This is a very valuable conversation, from relations between India and Pakistan to the global crisis of legitimacy. Besides providing a wealth of food for thought, it illustrates the value of precise, articulate speech.
The discussion of freedom of self-definition indirectly highlights the internal contradictions of progressive politics in the US, wherein the same people (as a camp) argue for the most extreme form of that freedom in the context of gender while retaining the essentialism of a certain strain of feminist rhetoric that vilifies males and completely accepting the essentialism that expresses itself in the pejorative "whiteness". Identity politics is a tangled web.
Unfortunately, Pratap had a very Pakistan-centric analysis of what has just happened in Kashmir, and more profoundly, in the India-Pakistan conflict. I was quite disappointed in the sort of intellectualised rehashing of what is the Indian government position, without a critical eye to India itself. It seems that he had been heavily influenced by the Indian media environment, which as I’m sure you know, is a febrile, ultra-nationalistic space. Of course, he made some excellent points, regarding the crisis of legitimacy of the Pakistani military - but forewent that same crisis of legitimacy of the Modi government. I think what this misses is the relative tranquility of Pakistani attitudes on the ground, and how each side have actually dealt with the crisis - in a popular, governmental, and military sense. According to Pratap, all of this is engineered by Pakistan, a rogue actor - which is exactly the Modi government’s narrative… I think that gives the Pakistani government way too much agency, especially if you consider events like the massive terrorist attack carried out by the Balochi Liberation Army (Indian-funded) on the Jaffar express earlier this year. I would consider that such an astute commentator on the currents and trends of the world has an internal weakness when it comes to critiquing India - naturally, when media freedom in India is at an all time low. The Pakistani public response to the whole affair has, in general, been far more relaxed than I think Pratap could imagine, and I think that India has come off a lot worse in the media/military aspects of the confrontation than Pratap admits here - but I guess he can’t really say that…
"The period from 1989 to 2009—the peak of neoliberalism—is one of the most astonishing periods in world history in terms of the drop in global poverty."
I swear to God that I am Skyler in the finale of Breaking Bad, telling Walt "If I have to hear you say you did it for the global poor one more time..." Will our elites ever say "I did it for me"?
This is a very valuable conversation, from relations between India and Pakistan to the global crisis of legitimacy. Besides providing a wealth of food for thought, it illustrates the value of precise, articulate speech.
The discussion of freedom of self-definition indirectly highlights the internal contradictions of progressive politics in the US, wherein the same people (as a camp) argue for the most extreme form of that freedom in the context of gender while retaining the essentialism of a certain strain of feminist rhetoric that vilifies males and completely accepting the essentialism that expresses itself in the pejorative "whiteness". Identity politics is a tangled web.
Hi Yascha,
Unfortunately, Pratap had a very Pakistan-centric analysis of what has just happened in Kashmir, and more profoundly, in the India-Pakistan conflict. I was quite disappointed in the sort of intellectualised rehashing of what is the Indian government position, without a critical eye to India itself. It seems that he had been heavily influenced by the Indian media environment, which as I’m sure you know, is a febrile, ultra-nationalistic space. Of course, he made some excellent points, regarding the crisis of legitimacy of the Pakistani military - but forewent that same crisis of legitimacy of the Modi government. I think what this misses is the relative tranquility of Pakistani attitudes on the ground, and how each side have actually dealt with the crisis - in a popular, governmental, and military sense. According to Pratap, all of this is engineered by Pakistan, a rogue actor - which is exactly the Modi government’s narrative… I think that gives the Pakistani government way too much agency, especially if you consider events like the massive terrorist attack carried out by the Balochi Liberation Army (Indian-funded) on the Jaffar express earlier this year. I would consider that such an astute commentator on the currents and trends of the world has an internal weakness when it comes to critiquing India - naturally, when media freedom in India is at an all time low. The Pakistani public response to the whole affair has, in general, been far more relaxed than I think Pratap could imagine, and I think that India has come off a lot worse in the media/military aspects of the confrontation than Pratap admits here - but I guess he can’t really say that…
"The period from 1989 to 2009—the peak of neoliberalism—is one of the most astonishing periods in world history in terms of the drop in global poverty."
This comes to mind:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZlK_ThjMk4
I swear to God that I am Skyler in the finale of Breaking Bad, telling Walt "If I have to hear you say you did it for the global poor one more time..." Will our elites ever say "I did it for me"?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7clFXEU8P9o
So much gas lighting. So much omission. Polite people will buy anything if it's presented to them nicely.