How did the eight hour working day come into being, and is it still relevant to us today? In this episode the Burning Archive Jeff Rich will talk about how the eight hour day emerged in response to the industrial revolution, and what it means in the stressed out contemporary world after the “fourth industrial revolution”.
history
Podcast #19 – Vaclav Havel’s Letter to a Locked Down World
This episode of The Burning Archive podcast explores how Havel's writing, ideas and the model of his way of living in truth remains meaningful to us today. This episode sets out the main events of Havel's life and the ideas of his political essays. It looks in depth at the "Letter to Gustav Husak" (1975), and its uncanny evocation of aspects of our lives today in a locked down world.
Podcast #18 – After Kabul, the Task Ahead for Australia
The fall of Kabul has raised questions for Australia about the reliability of its alliance with the United States of America. Will the fall of Kabul and the rise of Eurasia provoke the same questioning of foreign policy by Australia?
Podcast #17 – Letter to America: you are not the captain now
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. America’s defeat in Afghanistan has provoked an imperial crisis. This imperial crisis is not just a geostrategic or diplomatic game. It is a crisis of the ideas driving the empire - American culture, society and politics - its core … Continue reading Podcast #17 – Letter to America: you are not the captain now
Podcast #16 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island, Part II
Is Eurasia rising after the fall of Kabul? The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. America's capitulation in Afghanistan has provoked an humanitarian disaster, an imperial crisis, and a change in the balance of power between great states in Eurasia. The crisis is still unfolding but … Continue reading Podcast #16 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island, Part II
Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
And again, now in September, I repost this act of refusal to submit to despair. ***** Alas three months later, another report from the besieged city of Melbourne - locked down, its people "fleeing the Qin." **** Today 12 February, Melbourne and all the citizens of Victoria have been thrown, with eleven hours notice, again … Continue reading Report from a besieged city (Melbourne)
The Looming War of the American Succession
In 1700 Charles II, King of Spain and Emperor presiding over a vast global empire, died without a child and without a clear successor. His death triggered a great war over geostrategic control of the possessions of the declining Spanish Empire by rival dynasties and rival great states. France and Spain were diminished, and the … Continue reading The Looming War of the American Succession
Podcast #15 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island
The latest episode of The Burning Archive Podcast is out and available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. America's capitulation in Afghanistan has provoked an humanitarian disaster, an imperial crisis, and a change in the balance of power between great states in Eurasia. The crisis threatens not only American prestige in the world but some of the … Continue reading Podcast #15 – Imperial Crisis in Afghanistan and the World Island
Podcast #14 – Afghanistan and the end of America’s 43 Year War
I have released a special episode of The Burning Archive podcast on the situation in Afghanistan. It is available on all the usual platforms, including Apple and Spotify. In this special episode, The Burning Archive makes some fast history, and reflects on the meaning of the capitulation of the American Empire in Afghanistan. There are eight quick takes … Continue reading Podcast #14 – Afghanistan and the end of America’s 43 Year War
The World Island vs The Atlantic
This year, 2021, may be remembered as a pivot year in world history. Not because of the pandemic. Not only because of the protracted crisis of the American republic. But because of the changed balance of power in international relations brought about by the decrepitude of the American Atlanticist Alliance and the strengthening of the … Continue reading The World Island vs The Atlantic
The fall of the American Empire’s Potemkin Province
Thus , in a few blitzkrieg weeks, after the Americans declared they would "draw down their civilian footprint" to meet a publicity deadline of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Taliban have exposed American power and control in Afghanistan as a projection of illusion, a Potemkin Province of an anxious empire in decline.
Cease the endless war against the virus
Generals, Winston Churchill said, are always prepared to fight the last war. Their early experiences of combat, their intellectual training, the received wisdom interpreting the most recent conflicts - all shape how they read the battlefield. These decisions and the interests of the institutions, which were built during the last war - the war machine, … Continue reading Cease the endless war against the virus
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