Here are links to my latest, new essays, Daily Posts from the archives, March 17-21, in case you missed them, and some interesting articles from around the internet. You can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Please note that I am no longer accepting new “friends” on FB, and culling my list there: I only add new people if I know them in real life. You can, however, use the “follow” option—this simply means you can follow my postings, but won’t be able to respond directly on my wall (you can, however, use any one of a number of emoticons, depending on how you feel!). I’ll have an essay on all this at some time in the future, but parasociality has become a real problem and FB, out of all the platforms, is the most like a living room—I like to make sure no one is in there breaking the furniture.
NEW WORK!
Yes, I know you’re wondering and, yes, both the Alice Munro and the Meghan Markle essays are on their way. Yes, I say that often. Please bear with me (and thank you!).
First They Came for the Criminals
It’s Freaky That Movies Are So Bad, But AI Is Not the Problem
On Protests, Resistance, and Media Coverage
Merle Oberon and the Tyranny of Whiteness
Sally Mann Is Not That Interesting (ICYMI)
FROM THE ARCHIVES!
Apparently, March 20 was “International Day of Storytelling,” so you can imagine how much my eyeballs hurt from all the rolling. Here’s a reminder, “Trauma and Capitalism or, Your Trauma Story Will Kill You.”
Haha, remember when lefty/academics imploded at “The Dangerous Academic is an Extinct Species”? Times have changed, universities are experiencing even bigger crises, and my Current Affairs essay is now more prescient than ever. I still love academia and all the possibilities it offers, to be clear—here’s hoping things get better.
Also on education, here’s my 2018 “Exalted Slogans: The Curse of Radical Academic Discourse,” in The Baffler, one of my favourite essays and also prescient.
ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB!
There have been a number of discussions about USAID and global aid programs in general. As someone on the left, I’m dubious about these (they keep U.S “soft power” alive and actively create economies dependent on external funding), but it has been surprisingly difficult to find interesting analyses of the current situation. There were a number of critiques on LinkedIn, and while I thought many made excellent points, I was and am still dubious about some because they seemed to be generated by people who wanted to lead readers towards their “alternatives”—nonprofits which seemed just as sketchy. Private philanthropy or “community funding” is not always the best way to combat the crisis. But, of course, all of this is very complicated. And people are dying.
To begin to understand the complexity of it all, here’s the New York Times’s podcast The Daily, with a surprisingly good history of USAID. (Keep in mind, of course, that the Times is deeply invested in “soft power.”)
I have not yet had a chance to listen to this Himal podcast, “Jayati Ghosh on the USAID shocker and the politics of foreign aid,” but I’ve heard and appreciated Ghosh’s perspectives on Democracy Now, so it should be worth a listen.
I have also not had the chance to do more than skim Laura Robson’s “The End of Aid” in The Baffler, but it looks interesting and worthwhile.
March 16 was the anniversary of the Mỹ Lai Massacre, and it’s important to remember the bravery of Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jr. and his helicopter crews. You can read more about him here.
Chris Lehmann attended a Center for American Progress conversation between Neera Tanden and Illinois governor J. B Pritzker, and reports on how “Democratic Donors Packed the House for an ‘Actual Billionaire’” for The Nation.
This New Yorker article, “The Case of the Missing Elvis,” by Zach Helfand, is an intriguing look at the art world, gentrification, and a slightly battered plaster Elvis. I make it seem a lot more boring than it is, but it really is a lively, fun, and illuminating read.
Conan O’Brien reprised this 2022 interview with Jeff Goldblum on his Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, and it’s an absolute delight. Goldblum, often the only reason to watch a movie or a television show, engages in what I can only describe as a form of reptilian love-bombing (I mean that as a compliment: I love reptiles, and I don’t have a problem with love-bombing). But more importantly, the whole episode is like a 90-minute romp through the history of film and television: the man is an astonishing reservoir of information and memories. (It should be noted that O’Brien is usually pretty strict about keeping his episodes to an hour—but Goldblum is much too seductive to cut off, and we are the better off for it.)
Noura Erakat wrote this for The Boston Review, “The Boomerang Comes Back: How the U.S.-backed War on Palestine Is Expanding Authoritarianism at Home.”
Read and memorise Mahmoud Khalil’s astonishing words, “I Am a Political Prisoner,” in TruthOut.
For a while in the last couple of weeks, everyone was talking about the Challenger explosion, and a number of people recalled how they watched it blow up in front of their eyes, on national television. In fact, that never happened: what most people “witnessed” was a televised replay of the explosion. Here’s NBC, with “7 Myths about the Challenger Shuttle Disaster.”
And, hey, it’s springtime! Time to dust off your Dead Salmon hat, and mingle with the Orcas!
Here is “The Tyger,” by William Blake.
In case you missed it, here’s my last update, “Move Fast, Break Things…Whoops.”
You can catch up on all my updates here.
The world is still a rough, rough place. Find an electric blanket, and stay under there for long periods of time, if you can. I will see you next week.
Image: Tiger, by Morris Hirshfield, 1940.
