by Maria on October 5, 2016
… should perhaps listen to Stefan Zweig in 1942:
“The Russians, the Germans, the Spanish, none of them know how much freedom and joy that heartless, voracious ogre the State has sucked from the marrow of their souls. The people of all nations feel only that an alien shadow, broad and heavy, looms over their lives. But we who knew the world of individual liberties in our time can bear witness that a carefree Europe once rejoiced in a kaleidoscopic play of variegated colours. We tremble to see how clouded, darkened, enslaved and imprisoned the world has now become in its suicidal rage.”
It doesn’t have to be this way.
by Henry Farrell on October 5, 2016
This, screencapped by Ryan Cooper right before Jason Brennan suddenly and inexplicably deleted his Twitter account, gives the game away a bit.
[click to continue…]
by Corey Robin on October 5, 2016
In synagogue over the last two days of Rosh Hashanah, I was struck by a passage that I never really noticed in previous years. It’s from Zikhronot, the prayers or verses of remembrance in the Musaf Amidah that we recite on the holiday:
You remember the deeds of the world and You are mindful of Your creatures since the beginning of time.
Before You stands revealed all that is hidden, and every mystery from the moment of creation.
Nothing is forgotten in Your awe-inspiring presence, nothing concealed from Your gaze;
You remember every deed, and nothing in creation can be hidden from You.
Everything is revealed and known to You, Adonai our God; You see to the end of time.
It is You who established a rite of remembrance, to take account of every being, every soul, to recall the multitude of deeds, and call to mind countless creations.
That image a God that remembers every being that has ever lived—and every deed that’s ever been done—since the beginning of time, reminded me of two passages in Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, which serve as bookends of the text. [click to continue…]