(Photo by The Onion) Let’s get one thing straight about the Supremes. In this moment, where hope still springs for the defeat of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court (hope that ought to be shared not only by those to the left of center but by anyone who cares about the rule . . .
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WHO IS THE FOREIGNER? In principle, everyone—according to the scriptures—beginning with Abraham, caught and held by a voice that orders him to take leave of his land, of the home of his father, and head off for an unidentified destination. Abraham must become a foreigner so he will continue to hear the . . .
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This is Part Three of a three-part series. Read Part One here, and Part Two here. Part Three: In Defense of Cultural Appropriation Yes, I know. After spewing forth more than sufficient verbiage for a pair of blog posts, I still haven’t earned fully the title of this series. Nothing necessarily, either in my . . .
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This is Part Two of a three-part series. Read Part One here. Part Two: de gustibus non disputandum est The history of the Massachusetts Review offers, as I’ve just suggested, certain lessons about the contingent and variable nature of taste—and about the difficulties encountered trying to change it. That history can’t, of course, explain why, . . .
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Part One: This I believe These dark days in the land of Weinsteins and white nats demand action, in many forms, on many fronts. Even us old straight white guys, I’m guessing, have a role to play, above and beyond our most obvious and essential obligation—to listen up. As the editor of . . .
Read MoreBy Any Means Necessary (Author’s note: The following is Part Three of a three-part series, which updates a blog post that originally appeared in The Contemporary Condition in May, 2017). Read Part Two here. To the extent that there is anything that could be called Trumpism, it is the carrying out of the right-wing Christian agenda. Evangelical . . .
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Part Two: Trump and the Triumph of Christian Totalism (Author’s note: The following is Part Two of a three-part series, which updates a blog post that originally appeared in The Contemporary Condition in May, 2017). Read Part One here. In the case of Trump and other buffoons in power today there is a disjunction between power’s operation . . .
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(Author’s note: The following is Part One of a three-part series, which updates a blog post that originally appeared in The Contemporary Condition in May, 2017) No one I know of has foreseen an America like the one we live in today. No one (except perhaps the acidic H. L. Mencken, who famously described American democracy as . . .
Read MoreIn my spy fiction class at the University of Massachusetts, we had been reading John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. One of the key figures in that novel is a high-level East German spy named Hans-Dieter Mundt, the ostensible target of a complex MI6 operation to eliminate him. . . .
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(photo from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) They don’t seem to care about truth in anything else, but Republican legislators should consider a forthright and honest name for their “tax reform package.” Senators passed their enormous tax cut for corporations and the wealthy in the wee hours of a Friday night, after House . . .
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