Ideological assumptions that but two generations ago would have been deemed eccentric, if not utterly insane or even demonic, now rule the “mainstream.” The trouble is that normal people do not take madmen seriously enough. This works to the advantage of politicians—an inherently insane breed—and their subjects’ attitude of “they can’t be serious” allows them...
The crisis in Kosovo continues to illuminate the glaring gap between the quality of reporting in America and in the rest of the world. In Western Europe, in particular, the tragedy in the Balkans has come to be seen as the defining moment of our civilization and of its chances for survival in the coming...
be cowed or savages to be exterminated. They are imposing arnbird’s-eye view of world affairs in the process, which makes discussionrnof their policy possible only within their odd terms ofrnreference. Try applying the traditional criteria of national interest,rnand yon will be labeled a Buchananite, with all the attendantrn”isms” that will destroy your name and career....
to apologize for chief of staffrnRene Emilio Ponce, dismissing thernmurders as a sort of forgivablerncorporate glitch, like runningrnout of Xerox toner. “Managementrncontrol problems can exist inrnthese kinds of situations,” hernsaid.rnDiscussing the wider problem of staternviolence and repression in El Salvador,rnWalker was remarkably circumspect.rn”I’m not condoning it, but in times likernthis of great emotion and great...
When the jacket blurb tells you that the book before you “basically combines a kojevian notion of global market as post-history (in this sense akin to Fukuyama’s eschatology) with a Foucauldian and Deleuzian notion of bio-politics (in this sense crossing the road of a Sloterdijk who also poses the question of a coming techniques of...
A select few who see the peril to which their neighbors are oblivious and who proceed to save their community against overwhelming odds, is a familiar literary and cinematic concept. Earlier this month (May 11-12) I had the pleasure of addressing one such real-life group ...
On Monday, Oct. 5, our occasional contributor James G. Jatras gave a lecture at the Institute of European Studies in Belgrade entitled “Does America Have a Future? Options Before a Declining Hegemon.” He presented a complex and rather bleak picture of America’s condition to an audience of some 30 scholars and analysts from Serbia’s leading research...
Among the advancements in AI applications are those popularly known as “deadbots,” which allow users to speak to the dead without secret rituals, mediums, Ouija boards, or cryptic table-tapping. The proliferation of deadbots poses serious ethical questions, and their growing acceptance is a measure of our desperate, post-human secularity.
Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape, by Cal Flyn (Viking; 384 pp., $27.00). In our era of ecological angst, many are desperately seeking strategies to mitigate human damage, but Scottish writer Cal Flyn suggests a holistic new way—one that is simultaneously haunted and hopeful—of seeing these problems. She writes often in sorrow, sometimes in righteous...
CHRONICLES’ BACK ISSUES, TAPES, AND BOOKSrn* Proceedings of The John Randolph ClubrnMR. KAUFFMAN GOES TO WASHINGTON—Audiotape—Bill Kauffman goes tornWashington and defies the Beltway light by inciting conservatives to “commit placism.”rnHe offers an antidote to flavorless, esoteric, placeless modem America in a stirring speechrnthat celebrates “placists” who create local culture—poets, novelists, and painters, as wellrnas football...
CHRONICLES’ BACK ISSUES, TAPES, AND BOOKSrnProceedings of The John Randolph ClubrnMR. iCAUFFMAN GOES TO WASHINCITON—Audiotape—Bill Kauffman goes tornWashington and defies the Beltway right by inciting conservatives to “commit placism.”rnHe otfers an antidote to flavorless, esoteric, placclcss modem America in a stirring speechrnthat celebrates “placists” who create k)cal culture—poets, novelists, and painters, as wellrnas football coaches,...