years in marooned isolation, eventually restored to glory at Troy. *Oedipus at Colonus* depicts the blind Oedipus towards the end of his life wandering as a beggar, but rewarded finally with revenge and a sublime death.**
Author: Rolf Steininger
File Type: pdf
For over a century, the Middle East has weathered seemingly endless conflicts, ensnaring political players from around the world. And perhaps no nation has displayed a greater range of policies toward, and experiences in, the region than Germany, as this short and accessible volume demonstrates. Beginning with Kaiser Wilhelms intermittent support for Zionism, it follows the course of German-Mideast relations through two world wars and the rise of Adolf Hitler. As Steininger shows, the crimes of the Third Reich have inevitably shaped postwar German Mideast policy, with Germany emerging as one of Israels staunchest supporters while continuing to navigate the regions complex international, religious, and energy politics. **
Author: John Kenneth Muir
File Type: epub
The seventies were a decade of groundbreaking horror films The Exorcist, Carrie, and Halloween were three. This detailed filmography covers these and 225 more. Section One provides an introduction and a brief history of the decade. Beginning with 1970 and proceeding chronologically by year of its release in the United States, Section Two offers an entry for each film. Each entry includes several categories of information Critical Reception (sampling both 70s and later reviews), Cast and Credits, P.O.V., (quoting a person pertinent to that films production), Synopsis (summarizing the films story), Commentary (analyzing the film from Muirs perspective), Legacy (noting the rank of especially worthy 70s films in the horror pantheon of decades following). Section Three contains a conclusion and these five appendices horror film cliches of the 1970s, frequently appearing performers, memorable movie ads, recommended films that illustrate how 1970s horror films continue to impact the industry, and the 15 best genre films of the decade as chosen by Muir.**