Video: Split Normality - One year after the Riots of June 15, 28 & 29, 2011 (Athens, Greece)

One year after the riots of June 15, 28 & 29 2011 - Split normality from Yiannis Biliris on Vimeo.

Speech: Slavoj Žižek in Conversation with Jonathan Derbyshire at Central Saint Martins

New Statesman culture editor Jonathan Derbyshire will be in conversation with the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. A wide-ranging discussion, taking in topics from Hegel to the Occupy movement, followed by an audience Q and A.

They Live! (Movie - 1988)

John Carpenter's masterpiece. Hidden beneath the illusion of everyday life, alien economists are developing the Earth as their own third world. Roddy Piper stumbles onto their plan and the shit hits the fan.

A telling social commentary on greed, consumption, a crippled economy, propaganda and the growing schisms between the rich and poor. As relevant as ever. 

Starring Roddy Piper, Meg Foster, Keith David.

Speech: Nick Hanauer - Inequality

"Here is the much-talked-about TED talk on inequality given by Nick Hanauer. We (TED) are posting it here to promote public discussion on an important issue. For more background on this, see this blog post from TED Curator Chris Anderson: http://tedchris.posterous.com"

Essay: A call for Sobriety

Original Article by Y. Peppas for Passive Observers

From Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece to the Middle Ages and modern Europe, the consumption of alcohol-containing beverages is evident throughout the history of our civilization. The explosion of financial corporatism, which has gained its momentum by instilling consumerism in the core of human behaviour, has transformed alcohol from a home- or locally-made product into a highly profitable commodity and a symbol of the subculture called Western Lifestyle. In this way, we have reached an era where alcohol accounts for 5% of the global disease burden and is responsible for more than 4% of deaths worldwide [Beaglehole et al 2009]. This tragic realization has

Why Socialism?

Article by Albert Einstein for   Monthly Review (May 1949)

Albert Einstein is the world-famous physicist. This article was originally published in the first issue of Monthly Review (May 1949). It was subsequently published in May 1998 to commemorate the first issue of MR‘s fiftieth year—The Editors

Is it advisable for one who is not an expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is.

Let us first consider the question from the point of view of scientific knowledge. It might appear that there are no essential methodological differences between astronomy and economics: scientists in both fields attempt to discover laws of general acceptability for a circumscribed group of phenomena in order to make the interconnection of these phenomena as clearly understandable as possible. But in reality such methodological differences do exist. The discovery of general laws in the field of economics is made difficult by the circumstance that observed economic phenomena are often affected by

Speech: Matthieu Ricard - Change your Mind Change your Brain: The Inner Conditions

If happiness is an inner state, influenced by external conditions but not dependent on them, how can we achieve it? Ricard will examine the inner and outer factors that increase or diminish our sense of well-being, dissect the underlying mechanisms of happiness, and lead us to a way of looking at the mind itself based on his book, Happiness: A Guide to Life's Most Important Skill and from the research in neuroscience on the effect of mind-training on the brain.

Speaker Bio: Matthieu Ricard, a gifted scientist turned Buddhist monk, is a best selling author, translator, and photographer. He has lived and studied in the Himalayas for the last 35 years.