Ksenia Arapko

World Athletics’ mandatory genetic test for women athletes is misguided. I should know – I discovered the relevant gene in 1990 World Athletics says its genetic test for women ensures ‘the integrity of women’s sport’ – but science does not support this overly simplistic idea.

Every TERF is like 'birds and bees, it's easy, folks' and (almost) every scientist actually working on questions of sex is like 'oof guys, what can I tell you, I have been working on this question for 52 years, and frankly, I know less and less every year' theconversation.com/world-athlet...

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 22: I. Andante sostenuto.

[I hear the birth of the cosmos springing to life through this piece of music].

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wYS...

Very honored to have been asked to contribute to this Endnotes dossier on Schmitt and Korsch.

I hastily transcribed it (p.s. not everything fit into alt text), apologies for any mistakes.

Original post is here:

www.instagram.com/p/DMxR1T_sHQ...

Here is the column I wrote on the theme "What I Would have liked to Know About Germany Earlier," along with the additional reflections I provided at Zeit Magazin's request. -A society governed by regulations, yet lacking individual moral judgement, is more dangerous than one with none at all. -A society that values obedience without questioning authority is destined to become corrupt. -A society that admits to error but refuses to reflect on its origins possesses a mind as stubborn and dull as granite. -Here, at a deserted street, people stop dutifully at a red light. Not a car in sight. This, I once thought, is the mark of a highly evolved society. -At the heart of bureaucracy lies a collective endorsement of power's legitimacy, and therefore, individuals surrender their moral judgement–or perhaps never developed one. They abandon challenge. They relinquish dispute. -When conversation becomes avoidance, when topics must not be mentioned, we are already living under the quiet logic of authoritarianism. -When the majority believe they live in a free society, it is often a sign that the society is not free. Freedom is not a gift; it must be wrestled from the hands of banality and the quiet complicity with power. -When people sense that power is beyond challenge, they redirect their energy into trivial disputes. And those trivialities, collectively, are enough to erode a society's very foundations of justice. -When public events of great consequence–such as the Nord Stream Pipeline bombing–are met with silence from both government and media, the silence itself becomes more terrifying than any atomic bomb. -Facts are acknowledged partially, forgotten deliberately, or swallowed by collective silence. And so we repeat catastrophe–against and again, in cycles. -When the media becomes a servant of public opinion, or avoids conflict to maintain favour with existing powers, it becomes an accomplice to authority. What we call lies are not always distortions of fact.

-Political leaders make decisions steeped in fallacy & failure. This reflects the broader political condition of a society in which most people have surrendered their awareness & even their basic agency–allowing such leaders to enact their mistakes on their behalf -When a society uses linguistic difference or cultural misunderstanding as excuses for exclusion, it has crossed into a more insidious form of racism. This is not a political opinion–it is an attitude, a stain in blood, passed down like genes -Bureaucracy is not merely sluggish. It is a cultural scorn. It rejects the possibility of dialogue. It insists that ignorance, codified into policy, no matter how wrong & inhumane it is, remains the best resistance against social mobility, against moral motion. In such a society, hope is not misplaced. It is extinguished -In the surrounding atmosphere, one sees not culture, but self-congratulation; not art, but insularity & collective reverence for power. What is missing is sincerity–honesty of emotion & of intention. In such an environment, art that grapples with true human feeling or moral reckoning is nearly impossible to produce. -A place that routinely discards self-awareness & erases individual agency is one that lives under iron walls of authoritarianism -I have no family, no fatherland, never known what it is to belong. I belong only to myself. In the best of circumstances, that self should belong to everyone. I still do not know what art is. I only hope that what I make might touch its edges while it seems unrelated to anything. & in truth, in the best of circumstances it is unrelated to me, for the "I" already melts into everything -Those things found in galleries, museums, & collectors' living room–are they art? Who has declared them so? On what basis? Why do I always feel suspicion in their presence? -Works that evade reality, that shy away from argument, from controversy, from debate–be they text, painting, or performance–are worthless.

-I understand now: people crave power and tyranny as they crave sunshine and rain, for the burden of self-awareness feels like pain. at times, even like catastrophe. -Under most circumstances, society selects the most selfish, least idealistic among us to take on the work we call "art" because that choice makes everyone feel safe. Additional reflections -In Berlin, I encounter the ever-present Schweinshaxe and Schnitzel, and I can hardly believe that such a highly developed, industrialised country offers such a monotonous selection of ingredients. Even more baffling is the sudden proliferation of Chinese restaurants–most of them noodle-based, and operating at a culinary level that any Chinese person could easily achieve at home. The variety of food and cooking methods is so limited here that people form all over the world feel compelled to open restaurants: Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish–you name it. -But the truly horrifying part? The sheer number of Chinese restaurants. I can only assume they believe that no matter what ends up on the plate, German customers will come running. In front of some of these establishments, there are even long queues–yet the food they serve bears little resemblance to anything recognisably Chinese. My favourite food in Germany is the bread and sausage–you simply can't find ones with such distinctive character anywhere else. -I'm puzzled by why so many people would willingly cram themselves into a small bar just to have a long conversation. Since I don't speak the language, I can only imagine that the young people coming to Berlin would talk about clubbing. This sort of thing was all the rage in the U.S. back in the '70s and '80s. -The Germans might be the only people who are truly the furthest from a sense of humour. This could be the result of their deep reverence for rationality. Just look at Berlin Airport or the advertisements for Mercedes-Benz cars–you start to feel that their lack of humour has become a kind of immense humour in itself

Ai Weiwei was invited to contribute short reflections on “What I would have liked to know about Germany earlier" for an upcoming issue of Zeit Magazin. His submission was first shortened and edited, then immediately cancelled after a review by the Executive Editor. Ai shared his reflections anyway:

Nathan Schlanger, The Invention of Technology: An Intellectual History with André Leroi-Gourhan - Cambridge University Press, January 2026
www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

Beneath the Howl of Hunger - Notes - e-flux Alaa Alqaisi on starvation in Gaza.

"Living in Gaza now requires a choreography of absence. We don’t walk; we drift. We don’t eat; we search. We don’t sleep; we remain alert, ears tuned to the sound that will send us running. Survival is a ritual of adaptation in a world that offers none" – Alaa Alqaisi

www.e-flux.com/notes/678338...

Thank you to the International Society for Public Law (
@icon-s.bsky.social), and the prize committee, for this recognition.
@cambup-polsci.cambridge.org

So well deserved, congratulations!

Alexandre Kojève Boris Groys's new book is an intellectual biography of the fascinating and mysterious figure of Alexandre Kojève, discussing his involvement with Hegel’s dialectics, his idea of communism and his visi...

Now available for preorder - Alexandre Kojève: An Intellectual Biography by Boris Groys

New MIH Issue: An aesthetic approach to intellectual history? Introduction to MIH Forum “Isaiah Berlin and the Aesthetics of Liberalism” by Joshua L. Cherniss @jcherniss.bsky.social and Sarah Collins

The Idea of Determinism The previous volume of Alexandre Kojève’s (1902–1968) work published by St. Augustine’s Press, The Concept, Time and Discourse (2019), was the introdu...

Alexandre Kojève, The Idea of Determinism, trans. Robert B. Williamson, St Augustine's Press, July 2025
www.staugustine.net/978158731392...

Here are the 13 books that made the Booker Prize longlist The prize is one of the most prestigious awards in literature. This year's crop of nominees includes two debut novelists going up against a previous Booker Prize winner.

The prize is one of the most prestigious awards in literature. This year's crop of nominees includes two debut novelists going up against a previous Booker Prize winner.

Foucault, Radio Interview 2: Madness silenced Michel Foucault, Histoire de la folie à l’âge Classique. Entretien avec Michel Foucault. Diffusion le 11 juillet 1961 sur France III National. In Entretiens radiophoniques, 1961-1983, Flammarion / …

Clare O'Farrell is beginning a series of commentaries on the interviews in Michel Foucault, Entretiens radiophoniques, 1961-1983, Flammarion/VRIN/INA, 2024.
clare-ofarrell.com/2025/07/29/f...
clare-ofarrell.com

That's so scary! Stay safe!

Excited to get into Ethan Kleinberg's new contribution!

Confronting the epistemic challenges posed by conspiracy theories, revisionism and post-truth claims, Kleinberg traces a historiography adequate to the peculiarities of our present.

Photo of W.E.B. Du Bois at the beach in Massachusetts, ca. 1930s. C/o Kimberly Ann Harris.

Du Bois at the beach. 😎

Thanks!

What's the book?

Gaza extermination: Hasan should have turned three. Instead, he starved to death Israel is using starvation as a weapon of genocide in Gaza. The death of one child is not an accident, but the death of many is a crime the world has allowed

“Israel is using starvation as a weapon of genocide in Gaza. The death of one child is not an accident, but the death of many is a crime the world has allowed.” www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza...

How did I not see Elijah Wood in this video before....

Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature, This intensely compelling book tells the story of an exceptionally daring operation to rescue as many writers, artists and intellectuals under threat from the...

Ute Wittstock, Marseille 1940: The Flight of Literature, trans. Daniel Bowles - Polity, May 2025
www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b...

On Sunday, Israeli forces killed 115 Palestinians in Gaza as 19 people starved to death.

Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die July 21, 2025 AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip since its staff journalists left in 2024. Along with a few others, they are now the only ones left to report what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The international press has been banned from entering the territory for nearly two years. We refuse to watch them die. One of them, Bashar, has been working with AFP since 2010, first as a fixer, then freelance photographer, and since 2024, as lead photographer. On July 19th he managed to post a message on Facebook: “I no longer have the strength to work for the media. My body is thin and I can’t work anymore.” Bashar, 30, works & lives in the same conditions as all Gazans, moving from one refugee camp to another under Israeli bombings. For > a year he’s lived in utter destitution, working at extreme risk to his life. Hygiene is a major issue for him, with recurring bouts of severe intestinal illness. Since Feb, Bashar’s been living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City with his mother, 4 brothers & sisters and the family of one of his brothers. Their house is devoid of any furnishings, except a few cushions. On Sunday morning, he reported that one of his brothers had “fallen, due to hunger.” Even though these journalists receive a monthly salary from AFP, it’s no longer enough to buy food, or they have to pay completely exorbitant prices. The banking system has collapsed, and those who exchange money via online bank accounts charge a commission of up to 40%. AFP no longer has the ability to provide them with a vehicle and there is not enough fuel to allow these journalists to travel for their reporting. Driving a car means becoming a target for Israeli airstrikes. AFP reporters therefore travel on foot or by donkey cart. (alt txt continued in next post)

A horrifying statement published today by the Editorial Committee of the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die"

Translation from French to English by @cnorristrent.bsky.social:

Now up: partial reconstruction of Horkheimer’s lost Spring 1945 INTRO (lol) seminar for Columbia’s Socio Dept, “National Socialism & Philosophy”—transcripts of minutes from 4 lectures on “Authority of the Epoch,” “Natural History of Belief,” “Mimesis & Civ,” & “Idolatry”
🔗 ⬇️

Frantz Fanon would have been 100 years old today!

Although I love his two classic works, Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, I encourage you all, on his birthday no less, to get to know Fanon better. Read his letters, his psychiatric writings, his speeches and his plays!

Especially a renaissance that does not confine de Beauvoir to the Second Sex and her feminist awakening, but rather one that tends to the totality of her life and thought; most especially her life-long contributions and commitment to existentialism, & what her staunch devotion to it could teach us.

Here's an excerpt from an Honours essay I wrote, over 6 years ago, comparing her work on ethics with that of Alain Badiou, a true inheritor of Sartre and de Beauvoir's project. I'm not convinced Battistoni gets her work entirely right, but I am certainly here for a de Beauvoir renaissance.

It's exhilarating to see de Beauvoir's existentialism getting taken seriously again. Ever since reading Ethics of Ambiguity in my undergraduate years, I have been convinced of its absolute centrality for navigating the complexities of political and personal life, despite the fashionable criticisms.