newrepublic--2020-12-29--Life in the Post-Internet Dystopia

Life in the Post-Internet Dystopia

Before Journeyman circled his sister ’ s world , he circled Todbaum ’ s : They had been collaborating on a postapocalyptic television drama .
Almost immediately , Journeyman is drawn back in .
Todbaum is the sole survivor , by his account , of one of those compounds for the rich that will go awry as soon as currency isn ’ t worth anything .
He had the sense to invest $ 14 million into this supercar , a nuclear-powered mining machine refitted as a semiautonomous car , with an out-of-control self-teaching AI and an espresso machine .
Within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Journeyman is having himself the first espresso he ’ s had in years , sharing his friend ’ s single cup in what feels like an erotic surrender .
Todbaum is the sort of character more familiar to us from British novels—Brideshead Revisited , or The Stranger ’ s Child—the man who is in love with a brother first , and then , his sister .
He blew their lives up once before , many years ago when they were young , and he seems to have come all this way to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ espresso kicks in , Journeyman soon understands his life is uncannily like the television series he had been working on with Todbaum at the time they parted ways .
Oscar Wilde claimed that what you write comes true , and it seems , for Journeyman , this is the case .
It wouldn ’ t be a Lethem novel if there weren ’ t baroque big picture touches like this .
And small ones , too .
A favorite detail is the 2020 Telluride Film Festival backpack Journeyman uses to make his food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see if I could find one , as I knew the festival , like much else , had been canceled by Covid .
This is the sort of swag the festival doesn ’ t sell but that interns would hang on to and sell on eBay .
This backpack , like a portal , from this world to that one .
Whoever it is that might become Journeyman most likely already has one .
The result is a clever shape-shifter of a novel , one that feels almost too clever , until it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The two lovers who make up one-half of DeLillo ’ s The Silence—Jim Kripps and his beautiful mixed-race girlfriend , Tessa—are returning to New York from a trip to Paris , in time for the Super Bowl .
Tessa ’ s background is offered up through Jim ’ s sense of it being rare ( narrator ’ s voice : It is not so rare ) , and so we can assume not only that he is white , but that he is the sort of man who doesn ’ t have many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I say this because Tessa is the sort of person who is well known to me—her “ obscure ” poetry , as it is described , her literary ambitions , all seemed familiar .
I could name 10 friends like this , and I would even offer that I also am like this person .
The lovers fall out of the sky , their plane crashing , and emerge from the wreck more or less unscathed , though others are not as lucky .
They go to the hospital to be examined , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down .
They have what seems to be survivor victory sex there before they head to the apartment where their friends are having a Super Bowl party—the novel ’ s other half .
Those friends , Max and Diane , and their other friend , Martin , seem to handle their incipient panic by speaking in non sequiturs about Einstein , philosophy , Jesus .
Martin throws out seemingly random facts , as if he is the churn of the internet now lost to them , a human twitter reeling off posts in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enough , like reading Twitter during a national emergency , a historical event unfolding there in real time .
In a seeming parallel to the uncanny sex Tessa and Jim have at the hospital , Martin drops his pants .

The people in this novel do not seem very concerned about their situation. No one fills the bathtub with water, no one goes to the store to bargain for food with cash—food the owners had to sell or it would spoil due to lack of refrigeration. The characters all seem to be expecting the power to come back on, despite the obvious catastrophe. A second narrative had emerged in my mind as I read, in which I imagined being Tessa, on a flight back from Paris with my boyfriend who wants us to go to a Super Bowl party on our return. And who takes us there, even after we fall out of the sky and our plane crashes. As if, of course, there was nowhere else to go. When Tessa, near the end, speculates that it might be time to prepare for the disaster that seems to be happening, I could feel the impatience that I would have, too.
Which is to say that DeLillo’s characters here seem unlikely to survive this first wave of the blackouts. They will be the people waiting for the power to turn back on, likely to become the bodies found in apartments by other cannier survivors. The power they were waiting for was, unknown to them, not the source of their power but the sign of it, a sign of their privilege. As a novel about people who are used to things going their way when things don’t go their way, it is an exercise in watching people struggle to take seriously the danger they are in and to let that really change them. And this may be the most frightening thing in the novel, more so than any phone without signal or dead laptop.
To say The Silence is not the novel it should be is to engage in a kind of existential wishful thinking. Is the novel oracular if the novel’s events begin to occur while you are reading it? Even as I write this, ransomware cyberattacks are taking entire hospitals offline in the state of Vermont, where I live. The staff are not philosophical about it, as the characters in The Silence are. They’re trying to do what the computers do for their chemo patients, who require sophisticated equations to make sure the medicine can keep pace with the illness. Doctors at the University of Vermont fear they will not know the damage done for months. “All my life I’ve been waiting for this without knowing it.” The naïveté in that line made me almost laugh.


newrepublic--2020-12-29--Mitch McConnell Is Giving Us a Sneak Preview of the Political Hell to Come

President Trump says he wants most Americans to receive $ 2,000 checks from the federal government .
So does the Democratic-led House of Representatives , which voted Monday to bump up the total from $ 600 per individual , as allocated by the $ 900 billion pandemic stimulus bill that Trump grudgingly signed on Sunday .
Even some Senate Republicans are on board , like Missouri ’ s Josh Hawley and Florida ’ s Marco Rubio ; David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler , the two Georgia senators facing a tight runoff election next week , reversed their prior opposition .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , opposes the $ 2,000 checks , and that is all it takes to grind them to a halt .
He blocked a unanimous consent motion on Tuesday that would have immediately sent the measure to Trump ’ s desk for approval .
Instead , McConnell tied the increased stimulus checks to two other wish-list items from the president : an investigation into nonexistent voter fraud and the removal of a legal shield for tech companies .
“ Those are the three important subjects the president has linked together , ” he told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senate will begin a process to bring those three priorities into focus.
” One of those priorities—lifeline payments to low- and middle-income Americans in the middle of a pandemic—seems far more important than two right-wing hobby horses .
But those priorities are not McConnell ’ s priorities .
His unspoken goal is to sabotage the push for $ 2,000 payments altogether by tying it to poison pills for Democrats .
In the short term , McConnell gives vulnerable GOP senators like Perdue and Loeffler the chance to support the checks in theory without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long term , he lays the groundwork for resisting any efforts by the incoming Biden administration to actually help people through one of the darkest stretches in modern American history .

President-elect Joe Biden has offered an upbeat vision for how the Republican Party will operate once Trump leaves office next month. He expresses confidence that he will be able to forge bipartisan agreements with the party that spent most of the last two months passively ignoring his electoral victory, if not actively trying to overthrow it. McConnell’s behavior over the past year is proof that no such bargains will come easily, if at all, and that Senate Republicans will not have the epiphany that Biden has predicted.
Indeed, this week’s standoff over Covid-19 relief is a grim portent of what legislative business might look like under a Biden administration. It’s possible that a few moderate and heterodox Republican senators might be willing to use federal coffers to reverse the pandemic’s severe economic and social toll. Democratic senators might try to use procedural maneuvers to push through their own goals, as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders did this week by threatening to filibuster a veto override of the defense budget until a vote on the $2,000 checks is held. And McConnell will use whatever power he can to block relief efforts and any other measures that might provide a political boost to Democrats.
From where does that power spring? McConnell is, after all, just one senator. Part of it comes from his extensive network of support among the conservative donor class, who rightly view him as their guarantor against a federal government that would actually try to improve people’s lives. Part of it stems from the genuine support he receives among his fellow Republican senators, whom he regularly aids in tough reelection battles. Some of the blame can be placed on Senate rules and precedents that centralize extraordinary amounts of legislative power in the majority leader’s office. Unless a majority of senators work to change those rules, basic American governance will continue to be beholden to one man’s cynical whims.


newrepublic--2020-12-30--When Historical Fiction Is a Crime

When Historical Fiction Is a Crime

Ahmet Altan , one of Turkey ’ s most skillful historical novelists , lives in solitary confinement in a cell four meters long , at Silivri Prison , Europe ’ s largest penal facility .
In I ’ ll Never See This World Again , his fifteenth book , and the first he wrote from prison , Altan recalled the passing comment of a judge who held the author ’ s fate in his hands : “ If only you had stuck to writing novels and kept your nose out of political affairs.
” Altan ’ s punishment for that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ messages ” to topple Turkey ’ s strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—has been severe .
“ I will never see a sky unframed by the walls of a courtyard , ” he realized upon receiving an aggravated life sentence in 2018 .
But politics has been an abiding theme of his work since the mid-1970s , when he cut his teeth as a young reporter .
For much of his career , eroticism and the intrigues of Turkish politics had vitalized Altan ’ s writings and helped make him a household name .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ novel launched a career marked by controversy and bestsellers : His second novel , Trace on the Water ( 1985 ) , was found “ obscene ” by a court , which ordered police to burn it ; Cheating , Altan ’ s erotic novella from 2002 , sold over half a million copies , including one purchased by the cop who initially arrested him and chatted about its plot as the police van carried the giant of Turkish literature to Silivri Prison .
It was the Ottoman Quartet , an epic novel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the year Sultan Abdülhamid II was enthroned , and 1915 , when 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians died in an act of genocide , that earned Altan the distinction of a leading Turkish historical novelist , alongside younger authors Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak .
The Quartet is Altan ’ s life ’ s work ( he hopes to complete its last volume once he regains access to a library ) and proof that even while he “ stuck to writing novels , ” in his judge ’ s words , Altan couldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political affairs.
” The saga ’ s first two volumes , Like a Sword Wound ( 1998 ) and Love in the Days of Rebellion ( 2001 ) , now published in fine English translations by Yelda Türedi and Brendan Freely , probe Turkish historiography ’ s nationalist dichotomies between the autocratic Abdülhamid and progressive patriots who dethroned the Ottoman sultan .
Altan ’ s Quartet shows that continuities , rather than ruptures , have defined the history of Turkish autocracy over the past century : Germanophile Young Turks were as tyrannical as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raising a baffling question : Was “ the March 31 Incident ” of 1909 ( an Islamist uprising to defend Abdülhamid ’ s absolute rule , whose suppression gave anti-sultan generals dictatorial powers ) a Young Turk ploy ?

Hikmet’s father, Reşit Pasha, is cut from a different cloth. As Abdülhamid’s private physician, he is a conservative aristocrat who takes the voguish revolutionary spirit with a pinch of salt. But faced with Turkey’s rising middle classes (soldiers and medical professionals, mostly anti-sultan Young Turks), men like him stand little chance. Among those who root for rebels is Ragıp Bey, a young Ottoman lieutenant who takes refuge in Yusuf’s monastery for spiritual guidance. Moving to Berlin in search of adventure, Ragıp helps finance a plot against Abdülhamid’s tyranny, rubbing shoulders with Enver and Talat, Young Turk leaders who eventually deposed the sultan in 1908.
Class and gender bind those men. Raised in opulence, they operate in the most privileged sectors of Ottoman society, suffering from bouts of ennui while enjoying lavish lives endowed them by entitled parents. Frustrated about their futures and weary of their empire’s fate, they seek comfort in the arms of women. There is a sad tendency in Altan’s prose to gloss over the depths of female characters and present them as foils necessary for male self-realization. While recuperating from his wound at a French hospital, Hikmet flirts with a nun but fails to seduce her after gifting her an expensive copy of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal. Hikmet’s father welcomes him back home with a different gift: Hediye, a Circassian slave girl. Ottomans officially banned slave markets in 1847, but slavery continued clandestinely until 1908, and Altan skillfully shows its abhorrent consequences. Hikmet also courts Dilevser, a young bookworm with whom he can discuss Balzac and Tolstoy. “I was moved by the pain Anna Karenina suffered,” she tells Hikmet pointedly: “How selfishly men behave toward women.… How distant they are.” As Altan’s band of adventurers zigzag between moments of political upheaval and private intimacy, women balm their wounds, comfort their egos, and, at times, destroy their confidence.
Scenes of political turmoil are more layered. Love in the Days of Rebellion opens with a jubilant scene at Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square. Hagia Sophia (a Byzantine church that Erdoğan transformed into a mosque last summer) is surrounded by thousands of fezzes that ripple “like a ruby-red sea.” The revolutionary crowd is a testament to the plurality of the multiethnic empire:


newrepublic--2020-12-30--Instacart Is a Parasite and a Sham

Instacart Is a Parasite and a Sham

Allowing masses of underpaid workers to be exploited in order to provide widespread convenience was always a depraved bargain , built on a rickety ethical and economic foundation .
At some point , gig companies , no longer coasting on promises of increasing market share leading them to monopoly , would have to find ways to extract profits .
That can only come from keeping labor in a box—as the industry has done with measures like in California—and chiseling restaurants and merchants for higher percentages of their sales .
Customers might have to start paying more , too , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prices for consumers until they ’ ve achieved indomitable market position , at which point consumers have no other options ( call it the Amazon method , with Uber being its most zealous student ) .
On the labor front , the nominal upside of the Covid-19 disaster was that at least it showed us which workers were essential .
It didn ’ t necessarily follow that those workers received the benefits and pay they deserved , but we understood who was being exploited and what labor activists should be fighting for .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ organize to reap better conditions from the delivery and platform companies that were flourishing from unprecedented demand .
Can that understanding hold ?
To activists and critics , the gig economy has never been sustainable or just .
But now workers find themselves fighting platform owners who are willing to spend not on health benefits or increased wages—or even on shoring up company finances—but on curbing their labor power .
The forces arrayed against labor are at once formidable and doomed to some kind of existential crackup .
For workers , there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , organize , and extract what concessions they can from their employers as they watch redeem the unprofitable decisions of their executive overseers .

Allowing masses of underpaid workers to be exploited in order to provide widespread convenience was always a depraved bargain, built on a rickety ethical and economic foundation. At some point, gig companies, no longer coasting on promises of increasing market share leading them to monopoly, would have to find ways to extract profits. That can only come from keeping labor in a box—as the industry has done with measures like Proposition 22 in California—and chiseling restaurants and merchants for higher percentages of their sales. Customers might have to start paying more, too, but companies would rather hold off on raising prices for consumers until they’ve achieved indomitable market position, at which point consumers have no other options (call it the Amazon method, with Uber being its most zealous student).
On the labor front, the nominal upside of the Covid-19 disaster was that at least it showed us which workers were essential. It didn’t necessarily follow that those workers received the benefits and pay they deserved, but we understood who was being exploited and what labor activists should be fighting for. These workers, in turn, could organize to reap better conditions from the delivery and platform companies that were flourishing from unprecedented demand.


newrepublic--2020-12-30--The Year of Magical Thinking in American Politics

Never in living memory has late December been so welcome ; 2020 , the year that lasted centuries , is nearly done .
A lot of us didn ’ t make it .
But for all the anxiety that mounted throughout the summer and fall as the presidential election drew nigh , Trump ’ s attempts to bring about the worst-case scenario—a stolen election or descent into civil war—appear to have failed .
The creaking , gerrymandered , lobbyist-leased massage table that we call American democracy has survived another season .
Fresh calamities notwithstanding , Joe Biden will be sworn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by which time Donald and Melania will have emptied their night tables and packed their many gilded bags .
So why is it still so hard to exhale ?
In the giddy hangover of the election ’ s endless final act , it was possible to feel , if not actual rejoicing , at least some hearty schadenfreude-tinged relief .
A knot that had been getting tighter every day for months suddenly unraveled .
That sensation didn ’ t last .
The lines on the graphs tracking the spread of Covid-19 soon went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100,000 the day after the election and have since more than doubled that again .
Just as the contours of the new political reality are beginning to reveal themselves , a familiar sense of grief and dread has returned .
We may have escaped the gory dismemberment that four more years of Trump would have unleashed , but we did not dodge a bullet .
It is nonetheless a genuine comfort that we will soon have a president capable of talking about something other than himself and an ever-expanding throng of imaginary enemies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
What Joe Biden says is almost without exception timid , bland , and entirely inadequate to the urgency of the moment , but he knows enough to acknowledge the real forces that are mowing us down .
He talks about the pandemic , the climate crisis , and sometimes , if only glancingly , about racism as a structural problem .
With the virus raging , the one major marketing point of the down-home technocratic neoliberalism that Biden represents—institutional competence—can feel inordinately reassuring .

The old neoliberal sleight of hand, substituting diversity for substantive equality, won’t work this time. The rupture has already happened. Trump spent four years shoving his tiny fingers into every fissure he could find in the American body politic. The ghosts, it turned out, were not even sleeping. They came racing out into the light, not only the ghouls but those better angels too—the ones Obama and Biden both trot out as needed for lyrical effect but disown when they make actual demands. They were angry, and they did what the more reputable class of angels have always done in this country. They animated flesh-and-blood Americans to stand up and risk everything—the bullets of their countrymen, the batons and prisons of the authorities, and, this time, the virus too.
Summer feels like a long time ago, but it would be worse than stupid to forget that this year the United States experienced something at least as historic as the pandemic: the largest protest movement in our history. Without lectures from above, people in the streets made the connections between contemporary police killings and the centuries of racial violence that preceded them. However you feel about the historical value of marble monuments to slavers, the toppling of all those statues made it clear that these were not blind outbursts of desperation but the beginning of a reckoning long overdue. With as many as 40 million Americans facing evictions in the coming months, around 80 percent of them Black and brown, it won’t likely be postponed much longer.
Back in the capital, Biden’s chestnuts about unity are unlikely to budge a Republican Senate majority that, though it represents a minority of the population, has shown itself willing to let the country collapse before ceding an inch in the class war. And war it is: The same Republicans who eagerly transferred more than $1 trillion from public coffers to corporations and billionaires refused to give unemployed Americans more than an extra $300 a month or to release emergency funding to state and local governments crippled by the worst economic crisis since the Depression. Still, with food bank lines stretching for miles and more than six million eviction orders expected to go out as soon as the current moratorium expires, Biden has shown no sign of being ready for a fight. If anything, he is more comfortable on the side of the kleptocrats: Biden intervened in the stimulus negotiations, The New York Times reported, to support a package that amounted to less than half the funds that the centrist Democratic leadership had been pushing for, giving “Democrats confidence to pull back on their demands.” His most recent pandemic response plan does not say a word about hunger, housing, unemployment, sick leave, or access to care—as if poverty were not among Covid-19’s most lethal comorbidities.


newrepublic--2020-12-30--The Pragmatism of the Radical Climate Left

There ’ s little evidence , though , that Republicans are actually interested in taking such measures over the finish line—whatever their ability to actually lower emissions .
The Climate Leadership Caucus is a fossil fuel industry-funded carbon tax push fronted by octogenarian Reaganites , and it gets prime op-ed real estate every few months to propose its preferred climate plan , which entails kneecapping the Environmental Protection Agency .
The track record for climate-friendly Republicans is patchy at best : Curbelo lost his seat in 2018 to Democrat Debbie Murcarsel-Powell .
More famously , Bob Inglis—a former South Carolina @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Koch Brothers-backed Tea Party challenger after going on the record as saying some sort of climate action would be necessary ; notably , he hadn ’ t voted for the cap-and-trade bill that had riled the libertarian industrialists .
That bill itself—Waxman-Markey—was supposed to be proof of concept for bipartisan and corporate-friendly climate compromise , backed in the beginning by the likes of Lindsey Graham and BP .
Both eventually withdrew their support , and the measure died without ever coming to a vote in the Senate .
If there ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climate action , they haven ’ t materialized .
And if you ’ re looking to divine the future of bipartisan climate policy , talking to Republicans without a constituency in their own party seems like an odd way to go about it .
No one has cracked the nut of passing comprehensive climate policy through Congress , of course .
But there ’ s at least a decade of evidence showing what hasn ’ t worked .
The Democrats ’ left flank , including Justice Democrats and Sunrise , are trying to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cap-and-trade partly through successful right-wing primary challenges .
Inglis—with his broadly right-wing voting record—was subject to a successful climate litmus test from his party ’ s insurgent wing , which both defeated Waxman-Markey and helped Republicans take back the House in 2010 , the Senate in 2014 , and the White House in 2016 .
Militant primaries have long been a reliable tactic for Republicans , even when they ’ ve failed in the short run .
Barry Goldwater ’ s insurgent 1964 presidential bid set the stage for Ronald Reagan ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to incumbent Gerald Ford , who lost to Jimmy Carter after Reagan essentially refused to campaign for him ; the “ Reagan Revolution ” was more important .
The Reagan administration would proceed to reshape the party in his and Goldwater ’ s image once it took office four years later , laying the groundwork for Donald Trump .
In theory , a likeminded approach could help climate activists push the Democratic Party to drop prejudices against big spending and activist government that have kept it from embracing climate policy at the scale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right and the left , primaries are a means to an end : transforming the party so that it will deliver the policy outcomes you want .

There’s little evidence, though, that Republicans are actually interested in taking such measures over the finish line—whatever their ability to actually lower emissions. The Climate Leadership Caucus is a fossil fuel industry-funded carbon tax push fronted by octogenarian Reaganites, and it gets prime op-ed real estate every few months to propose its preferred climate plan, which entails kneecapping the Environmental Protection Agency. The track record for climate-friendly Republicans is patchy at best: Curbelo lost his seat in 2018 to Democrat Debbie Murcarsel-Powell. More famously, Bob Inglis—a former South Carolina Congressmen—lost his seat in 2010 to a Koch Brothers-backed Tea Party challenger after going on the record as saying some sort of climate action would be necessary; notably, he hadn’t voted for the cap-and-trade bill that had riled the libertarian industrialists. That bill itself—Waxman-Markey—was supposed to be proof of concept for bipartisan and corporate-friendly climate compromise, backed in the beginning by the likes of Lindsey Graham and BP. Both eventually withdrew their support, and the measure died without ever coming to a vote in the Senate.
If there’s a silent majority of Republicans ready for meaningful climate action, they haven’t materialized. And if you’re looking to divine the future of bipartisan climate policy, talking to Republicans without a constituency in their own party seems like an odd way to go about it. No one has cracked the nut of passing comprehensive climate policy through Congress, of course. But there’s at least a decade of evidence showing what hasn’t worked.
The Democrats’ left flank, including Justice Democrats and Sunrise, are trying to learn from past mistakes. Republicans killed cap-and-trade partly through successful right-wing primary challenges. Inglis—with his broadly right-wing voting record—was subject to a successful climate litmus test from his party’s insurgent wing, which both defeated Waxman-Markey and helped Republicans take back the House in 2010, the Senate in 2014, and the White House in 2016. Militant primaries have long been a reliable tactic for Republicans, even when they’ve failed in the short run. Barry Goldwater’s insurgent 1964 presidential bid set the stage for Ronald Reagan’s bitter and narrowly defeated 1976 primary challenge to incumbent Gerald Ford, who lost to Jimmy Carter after Reagan essentially refused to campaign for him; the “Reagan Revolution” was more important. The Reagan administration would proceed to reshape the party in his and Goldwater’s image once it took office four years later, laying the groundwork for Donald Trump. In theory, a likeminded approach could help climate activists push the Democratic Party to drop prejudices against big spending and activist government that have kept it from embracing climate policy at the scale needed to address the crisis. On the right and the left, primaries are a means to an end: transforming the party so that it will deliver the policy outcomes you want.


Getting to
Denmark

In his 2011 book , The Origins of Political Order , Francis Fukuyama says , “ The problem of creating modern political institutions has been described as the problem of ‘ Getting to Denmark.
’ ” He goes on to explain , “ Denmark is a mythical place that is known to have good political and economic institutions : it is stable , democratic , peaceful , prosperous , inclusive , and has extremely low levels of political corruption.
” He notes that international development experts hold up Denmark as a model for what they are trying to achieve in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of them knows the slightest thing about how Denmark became Denmark .
He later offers a short account of that process , featuring this key sentence : “ If there is a single event that sent Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia off on a distinct development path , it was the Protestant Reformation.
” In 1904–1905 , the German sociologist Max Weber wrote his landmark essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism , in which he found the origins of the modern capitalist system in the Protestant work ethic promulgated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Calvin liked what he saw of the nascent capitalism of his time , and he encouraged his followers to find a calling in the area of business .
Under Protestant theology , everyone was supposed to perform strenuous labor in a calling , but not for the sake of attaining salvation , which could only come through the grace of God .
Nor did Calvin preach that you were supposed to work in a calling to store up wealth for personal gratification .
Your aim , rather , was to work for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the expansion of your enterprise .
Your fate in the afterlife was predestined in any case , and there was nothing you could do to alter it .
But over time , Weber explained , the theology evolved , and eventually the attainment of significant wealth came to be interpreted as a sign that you were very probably among the elect—that is , those who would be saved from eternal damnation .
Robert H. Nelson , a professor of political economy at the University of Maryland , has written a book called Lutheranism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : A Different Protestant Ethic .
Nelson argues , contrary to Weber , that there are actually two Protestant ethics , the original one espoused by Martin Luther , who sparked the Protestant Reformation , and Calvin ’ s revision of Luther ’ s theology , which over time came to predominate .
Luther and Calvin were generally in agreement on the theological plane—both detested the Vatican for interposing itself between the individual person and God , for instance—but they held differing views on economics and politics .
Unlike Calvin , Luther did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gathering force around him .
In fact , Nelson says , he was “ often scathingly hostile to a market organization of society based on the self-interested pursuit of profit.
” Nelson approvingly quotes the German sociologist Helge Peukert to the same effect : “ Luther offered western societies a concept of a practical moral economy ... which is located in the interpenetration zone of economy and morals/religion .
It is quite different from Weber ’ s protestant ethics .
”

In his 2011 book, The Origins of Political Order, Francis Fukuyama says, “The problem of creating modern political institutions has been described as the problem of ‘Getting to Denmark.’” He goes on to explain, “Denmark is a mythical place that is known to have good political and economic institutions: it is stable, democratic, peaceful, prosperous, inclusive, and has extremely low levels of political corruption.” He notes that international development experts hold up Denmark as a model for what they are trying to achieve in countries like Iraq and Nigeria—but that none of them knows the slightest thing about how Denmark became Denmark. He later offers a short account of that process, featuring this key sentence: “If there is a single event that sent Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia off on a distinct development path, it was the Protestant Reformation.”
In 1904–1905, the German sociologist Max Weber wrote his landmark essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, in which he found the origins of the modern capitalist system in the Protestant work ethic promulgated by John Calvin and his disciples. Calvin liked what he saw of the nascent capitalism of his time, and he encouraged his followers to find a calling in the area of business. Under Protestant theology, everyone was supposed to perform strenuous labor in a calling, but not for the sake of attaining salvation, which could only come through the grace of God. Nor did Calvin preach that you were supposed to work in a calling to store up wealth for personal gratification. Your aim, rather, was to work for the glory of God, and to finance the expansion of your enterprise. Your fate in the afterlife was predestined in any case, and there was nothing you could do to alter it. But over time, Weber explained, the theology evolved, and eventually the attainment of significant wealth came to be interpreted as a sign that you were very probably among the elect—that is, those who would be saved from eternal damnation.


newrepublic--2020-12-31--The Importance of Brutal Honesty in This Pandemic Winter

In an address on Monday afternoon , Joe Biden offered a bleak preview of winter .
“ We need to be honest , ” the president-elect said .
“ The next few weeks and months are going to be very tough ... maybe the toughest during this entire pandemic .
I know it ’ s hard to hear , but it ’ s the truth.
” He then invoked Franklin Roosevelt , pledging to talk to the American people “ straight from the shoulder ” like the 32nd president did .
Biden was probably referring to the February 1942 “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speaking by radio just 10 weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor , admitted that “ Japan has had an obvious initial advantage ” in the Pacific theater .
But there is an all-important difference between candor during wartime and truth-telling amid the worst pandemic in a century .
No one expected FDR to reveal troop locations and battle plans .
In contrast , Biden and his public health team will not have the luxury of withholding information or packaging it to make reality seem more palatable .
The pandemic is the ultimate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true at any point .
But it is imperative after the lies , crazed predictions , willful denial of reality , and death-dealing incompetence of the Trump administration .

Figuring out a precise percentage is, admittedly, not the most important question facing the nation or Fauci himself. As he was the first to admit, “We need to have some humility here. We really don’t know what the real number is.” We will only know that America has acquired herd immunity when the number of new infections starts dropping toward the vanishing point. But the most respected health-care official in the nation was also conceding that he had molded his public estimates based on the polls measuring anti-vaccine sentiment. In short, Fauci was not saying what he thought, but what he thought the American people could take.
I deeply admire Fauci and everyone else who fought for a rational response to Covid-19 while confronting a snake-oil president and his dangerously deluded sycophants. But because Donald Trump has so poisoned the waters of public trust, the incoming Biden team has to uphold the highest standards of veracity about vaccines and the virus—standards higher than top government public-health figures held themselves to at the beginning of the pandemic.
For all the right-wing wackos—including elected Republicans—who likened mask-wearing mandates to Nazism, it is worth recalling that authority figures like Surgeon General Jerome Adams, among others, initially dissuaded Americans from wearing masks—a tragic mistake in messaging that probably led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.


newrepublic--2020-12-31--Cancel Our Debts, Then Cancel Debt

Cancel Our Debts, Then Cancel Debt

Even modern attempts by Democratic lawmakers to address the baked-in shortcomings in these privatized systems have reeked of individualization and a worship of market-based solutions .
For all the good that Obamacare did to expand Medicaid services , the simple fact that it was not a single-payer system meant that the crisis of private insurance—inadequate plans , skyrocketing rates—was concretized rather than eradicated .
The law also left millions in its coverage gaps or struggling to see doctors in states where Medicaid expansion was ( and still is ) being blocked by Republican politicians .
These debts feel inescapable because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Social Security over student loan debts , as just one example—but the emergency often fades to white noise , just another disturbing facet of life to blend in with all the rest : The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that 77 million people in America have a debt that has been turned over to a private collection agency .
And as ProPublica elucidated in an October 2019 report , thousands are jailed annually for the crime of not being able to pay these debts , with over half of all collections being tied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Affordable Care Act of 2010 , prices for medical services have ballooned , ” ProPublica wrote .
“ Insurers have nearly tripled deductibles—the amount a person pays before their coverage kicks in—and raised premiums and copays , as well.
” The pandemic has meant the debts for basic services have continued to pile up .
Even amid an August report that U.S. household debt had fallen ( by 0.2 percent ) for the first time in six years , it was clear that all the Cares Act accomplished was kicking the can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of federal intervention , Joelle Scally , administrator of the Center for Microeconomic Data at the New York Fed , told Bloomberg , “ These temporary relief measures may also mask the very real financial challenges that Americans may be experiencing.
” The Covid-19 stimulus deal struck by Congress this week only extends the national eviction ban until the end of January , and it ends the pause in student loan payments .
The debt emergency will be even more pronounced in 2021 , and with millions still out of work , Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stimulus bill after Joe Biden becomes president .

Even modern attempts by Democratic lawmakers to address the baked-in shortcomings in these privatized systems have reeked of individualization and a worship of market-based solutions. For all the good that Obamacare did to expand Medicaid services, the simple fact that it was not a single-payer system meant that the crisis of private insurance—inadequate plans, skyrocketing rates—was concretized rather than eradicated. The law also left millions in its coverage gaps or struggling to see doctors in states where Medicaid expansion was (and still is) being blocked by Republican politicians.
These debts feel inescapable because they often are—the state can garnish your Social Security over student loan debts, as just one example—but the emergency often fades to white noise, just another disturbing facet of life to blend in with all the rest: The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that 77 million people in America have a debt that has been turned over to a private collection agency. And as ProPublica elucidated in an October 2019 report, thousands are jailed annually for the crime of not being able to pay these debts, with over half of all collections being tied back to medical care. “Since the Affordable Care Act of 2010, prices for medical services have ballooned,” ProPublica wrote. “Insurers have nearly tripled deductibles—the amount a person pays before their coverage kicks in—and raised premiums and copays, as well.”
The pandemic has meant the debts for basic services have continued to pile up. Even amid an August report that U.S. household debt had fallen (by 0.2 percent) for the first time in six years, it was clear that all the Cares Act accomplished was kicking the can down the road. Assessing the efficacy of federal intervention, Joelle Scally, administrator of the Center for Microeconomic Data at the New York Fed, told Bloomberg, “These temporary relief measures may also mask the very real financial challenges that Americans may be experiencing.” The Covid-19 stimulus deal struck by Congress this week only extends the national eviction ban until the end of January, and it ends the pause in student loan payments. The debt emergency will be even more pronounced in 2021, and with millions still out of work, Republican lawmakers are unlikely to support a third stimulus bill after Joe Biden becomes president.


newrepublic--2020-12-31--Will Joe Biden Betray the Climate Movement Like Justin Trudeau Did?

Berman saw colleagues taking high-ranking positions in the new government .
Catherine McKenna , the former executive director of an energy think tank called the Pembina Institute , became chief of staff of Canada ’ s new environment minister .
Berman herself was appointed to a climate change panel in the oil-producing province of Alberta .
Several months prior to the federal election , that province had elected the carbon price-supporting leader Rachel Notley following decades of conservative premiers who had little interest in addressing the climate emergency .
“ Having a progressive majority government in Alberta that believed in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government in Ottawa that believed in climate change , I think a lot of us had huge hopes , ” Berman said .
What happened next , she thinks , “ is a really important lesson for those in the U.S. ” First , Trudeau approved a $ 1.26 billion liquid natural gas plant on the west coast of Canada .
Then he signed off on a major tar sands pipeline expansion from Alberta to Vancouver .
When the project ’ s owner Kinder Morgan balked at the political risk involved in building @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all along the route , Trudeau ’ s government effectively nationalized the project and vowed to build it instead .
The project is now expected to cost almost $ 10 billion .
His government approved the Trans Mountain pipeline in 2019 , less than 24 hours after declaring a climate emergency in Canada .
Tar sands producers continued to have the fastest growing emissions in Canada , making the country ’ s Paris targets unachievable .
Trudeau this December announced a $ 12 billion investment in clean energy , along with steep hikes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but is still pushing forward with Trans Mountain , which will result in nearly 600,000 additional barrels of tar sands being exported each day .

After those dark years, having Trudeau campaign for prime minister while saying things like “Canada needs to show the world that it is serious about addressing carbon emissions” was the hope many climate activists desperately craved. As with Biden, it wasn’t so much that Trudeau was viewed as a galvanizing left-wing hero. It was more that he was the best option available to defeat Harper. There was even a grassroots campaign called “Anything But Conservative.”
The joy of getting Harper out was intoxicating. Berman knocked on doors for the Liberal Party in Vancouver and was elated when Trudeau formed a government promising to implement a national price on carbon dioxide. “Many progressives felt tremendous relief,” she said.
A handful of activists kept mobilizing: The day that Trudeau moved into the equivalent of the White House, a residence in Ottawa known as 24 Sussex Drive, climate activists organized by the group 350.org and others presented their demands outside the front door. “Number one,” Clayton Thomas-Muller explained, “that we freeze the expansion of the Alberta tar sands,” the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves and a longtime target of the Canadian environmental movement.


newrepublic--2020-12-31--How to Fix the House of Representatives

How to Fix the House of Representatives

So what would proportional representation look like in practice ?
Congress could take a few different paths after careful study and deliberation .
In 2018 , for example , The New York Times backed the use of multi-member districts to elect House members .
Voters would cast ballots to elect three or five representatives from their districts on proportional grounds , thus ensuring that the minority in that district would still receive some representation .
Another option would be to treat each state as one large multi-member district .
Under this model , voters could choose from lists of candidates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a variety of methods that influence which members of each party should receive the seats .
Perhaps the most tantalizing model comes from Germany , which shares America ’ s federalized system of government .
When electing members to the Bundestag , the lower house of the national parliament , German voters actually cast two votes .
One vote is for a candidate in their local constituency ; the other is for a party ’ s slate of candidates .
After the winners in each district are determined , the second group of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parties receive a number of seats proportionate to their overall votes .
This hybrid model would preserve a measure of geographic representation , especially in large states , while also ensuring that the House ’ s final composition reflects the overall will of the American people .
Some of these models work even better if Congress increased the number of seats in the House .
As more states joined the Union in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the country ’ s population grew , Congress did just that by regularly passing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pattern ended after the 1920 census showed that urban Americans outnumbered rural Americans for the first time .
Rural lawmakers , fearing the long-term decline of their influence , blocked legislation to add more seats that cycle .
In 1929 , Congress permanently fixed the number of seats at 435 .
The average House member now represents a whopping 750,000 Americans , compared to roughly 300,000 Americans when the number was capped .
No wonder so many voters don ’ t feel represented in Congress .
Expanding the House could also take a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be to simply raise the arbitrary 435-member cap to another arbitrary number , perhaps to 535 or 565 .
One proposal , called the “ Wyoming Rule , ” would go a step further .
It would adjust the size of the House to ensure that each district contained roughly the same number of constituents as the least populous district .
Since some states have just one House seat , that would currently make Wyoming—and its 550,000 inhabitants—the floating benchmark for House representation .
This would involve a bit more math than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also be a straightforward and easily explained reform—the hallmark of any good electoral system .

In 2021, every state will use the results of the 2020 census to redraw the maps of American political power. Some states give independent commissions or nonpartisan officials the power to redraw their state legislative maps and congressional districts. But in the majority of states, that duty falls to partisan state legislatures. Hyper-partisanship will exert a stronger pull than usual across the country as it rewrites its political boundaries this time around: In all but 12 states, the legislature and the governorship are controlled by a single party.
Some Republican-led states spent the past decade locked in legal warfare with liberal activists and civil-rights groups that fought their tilted redistricting maps in court. But the next ten years will look much different. In 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause that federal courts no longer had a role to play in partisan-gerrymandering cases, leaving the problem in the hands of the elected branches that caused it. The ruling left residents in some states with few or no options to ensure that voters pick their lawmakers and not the other way around.
The last decade shows how partisan gerrymandering can lead to less democratic accountability, encourage radicalization among House members, and hamstring the ability of Congress to govern. Alas, Congress can’t do much to prevent state lawmakers from drawing themselves into perennially safe seats or locking opposition parties out of workable majorities. But it could eliminate gerrymandering—whether partisan, racial, or otherwise—in the House of Representatives with a simple act of legislation. By adopting proportional representation, Congress could ensure that the people’s house always actually represents the people.


newrepublic--2020-12-31--This Year’s Underground Sensation: Modern Monetary Theory

At the close of 2020 , it ’ s hard to think of another year in living memory that has forced such a radical rethinking of our politics and social life .
The Covid-19 pandemic will be remembered as a dire time in American life , but its disruption may yet open us up to new ideas and social possibilities , especially when it comes to the power of the government to spend .
Modern Monetary Theory posits that a governing body like the United States federal government , which borrows and spends in the same currency it issues , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that taxes serve to take excess money out of circulation rather than to fund the government .
MMT was considered fringe a few short years ago .
It ’ s edged closer to a bipartisan centrist policy in the wake of the Cares Act and the Federal Reserve ’ s swift action to buoy securities markets ; everyone but the most reactionary cranks wanted to turn on the money hose to prevent the spring Covid-19 shock from turning into a Great Depression .
Though the core concepts about currency-issuing governments have existed in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ century , the theory gained significant public visibility in June when economist Stephanie Kelton released her book The Deficit Myth , the first attempt to bring MMT to a general audience .
Kelton isn ’ t a household name like Milton Friedman , but her book reached The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list .
Beyond this new lay audience , MMT has gained a growing network of adherents .
A smaller coterie of thinkers has started to develop these unorthodox economic ideas into something much broader than a mere explanation as to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deficits .
There ’ s a vibrant subculture being spawned around MMT that reminds one of the old adage about the seminal underground band The Velvet Underground : Not many people saw them play live , but everyone who did started a band of their own .
The players in this next wave of MMT enthusiasm include an interdisciplinary group of economists , legal scholars , and humanities Ph.D.s convened by the Modern Money Network project .
The Modern Money Network is staking out a more capacious leftist , social , political , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its governance .
They are explicitly competing with Marxism ’ s focus on class struggle and the strictly Marxist-socialist left associated with Jacobin magazine , which rose to prominence with Bernie Sanders ’ s presidential runs .
The network has put together conferences and scholarly volumes under the title Money On The Left , along with an interdisciplinary interview podcast of the same name .
The Modern Money Network ’ s “ Humanities Division ” puts out the Money On The Left podcast as well as a more conversational offering called Superstructure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Extremely Online register as scores of popular left-wing podcasts such as Chapo Trap House .

At the close of 2020, it’s hard to think of another year in living memory that has forced such a radical rethinking of our politics and social life. The Covid-19 pandemic will be remembered as a dire time in American life, but its disruption may yet open us up to new ideas and social possibilities, especially when it comes to the power of the government to spend. Modern Monetary Theory posits that a governing body like the United States federal government, which borrows and spends in the same currency it issues, can never run out of money and that taxes serve to take excess money out of circulation rather than to fund the government. MMT was considered fringe a few short years ago. It’s edged closer to a bipartisan centrist policy in the wake of the Cares Act and the Federal Reserve’s swift action to buoy securities markets; everyone but the most reactionary cranks wanted to turn on the money hose to prevent the spring Covid-19 shock from turning into a Great Depression.
Though the core concepts about currency-issuing governments have existed in certain academic pockets since the early twentieth century, the theory gained significant public visibility in June when economist Stephanie Kelton released her book The Deficit Myth, the first attempt to bring MMT to a general audience. Kelton isn’t a household name like Milton Friedman, but her book reached The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. Beyond this new lay audience, MMT has gained a growing network of adherents. A smaller coterie of thinkers has started to develop these unorthodox economic ideas into something much broader than a mere explanation as to why we shouldn’t sweat government deficits. There’s a vibrant subculture being spawned around MMT that reminds one of the old adage about the seminal underground band The Velvet Underground: Not many people saw them play live, but everyone who did started a band of their own.


newrepublic--2020-12-31--The Future of Trumpism Is Not Josh Hawley. It’s Trump.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley announced on Wednesday that he would take the courageous step of trying to overthrow an American election .
When Congress formally counts the Electoral College votes on January 6 , Hawley said he would try to challenge at least one state ’ s results , which requires at least one member of the House and Senate each .
There aren ’ t enough votes in either chamber to toss out a state result , so the maneuver will only delay President-elect Joe Biden ’ s final victory by a few more hours .
“ I can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states , particularly Pennsylvania , failed to follow their own state election laws , ” Hawley said in a statement .
“ And I can not vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations , including Facebook and Twitter , to interfere in this election , in support of Joe Biden .
At the very least , Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections .
But Congress has so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is unsurprising from Hawley , who has been running for president ever since he arrived in Washington .
Trump is using his lies about voter fraud as a litmus test of sorts for GOP office-holders across the country , implicitly conditioning his future political support for them on their willingness to support his false claims about the 2020 election .
For ambitious conservatives like Hawley who aspire to even higher office , undermining the legitimacy of this election is just another step on the path to winning the next one .

Can you imagine Trump taking such a placid, secondary role in public life? All of his moves so far suggest that, at minimum, he wants to remain the axial figure in Republican politics for the foreseeable future. Trump hasn’t yet publicly signaled that he would run again in 2024, of course. Such a move would effectively concede that he lost this election, after all. But he has reportedly told aides that he would do so in private, perhaps even announcing the decision on Inauguration Day to steal some of Biden’s thunder. His false claims about this election are also a lucrative fundraising tool—more than $200 million, and counting—as he amasses a financial war chest for the future. Even serious legal trouble may not deter Trump from mounting a 2024 bid: Socialist candidate Eugene Debs ran for president in 1920 from an Indiana prison and won 3 percent of the vote.
If Hawley and his cohorts genuinely believed there was electoral fraud, their moves would be slightly more defensible. But all of the available evidence suggests that cynical self-interest is the real motive at play. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican and an occasional critic of Trump, confirmed those suspicions in a Facebook post on Wednesday night. “When we talk in private, I haven’t heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent—not one,” he wrote. “Instead, I hear them talk about their worries about how they will ‘look’ to President Trump’s most ardent supporters.”
Most of Sasse’s post was devoted to discussing why Trump’s claims of election fraud didn’t hold water. But he also threw an implicit jab at grandstanding by Hawley and other “institutional arsonist” members of Congress. “Let’s be clear what is happening here: We have a bunch of ambitious politicians who think there’s a quick way to tap into the president’s populist base without doing any real, long-term damage,” Sasse wrote. “But they’re wrong—and this issue is bigger than anyone’s personal ambitions. Adults don’t point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government.”


newrepublic--2020-04-01--The U.S. Military Can Barely Protect Itself From the Coronavirus

Numbers tell part of that story .
As of last Friday , the Pentagon had reported 613 cases of coronavirus in its combined military and civilian workforce , putting its total ahead of 28 states ’ .
( The Department of Defense ’ s ” population ” of about 2.9 million people , by contrast , only makes it bigger than the population of 15 states . )
But by Monday , military-linked infections had already topped 1,000 , and Esper had ordered all U.S. commanders across the globe to stop reporting new infections on their installations to the public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is classified as a risk to operational security.
” Subordinates of Esper at several U.S. military bases told Stars & Stripes that the order “ could harm their ability to inform their own force and strain their ability to work with officials in their surrounding civilian communities amid the pandemic.
” Local military commands are already in disarray in many respects .
The Navy is fast learning that ships and bases are breeding grounds for coronavirus ; in addition to the Roosevelt outbreak , cases have been reported on the USS Ronald Reagan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the service ’ s boot camp and the Naval Academy .
New York–based recruiters for the Marine Corps begged the service last week to shut down its boot camp training base at Parris Island , South Carolina—always a close-quarters hotbed for germs .
“ Decision-makers are absolutely in denial if they believe high rates of infection and hospitalization will not happen on the depot under close proximity and enclosed spaces , ” one Marine told Military.com .
By Monday , Marine Corps officials were forced to relent , after at least 20 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the virus ; the service ’ s West Coast boot camp in San Diego , however , remains open .
At the U.S. Air Force Academy , officials sent the three lower classes home to wait out the virus , but ordered soon-to-graduate seniors to remain in the campus dorm , one to a room , and obey social distancing orders on pain of punishment .
Within 48 hours last week , two isolated senior cadets died by suicide , prompting academy leadership to ease restrictions and institute several morale-boosting measures : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until then , allowing “ a casual Friday where civilian clothing can be worn.
” Travel restrictions have complicated military families ’ planned moves , leaving about one-fifth of those families stuck with two rent or mortgage bills , according to one survey ; many more are separated from their possessions , scrambling for temporary housing , and in employment limbo .
At the same time , the DOD has vacillated over whether active-duty dependents will be able to access military pharmacies and treatment facilities during the pandemic .

Numbers tell part of that story. As of last Friday, the Pentagon had reported 613 cases of Covid-19 in its combined military and civilian workforce, putting its total ahead of 28 states’. (The Department of Defense’s “population” of about 2.9 million people, by contrast, only makes it bigger than the population of 15 states.) But by Monday, military-linked infections had already topped 1,000, and Esper had ordered all U.S. commanders across the globe to stop reporting new infections on their installations to the public, calling such reports “information that is classified as a risk to operational security.” Subordinates of Esper at several U.S. military bases told Stars & Stripes that the order “could harm their ability to inform their own force and strain their ability to work with officials in their surrounding civilian communities amid the pandemic.”
Local military commands are already in disarray in many respects. The Navy is fast learning that ships and bases are breeding grounds for the coronavirus; in addition to the Roosevelt outbreak, cases have been reported on the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Boxer, as well as at the service’s boot camp and the Naval Academy. New York–based recruiters for the Marine Corps begged the service last week to shut down its boot-camp training base at Parris Island, South Carolina—always a close-quarters hotbed for germs. “Decision-makers are absolutely in denial if they believe high rates of infection and hospitalization will not happen on the depot under close proximity and enclosed spaces,” one Marine told Military.com. By Monday, Marine Corps officials were forced to relent, after at least 20 Parris Island recruits and trainers tested positive for the virus; the service’s West Coast boot camp in San Diego, however, remains open.
At the U.S. Air Force Academy, officials sent the three lower classes home to wait out the virus, but ordered soon-to-graduate seniors to remain in the campus dorm, one to a room, and obey social distancing orders on pain of punishment. Within 48 hours last week, two isolated senior cadets died by suicide, prompting academy leadership to ease restrictions and institute several morale-boosting measures: moving graduation up to mid-April and, until then, allowing “a casual Friday where civilian clothing can be worn.”


newrepublic--2020-04-01--Sunderland ’Til I Die Is TV’s Best Show About Failure

In the movies , underdog sports teams always come from gritty , struggling , preferably postindustrial places .
Major League wouldn ’ t work if it were set in Miami , instead of Cleveland .
Rocky ’ s determination in Rocky is melded to Philadelphia : He draws his strength from the city itself , pumping his fists and jumping into the air after ascending the steps of the city ’ s art museum .
Underdog sports teams are avatars for their downtrodden communities .
They ultimately prevail by embodying the pluck and mettle of the people , taking down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( in Major League ’ s case , the Yankees ) .
In the process , they elevate the cities they represent , which rise to reclaim the glory they lost a long time ago .
The first season of Sunderland ’ Til I Die , Netflix ’ s documentary about Sunderland Association Football Club , the storied but recently relegated soccer team from England ’ s northeast , was intended to follow this trajectory .
With an emphasis on the club ’ s passionate working-class supporters , a grandiloquent score , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its massive stadium , it was meant to follow the team as it marched its way back to the heights ( and riches ) of the English Premier League .
Along the way , the team would redeem the city , which has never quite recovered after the English economy moved on from cotton and coal in the last century .
But Sunderland ’ s 2018–2019 season did not work out as intended .
Instead , everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong .
The team ’ s defense was abysmal ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transfer window in January .
Veteran Darron Gibson started the season drunkenly bitching about the club in a pub and ended it being arrested for drunk driving .
Practically everyone with us at the start of the year was gone by the end : two managers , an executive , an owner , and several players .
Instead of reaching the promised land of the Premier League , Sunderland was unable even to keep its perch in the second division ; it was relegated again , to England ’ s third division .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The cameras captured nearly everything .
There was no one to block access , a true feat in the hermetic world of top-flight sports , where millions of dollars are spent manicuring the images of teams and athletes .
The result was an intricate portrait of the sports world ’ s most profound , but rarely explored , phenomenon : failure .
Now back for a second season , Sunderland ’ Til I Die once again hopes to capture a soccer team—and a people—on the ascent .
Instead , it provides a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ look at catastrophe .

In the first episode, Methven tells the team that Sunderland “is a failed, fucked-up business, and unless you guys understand that, you’re never going to make it in this world.” He sounds a bit like Alec Baldwin delivering his Glengarry Glen Ross monologue: “This. Was. Fucked,” he says. “A hundred percent fucked!” (Perhaps consciously, Methven is also echoing the impeccable profanity of Sunderland ’Til I Die’s predecessor, 1998’s Premier Passions, a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking that tracked Sunderland AFC’s first disastrous season in the Premier League.) If Sunderland is to survive, it has to claw its way out of the third division by either finishing in the top two of the second division or winning the final promotion slot in a four-team playoff.
The financial stress weighs heavily on the club’s leaders, particularly Donald. Seemingly in the throes of a midlife crisis, Donald is thin-skinned and prone to nervous fits. His decisions are impulsive and emotional. Donald and Methven don’t fit in—they’re not working-class and there’s something dodgy about both of them. They offer a fascinating glimpse into how decisions—decisions with immense financial and personal repercussions—are actually made at the top.
Donald’s flightiness leads to two catastrophic mistakes. Furious with the way he’s being treated by the agent of his young star, the goal machine Josh Maja, Donald sells him in January, rather than let him walk for free at the end of the season. (The show presents this as a fait accompli engineered by Maja and his agent, but I’m not so certain.) Donald then wildly overspends to bring in replacement Will Grigg, who can barely find the back of the net.


Germany Gets It

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has likewise called the virus an “ enemy ” to be beaten and styled his ministry an emergency “ wartime government.
” He has informed Britons that “ each and every one of us is directly enlisted.
” But at the center of his wartime pandemic rhetoric lies , specifically , the spirit of the Blitz : the grit shown by British soldiers and civilians in 1940 as they fought a lonesome war against the Third Reich .
It is language to justify deprivation and demand sacrifice .
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock reminded voters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pounding every night , the rationing , the loss of life … pulled together in one gigantic national effort .
Today our generation is facing its own test , fighting a very real and new disease.
” The wrinkle , of course , is that Brexiteers like Johnson favored this vocabulary long before the coronavirus surfaced .
One wonders how much more resonant it would seem today had they kept their rhetorical powder dry .
The use of wartime rhetoric to galvanize democratic publics has two critical implications .
First , it demands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other , as fellow citizens and subjects of care , but for the nation .
Second , military language is a language of necessity .
The vocabulary of drafting and enlistment presents stark realities and few options .
“ Believe me , ” Macron explained , “ this effort that I demand of you : I know that it is unprecedented , but circumstances compel us.
” It is difficult to listen to the words of Johnson or Macron and feel all that politically empowered .
There ’ s an American plague rhetoric @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s at once dully literal and maddeningly vague .
The long-standing narrative of American exceptionalism heals all wounds for this president .
“ No nation is more prepared or more equipped to face down this crisis , ” he said on March 13 .
“ As you know , we are rated number one in the world.
” During his own televised address , he assured Americans that no other country was “ more prepared or more resilient than the United States .
We have the best economy , the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talented doctors , scientists , and researchers anywhere in the world.
” Should this be insufficient balm , Trump hawks American entrepreneurial spirit in its most distilled form .
Name-checking big corporations and promising miracle cures , he celebrates private-sector solutions and the nation ’ s “ unbelievable innovators ” while asking little of everyone else , including himself .
“ Relax , ” he has commented .
“ We ’ re doing great.
” In the language of this White House , which trades heavily on national achievements long past , Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but of capital .
Justin Trudeau , the Canadian prime minister , has been briefing the country daily from outside his home , where he has been self-isolating .
Trudeau has mostly not framed the response to the coronavirus as a military operation .
But neither has he demanded much work of democratic citizenship .
He has rather tried to nourish warm feelings of national solidarity and care .
On March 16 , he told Canadians living and traveling abroad that it was “ time for you to come home.
” Trudeau has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small acts of kindness and to elevate a nationalism of neighborliness .
“ The strength of our country is our capacity to come together and care for each other , especially in times of need , ” he said .
“ So call your friends .
Check in with your family .
Think of your community.… Because that is what Canadians do in difficult times .
We pull together , and we look after each other.
” Trudeau has justified the government ’ s public health restrictions and stimulus plans the same way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handles the pandemic , he is arguing , it will be not as a democratic family but as a national one , motivated by patriotic virtues and loyalties .

The use of wartime rhetoric to galvanize democratic publics has two critical implications. First, it demands that individuals make sacrifices not for each other, as fellow citizens and subjects of care, but for the nation. Second, military language is a language of necessity. The vocabulary of drafting and enlistment presents stark realities and few options. “Believe me,” Macron explained, “this effort that I demand of you: I know that it is unprecedented, but circumstances compel us.” It is difficult to listen to the words of Johnson or Macron and feel all that politically empowered.
There’s an American plague rhetoric, too—though characteristically of Donald Trump, it’s at once dully literal and maddeningly vague. The long-standing narrative of American exceptionalism heals all wounds for this president. “No nation is more prepared or more equipped to face down this crisis,” he said on March 13. “As you know, we are rated number one in the world.” During his own televised address, he assured Americans that no other country was “more prepared or more resilient than the United States. We have the best economy, the most advanced health care, and the most talented doctors, scientists, and researchers anywhere in the world.” Should this be insufficient balm, Trump hawks American entrepreneurial spirit in its most distilled form. Name-checking big corporations and promising miracle cures, he celebrates private-sector solutions and the nation’s “unbelievable innovators” while asking little of everyone else, including himself. “Relax,” he has commented. “We’re doing great.” In the language of this White House, which trades heavily on national achievements long past, Americans are bound by ties not of citizenship but of capital.
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, has been briefing the country daily from outside his home, where he has been self-isolating. Trudeau has mostly not framed the response to the coronavirus as a military operation. But neither has he demanded much work of democratic citizenship. He has rather tried to nourish warm feelings of national solidarity and care. On March 16, he told Canadians living and traveling abroad that it was “time for you to come home.” Trudeau has relied on the first-person plural to celebrate small acts of kindness and to elevate a nationalism of neighborliness. “The strength of our country is our capacity to come together and care for each other, especially in times of need,” he said. “So call your friends. Check in with your family. Think of your community.… Because that is what Canadians do in difficult times. We pull together, and we look after each other.” Trudeau has justified the government’s public health restrictions and stimulus plans the same way. To the extent the country successfully handles the pandemic, he is arguing, it will be not as a democratic family but as a national one, motivated by patriotic virtues and loyalties.


newrepublic--2020-04-01--Imagining a Better Life After the Coronavirus

Last week , I posed an admittedly taboo question to my followers on Twitter : “ Is anyone enjoying this ?
Any parents , in particular ?
Are there any ways your life is better in this situation ?
” I was surprised by the response , from more than 30 workers around the country and across the world .
Perhaps “ enjoy ” was the wrong word , they fairly noted , but they did find something positive in their new reality .
“ I do not enjoy the forest , ” wrote Caitrin Keiper , a magazine editor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I love my little trees.
” Others used the words “ lovely ” and “ wonderful.
” They ’ re not commuting .
They ’ re spending more time with their kids .
They ’ re getting more exercise .
The spread of the novel coronavirus has utterly changed work in America .
Most important , the pandemic has put millions out of a job .
Untold millions more are taking pay cuts , or juggling childcare and homeschooling , or enduring immense pressure to continue low-wage work in spite of the risks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pharmacy assistants , supermarket cashiers , and others are being worked to the bone to sustain our mass self-isolation .
There is no silver lining in the pandemic for these Americans .
But for some Americans , thanks in part to the workers above , conditions are actually better than they were before .
There is less pressure and more flexibility .
Once the pandemic subsides , and we grieve everyone and everything we have lost , we should not go back to our “ normal ” way of working .
We need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new work experience and make them accessible to all—especially those who are being hit hardest by this crisis .
One father of three young children , who works for a nonprofit in the D.C. area , told me that working from home has allowed for a more equitable split of domestic labor with his wife , who is also working from home .
“ I don ’ t have 2.5 hours of daily commute anymore .
She doesn ’ t have to cook and entertain the kids at the same time , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always home now , he cooks .
They block out time to be with their children or , as they did recently , play guitar in front of neighbors ’ houses so their kids could dance and sing along .

For many of the workers I heard from, life under quarantine has shattered that dilemma. Summer Block, a freelance writer in Los Angeles who is married with four children, told me that before the stay-at-home order, she was stretched thin with work, family, and a long list of volunteer projects, from the PTA to the Bernie Sanders campaign to Girl Scouts. “All of those things are canceled now,” she said. Her kids’ therapy and music lessons are now happening online, so she doesn’t have to drive anyone around. “Usually I never feel I get enough time with my kids,” Block said. “Now I finally don’t have that nagging feeling of, I wish I saw them more.” She even has a little more time to write.
Not that it’s all roses for these and other professional-class workers. Several whom I spoke to said outright that they would much prefer a coronavirus-free, “normal” life to what we have now. “I have had daily freak-outs,” said Bria Sandford, a book editor in New York City. But breaking out of her normal schedule has helped Sandford find renewed value in leisure. “Eliminating the physical stress of a commute and office environment has largely offset the stress of quarantine,” she said. “I’m going for walks in the woods, eating well, hydrating, and am able to do mild exercise for the first time in years.” After the pandemic subsides, she said, she hopes to work more from home and to maintain what she calls her “no-phone-before-prayer-and-walk routine.”
The pandemic has brought to light many failings of our society and values, among them the religious devotion to work: the very American notion that only through labor do our lives have meaning. Thus we have politicians arguing that the holy economy must not be forsaken even at a time like this—that some humans may need to make the ultimate sacrifice so that we all may continue working, generating and spending the money necessary to nourish the insatiable beast of American capitalism. “My message is that let’s get back to work,” Dan Patrick, the Republican lieutenant governor of Texas, said on Fox News last week. “Let’s get back to living. Let’s be smart about it, and those of us who are 70-plus, we’ll take care of ourselves, but don’t sacrifice the country.”


newrepublic--2020-04-01--Go for the Jugular, Joe Biden

Go for the Jugular, Joe Biden

One of the most vociferous proponents of this view was , of course , Joe Biden , who began his campaign stridently linking Trump to white supremacy and the killing of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville .
And although he ’ s offered meaningful and substantive jabs at the administration ’ s management of the coronavirus crisis , the approach Biden has taken against Trump in recent weeks—in the middle of one of what may well be Trump ’ s deadliest and most consequential failures—represents a noticeable shift away from high rhetoric about “ the soul of the nation ” toward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been criticizing the president , ” he said on The View last week .
“ But I ’ ve been pointing out where there is disagreement on how to proceed.
” The comments from the Biden adviser who spoke to Lizza suggests that shift has been animated by a wariness of falling on the wrong side of what ’ s often called a “ rally around the flag effect ” —the tendency for voters to support leaders , or at least give them the benefit of the doubt , in times of crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Trump .
Gallup ’ s latest figures show Trump at a 49 percent approval rating , a tie with the highest ratings he ’ s reached over the course of his presidency .
And multiple polls also show a majority of voters specifically approve of the way he has handled the coronavirus crisis .
But there are important caveats here that should inform the Biden campaign ’ s strategy .
Although Trump ’ s approval rating has spiked , that increase has been far smaller than the boost other world leaders dealing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reminder that Trump remains a deeply polarizing figure with a firm ceiling in public support .
Additionally , the number of Americans who approve of the administration ’ s handling of the virus is being elevated by Democrats .
In a Monmouth poll released last week , for instance , almost 20 percent of Democrats believed Trump has done a good job , thus far , at managing the crisis .
It ’ s entirely possible , likely even , that Trump ’ s numbers will deflate as the national situation worsens .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ now .
Voters might be more likely to think Trump is doing a good job if they are told by the press that other voters believe this to be true .
Biden can diminish that risk by being more aggressive in his characterizations of the consequences of Trump ’ s poor leadership and getting voters within the party he now functionally leads in line on the matter .
This might also bolster enthusiasm within the party for his campaign .
One of the remarkable things about Biden ’ s candidacy is that while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters because beating Trump is a high priority for most , relatively few Democratic voters seem particularly excited about watching him do so .
That won ’ t change if Biden is offering Trump more prescriptions than broadsides .
As for the risk that Biden might alienate Trump supporters he ’ d like to win over with his criticisms , the deeper risk is that Biden fails to condemn Trump strongly enough for those voters to perceive a real reason to abandon him .
The kind of authority Biden is trying to project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ authority they ’ re likely to respect—they chose Trump over a candidate offering the impression of measured competence in 2016 , and they may well do so again in November .

The comments from the Biden adviser who spoke to Lizza suggests that shift has been animated by a wariness of falling on the wrong side of what’s often called a “rally around the flag effect”—the tendency for voters to support leaders, or at least give them the benefit of the doubt, in times of crisis. Polls do suggest this is happening for Trump. Gallup’s latest figures show Trump at a 49 percent approval rating, a tie with the highest ratings he’s reached over the course of his presidency. And multiple polls also show a majority of voters specifically approve of the way he has handled the coronavirus crisis.
But there are important caveats here that should inform the Biden campaign’s strategy. Although Trump’s approval rating has spiked, that increase has been far smaller than the boost other world leaders dealing with the crisis have enjoyed, a reminder that Trump remains a deeply polarizing figure with a firm ceiling in public support. Additionally, the number of Americans who approve of the administration’s handling of the virus is being elevated by Democrats. In a Monmouth poll released last week, for instance, almost 20 percent of Democrats believed Trump has done a good job, thus far, at managing the crisis. It’s entirely possible, likely even, that Trump’s numbers will deflate as the national situation worsens. But Biden gains little by pulling punches now. Voters might be more likely to think Trump is doing a good job if they are told by the press that other voters believe this to be true. Biden can diminish that risk by being more aggressive in his characterizations of the consequences of Trump’s poor leadership and getting voters within the party he now functionally leads in line on the matter.
This might also bolster enthusiasm within the party for his campaign. One of the remarkable things about Biden’s candidacy is that while he’s been chosen by Democratic voters because beating Trump is a high priority for most, relatively few Democratic voters seem particularly excited about watching him do so. That won’t change if Biden is offering Trump more prescriptions than broadsides. As for the risk that Biden might alienate Trump supporters he’d like to win over with his criticisms, the deeper risk is that Biden fails to condemn Trump strongly enough for those voters to perceive a real reason to abandon him. The kind of authority Biden is trying to project isn’t necessarily the kind of authority they’re likely to respect—they chose Trump over a candidate offering the impression of measured competence in 2016, and they may well do so again in November.


newrepublic--2020-04-01--Woody Allen’s Memoir Is Shrouded in Secrecy. Why?

It takes a long time to make a book .
Publishers generally trumpet projects upon the acquisition of a manuscript or the signing of a deal .
So when on March 2 of this year , Grand Central Publishing , an imprint of Hachette Book Group , announced that it would publish Apropos of Nothing , a memoir by Woody Allen , on April 7 , the news was met with surprise—the equivalent of a midnight album drop in the staid world of books .
Grand Central provided few details , creating , rather than dispelling , an air of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself , when it arrived .
A spokesman confirmed that the house had acquired the manuscript a full year earlier , in March 2019 .
In May 2019 , The New York Times reported that Allen had been shopping a book ; the paper could not confirm that a deal had been made but acknowledged , “ If one has , it has been kept tightly under wraps.
” So it would seem .
The reticence may have been because of the unusual terms of the sale .
Two editors at publishing houses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Allen offered the book for no advance ( a payment against future royalties that is standard in the business ) in exchange for full authorial control .
This , too , was unusual for the publishing industry , even if Allen is known for demanding the final cut on his films .
Hachette will not confirm whether Grand Central agreed to these terms when signing up Allen ’ s book .
At least one publisher I spoke to passed on the project , not out of moral objection but because the staff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manuscript .
( I agree , but more on that later . )
Publishers typically gauge a project ’ s merits with a profit and loss statement—production costs weighed against a guess for how the thing might sell .
Allen ’ s book would have required a different calculus ; the exchange of a publisher ’ s imprimatur for the vision of an auteur .

Apropos of Nothing is a reminder that Woody Allen has been playing himself for a long time.
Jeannette Seaver, who ultimately acquired Apropos of Nothing at Arcade, shared this view. “I come from a long line of free speech protesting,” she told me, speaking of her late husband, Richard. “And my reaction was the one that Dick would have had. What do you mean? This great publishing house, Grand Central … how can they possibly drop a book on the basis of a protest by their employees?”
Stephen King tweeted about the affair, “The Hachette decision to drop the Woody Allen book makes me very uneasy. It’s not him; I don’t give a damn about Mr. Allen. It’s who gets muzzled next that worries me.” Many derided this response, pointing out the gulf between corporate censure and actual censorship. But editors working inside a system controlled by corporate forces are less sanguine. “I think it’s a dangerous practice for a publisher to say ‘We’re not going to honor a contract,’” one told me. “I wouldn’t want to be owned by a hypothetical big media company and have someone come to me and say ‘You have to cancel this journalist’s book because they’re very critical of China and we do business with the Chinese government.’”
The incident highlighted a generational rift in the business. “There’s an entrenched baby boomer managerial class throughout most of the publishing industry,” another editor told me. “Their ideas about free expression were very much formed during 1960s cultural changes. Then you have a large underclass of poorly paid entry- and mid-level employees who are largely coming from the millennial generation—some are even younger than that. And they did not grow up in a repressive culture. The idea that free expression, rebelling against 1950s repression, is the paramount value, is anathema to them. The idea that speech and cultural production can be harmful is very real. And it’s incredibly difficult to bridge that gap, especially where commerce is involved.”


newrepublic--2020-04-01--The Hollow Politics of Minimalism

The Hollow Politics of Minimalism

In 2009 , Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus were childhood friends living in Ohio and working hard toward achieving the American dream .
They had corporate jobs making six figures , suburban houses , and plenty of stuff .
But it wasn ’ t all perfect : They also struggled with debt , addiction , and exhaustion .
In the fall of that year , Millburn ’ s mother died , and his marriage fell apart .
He started to realize that he was unhappy and unhealthy .
“ I wasn ’ t living the Dream , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lie.
” Scrolling through Twitter one day , he discovered a video by someone named Colin Wright , who owned very few possessions , traveled full time , and called himself a minimalist .
Millburn was attracted to the idea and began working to simplify his life .
He recruited Nicodemus , who had been feeling similar discontent , to the cause .
At the end of 2010 , dubbing themselves “ The Minimalists , ” the pair launched a blog about their journey .
The next year , they left their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Blogging and speaking events brought media appearances , and their holistic message of eschewing materialism in order to find freedom garnered new followers .
Whereas in the early days they would have been lucky to get 50 people at an event , by 2017 they could draw 500 .
Millburn and Nicodemus call themselves the minimalists , but they aren ’ t the definitive article ; they ’ re part of a larger trend that has swept the United States over the past decade .
Before the duo ’ s conversion , people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former pastor , were already chronicling online their adventures in living with less .
Japan ’ s foremost decluttering expert , Marie Kondo , landed in the United States in 2014 with the English-language version of her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up , which has sold millions of copies and spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list .
KonMari ( as her method is called ) mania , which instructs followers to keep only those items that “ spark joy , ” reached new heights in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reality-TV show , Tidying Up With Marie Kondo , that has overloaded thrift stores with donations .
Downsizing today isn ’ t just a process ; it ’ s a lifestyle that comes with its own aesthetic—minimalism as visual brand .
It ’ s the careful framing of the objects that represent you and therefore matter : white walls and lone lamps and burnished wood furniture and a carefully placed sprig of green .
It ’ s the design of your iPhone as well as many of the photos you scroll through ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while using it .
Minimalism is tiny houses , floor-to-ceiling glass condos , and the homogenized industrial-chic decor of coffee shops and work spaces that allows white-collar workers to travel between cities and countries without feeling as if they ’ ve gone anywhere at all .
According to the website Apartment Therapy , minimalism is so vast that there are at least six distinct strands of it , from experiential to mindful , and more .

It’s a testament to the effectiveness of Minimalist art that it can still draw and confound viewers today. The Museum of Modern Art is betting on this with a large Judd retrospective this spring. The promotional image for the exhibition shows an untitled work from 1991 that’s made of dozens of discrete enameled aluminum rectangles stacked and bolted together to create a single large unit—almost like an abstracted dresser or bookcase. What to make of such an object sitting on the floor of a white-walled gallery? What does it mean? The goal is for viewers to experience and interact with the work as it looks and simply is, allowing it to generate feelings and prioritizing sensation over interpretation. Form becomes content. Minimalism “tries to make us understand that the sense of artistic beauty humanity has built up over millennia … is also an artificial creation,” Chayka writes. It requires “a new definition of beauty, one that centers on the fundamental miracle of our moment-to-moment encounter with reality, our sense of being itself.” Although it often looks sleek and shiny, this work doesn’t offer the tidy frictionlessness of a pared-down home. Often difficult and unsettling, it is intended as a confrontation.
In their embrace of industrial materials, the Minimalists were drawing on modernist architecture, although with a very different goal in mind. Whereas the artists were attempting to empty art of its preconceived notions and its need for inherent meaning, the architects were striving for a utopian promise: the idea that mass production and standardization could help bring about a better society, or what Chayka calls “a vision of a safer and cleaner world, with cosmopolitan equality for all who inhabited its architecture.” Beginning in the early twentieth century, architects across Europe started moving away from the predominant, often ornate styles in the field toward more modest, streamlined, glass-and-steel structures shaped by their function. “Making things simpler and blanker was cast as a form of progress,” Chayka writes. The leaders in this arena were Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius, who founded the Bauhaus in Germany in 1919. A school of art, design, and architecture, the Bauhaus preached a philosophy of total aesthetic synthesis, the ultimate modernist ideal.
Today, this trend in architecture is known as “International Style”—a term coined by American curator and architect Philip Johnson. Johnson was friends with Alfred Barr Jr., the founding director of MoMA, and joined its architecture department soon after the institution opened in 1929. A few years later, he curated an exhibition there that showcased the new modernist style, and in 1947 he organized a retrospective of van der Rohe’s work. The latter included a model of an in-progress house that consisted of a thin glass rectangle sandwiched between two white slabs of painted concrete. Johnson was so inspired by the unconventional structure that he ripped it off and built his own.


newrepublic--2020-04-01--The Paranoid Style of America in a Pandemic

Last week , as I waited in the social-distance line outside a medical pot store on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Fayetteville , Arkansas , I overheard two men in front of me talking .
Both , like me , were white and in their mid-thirties .
One , a former Marine wearing well-worn issue boots , said his rifle magazines were topped off and he had plenty of food ; he hoped it was time for “ the boogaloo.
” The other man nodded ; he hoped the civil war was going down soon , too , otherwise he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work .
There ’ s a virus in our midst , but something else hangs in the air .
In a parallel dimension with no Covid-19 fatalities , I ’ m just back from a honeymoon with my new wife , Toni .
We were supposed to get married and have a party with 100 friends and relatives on March 21 in Santa Fe , New Mexico .
Toni ’ s smarter than me .
She figured out first that we needed to postpone the whole thing ; I wanted to sleep on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a March 12 text message from a sister of my groomsman , Monty , who calls to shoot the shit a couple times a day but refuses to send or receive text messages .
“ Daanzho , ” she wrote , a Jicarilla Apache greeting meaning “ It is good ” —but her message wasn ’ t .
“ Bad news .
Can ’ t travel.
” Guidance had come down from the Jicarilla Apache Nation president , Darrell Paiz .
“ I ’ m sorry .
Can ’ t attend your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a tuberculosis epidemic spread through the Apache community in Dulce , New Mexico .
By 1918 , when the flu epidemic hit , only 596 members of the Jicarilla Nation remained .
Monty ’ s grandfather had been a soldier during World War I , living through the Spanish flu , telling the stories to his grandson .
Memories of contagion ’ s ravages—and the knowledge that the American government will lie and break promises—remain with the Nation ’ s grandchildren and great-grandchildren .
To ensure no chances of bringing the coronavirus back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Apache friends were staying put .

Some of my ease probably stems from how much this world reminds me of my soldiering days, how making a grocery run now feels like going outside the wire. I revert to the training and mindset that kept me alive for 16 months of infantry patrols in the sticks of eastern Afghanistan. I am wary of everyone, even more than normal, and so maintaining a safe social distance with a broad smile comes almost naturally to me. I calculate distances to places of cover and concealment. As I push my shopping cart, I think of how I can use it as an improvised standoff weapon. I get text messages every day from old buddies, many of them ex-government, with multiple variations on one basic theme: “Shit’s crazy! You have a weapon for home defense, right?”
Hearing that question makes me think of military-thriller-novelist Tom Clancy’s weird New York Times interview from 1999, when fears abounded that a Y2K bug in twentieth-century computers would reset civilization and roil humanity. “If someone breaks into my house,” Clancy told Jeffrey Goldberg, “it’s going to be a bad career move.” That was the year Clancy married Colin Powell’s second cousin and published his book Rainbow Six in paperback. Rainbow Six is about a NATO-based commando outfit—think Seal Team 6 but with Germans, Brits, and Italians—that must stop a shadowy group of wealthy environmental terrorists, assisted by ex-KGB and FBI types, from releasing a deadly virus with an airborne vector at the 2000 Olympic Games. (Spoiler: The terrorists succeed, with help from the Russians.)
Clancy was always ahead of his time. He’d used a virus as a plot device before, in 1996’s Executive Orders—which itself was the sequel to a novel, written almost a decade before 9/11, that ended with a rogue commercial air pilot using his 747 as a suicide bomb to destroy the U.S. Capitol. Executive Orders opens with the Capitol building still on fire, the attack having wiped out most of the U.S. government and left Clancy’s hero, Jack Ryan, to be sworn in as president. Ryan subsequently confronts a strain of weaponized Ebola released in the United States by 20 Iranian intelligence operatives who misted germs on convention attendees in Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida. Ryan helps squash the outbreak by instituting martial law and quarantine zones, then assassinates the Iranian ayatollah who initiated the attack, explaining in a televised speech that the U.S. would kill leaders of foreign nations who sponsor terrorist attacks on American citizens.