The Invisible Feet of the Market: Introduction
Our new primer on capitalism differs from most accounts of capitalism. It insists that markets are made and re-made by people, not given by God — and that the market in capitalism is made by domination and coercion, the very opposite of freedom.
Fascism, Then and Now
The last four years of the Trump administration have sparked renewed interest in right-wing extremism, specifically fascism. As a scholar who focuses on fascism and the extreme right I think this attention is warranted, if a little late. Unfortunately, sudden popular interest in a complex subject doesn’t equate to an adequate understanding of that subject , […]
The First Church of Equivocation
Pastors like Tim Keller and John Piper have helped to craft a brand of “both sides are bad” politics for evangelicals. Obsessed with the possibility of a biblical third way politics, they fail to see or acknowledge how this gives cover for influencers to their right.
The Socialist Preacher
Rev. Andrew Wilkes is recovering the socialist politics inherent in the gospel, declaring to a new generation of Christians that “capitalism has outlived its usefulness.”
The Localism of Fools: Rod Dreher’s Live Not by Lies
Rod Dreher’s newest book shifts from the retreat of the Benedict Option to a frenzied flirtation with illiberalism. Despite Dreher’s insistence on a vague and creeping “soft totalitarianism,” in truth it is fear of racial and sexual minorities that animates him.
A Voice in the Wilderness: Stephen F. Cohen’s Russia
John Huston, the legendary screenwriter and director, once stated that the best documentary filmmaking allows the source material to reveal the true subject. This does not mean that documentarians do not have an agenda, but that the highest documentary art occurs in the discovery of what the film really is once the shoot is over and […]
Gallows and Political Death Drives
American conservatism often seems little more than displaced psycho-sexual insecurities, with a big Other—Trump—who authorizes transgressive cruelty and misery. Their Oedipal fantasies tell us something about the unreasonable way political desire works.
In Bright Mansions: On Gentrification and Police Violence
We must resist the temptation to individualize stories like Breonna Taylor’s as aberrations or blips on a radar. We must notice the patterns of state-sanctioned violence.
Hell Hath No Fury Like a Multiplex Crisis
“Rather than thought, life today must be action. Modern man is in need of a faith, and the only faith that can fill his deep self is a faith in struggle. Who knows when the sweet life will return? … a faith and a myth that can move human beings to live dangerously.” — José Carlos […]
Yoram Hazony and the Hysterics of Reaction
When one takes the time to read beyond the bluster, it becomes clear that Yoram Hazony’s “The Challenge of Marxism” in Quillette constitutes one gargantuan act of special pleading. What he objects to isn’t the retreat of democracy, but its enlargement.