The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . It’s not all relative Alan Jay Levinovitz, Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 March 2017 The notion of ‘truth as disrespect’ powers the current assault on facts. Trump and much of his base reject the truth-making mechanisms of academic culture by appealing to anti-elitism, and sow uncertainty via indignation and cultural pride. Why […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Trump’s America and the Pakistani dream The Herald, 16 February 2017 In an ironic twist, rather than us becoming like Americans (as is the dream of almost every upper middle class and upper class Pakistani), it is the Americans who are becoming and looking a lot like us: prejudiced, xenophobic, vulnerable. . And as […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Scholars behind bars Jonathan Zimmerman, New York Review of Books, 23 February 2017 Americans also need to acknowledge that some tendencies in liberal education have closed minds rather than liberated them. The freewheeling, take-no-prisoners discussions in Bard’s prison program are in contrast to many campus classrooms, where rules of political decorum inhibit honest conversation. […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . When truth becomes a commodity Daniel T Rogers, Chronicle of Higher Education, 15 January 2017 The reorganization of society and the social imagination along market lines, which has accelerated so rapidly, reaches a kind of culmination. But in this reconstitution of truths as market commodities, the invisible hand working to sort things out is […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

My latest collection, and the first for 2017, of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . What the alt-right is really about Angela Nagle, Irish Times, 6 January 2017 Spencer is in the strict dictionary definition of the term, a racist. He claims “race is something between a breed and an actual species” and believes non-white Americans should leave in a ‘peaceful ethnic cleansing’. He […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

My latest collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Stop calling everything ‘fake news’ Will Oremus, Slate, 6 December 2016 As the term has entered the national discourse, it has turned out to be a handy cudgel for people who want to criticize the media for a wide range of failings. First, some in the liberal and mainstream media began to carelessly blur […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

My latest collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. Since so much of the discussion over the past month has been dominated by that electoral victory, I have divided the collection into two: articles that are about issues related to Donald Trump and his Presidential success and the ones that are Trump-free. . Trumpish 2016 was the apathy election Carl Beijer, 12 November The […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest (and somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . How the education gap is tearing politics apart David Runciman, Guardian, 5 October 2016 The contest between the educated and the less educated is different. Many of the safeguards that have been put in place to bypass popular politics – above all, the authority that now resides in central banks – […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest monthly (and somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . What are we allowed to say? David Bromwich, London Review of Books, 22 September 2016 Two contradictory thoughts now dominate the Anglo-American approach to feelings in the context of public debate. For the speaker, feelings must be restrained – a neutral style of rational euphemism is recommended. On the other […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

The latest monthly (and somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . A Different Kind of Safe Space Ted Gup, Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 August 2016 In my class, if students say something offensive, even remotely or overtly racist (the ‘overtly’ has yet to occur), then they must take ownership of their words, be prepared to defend them, and be willing […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

My latest monthly (and somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . The Anti-Democratic Urge Astra Taylor, The New Republic, 18 August 2016 In reality, our political system is far less democratic than it was a generation ago. Over the past 40 years, we’ve seen unions crushed, welfare gutted, higher education defunded, prisons packed to overflowing, voting rights curbed, and the rich […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

My latest monthly (and somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Donald Trump and the Myth of Mobocracy Robert Zaretsky, Atlantic, 27 July 2016 Terrorist bombs shattering lives and buildings. Waves of immigrants stirring popular fears and anxieties. Corruption and scandal staining the reputation of politicians. Commerce and industry convulsing amid dizzying and divisive change. Ambitious men with no political experience […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

My latest monthly (and somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. It has been a extraordinary month, news-wise, from the Orlando shootings to Brexit, from South African riots to the Istanbul attacks. There were a dozen more articles to which I could have linked, so I may make this a more frequent post. . ‘The Energy of the Brexiteers and Trump is […]

Categories: Pandaemonium