Categoría: English

  • The Fall of an Empire

    Cómo se derrumba un imperio (Spanish) The Fall of an Empire Jorge Majfud The University of Georgia The same day that Christopher Columbus left the port of Palos, the third of August of 1492, was the deadline for the Jews of Spain to leave their country, Spain.  In the admiral’s mind there were at least…

  • The Privatization of God

    The Privatization of God by Jorge Majfud The University of Georgia Custom-made for the consumer In the 17th century, the mathematics genius Blaise Pascal wrote that men never do evil with greater pleasure than when they do it with religious conviction. This idea – from a deeply religious man – has taken a variety of…

  • Propaganda and the Myth of Reconquest

    Propaganda and the Myth of Reconquest By Jorge Majfud A few days ago a well-known syndicated talk radio personality repeatedly asserted an opinion that is becoming common these days:  illegal immigrants should be denounced as dishonest and criminal, not only because they have entered the U.S. illegally but, mainly, because their objective is the Reconquest.…

  • The History of Immigration

    The History of Immigration by Jorge Majfud   One of the typical – correction: stereotypical – images of a Mexican has been, for more than a century, a short, drunk, trouble-maker of a man who, when not appearing with guitar in hand singing a corrido, was portrayed seated in the street taking a siesta under…

  • Why Culture Matters

      Why Culture Matters https://web.archive.org/web/20201021181353/https://judolphinmedia.com/14437/editorial/the-oldest-enemy-of-civilization/ In September of 2006, in Lewisburg, Tennessee, a neighborhood group protested because the public library was investing resources in the purchase of books in Spanish.  Of the sixty thousand volumes, only one thousand were published in a language other than English.  The annual budget, totalling thirteen thousand dollars, dedicates the…

  • The Culture of Hate

    The Culture of Hate On the silent revolution and reaction of our time. The reasons for ultramodern chaos. On the colonization of language and how traditional authority reacts to historical progress using the anachronistic tools of repetition. Universal Pedagogy of Obedience The old pedagogical model was synthesized in the phrase “the letters enter with blood.”…

  • Complicity and Resistance in a Controlled Society

    Pictures: Yoana Kochneva,  Assistant Designer. JU Hosted Panel Discussion on Lessons and Topics surrounding the Holocaust on Feb. 17 Jacksonville University and Remembering for the Future Community Holocaust Initiative presented “Complicity & Resistance in a Controlled Society” on Thursday, February 17 at 7 p.m. in Terry Concert Hall on campus. The event, which was moderated by…

  • The Slow Suicide of the West

    El lento suicidio de Occidente (Spanish) The Slow Suicide of the West Jorge Majfud The West appears, suddenly, devoid of its greatest virtues, constructed century after century, preoccupied now only with reproducing its own defects and with copying the defects of others, such as authoritarianism and the preemptive persecution of innocents. Virtues like tolerance and…

  • Rock Democracies, Paper Freedoms, Scissors Securities

    Democracias de piedra, Libertades de papel, seguridades de tijera Rock Democracies, Paper Freedoms, Scissors Securities Jorge Majfud The University of Georgia Ten years ago, contradicting the postmodernist wave, we developed in Crítica de la pasión pura (Critique of Pure Passion) the idea of morality as a form of collective conscience.  In the same way that…

  • Humanism, the West’s Last Great Utopia

    El humanismo, la última gran utopía de Occidente (Spanish) Humanism, the West’s Last Great Utopia Jorge Majfud The University of Georgia One of the characteristics of conservative thought throughout modern history has been to see the world as a collection of more or less independent, isolated, and incompatible compartments.   In its discourse, this is simplified…

  • Ten Lashes Against Humanism

    Diez azotes contra el humanismo (Spanish) Ten Lashes Against Humanism   Jorge Majfud A minor tradition in conservative thought is the definition of the dialectical adversary as mentally deficient and lacking in morality. As this never constitutes an argument, the outburst is covered up with some fragmented and repetitious reasoning, proper to the postmodern thought…

  • The official word: criminalize the victim

    The official word: criminalize the victim By Jorge Majfud Translated by Tony R. Barret Few weeks ago, just as in the last few centuries, the land claims of rural workers have been brought back up in several spots of Latin America. If it is really true that our own 21st century cannot base its economies…

  • The Importance of Being Called an Idiot

    ¿ Cómo definimos la idiotez ideológica? (Spanish) The Importance of Being Called an Idiot Jorge Majfud   A few days ago a gentleman recommended that I read a new book about idiocy.  I  believe it was called The Return of the Idiot, The Idiot Returns, or something like that.  I told him that I had…

  • The Rebellion of the Readers, Key to Our Century

    La rebelión de los lectores (Spanish) The Rebellion of the Readers, Key to Our Century Jorge Majfud Among the most frequented sites for tourists in Europe are the Gothic cathedrals.  Gothic spaces, so different from the Romanesque of centuries before, tend to impress us through the subtlety of their aesthetic, something they share with the…

  • Virginia Tech: an ideo-lexical analysis of a tragedy

    Análisis ideoléxico de una tragedia (Spanish)   Virginia Tech: an ideo-lexical analysis of a tragedy By Jorge Majfud Most of the medicines that it is sold as pills cover a certain drug, chemic or compound with a coat that has an attractive color and a sweet taste. In Spanish, popular wisdom uses this characteristic to…

  • Violence of the Master, Violence of the Slave

    Violencia del amo, violencia del esclavo (English) Violence of the Master, Violence of the Slave Jorge Majfud For some reason, the phrase “violence begets violence” was popularized the world over at the same time that its implicit meaning was kept restricted to the violence of the oppressed.  That is to say, the master’s violence over…

  • The Repressed History of the United States

    La historia reprimida de Estados Unidos (Spanish)   The Repressed History of the United States Revolution, Egalitarianism and Anti-imperialism By Jorge Majfud   Taking advantage of another anniversary of the birth of George Washington, president George W. Bush used the occasion to compare the American Revolution of the 18th century with the war in Iraq. …

  • What Is an Ideolexicon?

    ¿Qué es un ideoléxico? (Spanish) What Is an Ideolexicon? Jorge Majfud I have been asked several times to define what I mean by ideolexicon. I have never given the same response, but that is not due to the idea being ambiguous or undefined but quite the contrary. Although this term is a neologism, I do…

  • The Terrible Innocence of Art

    La terrible inocencia del arte (Spanish) The Terrible Innocence of Art Jorge Majfud The idea that art exists beyond all social reality is similar to the disembodied theology that proscribes political interpretations of the death of Jesus; or to the nationalist mythologies imposed like sacred universal values; or the templars of language, who are scandalized…

  • What good is literature, anyway?

    Jorge Majfud’s books at Amazon>>         ¿Para qué sirve la literatura? (I) (Spanish) À quoi sert la littérature ? (Spanish) What good is literature, anyway? I am sure that you have heard many times this loaded query: «Well, what good is literature, anyway?» almost always from a pragmatic businessman or, at worst, from…