The Burning of the Guillotine during the Paris Commune. Author Unknown. By Duncan Riley 6/18/2020 I was not there, but I know who burned down the Third Precinct. I was not part of the massive crowd that lapped up against the edges of that burning facade, but still, I can relate what occurred. Even … Continue reading On Arson and its Social Causes
Category: Theory
The Logic of the Border
Photo by Guillermo Arias, AFP By Duncan Riley 2/16/2020 Perhaps the most absurd notion that afflicts contemporary discourse on global migration is the idea that borders exist to defend national security. To begin with, national security is itself a vague and ill-defined concept. Theoretically, it refers to the duty of the State to protect … Continue reading The Logic of the Border
Concrete and Weeds
Le Voreux, from Germinal by Émile Zola, illustration by Francesco Chiacchio By Duncan Riley 1/24/2020 We live in a society of concrete. That was the thought that sprung into my mind as I walked under the shadow of the county jail on the way to the bus stop. Concrete forms the basis of every structure … Continue reading Concrete and Weeds
Empathy and Solidarity
Quarto Stato, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo By Duncan Riley 1/10/2020 For all those interested in the role education can play in provoking social transformation, the distinction between empathy and solidarity is of key importance. Empathy, arising in reaction to the suffering of others, is a passive sympathy for the suffering of others, a recognition … Continue reading Empathy and Solidarity
Humanity, Inhumanity, and Revolutionary Friendship
The destruction of the guillotine by the Communards By Duncan Riley 1/1/2020 Most of the essays which I have written over the past few months have grown out of conversations shared with a close friend over dinner. I find that ideas, though they may be interesting when contemplated in solitude, only acquire their true vitality … Continue reading Humanity, Inhumanity, and Revolutionary Friendship
Prisons and the Expropriation of the Body
Art by BlueBerryMouseYumi on Deviant Art By Duncan Riley 12/26/2019 To arrest someone is an act of violence. To handcuff them, to force them to undergo invasive searches, and to lock them in a jail is to fundamentally compromise their bodily autonomy and personal liberty, to rip from them their humanity in order to … Continue reading Prisons and the Expropriation of the Body
To Go To The Root
Painting by M. De Norvins, 1839 By Duncan Riley 12/2/2019 “In Haiti, they eat mud with sugar and water, they make mud cakes.” This simple piece of knowledge, gleaned from a night spent volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, becomes for the child their only window into the Haitian reality. Five hundred years of colonialism, … Continue reading To Go To The Root
La república federal y comunal
De Duncan Riley 4/14/2019 El pueblo español estableció la segunda república por revolución pacífica el 14 de abril de 1931, causando un gran levantamiento en la esperanza popular. Pero, sólo pocos años después, la república había perdido el apoyo de la gran mayoría de las masas, lo que llevó a la victoria de la … Continue reading La república federal y comunal
