Dealing with World Domination: Lessons from The Powerpuff Girls and Friends

2004 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29
Author(s):  
Steve Stockwell
Keyword(s):  
September 11 ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Global Media ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
The Brain

How did the world change on September 11, 2001? While the events of that day may be more the product of shifting geopolitical formations than the cause, September 11 brings into focus the political functions of global media networks and their potential as conduits of world domination. In this context, Cartoon Network provides some insights and challenges for both media theory and the politics of the twenty-first century. World domination is a recurring theme on Cartoon Network in anime products such as Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing, in post-feminist products such as The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory, and in cross-over work such as Samurai Jack and, most intriguingly, Pinky and the Brain, where a super-smart lab rat and his stupid friend are constantly plotting to take over the world. The failure — on Cartoon Network at least — of all plans for world domination invites us to consider means of resistance to aspirational politics on a global scale.

A General Theory for Our Times: On Piketty

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoff Mann
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Stance ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty has offered, and many have desperately snatched at, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money of our epoch. Piketty’s affinity with John Maynard Keynes and his groundbreaking 1936 landmark is largely unreflexive. But the ties that bind him to Keynes are powerful, and manifest themselves at many levels in Capital in the Twenty-First Century. The epistemology, the political stance, the methodological commitments, and the politics resonate in imperfect but remarkable harmony. This is no accident, because the world in which Piketty’s book appeared is saturated with the specifically capitalist form of anxiety that Keynes sought to diagnose, and fix, the last time it made the richest economies in the world tremble.

New Priorities for Philanthropy

2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Robert L. Bach
Keyword(s):  
September 11 ◽  
First World War ◽  
First Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
First World

The events of September 11 have forced institutions to reexamine their priorities and practices. Yet the first world war of the twenty-first century has left many wondering if there truly is a war, and what, if anything, different is demanded of them. The philanthropic sector in particular has not changed significantly, and it continues to struggle with fundamental concerns about its directions. If September 11 and its aftermath are to mean anything to philanthropy other than emergency relief, it must be a recognition that now is the time to tackle the problems and tensions that were ignored before the attacks. For nearly a year, philanthropy as a sector has not rallied behind this call for longer-term reform. Philanthropy should take up these tasks, no matter how daunting they may be, for if foundations do not lead the effort, it may be left to the governments and the militaries of the world to respond on their own.

The Growing Equality across Countries and Inequality within some Countries

2021 ◽  
pp. 86-105
Author(s):  
Francis Teal
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Over Time

Just as unemployment dominated the political agenda of the 1930s, so inequality has come to dominate the concerns of both rich and poor countries in the twenty-first century. Contrary to what is widely believed, inequality across countries has been declining since the 1980s, driven primarily, but not exclusively, by the rise in incomes in China. Looking at inequality within countries, on average inequality is much higher in poor than in rich countries. Changes over time in inequality are modest, compared with differences across countries. We observe a world with countries which have policies, or politics, which generate high inequality and ones which generate much lower inequality. There is little link between inequality and growth on average across the world.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Dapo Akande ◽  
Jaakko Kuosmanen ◽  
Helen McDermott ◽  
Dominic Roser
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Political Context ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World ◽  
High Regard ◽  
Twenty First Century

The interlocking threats of armed conflict, environmental degradation, and poverty constitute a central part of the political and moral challenges facing the world in the twenty-first century. However, anyone who considers that these challenges should be confronted with approaches that incorporate and are built upon human rights faces a difficult task. High regard for human rights seems to have developed in a particular and bygone political context. The rise of populism and nationalism in recent years may be seen as having created myriad novel and complex realities. These developments suggest that work now needs to be done to apply human rights to new realities but may also indicate that we need to adapt our understanding of human rights in light of them....

Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 449-460
Author(s):  
Jack Straw
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Legal Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century

If you read certain newspapers you might be forgiven for thinking that human rights were an alien imposition foisted upon us by ‘the other’. It is a misconception that has regrettably taken root. A central theme of my lecture this evening is to explode this myth, and to demonstrate how far from being some ‘European’ imposition, Britain has been at the forefront of the political and legal development of human rights across Europe and across the world.

Slavery and the Trumpocene: It's Not the End of the World

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-50
Author(s):  
Claire Colebrook
Keyword(s):  
Living System ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
First Century ◽  
The West ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World ◽  
End Of The World ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Geological Period

There is something more catastrophic than the end of the world, especially when ‘world’ is understood as the horizon of meaning and expectation that has composed the West. If the Anthropocene is the geological period marking the point at which the earth as a living system has been altered by ‘anthropos,’ the Trumpocene marks the twenty-first-century recognition that the destruction of the planet has occurred by way of racial violence, slavery and annihilation. Rather than saving the world, recognizing the Trumpocene demands that we think about destroying the barbarism that has marked the earth.

Twenty-First-Century Fiction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berthold Schoene
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
First Century ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Essential Component ◽  
Imperial Power ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
Global Relations

This chapter looks at how the contemporary British and Irish novel is becoming part of a new globalized world literature, which imagines the world as it manifests itself both within (‘glocally’) and outside nationalist demarcations. At its weakest, often against its own best intentions, this new cosmopolitan writing cannot but simply reinscribe the old imperial power relations. Or, it provides an essential component of the West’s ideological superstructure for globalization’s neoliberal business of rampant upward wealth accumulation. At its best, however, this newly emergent genre promotes a cosmopolitan ethics of justice, resistance. It also promotes dissent while working hard to expose and deconstruct the extant hegemonies and engaging in a radical imaginative recasting of global relations.

Human Rights and 21st Century Challenges

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
First Century ◽  
World Population ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Relative Share ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century

The world faces significant and interrelated challenges in the twenty-first century which threaten human rights in a number of ways. This book examines the relationship between human rights and three of the largest challenges of the twenty-first century: conflict and security, environment, and poverty. Technological advances in fighting wars have led to the introduction of new weapons which threaten to transform the very nature of conflict. In addition, states confront threats to security which arise from a new set of international actors not clearly defined and which operate globally. Climate change, with its potentially catastrophic impacts, features a combination of characteristics which are novel for humanity. The problem is caused by the sum of innumerable individual actions across the globe and over time, and similarly involves risks that are geographically and temporally diffuse. In recent decades, the challenges involved in addressing global and national poverty have also changed. For example, the relative share of the poor in the world population has decreased significantly while the relative share of the poor who live in countries with significant domestic capacity has increased strongly. Overcoming these global and interlocking threats constitutes this century’s core political and moral task. This book examines how these challenges may be addressed using a human rights framework. It considers how these challenges threaten human rights and seeks to reassess our understanding of human rights in the light of these challenges. The analysis considers both foundational and applied questions. The approach is multidisciplinary and contributors include some of the most prominent lawyers, philosophers, and political theorists in the debate. The authors not only include leading academics but also those who have played important roles in shaping the policy debates on these questions. Each Part includes contributions by those who have served as Special Rapporteurs within the United Nations human rights system on the challenges under consideration.

Hegel's Interpretation of the Religions of the World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
First Century ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Historical Material ◽  
The World ◽  
Twenty First Century

In his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel treats the religions of the world under the rubric “the determinate religion.” This is a part of his corpus that has traditionally been neglected, since scholars have struggled to understand what philosophical work it is supposed to do. The present study argues that Hegel’s rich analyses of Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Egyptian and Greek polytheism, and the Roman religion are not simply irrelevant historical material, as is often thought. Instead, they play a central role in Hegel’s argument for what he regards as the truth of Christianity. Hegel believes that the different conceptions of the gods in the world religions are reflections of individual peoples at specific periods in history. These conceptions might at first glance appear random and chaotic, but there is, Hegel claims, a discernible logic in them. Simultaneously a theory of mythology, history, and philosophical anthropology, Hegel’s account of the world religions goes far beyond the field of philosophy of religion. The controversial issues surrounding his treatment of the non-European religions are still very much with us today and make his account of religion an issue of continued topicality in the academic landscape of the twenty-first century.

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