Culture in the Blender

Ferdinand Celine was an anti-Semite. This may be a bit surprising, because his estate refuses to reprint his book on facism, Bagatelles pour un massacre. Celine derived his racist and fascist beliefs from the idea that civilization should be founded on the differences between groups or individuals.
I am re-reading Nichlas Fraser’s The Voice of Modern [...]

I just finished reading a book called How Race Is Lived In America, a complication of an article series in the NYT. It was very interesting and well-written, and of course prompted thinking on my part. However, I realized something tangential as well: for me, the elephant in the room isn’t race as much as [...]

Dear Americans,
The world is watching you. The world always has been watching you. They watched you far before 9/11, and they’re still watching. People watch what your President does, how he negotiates, how he smiles, what he has to say to them. They watch to see what you’re wearing, where you shop, how you talk, [...]