“The Obama Administration Is At The Charity Of The Powers That Be:” Jonathan Schell

“The Obama administration exhibited its overall signature flaw in caricature: It is embedded with (let’s say this straight: in bed with) the powers that be. Well meaning, it begins by taking those powers –the commanding heights of society- as given, immovable. Then it starts to bargain. (On healthcare, it begins with Big Pharma, o finance with Wall Street, on war with the top generals –above all David Petrraeus.) Then when the administration is duly handed its half- or quarter-loaf – the stripped-down healthcare plan, the eviscerated financial regulations, the soft date for withdrawal from Afghanistan bought with the surge in troop levels- it’s at the charity of these powers.”

Jonathan Schell. The Revolutionary Moment. In The Nation, 21 February 2011

“Choose From A Selection Of Lavishly Advertised And Colorfully Marketed Candidates:” John Michael Greer.

“[M]ost people in North America made the consumer economy their model for political participation. A consumer’s role in the economic process (more…)

WHERE IS THIS TAKING PLACE? A Geography of Teen Identity

A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image

Joan Didion (b. 1934), U.S. essayist. “In the Islands,” The White Album (1979).)

INTRODUCTION

The work of adolescent imagination is play, and the play of teens is work. (more…)

“The Money-changers Have Fled From The Temple Of Our Civilization:” F.D. Roosevelt Inaugural Address

“Many of the of the most sensational exposures of the Pecora investigation (more…)

“As In The Twenties, Voices Of Protest Were Attacked As “Subversive,” or “Un-American.”” Robert Goldston

“The New Deal reached a stalemate in 1938 and was drowned by the war. Unfortunately, also drowned was the spirit which had supported it. (more…)

“These Clothes Were Both Splendid And Invisible:” Eric Hobsbawm

“As always, it was not the sophisticated intelligences which were prepared (more…)

HYPOCRISY IS BAD: A Deliberate, Numbing Assault on Our Public Conversation

This is a long Essay: 3000 words. Only required for graduate-level credit.

PART 1

A CLOUD OF ARROWS DARKENS THE SKY.

We are all hypocrites. We are all immature. Some of us are more intellectually and ethically honest about it than others. There is no dishonor in honesty. (more…)