capitalism

Reflections on James Bond: Skyfall and the Propaganda of Destruction

~Zulfikar~

My partner and I decided to rewatch all the James Bond movies, starting with the Daniel Craig series and working our way backward.

I know if you’re reading this then you’re probably thinking “why tho…?”

And I can’t really say much besides that we’ve been together for 23 years, and we do stuff like this. I should probably also mention that neither of us are huge James Bond fans. I watched a couple of the Sean Conary ones as a kid, and then the Pierce Brosnan ones with my friends when I was a teenager. I mean…they’re movies, they passed the time and I chilled with friends, can’t really say more than that. read more

Bodies Fall but Ideas Endure

~Zulfikar~

The great Ghassan Kanafani said this. The 36 year old author, and politician, was assassinated along with his 17 year old niece in a car bomb planted by the Israeli Mossad. Yet his ideas, values and virtues, that empowered his will to resist, reverberate decades later. To this day he stands as an insurmountable symbol of strength, sumud (steadfastness), and uncompromising integrity.

On Friday, September 27, 2024, Israel assassinated another powerful figure of the Lebanese Arab resistance and secretary general of Hezb’Allah, Sayed Hasan Nasrallah. Israel’s weapon of choice for murdering Nasrallah was infinitely more barbaric and monstrous than that of any other Arab resistance leader that I can recall; carpet bombing six residential buildings in the Dahiyeh, a small suburb in Beirut Lebanon. read more

“Love Is a Doing Word” Pt. 2

~Zulfikar~

In part one of this post I talked about my experience growing up with the patriarchal western conceptions of Love and Masculinity.

I also mentioned bell hooks who, for me, was the catalyst for me to reexamine and redefine the concept of Love. In particular, I spoke about some of the limitations of the patriarchal conception Love, and the harm those limitations can bring.

There are a few other important issues I discussed, including how narcissism and codependency are born from the patriarchal conception of Love. I encourage to go back and read part one if you haven’t already. read more

Hope and Creation…

~Zulfikar~

A long time ago I wrote my Master’s Philosophy thesis on “Aesthetics, Human Freedom, and Technological Rationality”. Thinking back on it now I probably should have come up with a more simple title like “Art, Freedom, and Capitalism”.

I examined the work of two philosophers Friedrich Schiller’s “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man”, and Herbert Marcuse’s “One Dimensional Man”. In short, I was interested in looking at the creative capacities of human beings and how Capitalism basically squashes those capacities. read more

Thoughts on the U.S. and Israel’s Settler Colonialist Project in the Levant

~Zulfikar~

I’m Lebanese-Syrian. I was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1980. My mother is Syrian and my father is Lebanese. My family and I have lived through and survived Israel’s war on Lebanon, and the Lebanese civil war, not to mention the wars on and in Syria. I would like to say that I’m no stranger to the politics in my two countries and that whole region, but with how much history there is I always felt like I didn’t know enough.

I grew up in Burj-al-Barajneh, a refugee camp that was set up for Palestinians who were driven out of Palestine by Israel. Palestinians are like family to me, there isn’t much distinction, we lived and grew up together. And though I have never been to Palestine, my love for it is born from the love for my Palestinian friends and family. I unequivocally stand in solidarity with them. read more