Why Wokeism Is A Religion

By Michael Shellenberger Introducing the Taxonomy of Woke Religion Over the last year, a growing number of progressives and liberals have pointed to police killings of unarmed black men, rising carbon emissions and extreme weather events, and the killing of trans people as proof that the United States […]

Taking on Progressive Prosecutors

The main problem I see with these critics is that much of their objection to “progressive prosecutors” seems rooted in their disdain for the non-prosecution of “quality of life” offenses, i.e. things that conflict with bourgeois aesthetics, lifestyle, or class interests. That may not be the whole story […]

Medieval Europe: Most Progressive Society in History

This is an interesting overview of how the Western liberal tradition developed. Enlightenment liberalism appeared only after the institutional, cultural, and economic preconditions had been developed. Interestingly, Kevin Carson has made a similar argument from the Left, suggesting that liberalism appeared only after the economic and technological changes […]

The Great Faculty Disengagement

By Kevin R. McClure and Alisa Hicklin Fryar Chronicle of Higher Education As many observers have pointed out, the “Great Resignation” doesn’t perfectly capture what’s happening in the U.S. labor market. Data suggest many people, especially those with jobs in fields like hospitality, aren’t quitting the work force but […]

How Biden Lost The Plot

An interesting observation from Sullivan: So he may well become a transitional figure like Jimmy Carter — a response to a criminal president, as Carter was, but too isolated, partisan and controlled by left interest groups to build a coalition for the future. Instead, a growing backlash including […]

Columbia University Has Lost Its Way

It’s interesting how universities have become predatory capitalist corporations in terms of their business model, but Stalinist/fascist/fundamentalist regimes in terms of ideological conformity. By Katherine Frank, The Nation The Ivy League institution’s approach to the contract negotiations with its grad student workers reveals how it has evolved into […]

Anarchist Roots & Routes

By Vishwam Jamie Heckert Following Andy Fisher’s call for a radical ecopsychology – one which heals individuals and transforms social, philosophical and psychological systems of organisation and knowledge – this paper explores the anarchist pasts and possible futures of the field. While anarchists such as Kropotkin, Goodman, and […]

Anarchy and Archaeology

By Matthew Sanger and Lewis Borck The genesis of our special section, “Anarchy and Archaeology,” was a symposium chaired by Matthew Sanger and Lewis Borck at the 80th annual SAA meeting in San Francisco. At that time and as the issue took shape, few expected the outcome of […]

Fundamentalism on the Left

By John M. Vella Chronicles Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us by Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro Princeton University Press 336 pp., $29.95 Fundamentalism has long been considered a religious phenomenon, a narrowmindedness that only afflicts Bible-thumping extremists. Yet fundamentalist thinking is everywhere today, […]

Equality’s Third Wave

However much some folks may be inclined to make fun of this, I suspect it is the key to ending Wokeism. Just let everyone identify as whatever they want to identify as. By Zbigniew Janowski Chronicles Equality is undergoing a new renaissance in which all identities are fluid […]

The futility of Biden’s 1st year

By David Faris, The Week Squandered promise in a presidency that was supposed to be transformational. It was supposed to be “an FDR-sized presidency.” In the spring and summer of 2020, after Joe Biden had rolled up the Democratic nomination and polls were predicting a decisive, double-digit victory […]

Thomas Friedman Roars Back to Form

By Matt Taibbi “Two amputee British actors, sitting in a tree, something, something, C-O-W!” Plus, a contest with prizes! Esteemed Yale professor Samuel Moyn tweeted this yesterday, cruelly tagging me and forcing a look at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s latest: Samuel Moyn 🔭 @samuelmoyn Count of […]