I’m learning a lot from young people about the problem of drawing the line, by which I mean the expectation that we will take fixed stances on certain questions, choosing up sides. In his 1945 essay, “Reflections on Drawing The Line,” the late, great Paul Goodman pointed out that it is the absurd frameworks and …
Passover ends on Sunday night, and I want to write one last time about the thinking it provokes. In the exodus story, Pharaoh’s power-mad distortion is such that he persists in refusing to free the slaves, even after his own advisors warn him that his policies are resulting in Egypt’s destruction. My friend Arthur Waskow …
On Tuesday night I watched Daniel Anker’s new documentary on the cable channel AMC, Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and The Holocaust. It’s not scheduled to rerun at this point, but look for repeats in months to come. It depicts the way self-censorship takes hold, borne along by commercial considerations (e.g., reluctance to offend German movie ticket-buyers, …
A week ago, I posted an essay about feeling deeply discouraged. My purpose was to whistle in the dark: I thought if I said out loud that I intended to persevere despite discouragement (or as I put it, to “proceed without the insulation of hope, the armor of faith in my own judgment”), I’d be …
Our cultural moment is characterized by public displays of incredibly intimate information. People outdo each other in telling all, including gruesome tales of abuse and even voluntary self-debasement recounted with relish. Just look at the nonfiction best-seller list. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I’m a private person (that’s become such a cliche, …
This weekend I revisited the writings of Martin Luther King, looking for something to read in his honor at a gathering of friends. In my mind, he stands for eloquent justice in the face of stubborn privilege, and as far as it goes, that’s true. But taking him literally, he stands so much more for …
A decade ago, my husband and I were resident writers for a month at the Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio, on Italy’s Lake Como. Fellows (artists, scientists, scholars) rotated in and out of the center, a new batch of perhaps ten people being added or subtracted each week. Our month happened to coincide with a …
The huge dissonance in political life — the conundrum for any thoughtful analyst with democratic values — is why so many people who share no material interests with George W. Bush voted to re-elect him president. Most pundits seem to feel satisfied with a two-word explanation: “values voters.” Evidently it puts a cork in their …
On Thanksgiving, our local paper carried an AP story about Bobby Goldstein, the creator of a reality TV show called “Cheaters,” in which camera crews accompany people who want to find and confront their unfaithful partners. One hundred old episodes are being re-edited, excising language and sexual images that might upset the FCC, which — …
I was just listening to Republican Convention coverage on NPR and heard a young delegate from Nebraska describe herself as part of the “post-9/11 generation,” and therefore especially concerned about national security. She put me in mind of \Letter to the Next Generation\, a wonderful film by Jim Klein (you can find it at New …