The Archives
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06.27.10Ill Fares the LandThe materialistic and selfish quality of contemporary life is not inherent in the human condition. Much of what appears “natural” today dates from the 1980s: the obsession with wealth creation, the cult of privatization and the private sector, the growing disparities of rich and poor. And above all, the rhetoric that accompanies these: uncritical admiration for unfettered markets, disdain for the public sector, the delusion of endless growth. Tony Judt's Ill Fares the Land is the perfect companion, and foil, to Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion. Where Hedges' essay is a Jeremiad against the specific ills of contemporary culture, ...
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11.25.09Choosing our lessonsI have to admit to a certain fondess for Peggy Noonan. What I Saw at the Revolution, her memoir of her time as a speech writer in the Reagan White House, is insightful and, especially in the chapter on the Challenger disaster, often poignant. And any conservative columnist who early on saw through the cult of Palin is a good egg in my book. So I give her credit for the sentiment, at least, in her column calling for President Obama to follow the example of Kennedy's speech on the Cuban Missile Crisis in addressing the public on his ...
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01.06.08Almanac: January 6, 2008WWII vet shared POW terror with Vonnegut, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: one of the last survivors of Slaughterhouse Five passes away, Maple Plain, Minnesota. The Power of Literature: The News That Stays News, Radio National (Australia): Andrew O'Hagan speaks powerfully about imagination (and the lack thereof); the full address is here.Literature may be entertaining and it may be diverting, but its role in a civilized world is neither for distraction nor diversion, but for engagement: every day is Sorry Day in the world of literature and every day is Humanity Day and Contemplation Day and Tolerance Day and Get Your Finger Out of ...
