Australia occupies a peculiar place in the world system. On the one hand, it has always been a component of a larger empire. On the other hand, it is an imperialist state in its own right.
We have become accustomed to referring to postwar periods: the post-Second World War era, the post-Vietnam era, the post-Cold War era. But we have potentially entered a new and dangerous prewar era of intense superpower jockeying in which bloc politics returns to the fore.
A tiny coterie of ultra-wealthy sociopaths rules our world. But trying to understand them primarily through their psychology or morality leads nowhere. We need to understand how capitalism creates and sustains them.
Charlie Kirk has been martyred. In a way, this death is quintessentially American; he will now join the ranks of Lincoln and Martin Luther King, among others. The assassin, by inserting himself into history and cutting short Kirk’s life, has likely made him a more powerful and enduring figure.
