Silly season
Not just in New Hampshire, but here in Spain too we’re living through carnival—gross exaggerations, outrageous gestures, obscenities and raucous foolishness. In Spain this happens not just at election time but every year during Lent, and has been happening ever since the middle ages, when dances and parodies and all manner of offensive behaviors from … read more »
Where I’m going and why: progress report
Here is an update since my New Year’s “Shazam!” lightning bolt. My proximate aims are to complete my novel on the Paris Commune of 1871 and to produce more essays on the multiple crises of our time. In fact these are all parts of the same project, because my novel is intended to help me, … read more »
Always on the brink
In his column Germany on the Brink, Ross Douthat gives a convincing description of the social destabilization sure to come from the refugee influx. So many young men so suddenly will not be absorbed peaceably. But what will be the consequences of closing German borders, as he proposes? Not just for Germany, but for all of Europe? … read more »
Shazam! for the New Year
Nothing changes on New Year’s but the date, and that only because of arbitrary accommodation of astronomy to Roman festivals, politics and bureaucratic convenience.* But no matter; arbitrary or not, it’s a good occasion for us to make some changes. A time for self-centering. I don’t mean becoming narcissistic, unconcerned about others, but simply centering … read more »
Daesh and its conflicting enemies
The Paris attacks last Friday have so rattled everyone, at least in Europe, that they have superseded all other news. But the obsessive focus on that stunning violence and dramatic personal stories in that fabled city, the heart of western civilization and all that Daesh (or ISIS or ISIL or whatever) is not, can make … read more »