Splinters

16/03/2022

A farewell

Splinters, a writing collective convened by Rosemary Bechler and Leonie Rushforth and, from the outset, including Christos Tombras, Samir Gandesha and Iain Galbraith, presented its first edition on openDemocracy in October 2019.

While a manifesto of the collective's aims was never set down in writing, its activity is encapsulated by the Splinters subtitle: "sallies into the here and now".

Subsequent editions were posted every month (except for holiday breaks in the Januarys of 2020 and 2021). Irene Peroni and Chris Myant joined the collective from August 2021. A penultimate edition appeared in October 2021, and then there was silence.

There were solemn and painful weeks as we mourned Rosemary Bechler's death after a long illness in November 2021, and as we attempted to imagine a future for Splinters without the inspiring personality and guidance of our friend and colleague, without her editing skills and long-standing relationship – including as its editor from 2010 until 2019 – with openDemocracy. After much reflection we have decided to conclude publication of Splinters with the present, twenty-fifth edition. The roughly 120 contributions to the format will be kept as an archive on the openDemocracy website.

16/03/2022

Splinters Collective Final Edition: March 2022

In this final issue:
* A farewell
* Agents of the Slime – Hostile Beings? Language, Nature and SARS-CoV-2
* When hunters rule the day in France
* Negative (in)capability
* Real Problems, False Solutions II
* The sixth domain or 4000 loaves of bread

Following Rosemary Bechler's passing last year, we have decided it is time to end the Splinters collective

26/11/2021

It is with great sadness that we share with you the news of the passing of Rosemary Bechler on November 18, 2021.

Rosemary was the original creative force behind Splinters. Without her, and her steady guidance, Splinters would never come to be.

She will be sorely missed.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/rosemary-bechler-obituary/

Rosemary, a founding editor of openDemocracy, has died. We invite those who knew and worked with her to post their tributes

09/11/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Collective: February 2021

In this issue:
* February
* Reinhard's Tale: in search of an absent tense...
* SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES...
* Kamala, Angela, and failed revolution.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-february-2021-short-essays-on-the-here-now/

This month: February....Reinhard's Tale: in search of an absent tense...SPEAKING FOR OURSELVES...Kamala, Angela, and failed revolution.

27/10/2021

Splinters Solo: Samir Gandesha
Max Weber on authoritarianism: real problems, false solutions

What can the Weimar period tell us about the present?

October 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/authoritarianism-real-problems-false-solutions/

What can the Weimar period tell us about the present?

20/10/2021

Splinters Solo: Christos Tombras
The rationality paradox

'Attributing credulity to sloppy thinking or ignorance is tempting, but doesn't advance our understanding of post-truths and conspiracy theories'

October 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/the-rationality-paradox/

Attributing credulity to sloppy thinking or ignorance is tempting, but doesn't advance our understanding of post-truths and conspiracy theories

12/10/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Collective: December 2020

In this issue:
* KNOWING YOUR PLACE – thinking of some lines by Derek Mahon
* Post-election anxiety
* Universal Anxiety
* The Oscar Wilding of Johnny Depp

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-december-2020-short-essays-on-the-here-now/

This month: KNOWING YOUR PLACE – thinking about some lines of Derek Mahon...Post-Election Anxiety... Universal Anxiety...The Oscar Wilding of Johnny Depp

10/10/2021

Splinters Solo: Christos Tombras
Who Am I?

"Identity is what we’ve got, and at the same time it is what we haven’t got. Perhaps it would be better to think of it as something that we’d like to have on the basis that everybody else has it. Or seems to have it."

July 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/who-am-i/

'Identity is what we’ve got, and at the same time it is what we haven’t got.'

08/10/2021

Join us on October 13 @ 6PM PDT for a panel discussion on "Fairy Creek and the Climate Emergency"! This panel will include a diversity of voices: journalists, legal scholars, Indigenous land defenders, and Afro-Canadian activists, to consider the various complexities and challenges of in the context of the unfolding . The event will be moderated by Rita Wong, an Associate Professor in Critical and Cultural Studies at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. For full details and registration, please visit: http://www.sfu.ca/humanities-institute/public-events/public-events/2021/fairy-creek.html

SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Simon Fraser University
Ricochet - English
SFU Humanities
SFU Vancouver

06/10/2021

Splinters Solo: Chris Myant
When machines suck humanity out of the economy

'Where we stayed for part of this summer, there was a book in praise of Yquem, about the most expensive wine money can buy'

September 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/when-machines-suck-humanity-out-of-the-economy/

'Where we stayed for part of this summer, there was a book in praise of Yquem, about the most expensive wine money can buy'

05/10/2021

Splinters Solo: Iain Galbraith
Dominic Raab didn’t anticipate Kabul falling. He should have bought some binoculars

The Afghanistan issue was on Dominic Raab’s desk for years. If he’d paid it more attention, he might have realised what was about to unfold

September 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/no-one-saw-this-coming-its-true-no-one-has-seen-a-thing-or-two/

The Afghanistan issue was on Dominic Raab’s desk for years. If he’d paid it more attention, he might have realised what was about to unfold

02/10/2021

Splinters Collective: October 2021

In this issue:
* The rationality paradox
* Real Problems, False Solutions I
* Can an old Viking tradition be advantageous in fighting covid?
* Ancient or Modern – it's the instruments that count
* Getting Byron wrong
* Whoever owns the youth: a Reader (Part Three)
* Visions can be sudden, revealing the life and death struggle in all our lives

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-october-2021-sallies-into-the-here-now/

This month: The rationality paradox... Real Problems, False Solutions I... Can an old Viking tradition be advantageous in fighting covid?... Ancient or Modern – it's the instruments that count... Getting Byron wrong... Whoever owns the youth: a Reader (Part Three)... Visions can be sudden, re...

01/10/2021

Splinters Solo: Rosemary Bechler
When saying ‘No’ isn’t enough: a Splinter meditation

'What I want to examine is why... progressives can’t use the same tactic as their rightwing counterparts of trashing the opposition'

July, August, September 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/when-saying-no-isnt-enough-a-splinter-meditation/

'What I want to examine is why... progressives can’t use the same tactic as their rightwing counterparts of trashing the opposition'

28/09/2021

Splinters Solo: Irene Peroni
Norway's Sami people fight for their land as reconciliation commission delves into their past

'Today we must apologize for the injustice the Norwegian state has previously inflicted on the Sami people through a harsh Norwegianisation policy'

Septemper 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/norways-sami-people-fight-for-their-land-as-reconciliation-commission-delves-into-their-past/

'Today we must apologize for the injustice the Norwegian state has previously inflicted on the Sami people through a harsh Norwegianisation policy'

27/09/2021

Splinters Solo: Samir Gandesha
Spectacle of terror: the invisible hand

'The results of the actions of the EU Troika are not unlike a terror attack'

September 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/spectacle-of-terror-the-invisible-hand/

'The results of the actions of the EU Troika are not unlike a terror attack'

14/09/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Collective: April 2020

In this issue:
* "Genocide is Not an Essential Service!"
* Family likeness
* THE WEST IS WINNING: Pompeo's address
* Ten Seconds from Now
* Evelina isn’t herself?

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-april-short-essays-on-the-here-now/

This month: "Genocide is Not an Essential Service!"... Family likeness... THE WEST IS WINNING: Pompeo's address... Ten Seconds from Now... Evelina isn’t herself?

09/09/2021

Splinters Solo: Samir Gandesha
Kamala Harris, Angela Davis, and the US's failed revolution

If the pandemic could be seen as our Reichstag Fire moment, then the attacks on the Capitol on 6 January 2021 might be regarded as Kristallnacht

February 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/kamala-angela-and-failed-revolution/

If the pandemic could be seen as our Reichstag Fire moment, then the attacks on the Capitol on 6 January 2021 might be regarded as Kristallnacht

02/09/2021

Splinters Collective: September 2021

In this issue:
* Burning down the house...
* When machines suck humanity out of the economy...
* Norway's Sami people fight for their land as reconciliation commission delves into their past...
* Spectacle of Terror II...
* 'No one saw this coming' – it's true, 'no-one' has seen a thing or two...
* Whoever owns the youth: a Reader (Part Two)...
* When saying No isn’t enough: what should progressives do? Pts. 3. & 4.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-september-2021-sallies-into-the-here-now/

This month: Burning down the house... When machines suck humanity out of the economy... Norway's Sami people fight for their land as reconciliation commission delves into their past... Spectacle of Terror II... 'No one saw this coming' – it's true, 'no-one' has seen a...

24/08/2021

Splinters Solo: Rosemary Bechler
When saying No isn’t enough: an aggrandizing identification

‘This is an aggrandizing identification. A monocultural National Us possesses superior power, force or force of number, and a sense of impunity.’

August 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/when-saying-no-isnt-enough-an-aggrandizing-identification/

A monocultural National Us possesses superior power, force or force of number, and a sense of impunity. This is an aggrandizing identification

23/08/2021

Splinters Solo: Irene Peroni
Bikinis or shorts – not always an obvious choice

"What Norwegian papers dubbed “the panty crisis” finds an odd counterpart in a beach volleyball attire row, where athletes were fighting for, not against, wearing a bikini."

August 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/bikinis-or-shorts-a-matter-of-choice/

What Norwegian papers dubbed ‘the panty crisis’ finds an odd counterpart in a beach volleyball attire row, where athletes were fighting for, not against, wearing a bikini

20/08/2021

Splinters Solo: Iain Galbraith
No one really knows': practical knowledge and uses of ignorance

"These representatives of their disciplines and fields of research, in some ways similar to the public intellectuals of decades past, seek to explain new research to a receptive public; through work in advisory committees and campaigns from Fridays for Future to Extinction Rebellion, they pursue the translation of epistemological progress into progressive policy."

August 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/no-one-really-knows-practical-knowledge-and-uses-ignorance/

Scientists in some ways similar to the public intellectuals of decades past, pursue the translation of epistemological progress into progressive policy, through work in advisory committees and campaigns from Fridays for Future to Extinction Rebellion

18/08/2021

Splinters Solo: Christos Tombras
Dreams Coming True

"Predictably enough, a tablet was installed at the site some years after Freud’s death. As fate sometimes decrees, it survived the actual Hôtel Bellevue, which has since been demolished."

August 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/dreams-coming-true/

'This dream occupies the whole second chapter of Freud's 1899 seminal, Interpretation of Dreams. He uses it as a clinical example to illustrate his method and theory of dream analysis.'

18/08/2021

Splinters Solo: Chris Myant
Oblivion adds tragedy to death

"A potter, somewhere in the Greek world of the Mediterranean of 740 to 720 BCE, crafted a wine jug, big-bellied and narrow-necked like those used to this day. ..It is the oldest representation of such a tragedy that I have seen."

August 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/oblivion-adds-tragedy-death/

'A wine jug, big-bellied and narrow-necked... is the oldest representation of such a tragedy that I have seen'

16/08/2021

Splinters Solo: Samir Gandesha
Spectacle of terror

When one asks: What is terrorism then? If no one asks us, we know: but if we are desirous to explain it to one that should ask us, plainly we do not know. Images of terror are ubiquitous yet no term is more contested and more opaque than “terrorism.”

August 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/spectacle-terror/

When one asks: What is terrorism then?.... Images of terror are ubiquitous yet no term is more contested and more opaque than 'terrorism.'

13/08/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Solo: Iain Galbraith
Reinhard's Tale: in search of an absent tense

'We might hope that some absences audible to us now (that of heavy traffic) anticipate future human life.'

February 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/reinhards-tale-search-absent-tense/

'We might hope that some absences audible to us now (that of heavy traffic) anticipate future human life.'

03/08/2021

Splinters Collective: August 2021

In this issue:
* This month: Spectacle of Terror 1...
* Oblivion adds tragedy to death...
* Dreams coming true...
* "No one really knows": practical knowledge and uses of ignorance...
* Bikinis or shorts – a matter of choice
* When saying No isn’t enough: an aggrandizing identification

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-august-2021-sallies-into-the-here-now/

This month: Spectacle of Terror 1...Oblivion adds tragedy to death...Dreams coming true... "No one really knows": practical knowledge and uses of ignorance...Bikinis or shorts – a matter of choice...When saying No isn’t enough: an aggrandizing identification

29/07/2021

Splinters Solo: Rosemary Bechler
When saying ‘No’ isn’t enough

'What I want to examine is why... progressives can’t use the same tactic of trashing the opposition'

July 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/when-saying-no-isnt-enough/

'What I want to examine is why... progressives can’t use the same tactic of trashing the opposition'

29/07/2021

Splinters Solo: Christos Tombras
Modern Times

'"What you aspire to as revolutionaries”, continues Lacan barely audible now, “is a master. You will get one.”'

June 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/modern-times/

‘ "What you aspire to as revolutionaries”, continues Lacan barely audible now, “is a master. You will get one.” '

23/07/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Collective: March 2020

In this issue:
* The Left Contra Critique?
* HIGH-VIS
* Of Reasons and Causes
* AGAINST EXTINCTION III - a revenant
* Confusing green signs

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-march-short-essays-on-the-here-now/

This month: The Left Contra Critique... HIGH-VIS.... Of Reasons and Causes... AGAINST EXTINCTION III – a revenant... Confusing green signs

17/07/2021

Splinters Solo: Chris Myant
Prisoners of the system

"During the run up to the French regional and departmental votes across the last week of June, all electors were meant to have received leaflets from the different candidates... Many got nothing."

July 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/prisoners-system/

"During the run up to the French regional and departmental votes across the last week of June, all electors were meant to have received leaflets from the different candidates... Many got nothing."

15/07/2021

Splinters Solo: Iain Galbraith
Put him to bed: social fabric and the spirit of laws

"For he was a hoaxter, a prankster, a jigger and joker of fine spirits. His final trumpet was his final woe, the one he didn’t blow: and here comes the cold upper lip, melting now to weep. How shall we come down from here till tomorrow?"

July 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/put-him-bed-social-fabric-and-spirit-laws/

'According to Hancock, “Every time you try to flex the rules that could be fatal …”... he was right. A mere hug, just one fond kiss, can be deadly.'

12/07/2021

Splinters Solo: Leonie Rushforth
Feeling good! Rising to the occasion!

"A clip of the spontaneous standing ovation of the Centre Court crowd for Dame Sarah Gilbert who led the Astra Zeneca development team at Oxford University [was] a noisy display of national vaccine complacency under a closed Centre Court roof."

July 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/feeling-good-rising-occasion/

Including one or two points Chancellor Merkel might like to know about UK mass events.

12/07/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Solo: Rosemary Bechler
Black, grey, blue, green: how serious can Boris Johnson be?

A serious UK government, willing to put enough funding mechanisms in place, does have the agencies available to tackle the UK's draughty buildings.

March 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/black-grey-blue-green-how-serious-can-boris-johnson-be/

A serious UK government, willing to put enough funding mechanisms in place, does have the agencies available to tackle the UK's draughty buildings.

09/07/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Solo: Leonie Rushforth
Speaking for ourselves

You’re on mute! ' was actually a perturbing reminder of the ways in which we have all been silenced.

February 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/speaking-ourselves/

'You’re on mute! ' was actually a perturbing reminder of the ways in which we have all been silenced

09/07/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Solo: Iain Galbraith
Against Extinction II: energy-consuming data centres

"Where danger is, deliverance too will grow? The human factor is obviously an issue."

February 2020

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/against-extinction-ii-energy-consuming-data-centres/

Where danger is, deliverance too will grow? The human factor is obviously an issue.

04/07/2021

Splinters Solo: Christos Tombras
Like in the Movies

Early last year I offered a thought experiment involving a demon and a lotto jackpot. [...] What is the content of free will, it invited us to think, if a demon can have knowledge of our choices even before we have actually made them ourselves? I concluded by saying that the mere existence of a prediction regarding a future choice would affect the phenomenon under observation in a way that would render the prediction irrelevant.
But was this all?
Let's revisit the experiment.

April 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/movies/

'Should we conceive the timeline of all events as already laid out on some film that starts from a past and reaches the future?'

01/07/2021

Splinters Collective: July 2021

In this issue:
* Feeling good! Rising to the occasion!
* Who am I?
* Put him to bed: social fabric and the spirit of laws
* Prisoners of the system
* When saying ‘No’ isn’t enough

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-july-2021-sallies-into-the-here-now/

This month: FEELING GOOD! RISING TO THE OCCASION!...Who am I? ...Put him to bed: social fabric and the spirit of laws...Prisoners of the system...When saying ‘No’ isn’t enough

29/06/2021

Splinters Solo: Iain Galbraith
Street Opera III: Interiors, sponges on the slope

"These are two brand new, previously unused sponges. Their holes are connected to all holes everywhere, and are older than human error. It is not my part to concern myself with whatever is beneath the tarpaulin. My task concerns the visible surface only. I have thought this through as far as it goes. It is a curse."

June 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/street-opera-iii-interiors-sponges-slope/

Part three in a phantasmagoric journey for regular readers of Splinters.

24/06/2021

-== Blast From The Past ==-
Splinters Collective: March 2021

In this issue:
* Hall of mirrors
* 'Tseuf tseuf' waiting to go: the English legislator and national disaster
* Black, grey, blue, green: how serious can Boris Johnson be?
* Submission to the Special Legislative Committee on reforming Canada’s Police Act: Part 1

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/splinters-march-2021-short-essays-on-the-here-now/

This month: Hall of mirrors... 'Tseuf tseuf' waiting to go: the English legislator and national disaster... Black, grey, blue, green: how serious can Boris Johnson be?... Submission to the Special Legislative Committee on reforming Canada’s Police Act: Part 1...

21/06/2021

Splinters Solo: Samir Gandesha

Just what are British Columbia’s police paid to protect?
Four questions about the nature of policing

'But the demand to “Defund the police” that we hear from many quarters after the death of George Floyd, isn’t simply about decreasing funding for law enforcement. Rather, as philosopher, writer and long-time civil rights activist, Angela Davis, recently stated “It’s about shifting public funds to new services and new institutions – mental health counselors, who can respond to people who are in crisis without arms. It’s about shifting funding to education, to housing, to recreation. All of these things help to create security and safety. It’s about learning that safety, safeguarded by violence, is not really safety” (Democracy Now! Sept 07, 2020).

April 2021

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/what-role-policing-our-liberal-democratic-societies/

Four questions about the nature of policingThis article is based on a submission to the Special Legislative Committee on reforming British Columbia’s Police Act. See Part 1 here