My larger writing is going very well right now, but that means I'm saving all my typing for that, really. All you're getting is haikus. I'm sorry. This should change in a couple years, maybe? Well, maybe sooner. But for now, just some quick links and opinions:
This is an interesting, and at times contentious, interview with Judith Butler, on gender theory today.
And here’s a lecture then a long q&a with Butler! Conducted in part by Amia Srinivasan, herself a very interesting political theorist.
And another review of Butler’s recent The Force of Nonviolence, also treating it a bit so-so. This one has the added benefit of tracking that book in light of her larger career, which is helpful. Even if the writer seems to think that Reinhold Niebuhr is a “major theorists of nonviolence”(which is pretty absurd, both about “major” and about “theorist”, and I say that as a sort-of Niebuhrian).
Thomas Edsall is almost always interesting, and more often than not I agree with him (and when I don’t, I still like the details of his arguments—there’s always a lot of information as well as judgment, and that makes them worthwhile). Here he’s predicting the future after the election. The takeaways seem to be: most experts don’t think Trumpism is going away in the GOP if they lose, and that will be a problem for the GOP (maybe also for the nation and the world, I might add); Biden faces a much more divided party and the divisions might appear quite forcefully after the election. In short: Buckle up, buttercup.
This makes a very good point—the “liberal arts” are not opposed to the conservative arts, but to servile forms of life. “Liberal” here is about freedom.
Good piece about Orlando Patterson, one of the great public intellectuals of our time and also a damn fine sociologist (and “social theorist,” which means something even cooler, forgive me my sociology friends).
Last but not least: Milton Friedman’s famous op-ed about “maximizing profits” reconsidered, 50 years later.
Be well, everyone. Don't go near the White House.