Cornel West on Attica, oligarchy, and love for humanity

A Democracy Now! segment featuring philosopher and race theorist Cornel West speaking on the present socio-political crisis in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the Attica prison uprising of New York state–and the subsequent massacre of prisoners by police.  In a radical take on the material impoverishment of U.S. society and the falsity of the political class, West cites Adorno by insisting that “the condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.”  His proffered maxim of love for humanity is reminiscent of that advanced by Ernst Bloch, as by others.

The beyond with Górecki

The third and last movement to Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 (“Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”), written in 1976.  Górecki, a renowned Polish composer who died last year, composed his Symphony No. 3 in part as a response to and commemoration of the Shoah in particular and war in general; all three movements revolve around the anguish impelled by barbaric politics.