newyorker--2020-01-27--“Verdicts,” by Dmitri Prigov

“Verdicts,” by Dmitri Prigov

Since the Middle Ages , animals have been put on trial for violating the supreme , metaphorical , social , and human order ( themselves , incidentally , understood and consciously laid out , if not as a pure reproduction of metaphysical order then as its purest possible reﬂection ) .
They recognized the conscious ( what , you think dogs are stupid ?
they ’ re smarter than some of us ) or half-conscious ( given each and every animal species belonging to an empowered communal soul ) assumption of responsibility for the representation of , at the very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ darkness .
As a reﬂection of the fundamental world-organizing foundations of not only human existence but all of existence , these judicial proceedings were and , at times , served as the only guarantee of a person ’ s belonging not only to his earthly but also his world-building , world-founding energy and activity .
Sometimes these were the only defense against the invasion of the destructive forces of entropy .
The Bear , for negligent performance of duty , shall be sentenced to two years probation with deduction of fifty per cent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employment ; who objects to what ?
No one and to nothing .
The Hare , for petty theft , shall be sentenced to administrative discipline at his place of permanent residence ; who objects to what ?
No one and to nothing .
The Dog , for hooliganism , shall be sentenced to one year of imprisonment , but , since he has been given a good reference from his place of work , this shall be changed to fifteen days and public service , get it !
You don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all right !
The Cat , for the systematic violation of public order and antisocial behavior , shall be sentenced to exile at a distance of a hundred kilometres—and no objections !
What do you have to object to ?
The Wolf , for large-scale embezzlement , shall be sentenced to twenty-five years , or no , to be shot would be better , no , it ’ s still more fair to say twenty-five years with confiscation of property—you think that ’ s harsh ?
No , not really !
It can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Rat , for antisocial behavior and insulting accepted norms and the political system , shall be sentenced to five years of hard labor , followed by a ten-year suspension of civil rights !
Too little ?
But our judicial system is not punitive !
It is humanist and instructional !
We aren ’ t fascists , after all .
The Wild Boar , for a disagreeable appearance , shall be sentenced to death by being eaten—and rightly so !
Though what good will it do !
What , like you do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treason , shall be sentenced to death and the confiscation of property , to teach others to not do it .
The Echidna , for an antihuman appearance and over-all nastiness , shall be sentenced to be shot with subsequent rehabilitation , so that there will be some order , after all , and high justice will triumph .
The Elephant , for its huge size , which is an assault on human honor and dignity , shall be crossed off the list of existing beings , and its ongoing existence shall be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For economic , moral , political , and behavioral crimes , the polecat , fox , squirrel , badger , chipmunk , vole , jay , lark , raven and crow , deer and badger , kangaroo and its joeys , whale and shark , pike , swan and crab , and all their ilk shall be sentenced to various terms of punishment in various places , but with a strictly legal and individual approach to each specific case , such that no indiscriminate levelling and wholesale depersonalization take place .
The Cockroach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; this needs no explanation .
The Lion shall be sentenced to public humiliation and degradation , since it is clear that the king of animals , nature , and everything else is man .
Rivers shall be sentenced to be redirected in all possible directions , as a result of which they shall run shallow and dry up—which is only fair .
The Sun shall be sentenced to exposure and public repentance , with consequent removal from the lists of remembrance and glorification of anything beginning with the words : Long live @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for all the remaining cases are being prepared , and the sentences will be announced as they are decided within a reasonable period of time .
None will be exempt .

Advisory Note Since the Middle Ages, animals have been put on trial for violating the supreme, metaphorical, social, and human order (themselves, incidentally, understood and consciously laid out, if not as a pure reproduction of metaphysical order then as its purest possible reﬂection). They recognized the conscious (what, you think dogs are stupid? they’re smarter than some of us) or half-conscious (given each and every animal species belonging to an empowered communal soul) assumption of responsibility for the representation of, at the very least, the forces of light or darkness. As a reﬂection of the fundamental world-organizing foundations of not only human existence but all of existence, these judicial proceedings were and, at times, served as the only guarantee of a person’s belonging not only to his earthly but also his world-building, world-founding energy and activity. Sometimes these were the only defense against the invasion of the destructive forces of entropy.
* * *
The Bear, for negligent performance of duty, shall be sentenced to two years probation with deduction of fifty per cent of salary at his place of permanent employment; who objects to what? No one and to nothing.
The Hare, for petty theft, shall be sentenced to administrative discipline at his place of permanent residence; who objects to what? No one and to nothing.
The Dog, for hooliganism, shall be sentenced to one year of imprisonment, but, since he has been given a good reference from his place of work, this shall be changed to fifteen days and public service, get it! You don’t get it? You get it, all right!
The Cat, for the systematic violation of public order and antisocial behavior, shall be sentenced to exile at a distance of a hundred kilometres—and no objections! What do you have to object to?
The Wolf, for large-scale embezzlement, shall be sentenced to twenty-five years, or no, to be shot would be better, no, it’s still more fair to say twenty-five years with confiscation of property—you think that’s harsh? No, not really! It can’t be done any other way.
The Rat, for antisocial behavior and insulting accepted norms and the political system, shall be sentenced to five years of hard labor, followed by a ten-year suspension of civil rights! Too little? But our judicial system is not punitive! It is humanist and instructional! We aren’t fascists, after all.
The Wild Boar, for a disagreeable appearance, shall be sentenced to death by being eaten—and rightly so! Though what good will it do! What, like you do things differently!
The Bird, for treason, shall be sentenced to death and the confiscation of property, to teach others to not do it.
The Echidna, for an antihuman appearance and over-all nastiness, shall be sentenced to be shot with subsequent rehabilitation, so that there will be some order, after all, and high justice will triumph.
The Elephant, for its huge size, which is an assault on human honor and dignity, shall be crossed off the list of existing beings, and its ongoing existence shall be considered an anomaly and a phantom.
For economic, moral, political, and behavioral crimes, the polecat, fox, squirrel, badger, chipmunk, vole, jay, lark, raven and crow, deer and badger, kangaroo and its joeys, whale and shark, pike, swan and crab, and all their ilk shall be sentenced to various terms of punishment in various places, but with a strictly legal and individual approach to each specific case, such that no indiscriminate levelling and wholesale depersonalization take place.
The Cockroach shall simply be sentenced to be shot; this needs no explanation.
The Lion shall be sentenced to public humiliation and degradation, since it is clear that the king of animals, nature, and everything else is man.
Rivers shall be sentenced to be redirected in all possible directions, as a result of which they shall run shallow and dry up—which is only fair.
The Sun shall be sentenced to exposure and public repentance, with consequent removal from the lists of remembrance and glorification of anything beginning with the words: Long live! So it must be.
Decisions for all the remaining cases are being prepared, and the sentences will be announced as they are decided within a reasonable period of time. None will be exempt.
—Dmitri Prigov (1940-2007)
(Translated, from the Russian, by Simon Schuchat with Ainsley Morse.)


James Corden’s Do-Over

Say you host a late-night talk show and you have Paul McCartney as a guest .
He ’ s game for anything .
When Jimmy Fallon had this opportunity , in the fall of 2018 , the “ Tonight Show ” came up with a benign prank .
Tour groups at 30 Rockefeller Plaza were herded into an elevator .
When the elevator doors opened , they saw a tableau of Fallon and McCartney playing Ping-Pong , or sitting in armchairs , smoking pipes .
Each time , a camera would catch the elevator full of tourists gasping and screaming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before they could process what they ’ d seen , the doors would close .
The routine , which has been watched more than four million times on YouTube , is amusing , in the vein of “ Candid Camera.
” McCartney is used as a sight gag , an animal in a celebrity zoo , with the ordinary folks—themselves on display—gawking from outside the cage .
When James Corden booked McCartney , in June of the same year , he came up with something much more elaborate .
CBS ’ s “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Corden will have hosted for five years this March , was on location in England , where Corden is from , and devised a special edition of “ Carpool Karaoke , ” the show ’ s signature feature .
In a typical sequence , Corden drives a Range Rover through the streets of Los Angeles with a famous musician in the passenger seat , and a dashboard camera captures the two of them singing along to the guest ’ s hits .
“ Carpool Karaoke ” videos are exuberant and almost guaranteed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ democratizing effect to seeing celebrities experience their music the way the average commuter does—belting along to the AM radio , the real world gliding by .
Corden acts as a kind of Everyfan , asking his guests softball questions and cajoling them into making wacky pit stops .
When Cardi B did “ Carpool Karaoke , ” she and Corden drove to a senior center , and she rapped for a geriatric dance class .
The McCartney edition was filmed in Liverpool .
It begins with Corden and McCartney singing along to “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the horn in time with each “ Beep beep , beep beep , yeah !
” On Penny Lane , they break into “ Penny Lane.
” McCartney points out personal landmarks through the window : “ I used to be in the choir at that church.
” They stop at the barbershop that inspired the first verse of “ Penny Lane , ” where all the people that come and go stop and say hello .
Crowds gather .
“ Last time I was around here , certainly nobody was noticing me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the street .
Back in the car , he tells Corden a story : during a stressful period in the late sixties , his mother , who had died years before , appeared to him in a dream and comforted him by saying , “ Let it be.
” He and Corden harmonize on the anthem that resulted .
Corden , choked up , recalls the first time that he heard the song , when his father and grandfather , both musicians , played it for him .
“ If my granddad was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get an absolute kick out of this , ” Corden says .
McCartney , eyes fixed on the road , replies , “ He is.
” They pull up to 20 Forthlin Road , the house McCartney lived in during his teens , now a National Trust site .
He shows Corden the room where he and John Lennon finished writing “ She Loves You.
” He plays “ When I ’ m Sixty-Four ” on an old upright piano .
More crowds have gathered outside , and McCartney jauntily shakes hands on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They drive to a pub on Hope Street where McCartney played when he was young .
Corden goes in alone and stands behind the bar ; he encourages a woman to choose a song on the jukebox .
Suddenly , a curtain opens , and there ’ s McCartney and a four-piece band , playing “ A Hard Day ’ s Night.
” The people in the pub , young and old alike , freak out at the sight of the home-town hero .
McCartney performs “ Ob-La-Di , Ob-La-Da ” and “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ joins him for a duet of “ Hey Jude.
” The surprise set is euphoric and inclusive : part block party , part time machine .
Even McCartney seems transported .
The video , which is twenty-three minutes long , has been watched on YouTube nearly fifty million times .
Corden , who is forty-one , sees his show as a delivery system for happiness .
Unlike his more nihilistic contemporaries in British comedy—Ricky Gervais , Steve Coogan , Armando Iannucci—he believes that entertainers have a responsibility to combat cynicism and spread joy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ airs at twelve-thirty-five in the morning , and , although it slightly trails NBC ’ s “ Late Night with Seth Meyers ” in live ratings , it produces a steady supply of viral videos .
“ Carpool Karaoke ” has attracted such stars as Lady Gaga , Adele , Elton John , Barbra Streisand , and Michelle Obama , who , as First Lady , took a spin around the White House grounds while singing “ Signed , Sealed , Delivered.
” The show does not view its target audience as insomniacs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy that we came in with was : this show launches at twelve-thirty , ” Ben Winston , an executive producer , told me .
“ Our competition isn ’ t whatever else is on at twelve-thirty-seven .
It ’ s what ’ s on the next morning at breakfast .
It ’ s what ’ s on your computer at work.
” Within fourteen months of the show ’ s première , its YouTube channel had exceeded a billion views .
Corden was an unlikely choice for the job ( aside from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ late-night hosts still are ) .
He made his name in British television as a co-creator and star of the BBC sitcom “ Gavin & Stacey , ” but was practically unknown in America when he took over the time slot from Craig Ferguson , in 2015 ; David Letterman called him “ that chubby guy.
” His American breakthrough occurred in the 2012 Broadway production of “ One Man , Two Guvnors , ” an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni ’ s commedia-dell ’ arte classic “ The Servant of Two Masters ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Whereas most late-night hosts are offspring of “ Saturday Night Live ” ( Fallon , Meyers , Conan O ’ Brien ) or “ The Daily Show ” ( Stephen Colbert , Samantha Bee , John Oliver , Hasan Minhaj ) , Corden is more aligned with the English music hall , and his comedic influences include such British duos as Morecambe and Wise and the Two Ronnies .
Before delivering the opening monologues on “ The Late Late Show , ” he had never performed standup comedy .
But , in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ himself in the American pop-culture landscape , both on late-night television and as a movie actor , casting himself as a happy-go-lucky showman who can liven up any party .
( Not incidentally , his bouncy enthusiasm is a trait that Brits tend to think of as American . )
The pop singer Harry Styles , who has vacationed with Corden in Jamaica and Mexico , told me , “ He ’ s one of those guys who just wants everyone to have a good time.
” Winston , who met Corden twenty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the British series “ Teachers , ” recalled a cast-and-crew evening out in Bristol , at “ the most depressing pub you could ever imagine.
” It was karaoke night , and , without warning , Corden got up and sang Robbie Williams ’ s “ Let Me Entertain You.
” “ The entire pub—people who knew him , people who didn ’ t know him , random locals , every single person—was up on their tables dancing , singing , joining in.
” People who dislike Corden find his eagerness to entertain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like smarm .
He has a “ please like me ” air that can grate , especially when it is accompanied by song and dance—and even more so when he is swathed in digital fur , as in the recent film version of “ Cats.
” “ I don ’ t think I think that much about being liked , ” he told me in November , when I visited the Los Angeles set of “ The Late Late Show , ” though , he acknowledged , “ sometimes I can look like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in his office , beneath a framed letter from Michelle Obama ( “ Thanks for the best car ride I ’ ve had in years ” ) , wearing a Gucci tiger sweater and a thin beard , to minimize his jowls .
A votive candle burned on his desk , incongruous in the California sunlight .
“ I ’ m a big candle man , ” he explained .
( Also , Nest Fragrances supplies candles for the show ’ s guests , and they arrive by the boxload . )

“I’ve never been so sure that an idea would work,” he said. “But what I didn’t know is that we wouldn’t be able to get anybody to do it.” Everyone the bookers approached declined, until a chance encounter with a publicist from Mariah Carey’s label led to their first big get. More followed: Jennifer Hudson, Justin Bieber. After Stevie Wonder appeared in a segment, one of his greatest-hits albums jumped to the top of the U.K. iTunes charts, turning “Carpool Karaoke” into a promotional bonanza. Publicists started pitching their clients, and musicians whom the show had been chasing, such as Chris Martin, suddenly came around.
Since the 2016 election, late-night hosts have had to reëxamine the role of comedy in a dystopian news cycle that seems funnier than it is. Stephen Colbert, whose show precedes Corden’s—and who, upon starting that job, in 2015, had shed his patented conservative-blowhard character from “The Colbert Report”—found his footing only after Donald Trump won, and he now leads in the ratings. Rather than lean into political satire, Corden has stuck to his strengths: musical numbers, silly games, and high-concept stunts. Whereas “The Daily Show” and its descendants have repositioned comedians as public intellectuals, Corden goes for the antic mood of a variety show. The contrast with Colbert is deliberate. “Nowhere else in television would you be, like, ‘From eight till nine we’re going to have a hospital drama, and then from nine till ten we’re going to have another hospital drama with the same diseases,” he told me. But frivolity in the age of Trump also has its pitfalls. During the 2016 campaign, Fallon was denounced for playfully mussing Trump’s hair when he came on the “Tonight Show” as a guest. Corden encountered a bit of similar backlash after the 2017 Emmy Awards, where he was photographed backstage kissing Sean Spicer on the cheek. He quickly defused the situation in his monologue the next night, joking, “Now, I know you think that’s a picture of me kissing Sean Spicer, but, in the spirit of Sean Spicer: no, it isn’t.”
When Corden addresses politics, it’s often filtered through vaudeville. The day that Trump announced his ban on transgender people in the military, Corden sang a parody of the Nat King Cole standard “L-O-V-E,” retooled as “L-G-B-T.” In less than six hours, the number was written, rehearsed, and staged, with a quartet of top-hatted dancers. Like Jimmy Kimmel, who, in 2017, as lawmakers were debating the repeal of Obamacare, opened his show with an emotional speech about his infant son’s heart problems, Corden is selective in his earnestness. Last September, after Bill Maher ended an episode of his HBO show with an appeal to bring back fat-shaming (“We have gone to this weird place where fat is good”), Corden delivered a pointed eight-minute rebuttal. “I’ve struggled my entire life trying to manage my weight, and I suck at it,” he told the camera, adding, “We’re not all as lucky as Bill Maher, you know? We don’t all have a sense of superiority that burns thirty-five thousand calories a day.”
Corden said that he and his writers had spent three days working on the speech, but held it an extra day, unsatisfied with the tone. “I was, like, We can only do this if it’s funny,” he said. “It can’t be a rant.” They added jokes, including one about fat people being tempted by pies on a windowsill. Maher, normally eager to have the last word, did not respond. “I just think it’s out of touch with actual people,” Corden said, of Maher’s derisive attitude. “You cannot forget what most people’s lives are like. You cannot forget how fucking hard it is. And maybe the only slice of joy in your life is that cheeseburger. And it’s cheap. There are no chubby kids at my son’s school, because it’s a private school on the West Side of L.A.”
Corden was speaking over dinner, his only meal that day. Although he wouldn’t mind losing twenty pounds, he rarely makes an issue of his weight. (Recently, his writers came up with a list of insults of their boss for a roast segment. Corden’s favorite was “You look like someone tried to carve Matt Damon out of butter.”) One of his first jobs, in England, was on the soap opera “Hollyoaks,” playing a college janitor. For a scene set in the character’s bedroom, he was appalled to see that the set designer had decorated the walls with posters of junk food. He refused to film the scene until they were taken down. “I thought that they were just really being nasty about anyone that’s overweight,” he told me. “I remember saying to the guy, ‘I don’t know one person who would take a picture of a hot dog and a burger and stick them on the wall.’ ” I wondered about his character in “Cats,” the gluttonous feline Bustopher Jones, who gorges on garbage—wasn’t he a walking fat joke? “Oh, but he’s revelling in it,” Corden said. “He’s going, ‘I’m the greatest! I’m big and I’m fat and I live the best life! I eat everything! It’s incredible.’ ”
The formula for American late-night shows has stayed remarkably consistent for six decades. In 1954, Steve Allen began hosting a ninety-minute show on NBC called “Tonight Starring Steve Allen,” which became the “Tonight Show.” Although his tenure was short, it brought about such lasting innovations as the desk, the couch, and the monologue. Jack Paar, who took over in 1957, was a member of the Algonquin Round Table and imported his skill for celebrity banter. Johnny Carson took the reins in 1962 and didn’t let go for thirty years. He didn’t reinvent the “Tonight Show” so much as build it into a cornerstone of American culture, a monolith even in fractious times. In the late seventies, he pulled in more than seventeen million viewers a night.
Carson’s Pax Romana gave way, in the early nineties, to a Cold War of Leno versus Letterman. They retained the desk, the couch, the monologue, and the celebrity chitchat, but they had sharply contrasting styles: Leno was county-fair broad and inoffensive, while Letterman was bone-dry and ironic. Leno’s not-quite-departure, in 2009, kicked off another succession drama. Conan O’Brien got the “Tonight Show,” but Leno stuck around, Pope Benedict-style, in the ten-o’clock slot. The resulting skirmish ended with O’Brien’s premature exit (he’s now on TBS) and Leno’s return to the “Tonight Show,” until he finally ceded it to Fallon, in 2014. At CBS, Letterman’s handoff to Colbert was relatively frictionless, but by then late-night television was fragmenting into cable and online platforms, all competing for smaller slices of the pie. “The ratings have gone totally to shit,” one late-night producer told me. “You’re fighting over such tiny pieces of the audience that it’s pretty irrelevant.”
Corden has tweaked the formula ever so slightly. Instead of interviewing guests one by one, bumping them down the couch as the show unfolds, he brings them out together, for more of a dinner-party feeling, a format he borrowed from British chat-show hosts such as Graham Norton. The set, dotted with lampshades, resembles a homey cabaret. A few rows of audience seats are placed in front of the cameras, for extra intimacy; Corden told me that he wanted the atmosphere of a “cozy playground.”
One Thursday in November, Corden arrived at the studio at 11 A.M., for Episode No. 702. The news had already thrown him a curveball: two teen-agers had been killed that morning in a school shooting in Santa Clarita. That evening’s show was supposed to include a game called Flinch, in which celebrities are positioned behind a pane of glass and try to stand still as a cannon fires fruits and vegetables at them. Corden and his executive producers, Winston and Rob Crabbe, had decided to cancel it. “Not that it involves a gun in any way, but still it felt insensitive,” Corden told me in his office. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do.” They quickly subbed in a game called Emoji News, in which audience members have to guess topical headlines spelled out in emojis.
At noon, two segment producers came in to prep Corden on that evening’s guests: the weathered heartthrob Don Johnson and the millennial Indian-Canadian YouTube star Lilly Singh, who also hosts a 1:35 a.m. show on NBC. The producers, who had conducted preliminary interviews, ran through a series of questions and the tidy anecdotes they would elicit. “Don, big month coming up,” Corden read from a packet. “You turn seventy. You look sensational. What’s the secret?”
“Cocaine!” a producer joked. The other producer said, “Um, he no longer eats carbs, sugars, or bread.”
Winston interrupted the meeting to announce that Rob Gronkowski, the former tight end for the New England Patriots, known as Gronk, would be in the audience. “Feel free to call him out or surprise him on air,” he said.
“Emoji News!” someone said. “He can be one of the contestants.”
Next, a gaggle of monologue writers filed in. The “mono,” as the British staffers called it, had already been whittled down from about a hundred jokes to seventeen, covering political headlines (Nancy Pelosi calling the impeachment hearings “prayerful”) and news of the weird (a man finding a half-smoked joint in his Popeyes chicken sandwich). Corden read through the script silently, jotting down notes, as the writers flipped the pages along with him. The Pelosi bit called for a mockup of her doing a keg stand, in contrast to her professed prayerfulness. The joke had been held over from the previous day, when Corden had asked his staff, “What’s a keg stand?” Other American concepts that have needed explaining include the electoral college and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
At three o’clock, Corden walked down a hallway to the set, for rehearsal. Onstage, he stood on his mark—a sticker for West Ham United, his Premier League football club—and ran through the monologue. Afterward, the writers huddled around his desk. Corden tapped his pen, frowning. “I didn’t enjoy a lot of this,” he said, more uncomfortable than annoyed. “That’s my overwhelming feeling.” Winston suggested that a joke about Pelosi’s accusing the President of bribery (“He offered her ten thousand dollars to take it back”) needed a better setup.
“Sign here, initial here, rassle Zeke for the keys, and you’re all set.” Cartoon by David Borchart Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop
“And then I thought this photo of the keg stand is not good,” Corden continued. Winston agreed—besides, they had made a similar joke about Pelosi on a previous episode. The bit was scrapped.
“Now, what about the chicken sandwich?” Winston asked.
“I hated that one,” Corden said.
“So why don’t we lose that chicken story?” Winston said. They kept another drugs-in-strange-places anecdote, about a group of wild boars that had got into a stash of cocaine in Italy. (The graphics team had whipped up an image of a boar in a “Miami Vice” suit.) The writers, undaunted, returned to their stations. “I’m going to have a drink tonight,” Corden said. “Get real fucking loose!”
“God help us,” Winston muttered.
Back in his office, Corden and his staff planned upcoming sketches, including a “Masked Singer” parody with Josh Gad and Adam Lambert. At four-twenty, he changed into his suit and sat in a dressing room, where a stylist applied hair spray. The writers gathered around in a horseshoe, and Corden read the revised monologue. Seeming pleased, he asked the stylist to spritz all the writers with Japanese seawater. Before he got up, Crabbe handed him a sheet of paper and said, “There’s something we’d like to do in Act 6 from the desk.” It was a heartfelt statement about the Santa Clarita shooting, including a dig at “politicians without the moral courage to address gun laws.” Crabbe and Winston had distilled it from discussions they’d had with Corden throughout the day. Corden nodded and handed it back.
In the greenroom, outfitted with a Foosball table and a wall of prizes (including a gold YouTube Creator Award, for exceeding a million subscribers), Corden greeted Johnson, Singh, and the musical guest, the band Sleater-Kinney. Reggie Watts, his bandleader, had not yet arrived; he usually strolls in within ten minutes of showtime. While a warmup guy revved the crowd, Corden stood backstage and reviewed the monologue one last time, and the stylist brushed his lapel. Gronk appeared—all six and a half feet of him—and gave Corden an excited bro handshake. Then, at five o’clock, Corden walked onstage.


newyorker--2020-01-27--“Emergency Management,” by Camille Rankine

The sun eats away at the earth , or the earth eats away at itself and burning up , I @ @ @ @ @ well practiced at this living .
I have a way of seeing things as they @ @ @ @ @ history that ’ s done this to me .
It ’ s the year I @ @ @ @ @ will turn rotten , my money talks but not enough , I feel my body @ @ @ @ @ days I want to spit me out , the whole mess of me , but @ @ @ @ @ quiet .
How much silence buys me mercy , how much silence covers all the @ @ @ @ @ me .
In the event of every day and its newness of disaster , find @ @ @ @ @ , please don ’ t ask anything of me .
If I could be anything @ @ @ @ @ , if I could be nothing I would be .

Audio: Read by the author.
The sun eats away at the earth, or the earth eats away
at itself and burning up,
I sip at punch.
So well practiced at this
living. I have a way of seeing
things as they are: it’s history
that’s done this to me.
It’s the year I’m told
my body will turn rotten,
my money talks but not enough,
I feel my body turn
against me.
Some days I want to spit
me out, the whole mess of me,
but mostly I am good
and quiet.
How much silence buys me
mercy, how much
silence covers all the lives it takes to make me.
In the event of every day and its newness
of disaster, find me sunning on the rooftop, please
don’t ask anything of me.
If I could be anything
I would be the wind,
if I could be nothing
I would be.


The Mail

I read with interest Giles Harvey ’ s piece about the Spanish novelist Javier Cercas ’ s long struggle with the “ historical memory ” of Francisco Franco ’ s reign ( A Critic at Large , January 13th ) .
“ D.I.Y .
history , ” as Harvey calls it , is alive and well in Spain , in spite of historians ’ warnings against its anti-intellectualism and , worse , its use in the service of political goals .
Cercas himself , fed up with the predictable vitriol over the Civil War , has joined the detractors even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s turbulent past .
Cercas ’ s case is compelling in the age of fake history and fake news : he is something of an Everyman , whose narrator insists on getting the story right , plowing through archives and tracking down eyewitnesses .
Cercas ’ s history-fictions are models for members of any civil society who want to find out what truly happened .
Such inquiry may well become a weapon of vengeance , but it is central to the creation of a democratic society .
Harvey ’ s review of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and brilliantly written , offers Cercas ’ s flawed interpretation of a classical analogy without correcting the record .
Cercas ’ s narrator asserts that , despite efforts to the contrary , he has become “ ordinary Odysseus , not glorious Achilles.
” In his mind , Achilles died nobly for his cause , while Odysseus lived a “ long and mediocre and happy life.
” This is a misreading of Odysseus .
First , the hero is doomed to roam the world for ten years , fighting for his life as his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his return to Ithaca , he must kill a hundred and eight suitors who have overrun his home and plotted to kill his son .
Borrowing Emily Wilson ’ s new adjective for Odysseus , his life is rather more “ complicated ” than “ mediocre ” or “ happy.
” This is important , because the comparison as written understates the nuance and the audacity of Cercas ’ s own literary odyssey .
It would be cruel to suggest that his works evince only safe , slow prudence .
Perhaps a better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ view of Odysseus : “ strong in will / To strive , to seek , to find , and not to yield.
” Joshua Rothman examines many perspectives on what it means to create an equal society ( “ Same Difference , ” January 13th ) .
I wonder whether , for those seeking progress , equality of opportunity should be the focal point .
The concept implicitly acknowledges that although we are not all created equal , we should all have the chance to attain satisfaction in life .
Rothman considers whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ receive a larger share of an inheritance than her siblings .
I lost my vision at the age of thirteen .
The special instruction I received in the years that followed enabled me to attend college and law school .
I may not be equal in a physical sense , but Connecticut ’ s public-education system enabled me to pursue my career .
Of course , one person ’ s opportunity could be another ’ s closed door , for any number of reasons .
Still , equality of opportunity is a good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ equality , desert , reciprocity , and need ” all have a function in society .
As an experienced choral director , I uphold high performance standards while creating a welcome environment for less talented singers .
Not everyone deserves a solo , and following a code of conduct is mandatory .
But everyone may audition , and all are given the benefit of the doubt , because we all need to sing .
Letters should be sent with the writer ’ s name , address , and daytime phone number via @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may be edited for length and clarity , and may be published in any medium .
We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we can not reply to every letter .

Odysseus in Spain
I read with interest Giles Harvey’s piece about the Spanish novelist Javier Cercas’s long struggle with the “historical memory” of Francisco Franco’s reign (A Critic at Large, January 13th). “D.I.Y. history,” as Harvey calls it, is alive and well in Spain, in spite of historians’ warnings against its anti-intellectualism and, worse, its use in the service of political goals. Cercas himself, fed up with the predictable vitriol over the Civil War, has joined the detractors even as he continues to write about Spain’s turbulent past. Cercas’s case is compelling in the age of fake history and fake news: he is something of an Everyman, whose narrator insists on getting the story right, plowing through archives and tracking down eyewitnesses. Cercas’s history-fictions are models for members of any civil society who want to find out what truly happened. Such inquiry may well become a weapon of vengeance, but it is central to the creation of a democratic society.
Michael Ugarte
Columbia, Mo.
Harvey’s review of Cercas’s work, though perceptive and brilliantly written, offers Cercas’s flawed interpretation of a classical analogy without correcting the record. Cercas’s narrator asserts that, despite efforts to the contrary, he has become “ordinary Odysseus, not glorious Achilles.” In his mind, Achilles died nobly for his cause, while Odysseus lived a “long and mediocre and happy life.” This is a misreading of Odysseus. First, the hero is doomed to roam the world for ten years, fighting for his life as his crew members die horrible deaths. Upon his return to Ithaca, he must kill a hundred and eight suitors who have overrun his home and plotted to kill his son. Borrowing Emily Wilson’s new adjective for Odysseus, his life is rather more “complicated” than “mediocre” or “happy.” This is important, because the comparison as written understates the nuance and the audacity of Cercas’s own literary odyssey. It would be cruel to suggest that his works evince only safe, slow prudence. Perhaps a better analogue for them is Tennyson’s view of Odysseus: “strong in will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
Dennis Donnelly
Englewood, N.J.
The Equality Debate
Joshua Rothman examines many perspectives on what it means to create an equal society (“Same Difference,” January 13th). I wonder whether, for those seeking progress, equality of opportunity should be the focal point. The concept implicitly acknowledges that although we are not all created equal, we should all have the chance to attain satisfaction in life. Rothman considers whether a child who is going blind should receive a larger share of an inheritance than her siblings. I lost my vision at the age of thirteen. The special instruction I received in the years that followed enabled me to attend college and law school. I may not be equal in a physical sense, but Connecticut’s public-education system enabled me to pursue my career. Of course, one person’s opportunity could be another’s closed door, for any number of reasons. Still, equality of opportunity is a good place to start.
Adrian Spratt
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Rothman suggests that “equality, desert, reciprocity, and need” all have a function in society. As an experienced choral director, I uphold high performance standards while creating a welcome environment for less talented singers. Not everyone deserves a solo, and following a code of conduct is mandatory. But everyone may audition, and all are given the benefit of the doubt, because we all need to sing.
Nancy Gifford
Doylestown, Pa.
•
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail@newyorker.com. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.


newyorker--2020-01-27--Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Briefly Noted Book Reviews

Hymns of the Republic , by S. C. Gwynne ( Scribner ) .
In August , 1864 , General Ulysses S. Grant , reflecting on threats to the Union cause , wrote that the Confederacy ’ s “ only hope now is a divided North.
” He was right to be worried .
As this taut , propulsive history of the war ’ s final year demonstrates , the infighting that was roiling Northern politics nearly changed the course of history .
President Lincoln , seeking reëlection , faced exhausted voters , strident opposition , assaults from within his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even calls for unconditional peace .
His allies considered electoral victory “ an impossibility , ” but knew that any other result would imperil the war effort—a reminder that a deeply divided America is one decidedly up for grabs .
Virginia Woolf , by Gillian Gill ( Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ) .
In this vibrant biography , Woolf emerges not only as a formidable writer and feminist but as a reluctant player in a long-running family soap opera , replete with dysfunctional Victorian patriarchs , martyred mothers , insanity , and a great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writer ’ s psychological development via her connections with others , making use of her voluminous correspondence .
The wild doings of the Bloomsbury group are told with gossipy verve , but more revealing are accounts of the “ fiercely loving and protective ” bonds Woolf shared with the women in her family .
Pointing to a generations-old “ pattern of female relations ” that encouraged creativity and empowerment , Gill shows how Woolf wrote her foremothers ’ legacy into her work , bequeathing it “ to the children and grandchildren of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Lara Vapnyar ( Tin House ) .
Katya , the narrator of this elegiac yet funny novel , traces the defining moments of her life—from Soviet Russia to Staten Island , and from unhappy marriage to unhappy engagement and unhappy affair .
The novel is framed by the death of her strict mother , a mathematician whose scribbled notecards , for a math-inspired self-help book she was writing , serve as enigmatic signposts .
As Katya strives to find herself as a writer and an independent woman , the complex logic of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cloud everything , even love : “ One way to describe love according to the gospel of math is as a condition that causes a dimensional shift.
” Stories of the Sahara , by Sanmao , translated from the Chinese by Mike Fu ( Bloomsbury ) .
Available in English for the first time , these semiautobiographical stories by a cherished Taiwanese writer depict the life of El Aaiún , a small town in Spanish-controlled Western Sahara , where she moved in 1973 , after being captivated by a feature in National Geographic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ friends with local Sahrawis and Spanish bureaucrats , absorbing and questioning everything around her .
The stories weave the quotidian and the historical into a single narrative : the wedding of a child bride ; legends of evil spirits , heard while camping at night ; rising hostility to both Spanish rule and the looming influence of Morocco .

Hymns of the Republic, by S. C. Gwynne (Scribner). In August, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant, reflecting on threats to the Union cause, wrote that the Confederacy’s “only hope now is a divided North.” He was right to be worried. As this taut, propulsive history of the war’s final year demonstrates, the infighting that was roiling Northern politics nearly changed the course of history. President Lincoln, seeking reëlection, faced exhausted voters, strident opposition, assaults from within his own party over the Emancipation Proclamation, and even calls for unconditional peace. His allies considered electoral victory “an impossibility,” but knew that any other result would imperil the war effort—a reminder that a deeply divided America is one decidedly up for grabs.
Virginia Woolf, by Gillian Gill (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). In this vibrant biography, Woolf emerges not only as a formidable writer and feminist but as a reluctant player in a long-running family soap opera, replete with dysfunctional Victorian patriarchs, martyred mothers, insanity, and a great many extramarital affairs. Gill traces the writer’s psychological development via her connections with others, making use of her voluminous correspondence. The wild doings of the Bloomsbury group are told with gossipy verve, but more revealing are accounts of the “fiercely loving and protective” bonds Woolf shared with the women in her family. Pointing to a generations-old “pattern of female relations” that encouraged creativity and empowerment, Gill shows how Woolf wrote her foremothers’ legacy into her work, bequeathing it “to the children and grandchildren of her mind.”
Divide Me by Zero, by Lara Vapnyar (Tin House). Katya, the narrator of this elegiac yet funny novel, traces the defining moments of her life—from Soviet Russia to Staten Island, and from unhappy marriage to unhappy engagement and unhappy affair. The novel is framed by the death of her strict mother, a mathematician whose scribbled notecards, for a math-inspired self-help book she was writing, serve as enigmatic signposts. As Katya strives to find herself as a writer and an independent woman, the complex logic of her mother’s maxims seems to cloud everything, even love: “One way to describe love according to the gospel of math is as a condition that causes a dimensional shift.”
Stories of the Sahara, by Sanmao, translated from the Chinese by Mike Fu (Bloomsbury). Available in English for the first time, these semiautobiographical stories by a cherished Taiwanese writer depict the life of El Aaiún, a small town in Spanish-controlled Western Sahara, where she moved in 1973, after being captivated by a feature in National Geographic. Headstrong but compassionate, Sanmao made friends with local Sahrawis and Spanish bureaucrats, absorbing and questioning everything around her. The stories weave the quotidian and the historical into a single narrative: the wedding of a child bride; legends of evil spirits, heard while camping at night; rising hostility to both Spanish rule and the looming influence of Morocco.


newyorker--2020-01-27--The Woman Shaking Up the Diamond Industry

I had .
In September , when I visited Mansori in his office , I was joined by Armstrong and Geoffrey Madderson , of TOMRA , the maker of the XRT scanners .
After half an hour of conversation , Mansori retrieved the Sewelô from a safe and dramatically placed it on a mahogany table in front of us .
I was not expecting to be moved by a rock .
The diamond was so large that I could not wrap my fingers around it .
In most photographs , the color of its rind appears black , but in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stone was cold—at least , until all of us had handled it , after which it felt as warm as a pebble in sunlight .
It sometimes sparkled .
Its planes were smooth , like marble .
I now understood why Ketshidile Tlhomelang had spoken to me about its sensual pleasures .
The diamond also prompted unusual thoughts .
Because of its dark rind , the stone seemed to carry its prehistoric past with it , in a way that clearer diamonds do not .
It was a reminder that the Sewelô was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contained oxygen , when the only life-forms were single-celled organisms .
In one sense , I realized , diamonds are baubles—somewhat vulgar totems of wealth .
In another sense , they are vessels of deep time unlike anything else that can be found near the surface of the earth .
Mansori is a businessman , but he shared some of this sense of wonder .
He told me that he was loath to do anything to the Sewelô except look at it .
Rough was its pristine state .
He wondered whether it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sit in a museum vitrine , unpolished .
Of course , that would be untenable : Lucara has shareholders .
Investors like to realize the value of their assets .
Some weeks later , I discovered that , at the very moment I was holding the stone , Mansori and Thomas were engineering a bold plan for the Sewelô .
Earlier this month , Lucara and an entity co-founded by Mansori , HB Company , signed a deal with the luxury-goods giant Louis Vuitton .
The Sewelô is now owned jointly : Lucara @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twenty-five per cent each .
None of the parties would confirm exactly what value had been placed on the Sewelô , but one knowledgeable person told me that the price was in the “ low millions ” of dollars , in part because of the uncertainties about the diamond ’ s interior .
Louis Vuitton will sell the polished gems manufactured from the stone , but , before the Sewelô is cut , it will tour the world , in order to educate people about the geological history of diamonds .
Thomas also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vuitton ’ s net revenue from the Sewelô be channelled into corporate social-responsibility projects that Lucara runs in Botswana , specifically the funding of a large and well-appointed school that the company is building near Karowe .
The deal is unprecedented .
Louis Vuitton ’ s parent company recently bought Tiffany , but the fashion house has never itself been a serious diamond retailer .
Becoming a partner in the Sewelô is designed , in part , to insure that its entrance into the diamond sphere will be noticed .
( Louis Vuitton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the Sewelô on January 21st , during Paris Fashion Week . )
Lucara and HB , for their part , hope to plunder Louis Vuitton ’ s exclusive list of rich clients .
This is the first time that all three parts of the diamond supply chain—miner , manufacturer , and retailer—have agreed to work on a stone together .
No other luxury-goods firms were approached ; Thomas made the connection with Louis Vuitton ’ s chief executive , Michael Burke , over lunch in Florida .
There was so much secrecy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leadership team did not even use the name Louis Vuitton during their internal discussions .
Their potential partner was known , instead , as Crocodile .
There was jeopardy in the arrangement , for all parties .
Mansori had analyzed the rough diamond using a number of scanners , including an adapted medical machine that normally measures bone density .
By December , he still had only a general idea of what lay beneath the Sewelô ’ s black rind .
Mansori believed that there might be as many as two hundred and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ within the Sewelô , but he couldn ’ t be sure until he polished windows and inspected the interior .
“ There will be surprises , ” Mansori told me .
His partner in HB , an Israeli named Shai de-Toledo , said , “ This is the most speculative stone in history.
” With this deal , Lucara was once again provoking the traditional diamond business—it was bypassing Antwerp ’ s brokers .
Eira Thomas made no apologies .
“ There is just no way we ’ re going to continue to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she told me .
“ My view is that the whole industry is going to go this direction.
” Disruption seems to be the point of the Sewelô deal .
Mansori told me recently that he welcomed any brickbats .
The deal , he said , “ will irritate each and every player in this industry—it takes the playing field and turns it upside down.
” Whatever is within the stone , Lucara and HB believe that they have reëngineered the market , at least for big diamonds .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , created the best possible polished gems from them , and then attempted to find customers for those jewels .
With this new arrangement , that equation was reversed .
Wealthy customers will now be able to commission Louis Vuitton to carve a diamond , perhaps of their own design , from the Sewelô .
Mansori ’ s mind raced with possibilities .
Maybe they would make three identical jewels for a billionaire ’ s triplet daughters ?
Or , perhaps , a horse ’ s-head diamond for the billionaire owner of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the client did not demand perfect color and clarity , HB could fashion the world ’ s largest polished diamond out of the Sewelô—a jewel of a thousand carats .
In September in Antwerp , Mansori sat in his office and watched as his three guests beheld the Sewelô .
From the moment the stone came out of the safe , it spent barely thirty seconds out of someone ’ s grip .
We left thumbprints on the diamond ’ s planes .
Mansori , laughing , said , “ You see ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ John Armstrong , the Lucara geologist , became somewhat giddy when he held the diamond .
“ It has heft , ” he said .
“ Life.
” Finally , Mansori took the Sewelô in his bony hands , and rotated it this way and that .
Since receiving the diamond , in the early summer of 2019 , he had spent a considerable part of every working day staring at it .
Despite his familiarity with the stone , he still seemed fascinated by its complexity .
He pointed to where the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abutted more translucent material .
“ You feel nature is playing hide-and-seek with you , ” Mansori said .
He then turned away , for a more private inspection .
“ There ’ s great importance here , ” he said , to nobody in particular .
“ Not value .
But storytelling .
Is there a regular white stone inside ?
I don ’ t know .
I don ’ t think so .
There might be significant white pieces inside .
Significant .
But value is secondary .
You need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ became a little lost .
He pulled out his iPhone , shone its flashlight into the diamond , and said , “ There are moments when you can see right through.
” ♦

Lucara put a reserve price of seventy million dollars on the Lesedi La Rona. If the price-per-carat range of the Constellation was reached, the stone would sell for eighty-six million dollars. Privately, some at Lucara thought that the record-breaking nature of the diamond might allow it to fetch a hundred million, or more. Sotheby’s evidently shared this view. The structure of the auctioneer’s arrangement with Lucara meant that it would make very little commission on the diamond until the price reached a hundred million dollars; once that threshold was crossed, Sotheby’s would receive a substantial payment.
Eira Thomas and her father travelled to London for the Sotheby’s auction, as did Lukas Lundin and William Lamb. Representatives from Graff and its principal manufacturer, Johnny Kneller, sat two rows behind the Lucara party. In the end, the highest bidder offered sixty-one million dollars—well below the reserve price. Graff did not bid. The stone went unsold. After the auction, Lamb recalls, Kneller and others from Graff descended on him “like sharks on a piece of meat,” saying, “We need to talk.”
“I have nothing to say to you,” Lamb replied.
“No plans set in stone yet, but I’ll probably spend some time getting on my wife’s last nerve, maybe hyperfocus on the lawn.” Cartoon by Teresa Burns Parkhurst Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop
The Lucara group went to dinner, in Mayfair, but did not drink the champagne that had been put on ice. Lundin remained confident that Lucara would find a buyer for its diamond, but Lamb was furious. When I asked him if there had been a campaign to insure that the auction would end in failure, Lamb told me that this was “absolutely correct,” adding, “The diamond industry did not want us to sell that stone to someone else.”
In the weeks that followed, Lamb attempted to find a private buyer for the Lesedi La Rona. So many people viewed it that some senior figures at Lucara wondered whether the stone’s mystique had been punctured. In the diamantaire world, the phenomenon is known as “burning the stone.” Eventually, in 2017, Lamb got a verbal commitment from a potential client to buy the diamond, for sixty million dollars, but no contract was signed, and Lucara’s board grew impatient. Meanwhile, Graff visited Lundin on his yacht, where he bought the Lesedi La Rona, for fifty-three million dollars. Lamb described the sale as “a bargain” for Graff. Its more significant function was to reëstablish the power of the old diamond world. Graff has since polished the stone into various extraordinary jewels, including a D-color three-hundred-and-two-carat emerald-cut diamond. The reservations about the stone’s color, apparently, have not been borne out.
“Laurence played the game of chess perfectly,” Eira Thomas told me. “We didn’t know we were even playing chess.”
Lucara’s management team decided to take the botched auction as an occasion to learn something new. Recently, Thomas launched a digital sales platform, called Clara, which allows rough diamonds to be sold individually to retailers. (To insure that financial transactions are secure, the platform uses blockchain technology.) The platform works on the basis that every diamond has a unique shape and color, which means that it is possible to create a digital signature for each stone, and to detail its provenance. If successful, Clara will pose a threat to the old diamond world, because suppliers can reach buyers without an intermediary. The platform is growing fast, although there are no signs yet that it will supplant the traditional tendering process. Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, the co-founder of Lucara, told me that you can draw a line directly from the Sotheby’s disappointment to the creation of Clara. “Somewhere in the subconscious of Eira, that was the seed,” McLeod-Seltzer said.
Last April, when the Sewelô diamond was discovered, Eira Thomas was driving her daughters through rural British Columbia to see a gold-mining project run by her brother, Gareth. Thomas’s life is peripatetic and, by her own admission, sometimes chaotic. She recently divorced her husband, a Canadian artist whom she married in 2007, and their two girls, who are eleven and nine, currently live with her. Not long ago, she moved from Vancouver to London, where she knows almost nobody, to cut down on travel, and to improve her work-life balance. She inspires enough loyalty at Lucara that several members of her senior team uprooted their lives to follow her to England. Thomas told me that she often brings her daughters with her on work trips—to the Yukon, or to Botswana—just as her father took her exploring as a child. She says that the girls are becoming as independent and adaptable as she is.
“I’m never going to win Mother of the Year,” Thomas told me recently, over a long, convivial lunch. She flashed a pity-free smile. “But they get experiences other children won’t get, and they’re starting to appreciate that.”
Thomas had no cell-phone reception when Naseem Lahri, Lucara Botswana’s managing director, tried to share the news of the Sewelô find. Hours later, Thomas and the girls got hungry, and they stopped at the Little Creek Grill, in the small town of Princeton, for lunch. The restaurant had reception, and Thomas’s phone was suddenly inundated with images of the diamond. She was initially unimpressed. “The stone looked like an avocado,” Thomas told me.
Eventually, she became more excited, and it is now her favorite stone. “It’s an enigma,” Thomas told me. “It’s not as pretty as the Lesedi or the Constellation. But, to me, it’s more valuable.”
The diamond would not fare well at a traditional tender, Thomas explained, because it was impossible to see exactly what might be inside the stone until “windows”—polished panes—had been cut into it. (Black diamond is usually much less valuable than white diamond.) She estimated that the sales value of the Sewelô at tender might have been anything from two to twenty-five million dollars, but she was not interested in selling the diamond that way. She wanted to use the sale and the manufacture of the Sewelô to draw attention to wider issues, not least the relationship of the diamond industry to the nation of Botswana.
Many African countries suffer from what is known as the “resource curse,” in which natural riches do not benefit the population, because of corruption and malfeasance. The Democratic Republic of Congo is perhaps the most egregious example of this phenomenon. The country is bountifully endowed with precious minerals, including diamonds, but for decades it has been criminally mismanaged and riven by armed conflict. The citizens of the D.R.C. are some of the poorest on earth.
Botswana’s story is different. It’s a small, landlocked country of 2.3 million people, much of which is covered by desert. Since the nineteen-seventies, when diamonds started to be mined in significant quantities, the Botswanan government has exacted exorbitant taxes and royalties from diamond producers. The government also holds an equity stake in De Beers’s ventures in the country, and its deal with the world’s largest diamond conglomerate is so good that it’s scarcely believable: eighty-four per cent of the consortium’s profits stay in Botswana. Lucara’s deal is less extreme, because it owns the Karowe mine outright, but in 2016, the year it sold the Constellation, the firm paid the Botswanan government eighty-five million dollars in taxes, and nearly thirty million in royalties, on profits of about a hundred and eighty-five million.
Eira Thomas, now the C.E.O. of the diamond company Lucara, was bright, curious, and outdoorsy from a young age. In college, she abandoned a plan to pursue medicine and got a geology degree instead. In 1991, when she was twenty-two, her father asked her to cut short her post-graduation travels, in Africa, to help him look for diamonds in Canada. Photograph courtesy Eira Thomas
Hundreds of thousands of Botswanans have been brought out of poverty by the government’s diamond windfall. At independence, in 1966, more than half the population lived below the poverty line; that figure is now sixteen per cent. The government uses diamond royalties to fund infrastructure, health care, and education, including advanced degrees; the most promising students can even receive aid to pursue study overseas. Keith Jefferis, an economist and a former deputy governor of the Bank of Botswana, told me that Botswana has its problems—high unemployment, an overreliance on the diamond trade—but that the upward trajectory of the country’s economy has been vertiginous. “The contribution of diamonds has been immense,” he said. “It’s really underpinned the transformation of what was a very poor country to an upper-middle-income country.”
Lucara’s contribution to Botswana’s economy should only increase. When I met John Armstrong, the Lucara geologist, in Antwerp, he showed me predictive models on his laptop, which outlined the likelihood of finding more stones at Karowe that exceed a thousand carats. In Armstrong’s calculation, it was eminently possible for diamonds weighing more than two thousand carats to be found there. I asked him if his models predicted that Lucara would find a stone even bigger than the Cullinan. “There’s a low probability,” Armstrong said. “But the possibility exists.”
For six months in 2019, the whereabouts of the Sewelô diamond were unknown to all but a select group of Lucara employees and Oded Mansori, the Antwerp diamantaire, who kept it locked in his office. Eira Thomas did not want to repeat the mistake that the firm made with the Lesedi La Rona: burning the stone by showing it to too many people. None of Lucara’s traditional customers would have a chance to see the Sewelô. When I spoke to Johnny Kneller, the Graff manufacturer, in October, he asked me, “Have you seen the stone?”
I had. In September, when I visited Mansori in his office, I was joined by Armstrong and Geoffrey Madderson, of TOMRA, the maker of the XRT scanners. After half an hour of conversation, Mansori retrieved the Sewelô from a safe and dramatically placed it on a mahogany table in front of us.
I was not expecting to be moved by a rock. The diamond was so large that I could not wrap my fingers around it. In most photographs, the color of its rind appears black, but in person it looked more silvery. The stone was cold—at least, until all of us had handled it, after which it felt as warm as a pebble in sunlight. It sometimes sparkled. Its planes were smooth, like marble. I now understood why Ketshidile Tlhomelang had spoken to me about its sensual pleasures. The diamond also prompted unusual thoughts. Because of its dark rind, the stone seemed to carry its prehistoric past with it, in a way that clearer diamonds do not. It was a reminder that the Sewelô was created before the planet’s atmosphere contained oxygen, when the only life-forms were single-celled organisms. In one sense, I realized, diamonds are baubles—somewhat vulgar totems of wealth. In another sense, they are vessels of deep time unlike anything else that can be found near the surface of the earth.
Mansori is a businessman, but he shared some of this sense of wonder. He told me that he was loath to do anything to the Sewelô except look at it. Rough was its pristine state. He wondered whether it might be best for the diamond to sit in a museum vitrine, unpolished. Of course, that would be untenable: Lucara has shareholders. Investors like to realize the value of their assets. Some weeks later, I discovered that, at the very moment I was holding the stone, Mansori and Thomas were engineering a bold plan for the Sewelô.
Earlier this month, Lucara and an entity co-founded by Mansori, HB Company, signed a deal with the luxury-goods giant Louis Vuitton. The Sewelô is now owned jointly: Lucara has a fifty-per-cent stake, the others twenty-five per cent each. None of the parties would confirm exactly what value had been placed on the Sewelô, but one knowledgeable person told me that the price was in the “low millions” of dollars, in part because of the uncertainties about the diamond’s interior. Louis Vuitton will sell the polished gems manufactured from the stone, but, before the Sewelô is cut, it will tour the world, in order to educate people about the geological history of diamonds. Thomas also stipulated that five per cent of Louis Vuitton’s net revenue from the Sewelô be channelled into corporate social-responsibility projects that Lucara runs in Botswana, specifically the funding of a large and well-appointed school that the company is building near Karowe.
The deal is unprecedented. Louis Vuitton’s parent company recently bought Tiffany, but the fashion house has never itself been a serious diamond retailer. Becoming a partner in the Sewelô is designed, in part, to insure that its entrance into the diamond sphere will be noticed. (Louis Vuitton hosted a lavish “launch party” for the Sewelô on January 21st, during Paris Fashion Week.) Lucara and HB, for their part, hope to plunder Louis Vuitton’s exclusive list of rich clients. This is the first time that all three parts of the diamond supply chain—miner, manufacturer, and retailer—have agreed to work on a stone together. No other luxury-goods firms were approached; Thomas made the connection with Louis Vuitton’s chief executive, Michael Burke, over lunch in Florida. There was so much secrecy surrounding the deal that Lucara’s leadership team did not even use the name Louis Vuitton during their internal discussions. Their potential partner was known, instead, as Crocodile.
There was jeopardy in the arrangement, for all parties. Mansori had analyzed the rough diamond using a number of scanners, including an adapted medical machine that normally measures bone density. By December, he still had only a general idea of what lay beneath the Sewelô’s black rind. Mansori believed that there might be as many as two hundred and fifty carats of white, gem-quality diamond within the Sewelô, but he couldn’t be sure until he polished windows and inspected the interior.
“There will be surprises,” Mansori told me. His partner in HB, an Israeli named Shai de-Toledo, said, “This is the most speculative stone in history.”
With this deal, Lucara was once again provoking the traditional diamond business—it was bypassing Antwerp’s brokers. Eira Thomas made no apologies. “There is just no way we’re going to continue to transact diamonds the way we do today,” she told me. “My view is that the whole industry is going to go this direction.” Disruption seems to be the point of the Sewelô deal. Mansori told me recently that he welcomed any brickbats. The deal, he said, “will irritate each and every player in this industry—it takes the playing field and turns it upside down.”


newyorker--2020-01-27--Slide Show: New Yorker Cartoons February 3, 2020

“ These are payments for babysitters , but it ’ s more exciting to pretend I ’ m a drug @ @ @

“Really, what’s the point of being married if we still have to get dressed and go out?”
Cartoon by Barbara Smaller


newyorker--2020-01-27--Hillary Clinton and Patricia Arquette Get Feminist AF

Five days before Hillary Clinton made headlines last week for dissing Bernie Sanders ( “ Nobody likes him , nobody wants to work with him , ” she says in a forthcoming documentary ) , she went to a Hollywood dinner for a nonprofit whose aim is to “ make space for women to be heard.
” Thirty-four attendees waited eagerly for Clinton in a house belonging to Bozoma Saint John , the chief marketing officer of the talent company Endeavor , to talk about Vital Voices , the women ’ s-empowerment organization that Clinton helped start in 1997 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ John ’ s desk .
“ Feminist AF !
” she read aloud .
“ That ’ s so good.
” The previous week , she had urged her Twitter followers not to count Sanders out .
( Arquette had no comment on Clinton ’ s Bernie bashing . )
Sally Field , in polka dots , admired a framed definition of the word “ boss.
” Arquette eyed the front door , which had just opened .
“ Oh no , ” she moaned .
“ A male.
” “ Am I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked .
It was her brother , David Arquette .
The siblings got involved with Vital Voices through David ’ s wife , Christina , whose uncle , Mack McLarty , was Bill Clinton ’ s first chief of staff .
David is often dragged onstage at the organization ’ s events .
“ I always go up and say , ‘ I ’ m sorry , on behalf of men , ’ ” he said .
Alyse Nelson , the C.E.O .
of Vital Voices , explained the group ’ s goals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind the scenes , ” she said .
She noted that the organization had raised more than six hundred thousand dollars for Malala Yousafzai ’ s education fund but had kept it under wraps .
Now they were looking to take some credit .
“ We are realizing that if we don ’ t tell our own story , we can ’ t scale , ” Nelson said .
“ We ’ re better known in India than we are in Indiana.
” The guest of honor arrived , and everyone gathered for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth so that you don ’ t have a double chin !
” As the camera flashed , Field yelled , “ We have more important things to worry about !
” Guests were seated at two long , candlelit tables , and Nelson invited Clinton to sit beside her and explain Vital Voices ’ genesis .
Clinton chose to stand .
“ Well , now I have to stand , ” Nelson grumbled .
“ Even though I have four-inch heels on.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clinton said amiably .
She wore a houndstooth jacket and sensible shoes .
The two recapped some of the group ’ s greatest hits—protecting Russian journalists , assisting a Cameroonian woman running for office .
They announced a Vital Voices headquarters , which will open next year , blocks from the White House .
A board member ticked off bleak statistics from the International Monetary Fund .
“ Only two per cent of C.E.O.s in the financial sector are women , ” she said .
“ It feels like we had a moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ but we haven ’ t made very much progress .
Do you think we should be feeling optimistic ?
” “ I do !
” Clinton said .
She turned to T. D. Jakes , a pastor , for a pep talk .
“ Bishop Jakes , can you give a short version of the cod and the catfish ?
” The short version : in a time before Whole Foods , residents of the East Coast ate a lot of cod .
“ Much like salmon is popular today , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in , so cod was put on trains west .
“ It didn ’ t taste the same , ” Jakes said .
“ So they decided to ship it alive , in aquariums .
It still didn ’ t have the right consistency or taste.
” Then they tried putting some catfish in the tanks , because catfish and cod are natural enemies .
When the cod arrived out West , it was fresh .
“ Somewhere , in every person ’ s life who ’ s successful , there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Jakes concluded .
“ Remember that being chased by these catfish , whoever they are , should keep us fresh and energized and focussed , ” Clinton said .
“ There ’ s a real danger right now , because it ’ s so easy to get discouraged , depressed—to retreat .
But that just lets the catfish take over.
” “ I have an idea , ” the TV host Maria Menounos said .
“ What if we identify those young Hollywood leaders who , yes , want to be an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this crazy passion for social change and don ’ t know how to do it ?
” Field shook her head .
“ Correct me if I ’ m wrong , but Hollywood is just so fickle and jaded.
” “ It ’ s true !
” Field said .
“ I ’ ve tried to have fund-raising events in Hollywood , and nobody shows up.
” Talk turned to Vital Voices ’ P.R .
“ It ’ s nebulous , ” Patricia Arquette said .
“ The story tells the story .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ see the lady in Cameroon.
” “ A great way to get these stories out is to marry Vital Voices with female filmmakers , ” Alyssa Milano said .
“ You can submit them to Sundance.
” ( The Clinton documentary , “ Hillary , ” in which she berates a catfish named Bernie , will première there this week . )
“ You can probably work out a deal with a film festival , ” Menounos said .
She had a better idea : “ Get a deal at Netflix.
” ♦

Hillary Clinton and Patricia Arquette Illustration by João Fazenda
Five days before Hillary Clinton made headlines last week for dissing Bernie Sanders (“Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him,” she says in a forthcoming documentary), she went to a Hollywood dinner for a nonprofit whose aim is to “make space for women to be heard.” Thirty-four attendees waited eagerly for Clinton in a house belonging to Bozoma Saint John, the chief marketing officer of the talent company Endeavor, to talk about Vital Voices, the women’s-empowerment organization that Clinton helped start in 1997.
Patricia Arquette studied a plaque on Saint John’s desk. “Feminist AF!” she read aloud. “That’s so good.” The previous week, she had urged her Twitter followers not to count Sanders out. (Arquette had no comment on Clinton’s Bernie bashing.) Sally Field, in polka dots, admired a framed definition of the word “boss.” Arquette eyed the front door, which had just opened. “Oh no,” she moaned. “A male.”
“Am I, really?” the new arrival asked. It was her brother, David Arquette. The siblings got involved with Vital Voices through David’s wife, Christina, whose uncle, Mack McLarty, was Bill Clinton’s first chief of staff. David is often dragged onstage at the organization’s events. “I always go up and say, ‘I’m sorry, on behalf of men,’ ” he said.
Alyse Nelson, the C.E.O. of Vital Voices, explained the group’s goals. “Our work is very much behind the scenes,” she said. She noted that the organization had raised more than six hundred thousand dollars for Malala Yousafzai’s education fund but had kept it under wraps. Now they were looking to take some credit. “We are realizing that if we don’t tell our own story, we can’t scale,” Nelson said. “We’re better known in India than we are in Indiana.”
The guest of honor arrived, and everyone gathered for a photo. A woman shouted, “Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth so that you don’t have a double chin!” As the camera flashed, Field yelled, “We have more important things to worry about!” Guests were seated at two long, candlelit tables, and Nelson invited Clinton to sit beside her and explain Vital Voices’ genesis. Clinton chose to stand.
“Well, now I have to stand,” Nelson grumbled. “Even though I have four-inch heels on.”
“That was your choice,” Clinton said amiably. She wore a houndstooth jacket and sensible shoes.
The two recapped some of the group’s greatest hits—protecting Russian journalists, assisting a Cameroonian woman running for office. They announced a Vital Voices headquarters, which will open next year, blocks from the White House. A board member ticked off bleak statistics from the International Monetary Fund. “Only two per cent of C.E.O.s in the financial sector are women,” she said. “It feels like we had a moment,” after the financial crisis, “but we haven’t made very much progress. Do you think we should be feeling optimistic?”
“I do!” Clinton said. She turned to T. D. Jakes, a pastor, for a pep talk. “Bishop Jakes, can you give a short version of the cod and the catfish?”
The short version: in a time before Whole Foods, residents of the East Coast ate a lot of cod. “Much like salmon is popular today,” Jakes said. The West Coast wanted in, so cod was put on trains west. “It didn’t taste the same,” Jakes said. “So they decided to ship it alive, in aquariums. It still didn’t have the right consistency or taste.” Then they tried putting some catfish in the tanks, because catfish and cod are natural enemies. When the cod arrived out West, it was fresh. “Somewhere, in every person’s life who’s successful, there’s a catfish they’re chasing,” Jakes concluded.
“Remember that being chased by these catfish, whoever they are, should keep us fresh and energized and focussed,” Clinton said. “There’s a real danger right now, because it’s so easy to get discouraged, depressed—to retreat. But that just lets the catfish take over.”
“I have an idea,” the TV host Maria Menounos said. “What if we identify those young Hollywood leaders who, yes, want to be an actress or a musician but also have this crazy passion for social change and don’t know how to do it?”
Field shook her head. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but Hollywood is just so fickle and jaded.”
“Oh, Sally,” David Arquette said.
“It’s true!” Field said. “I’ve tried to have fund-raising events in Hollywood, and nobody shows up.”
Talk turned to Vital Voices’ P.R. “It’s nebulous,” Patricia Arquette said. “The story tells the story. Look at Greta. I want to see the lady in Cameroon.”
“A great way to get these stories out is to marry Vital Voices with female filmmakers,” Alyssa Milano said. “You can submit them to Sundance.” (The Clinton documentary, “Hillary,” in which she berates a catfish named Bernie, will première there this week.)
“You can probably work out a deal with a film festival,” Menounos said. She had a better idea: “Get a deal at Netflix.” ♦


newyorker--2020-01-27--The Last Time Democracy Almost Died

The Last Time Democracy Almost Died

The last time democracy nearly died all over the world and almost all at once , Americans argued about it , and then they tried to fix it .
“ The future of democracy is topic number one in the animated discussion going on all over America , ” a contributor to the New York Times wrote in 1937 .
“ In the Legislatures , over the radio , at the luncheon table , in the drawing rooms , at meetings of forums and in all kinds of groups of citizens everywhere , people are talking about the democratic way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hollered , and they also made rules .
“ You are a liar !
” one guy shouted from the audience during a political debate heard on the radio by ten million Americans , from Missoula to Tallahassee .
“ Now , now , we don ’ t allow that , ” the moderator said , calmly , and asked him to leave .
In the nineteen-thirties , you could count on the Yankees winning the World Series , dust storms plaguing the prairies , evangelicals preaching on the radio , Franklin Delano @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people lining up for blocks to get scraps of food , and democracies dying , from the Andes to the Urals and the Alps .
In 1917 , Woodrow Wilson ’ s Administration had promised that winning the Great War would “ make the world safe for democracy.
” The peace carved nearly a dozen new states out of the former Russian , Ottoman , and Austrian empires .
The number of democracies in the world rose ; the spread of liberal-democratic governance began to appear inevitable .
But this was no more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , toddled , wobbled , and fell : Hungary , Albania , Poland , Lithuania , Yugoslavia .
In older states , too , the desperate masses turned to authoritarianism .
Benito Mussolini marched on Rome in 1922 .
It had taken a century and a half for European monarchs who ruled by divine right and brute force to be replaced by constitutional democracies and the rule of law .
Now Fascism and Communism toppled these governments in a matter of months , even before the stock-market crash of 1929 and the misery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are the fashion of the day , ” the soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote , dismally , in 1930 .
The annus horribilis that followed differed from every other year in the history of the world , according to the British historian Arnold Toynbee : “ In 1931 , men and women all over the world were seriously contemplating and frankly discussing the possibility that the Western system of Society might break down and cease to work.
” When Japan invaded Manchuria , the League of Nations condemned the annexation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state is destined to perish , ” Mussolini predicted in 1932 .
“ All the political experiments of our day are anti-liberal.
” By 1933 , the year Adolf Hitler came to power , the American political commentator Walter Lippmann was telling an audience of students at Berkeley that “ the old relationships among the great masses of the people of the earth have disappeared.
” What next ?
More epitaphs : Greece , Romania , Estonia , and Latvia .
Authoritarians multiplied in Portugal , Uruguay , Spain .
Japan invaded Shanghai @ @ @ @ @ @ @ present century is the century of authority , ” he declared , “ a century of the Right , a Fascist century.
” American democracy , too , staggered , weakened by corruption , monopoly , apathy , inequality , political violence , hucksterism , racial injustice , unemployment , even starvation .
“ We do not distrust the future of essential democracy , ” F.D.R .
said in his first Inaugural Address , telling Americans that the only thing they had to fear was fear itself .
But there was more to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own declining faith in self-government .
“ What Does Democracy Mean ?
” NBC radio asked listeners .
“ Do we Negroes believe in democracy ?
” W. E. B .
Du Bois asked the readers of his newspaper column .
Could it happen here ?
Sinclair Lewis asked in 1935 .
Americans suffered , and hungered , and wondered .
The historian Charles Beard , in the inevitable essay on “ The Future of Democracy in the United States , ” predicted that American democracy would endure , if only because “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , no Berlin to march on.
” Some Americans turned to Communism .
Some turned to Fascism .
And a lot of people , worried about whether American democracy could survive past the end of the decade , strove to save it .
“ It ’ s not too late , ” Jimmy Stewart pleaded with Congress , rasping , exhausted , in “ Mr .
Smith Goes to Washington , ” in 1939 .
“ Great principles don ’ t get lost once they come to light.
” It wasn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not too late .
There ’ s a kind of likeness you see in family photographs , generation after generation .
The same ears , the same funny nose .
Sometimes now looks a lot like then .
Still , it can be hard to tell whether the likeness is more than skin deep .
In the nineteen-nineties , with the end of the Cold War , democracies grew more plentiful , much as they had after the end of the First World War .
As ever , the infant-mortality rate for democracies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ die in their cradles .
Starting in about 2005 , the number of democracies around the world began to fall , as it had in the nineteen-thirties .
Authoritarians rose to power : Vladimir Putin in Russia , Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey , Viktor Orbán in Hungary , Jarosław Kaczyński in Poland , Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines , Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil , and Donald J. Trump in the United States .
“ American democracy , ” as a matter of history , is democracy with an asterisk , the symbol @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he were ever inducted into the Hall of Fame .
Not until the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act can the United States be said to have met the basic conditions for political equality requisite in a democracy .
All the same , measured not against its past but against its contemporaries , American democracy in the twenty-first century is withering .
The Democracy Index rates a hundred and sixty-seven countries , every year , on a scale that ranges from “ full democracy ” to “ authoritarian regime.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ full democracy , ” the seventeenth most democratic nation in the world .
In 2016 , the index for the first time rated the United States a “ flawed democracy , ” and since then American democracy has gotten only more flawed .
True , the United States still doesn ’ t have a Rome or a Berlin to march on .
That hasn ’ t saved the nation from misinformation , tribalization , domestic terrorism , human-rights abuses , political intolerance , social-media mob rule , white nationalism , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a corrupt Presidential Administration , assaults on the press , crippling polarization , the undermining of elections , and an epistemological chaos that is the only air that totalitarianism can breathe .
Nothing so sharpens one ’ s appreciation for democracy as bearing witness to its demolition .
Mussolini called Italy and Germany “ the greatest and soundest democracies which exist in the world today , ” and Hitler liked to say that , with Nazi Germany , he had achieved a “ beautiful democracy , ” prompting the American political columnist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state , “ If it is going to call itself democratic we had better find another word for what we have and what we want.
” In the nineteen-thirties , Americans didn ’ t find another word .
But they did work to decide what they wanted , and to imagine and to build it .
Thompson , who had been a foreign correspondent in Germany and Austria and had interviewed the Führer , said , in a column that reached eight million readers , “ Be sure you know what you prepare @ @ @ @

The last time democracy nearly died all over the world and almost all at once, Americans argued about it, and then they tried to fix it. “The future of democracy is topic number one in the animated discussion going on all over America,” a contributor to the New York Times wrote in 1937. “In the Legislatures, over the radio, at the luncheon table, in the drawing rooms, at meetings of forums and in all kinds of groups of citizens everywhere, people are talking about the democratic way of life.” People bickered and people hollered, and they also made rules. “You are a liar!” one guy shouted from the audience during a political debate heard on the radio by ten million Americans, from Missoula to Tallahassee. “Now, now, we don’t allow that,” the moderator said, calmly, and asked him to leave.
In the nineteen-thirties, you could count on the Yankees winning the World Series, dust storms plaguing the prairies, evangelicals preaching on the radio, Franklin Delano Roosevelt residing in the White House, people lining up for blocks to get scraps of food, and democracies dying, from the Andes to the Urals and the Alps.
In 1917, Woodrow Wilson’s Administration had promised that winning the Great War would “make the world safe for democracy.” The peace carved nearly a dozen new states out of the former Russian, Ottoman, and Austrian empires. The number of democracies in the world rose; the spread of liberal-democratic governance began to appear inevitable. But this was no more than a reverie. Infant democracies grew, toddled, wobbled, and fell: Hungary, Albania, Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia. In older states, too, the desperate masses turned to authoritarianism. Benito Mussolini marched on Rome in 1922. It had taken a century and a half for European monarchs who ruled by divine right and brute force to be replaced by constitutional democracies and the rule of law. Now Fascism and Communism toppled these governments in a matter of months, even before the stock-market crash of 1929 and the misery that ensued.
“Epitaphs for democracy are the fashion of the day,” the soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, dismally, in 1930. The annus horribilis that followed differed from every other year in the history of the world, according to the British historian Arnold Toynbee: “In 1931, men and women all over the world were seriously contemplating and frankly discussing the possibility that the Western system of Society might break down and cease to work.” When Japan invaded Manchuria, the League of Nations condemned the annexation, to no avail. “The liberal state is destined to perish,” Mussolini predicted in 1932. “All the political experiments of our day are anti-liberal.” By 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power, the American political commentator Walter Lippmann was telling an audience of students at Berkeley that “the old relationships among the great masses of the people of the earth have disappeared.” What next? More epitaphs: Greece, Romania, Estonia, and Latvia. Authoritarians multiplied in Portugal, Uruguay, Spain. Japan invaded Shanghai. Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. “The present century is the century of authority,” he declared, “a century of the Right, a Fascist century.”
In 1922, Benito Mussolini (center) marched on Rome. A decade later, he declared, “The liberal state is destined to perish.” Photograph from Getty
American democracy, too, staggered, weakened by corruption, monopoly, apathy, inequality, political violence, hucksterism, racial injustice, unemployment, even starvation. “We do not distrust the future of essential democracy,” F.D.R. said in his first Inaugural Address, telling Americans that the only thing they had to fear was fear itself. But there was more to be afraid of, including Americans’ own declining faith in self-government. “What Does Democracy Mean?” NBC radio asked listeners. “Do we Negroes believe in democracy?” W. E. B. Du Bois asked the readers of his newspaper column. Could it happen here? Sinclair Lewis asked in 1935. Americans suffered, and hungered, and wondered. The historian Charles Beard, in the inevitable essay on “The Future of Democracy in the United States,” predicted that American democracy would endure, if only because “there is in America, no Rome, no Berlin to march on.” Some Americans turned to Communism. Some turned to Fascism. And a lot of people, worried about whether American democracy could survive past the end of the decade, strove to save it.
“It’s not too late,” Jimmy Stewart pleaded with Congress, rasping, exhausted, in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” in 1939. “Great principles don’t get lost once they come to light.” It wasn’t too late. It’s still not too late.
There’s a kind of likeness you see in family photographs, generation after generation. The same ears, the same funny nose. Sometimes now looks a lot like then. Still, it can be hard to tell whether the likeness is more than skin deep.
In the nineteen-nineties, with the end of the Cold War, democracies grew more plentiful, much as they had after the end of the First World War. As ever, the infant-mortality rate for democracies was high: baby democracies tend to die in their cradles. Starting in about 2005, the number of democracies around the world began to fall, as it had in the nineteen-thirties. Authoritarians rose to power: Vladimir Putin in Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Jarosław Kaczyński in Poland, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Donald J. Trump in the United States.
“What the hell was he thinking?” Cartoon by Julia Suits Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop
“American democracy,” as a matter of history, is democracy with an asterisk, the symbol A-Rod’s name would need if he were ever inducted into the Hall of Fame. Not until the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act can the United States be said to have met the basic conditions for political equality requisite in a democracy. All the same, measured not against its past but against its contemporaries, American democracy in the twenty-first century is withering. The Democracy Index rates a hundred and sixty-seven countries, every year, on a scale that ranges from “full democracy” to “authoritarian regime.” In 2006, the U.S. was a “full democracy,” the seventeenth most democratic nation in the world. In 2016, the index for the first time rated the United States a “flawed democracy,” and since then American democracy has gotten only more flawed. True, the United States still doesn’t have a Rome or a Berlin to march on. That hasn’t saved the nation from misinformation, tribalization, domestic terrorism, human-rights abuses, political intolerance, social-media mob rule, white nationalism, a criminal President, the nobbling of Congress, a corrupt Presidential Administration, assaults on the press, crippling polarization, the undermining of elections, and an epistemological chaos that is the only air that totalitarianism can breathe.
Nothing so sharpens one’s appreciation for democracy as bearing witness to its demolition. Mussolini called Italy and Germany “the greatest and soundest democracies which exist in the world today,” and Hitler liked to say that, with Nazi Germany, he had achieved a “beautiful democracy,” prompting the American political columnist Dorothy Thompson to remark of the Fascist state, “If it is going to call itself democratic we had better find another word for what we have and what we want.” In the nineteen-thirties, Americans didn’t find another word. But they did work to decide what they wanted, and to imagine and to build it. Thompson, who had been a foreign correspondent in Germany and Austria and had interviewed the Führer, said, in a column that reached eight million readers, “Be sure you know what you prepare to defend.”
It’s a paradox of democracy that the best way to defend it is to attack it, to ask more of it, by way of criticism, protest, and dissent. American democracy in the nineteen-thirties had plenty of critics, left and right, from Mexican-Americans who objected to a brutal regime of forced deportations to businessmen who believed the New Deal to be unconstitutional. W. E. B. Du Bois predicted that, unless the United States met its obligations to the dignity and equality of all its citizens and ended its enthrallment to corporations, American democracy would fail: “If it is going to use this power to force the world into color prejudice and race antagonism; if it is going to use it to manufacture millionaires, increase the rule of wealth, and break down democratic government everywhere; if it is going increasingly to stand for reaction, fascism, white supremacy and imperialism; if it is going to promote war and not peace; then America will go the way of the Roman Empire.”