Making a difference requires accepting the world as it is, at least if the world includes what is possible as well as what is actual. Politics is commonly defined as the art of the possible, but a somewhat more precise formulation would render it as the art of making the possible actual. This means, in the first place, focusing your efforts on what is, so to speak, actually possible – and desirable.| The Mirror and the Lamp
The Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 is commonly remembered as a triumph of student activism and constitutional rights. But in retrospect it seems clear to me that the movement’s long-term effects have not been beneficial for the university or for civic discourse more broadly. I now regard it as... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp
In the expanded second edition of Politics and Vision (2004) Sheldon S. Wolin devotes an entire chapter to Friedrich Nietzsche, a figure omitted from the original 1960 edition. Wolin’s Nietzsche is a deeply political thinker who would do away with liberal democracy on the grounds that it fosters a “herd mentality”: an attraction to security and docility that disguises itself as an altruistic concern for humanity.| The Mirror and the Lamp
Deleuze and Guattari claim that Freud, in his essay “From the History of an Infantile Neurosis” (1919), fails to recognize the devenir-animal of his patient Sergei Pankejeff, a.k.a. the Wolf Man. Pankejeff had a recurring dream of being stared at by a group of wolves in a tree, and Freud wondered why there were several of them as opposed to just one. In Freud’s view dreaming of a group of wolves rather than a single wolf was a way of masking while also expressing Pankejeff’s anxiety a...| The Mirror and the Lamp
It stretches the concept of music beyond recognition to classify 4′33″ as a musical work. It makes much more sense to regard it as a work of performance art. However, the fact that it was created by Cage means that we inevitably think about in the context of music. We naturally ask what was Cage’s... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp
Nietzsche staked his reputation on the future. He believed that a great cultural upheaval was imminent and that his thought provided the resources required to make the best of it. In some ways Nietzsche’s expectations for the future of Western civilization were borne out by the twentieth century. He said that Christian belief would decline;... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp
At the end of the film, Alex has agreed to publicly support the ruling party in exchange for a cushy job. Listening to Beethoven and reflecting on his good fortune, he thinks: “I was cured all right.” The Ludovico Technique had cured Alex’s love of violence, but from his point of view the cure was... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp
The word “conversation” combines the Latin con- or com- meaning “with, together” with versare or vertere meaning “to turn, bend” to form conversation, meaning literally “to turn together” or cooperate and more specifically “to live, dwell with, keep company with,” and from the 14th century “general course of actions or habits, way of conducting oneself... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp
Imagine a community that is characterized by what I’ll call “at-home-ness.” For people who are at home in their community, there are ways of doing things that are appropriate, fitting, and right. There are things one doesn’t do under certain circumstances, and things one does. There’s usually no need to formulate these attitudes as explicit... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp
Hannah Arendt’s thesis about the banality of evil is widely misunderstood. I’m not sure I fully grasp it, but here’s my take. It isn’t that what Eichmann did wasn’t evil; it was. But it was a new form of evil that didn’t quite fit our traditional moral and legal concepts. And it isn’t that Eichmann... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp