archive

Something new

A new issue of 21C is out. From nonsite.org, a special issue on intention and interpretation. From Esquire, Tom Junod on the lethal presidency of Barack Obama: After authorizing the killing of thousands identified as terrorists or militants, he has positioned himself as something new in American history. Truthinessology: The Stephen Colbert effect becomes an obsession in academia. A look at four ways happiness can hurt you. Against populism: George Kateb on six points on populism and its perils. From The American Interest, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein on five delusions about our broken politics; and David Green on how we have reached linguistic gridlock, in which bipartisan dialogue has been replaced by competing efforts to manipulate voters with loaded vocabularies. From NYRB, Tim Parks on why readers disagree. The increasing dominance of corporate-sponsored idea-disseminators like the Aspen festival and the TED conferences makes you wonder whether ideas upsetting to the moneyed classes will become harder to shoehorn into the national conversation.