This French mystic’s insights came with unique blind spots by Becca Rothfeld (The Washington Post)

Some books we read because the author’s writing reflected their historical achievements, such as Lenin or Gandhi. Some because the author’s intellect and ideas offer us insight into ‘eternal knowledge’, such as Plato or Kongzi. Some reach us through their mastery of prose, language, and the human condition, such as Shakespeare or Proust. Rothfeld doesn’t find these in Simone Weil. We read Weil is because she was a “shriek of a human being”.

Like a Top Hat by Jonathan Rée (The London Review of Books)

Alisdair MacIntyre is a figure one cannot avoid when studying contemporary Western philosophy. From his early engagements with Marxism, to landing in America at Notre-Dame University and converting to Catholicism, Perreau-Saussine’s newly translated biography on MacIntyre is hailed as brilliant, even for those on the left that view him as another in a long line of defectors. Perreau-Saussine shows that what seem like regressions in politics, such as moving to America and converting to Catholicism are understandable if one reads MacIntyre as a person, and not some abstract concept or manifestation of history.

Building the Palestinian State with Salam Fayyad with Ezra Klein (The New York Times)

Salam Fayyad and Ezra Klein give us a peek behind what goes on in state building. In the business world, to get promoted, usually you have to already be doing the job you want before you get promoted. For example, if you want to be a manager at your store, you need to show the type of qualities and skills a manager needs. Israel did this, before 1948f, in making small steps towards having what America, Britain, etc., would recognize as the functions of a state. Palestine, the rest of the ‘Leviathan’ club thinks, did not in 1948 and has not still. Klein interviews Fayyad, a former prime minister of Palestine, who discusses the work he did to get the Palestinian people ready for that promotion, which has yet to happen. Talks such as this make me think that the politics of Hobbes’s time is not too different from our politics.

A Historic Abdication by Sean Wilentz (The New York Review of Books)

Wilentz wrote the prior NYRB issue’s first piece, “The Case for Disqualification”, arguing that the court, on originalist and interpretive grounds should agree with Colorado’s decision. The court, however, seemed willing to reject federalism while also avoiding any responsibility on ruling definitively. The most baffling comments heard that day was how much the court was worried about the consequences of the decision, when historically as far as I know, consequentialist calculus was not part of the decision making procedure.

The Memory Hole by Fintan O’Toole (The New York Review of Books)

O’Toole gives a balanced discussion of Biden’s memory that is missing in political discourse. "The plain fact is that memory is always somewhat hazy, at any age.” Agreed. Biden speaks publicly daily on complex topics that demand precise recall of facts and statistics, all while being recorded. Anyone in a similar position could have gaffe reels made of them after a few days of speaking. This memory problem, O’Toole argues, is more of a political problem, an “post hoc rationalization” of the fact that Americans are dissatisfied with our gerontocracy.

‘Wordlessness in Labor’ by Merve Emre (The New York Review of Books)

Emre is interviewing another writer for their critics series, Sophie Pinkham. They dive into the issues of translation, mainly poetry. Since poetry is less about written language or factual correctness, but more akin to spoken word and gesture, Pinkham argues that translating poetry is always a matter of interpretation, and is best done by a good poet. As someone who does not know a lot about poetry, the deep dive into two translations of the same poem taught me a lot about poetry and the difficulties that arise in translating any.

Only Biden and M.B.S. Can Redirect the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Thomas Friedman (The New York Times)

Friedman has brought up a couple times now since October 7th the story where he interviewed Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia which later turned into an op-ed by Friedman. This then became the spark that spawned the Arab Piece Initiative. Friedman again locates the two main blockers to peace in the region with Netanyahu and Hamas.

Seeds of What Ought to Be by Terry Eagleton (The London Review of Books)

Eagleton recommends this monumental study of Hegel, but he has a few qualifications. For a book about Hegel, it is missing that connection of Hegel’s theoretical philosophy of the Science of Logic and the Phenomenology of Spirit to his political philosophy. Another is that Hegel saw the seeds of the French Terror in the morals of the French Revolution itself, but extending that worry to contemporary revolutionary movements, say ‘68, is dramatic.

THE SIEGE OF RAFAH AS A GEOPOLITICAL EVENT by Slavoj Žižek (Substack)

When discussing this essay with my friend Duncan, he said something like “ah, the classic dialectical reversal of Žižek”. Liberals in the West, Israeli's, and others keep writing that we must judge October 7th “in itself”. Fair enough, says Žižek. In itself, not contextualized, Israel has killed almost 30,000 human beings, caused many more injuries and loss of limbs, many more starving and sick, and many more with irreparable psychological damage. Dogmatic defenders of Israel wants to contextualize Israel’s actions with 3,000 years of history around the world, but denies any such intellectual act to Palestinians.

The World’s Most Expensive Face-Lift by Jolene Edgar (Air Mail)

The rich can afford clothes tailored precisely to their unique bodies, while the rest of us get XS, S, M, L, XL, etc. The ultra-rich, however, can get ‘tailors for their skin’, this piece being about NYC plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew Jacono. With wait lists of two years, costs around half a million, the lengths the ultra-rich go to be youthful and beautiful are still shocking to me, despite leaving the corn fields for NYC a few years ago.

The Curious Case of the Saint-Moritz Curmudgeon by Elena Clavarino (Air Mail)

What seems like, at first, a story of a semi-Diogenes among the world elites, ends up being less interesting. In a posh ski resort in Switzerland, 89-year-old Adolf Haeberli is holding onto prime real estate to the dismay of the town. A dubious, long running insurance case seems to be his motivating force for holding out. The essay makes Haeberli look like an authentic piece of the town’s past fighting the rich and wealthy from making it into a playground and mall, but behind the scenes, Haeberli makes well financially from the property he has and is an honorary member of the local sporting club. Haeberli comes off an object of gossip that will become a folk tale for the wealthy years to come, forgotten entirely in a generation or two.

The View from Here Jan 27, 2024 by Yossi Melman and Dan Raviv (Air Mail)

All ‘first ladies’ have some impact on political culture. Netanyahu’s wife Sara, however, has an outsized role in politics, although the official title of first lady is not given to the prime minister’s wife. She is described like a drug dog, except she is on the lookout for disloyalty. An essay like this does not appear in major media outlets, but it does shed light on the way in which Netanyahu operates more like an autocrat than a man of the state, blurring the boundaries between personal and public.

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall (The New York Review of Books)

There are abstract essays, that talk about wrongs and rights, “what is genocide”, or what the Rome Statue is. There are also essays that talk about particular horrors, such as October 7 or Israel’s bombing campaigns. What is missing in these are a third genre of essays, ones that exposes the “everydayness” of injustice and oppression. In America, it might be an essay on the passing of local housing laws in California or Illinois meant to keep neighborhoods segregated after the Civil Rights Act. Nathan Thrall shows us how a tragic accident, which in America would be just an unfortunate incident not tainted by malice or oppression, is quite the opposite in Israel. A father in Palestine goes on a nightmare journey to find his child, while Thrall contextualizes how this nightmare has been brought about by Israeli oppression.

A Legacy of Torture in Chicago by Peter C. Baker (The New York Review of Books)

The first major political event that spurred my awareness was the shooting of Laquan McDonald. Ever since I have a dislike of Chicago police and politicians, given how systematically horrible the event was handled. Reading this essay only cemented that feeling. There has never been, and may never be if the cops have it their way, a transitional justice process for police violence in Chicago.

Stuck by Ethan Bronner (The New York Review of Books)

This essay ends with a well written sentence on Israel’s predicament, “It calls itself Jewish and democratic, but it can’t hold onto the West Bank and be both.” Bronner examines the growing rift between Israeli and American Jews, especially over the ideas of democracy and liberalism. With the line between a temporary and permanent occupation blurring, Israeli’s do not have anything to offer to fundamentally change the situation, “As many say, we are stuck; better stuck than dead. As a result, the issue lingers and festers.”