Paul Mason - The British Left and the Struggle Between Open Society and Aggressive Authoritarianism.

Putin undoubtedly feared an independent, democratic, and affluent Ukraine on his doorstep, which is compelling reason why he started the war. Rather than a struggle caused by geopolitics, the Ukraine war can, with some justification, be viewed as a fight between the idea of an open society and authoritarianism. Freedom versus tyranny. For Ukrainian freedom and life are synonymous, which helps explain their extraordinary will to resist occupation. For Russians, liberty does not seem to be high up on their list of priorities, favouring perceived ‘stability’ over the ‘chaos’ of freedom. Ukraine –is a nation emerging from the amnesia of history and from under the yoke of centuries of imperial domination and is taking its place as a pivotal territory within European history and politics.

~| ~ | ~ | ~ | ~

Paul Mason is a British commentator and radio personality. He was Culture and Digital Editor of Channel 4 News, becoming the programme's Economics Editor in 2014, a post he formerly held at BBC Two's Newsnight programme. He is the author of several books, and a visiting professor at the University of Wolverhampton. He has won many awards over his long writing and journalistic career, and most recently in 2018, Paul received the Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize for his work on post-capitalism. In 2020, he was awarded the Erich Fromm Prize, in recognition of his work on the revival of humanist Marxism.

~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~

Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global. (2007)
Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed. (2009)
Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions. (2012)
Rare Earth (2012)
PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future. (2015)
Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being. (2019)
How To Stop Fascism: History, Ideology, Resistance. (2021)

~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~