The nihilism of this world
ESSAY: Simone Weil explores rootlessness and its impact on modern society, arguing for the importance of grounding and rootedness – cultivating some form of meaning and purpose in life. For Weil, it also becomes a matter of going into the heart of this world's nihilism (worthlessness, lust for money, way of life) to discover God, the light, to make herself infinitely small – hence her urge to destroy herself. You can also read Rooting as a contribution to a contemporary ecological way of life and climate thinking.
The critics
I artikkelen «Anti-Oedipus – Thirty Years On», skriver #Eric Alliez# at Deleuze mener det finnes «a becoming revolutionary which is not the same thing...
Deleuze and the philosophy of resistance
ANTI-OEDPUS: It is approx. 50 years since the French book Anti-Oedipus – capitalism and schizophrenia was published. We are therefore printing here a new essay by Professor Knut Stene-Johansens about, among other things, this book he translated from French to Norwegian in 2002. According to him, the book is colourful, a red cloth in the fray of self-congratulatory philosophy and other analytical greats. Anti-Oedipus is an exemplary 'desire machine' – understood as a system of violations. The work displays a strong and constructive opposition to Freudian psychoanalysis as well as traditional philosophy's claims to truth. Their positive concept of desire contrasts with the concept of Freud and Lacan, which is seen negatively as a lack. At the same time: All of Deleuze's texts represent a form of resistance.
People have often found solutions other than violence
WAR: Is man fundamentally violent? History does not show exactly that. We have several examples of large societies in prehistory showing few traces of war and authoritarian rule.
Wars of aggression contrary to international law
HEGEMONY: The West's position revolves exclusively around self-interest, even if the rhetoric always tries to point to a general morality. Today there is no trace of morality or principled thinking in Western politics. And although Rødt and SV here in Norway condemn Israel's Gaza war, they at the same time support this Western hegemony which enables the ongoing genocide in practice.
When the truth becomes threatening
JULIAN ASSANGE: Aftenposten had learned from Julian Assange and sucked what they could from his WikiLeaks data universe, and millions of secrets, before quickly throwing him under the bus. Assange created the whistleblowers' perpetuum mobile, WikiLeaks, an unlimited infinity machine of truth where truth whistleblowers all over the world were given the opportunity to reach out – and lift the blankets that hide the lies of power, their war crimes, corruption, tax fraud, hidden bank accounts, fortunes and conspiracies. What now?
Gaza: Right to defend itself?
AVERAGE: What about Gaza and the media? WikiLeaks was early on an important source for revelations about Israel. The dream of driving all non-Jews out of ancient Palestine governed Israel's policy long before there was a Hamas.
The war
FRED: Linn Stalsberg identifies in his new book that accepting war as a human normal state is one of the great danger signals today. We have become accustomed to the idea that war is a necessity, and that war can be morally required on top of that. At the same time, religion is often used cynically as a tool to promote a warlike development – this extends from Pope Urban to Putin and Netanyahu to Hamas.
The Other – as a suffering being?
PHILOSOPHY: Wolfram Eilenberger describes here the struggle four philosophers – Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Ayn Rand and Simone Weil fought to become independent people. The book succeeds well in putting them in context with the current events they got involved in and at the same time tried to get out of.
War propaganda: seeing the fake game up close
PRESS AND MEDIA : After several hundred thousand dead, it is time for a pause to think about the war in Ukraine. What we in the press do is propaganda, and the price can be high. News is often created within a self-referential framework, writes war correspondent Ragnar Skre.
Organic land use?
NATURE: >/b>Europe is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet. In order for an ecological balance to be achieved on the globe, at least 30 percent of the landmass and ocean – which due to human activity is no longer intact – must be reclaimed. Agricultural researchers predict: Farmers will in the future return to organic land use – or have to give up. They can build solar plants. They can grow reeds, which are suitable for environmentally friendly insulation materials, packaging, building materials or energy raw material.
We need a propaganda filter
RUSSOPHOBIA: The reason for ORIENTERING this time is propaganda and Russophobia
Mimetic desire and violence
PSYCHOLOGY: How has a thoroughly pessimistic view of humanity arisen? That man must be fundamentally sinful is a cornerstone of Western thinking. Or?
Search: dialogue with the living
AVANTGARDE: MODERN TIMES has chosen two 'readings' of Mikkel Bolt's new book. Should we draw experience from the avant-garde, or will it be enough with a representative democracy? Bolt provides material on the background of the changing avant-gardes' unsuccessful attempts to influence society from 1917 onwards.
Ecological and political breakdown
ENVIRONMENT: The Baltic Sea has become an unlimited landfill of deadly substances. This stems from the development and pollution of the river Oder. But what about the environmental side? The Oder Delta is a vast, cross-border network of rivers, lakes and life-giving wetlands.
Time is a pond that fills up again and again
TRAVEL ESSAY: To southern Lithuania, to Poland and back. What does it mean for Reffstrup's 80-year-old mother-in-law at such a late age that time has turned a knot – that the threat from Russia has returned? What does it mean to live in a time without living in its progress?
White Christian supremacy
WHITE SUPREMACY: Although the slaves became Christians, they were still relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy. According to this book, in the common world view it was still Europe that symbolized freedom – true freedom belongs only to white people. It is in the church context that it takes the longest to break down the racist divides.
"Patriotism can be morally corrupting."
PHILOSOPHY: Would one today sacrifice one's life in war as a patriot? Can patriotism be a virtue? Although in recent decades philosophy has struggled to justify it on moral grounds, patriotism remains an important source of self-identification and political participation. We talk to Professor Simon Keller: "I don't think a country like that is worth killing or dying for."
With the willing and servile oil country Norway in tow
EQUIPMENT: That the rest of the world, apart from the West, does not stand on the side of Norway, the USA and NATO when it comes to Ukraine today, is not surprising when we know the centuries of looting and colonial times, followed by imperialist wars and Western-backed coups. It is still "war and weapons that create peace" that is the narrative. Stop the race to a possible world war!
When states crush the truth
ADVERTISING: Leaked classified intelligence documents from the White House revealed in April that Ukraine was soon facing a dramatic defeat – quite different from the propaganda we had all long heard. In this essay, our regular writer, John Y. Jones, looks at the many sides of propaganda – as we are today increasingly surrounded by fake news, unsubstantiated claims and politically biased information.
Rich, multifaceted and playful
PHOTO ART: Currently showing New Visions – The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media. 22 artists, for example, bring to the fore issues of energy and natural resource extraction – and their consequences.
The enraged and the powerless
RAGE: In this essay, Maria Alnæs considers some of what the 'difference society' does to people's emotional lives. Rage and powerlessness are a natural result of tightening social security schemes, crushing trade unions, poor schooling and failing support schemes. And even though many people are far better off today than they might have been a few decades ago, there is an embittered feeling that it is possible to be better off, but that someone has cheated you out of it.
less is more
PHOTO ART: Over the course of thirty years, large museums have gone from being underfunded, sleepy places to audience magnets and economically important tourist attractions. We find a counterweight in small museums – such as those mentioned in this essay from Greece. What you choose to present to others matters less than where you choose to do it.
The black dove of peace
ORIENTERING: Here we present a unique role model in Norwegian press history.
Charged with espionage
SWEDEN: The culprits in the spy case were not caught. The journalists risked up to six years in prison.