I’ve seen it a few times now, an incipient meme. “If this were a movie,” people write, “no one would believe it.” “This” of course refers to the epidemic of surreality more than the virus itself (the latter being all-too believable). Yesterday’s news, for example, #IMPOTUS tweeting “LIBERATE!” in support of right-wing protesters against public …
Full disclosure: This essay is about something that most people I know would dismiss as a pipe-dream. But there’s a difference between (a) the likelihood of an idea being adopted and fulfilled—the usual definition of success—and (b) having an influence. Even if (a) is impossible, (b) is worth pursuing. I would love you to read …
Here are the things that have been going through my mind: Solidarity, The Velvet Revolution, the fall of Apartheid. Why? Because each of these represents a moment in history in which a critical mass of people awakened to the truth that the regimes oppressing them were far from the permanent and unshakeable authorities portrayed in …
As a longtime cultural policy wonk, I’ve been perpetually frustrated at the persistence of American exceptionalism, our stubborn insistence on our own unique superiority, our stubborn refusal to look beyond our own borders for inspiring examples and new ways of seeing. This is usually accompanied by some type of smug assertion about the superiority of …
Yesterday I posted an essay about the spiritual aspects of the pandemic. Today, my topic is political: how addressing the future of democracy and a livable economy are one and the same. I will start with immediate action, then move on to a brief look at the longer term. Last week people were rightfully up …
What can console us in the face of the Great Unknown? I thought I understood that safety was always an illusion: any of us could be struck down at any moment. But having the illusion of safety erased, that’s uncertainty of another magnitude, so vastly out of proportion to the “normal,” default reality that words …
I feel sad this morning. There is blame-slinging all around. It’s all about the last few weeks at the moment, as if all that came before had been forgotten. I’m seeing people blame sexism as the sole cause for defeating Warren, as if her own choices were entirely irrelevant. I’m seeing people focusing on the …
NOTE: I was wondering what might cheer me up when this fictional narrative came to mind. Try to suspend disbelief as you read it. Those few minutes of fantasy may be just what you need. I was cleaning the residence sitting room. As usual, I was tripping on how many McDonald’s wrappers there were and …
Every time I hear a candidate tout “college for all” as an economic and social panacea, something inside me balks, even as huge cheers come up from the audiences gathered for Democratic primary debates. But I hadn’t been able to put my finger on my unease until I read “Educated Fools,” Thomas Geoghegan’s provocative and …
My custom is to avoid mentioning the Present Occupant of the White House by name. One main reason is that he worships his own name; why help that along by repeating it? Another is that contradictions Trump has brought to a head were not of his own making, rather having been cultivated over centuries by …