Thinking about who we are and who we want to be
People will fight over collective memory and identities, but both are flawed and fluid
Welcome to the latest edition of The Blanks Slate!
My goal is to get weekly updates out on Fridays, but as anyone remotely adjacent to D.C. libertarians knows: David Boaz, the former executive vice president and one of the intellectual leaders of Cato for more than four decades, died on Friday June 7. For that and other reasons, my heart and mind were elsewhere and so this update got pushed to today.
In time, I may write more about what David meant to me, but it is part of a larger story about my association with and then dissociation from libertarianism institutionally and ideologically. Even if I had the bandwidth to write that now, it would be inappropriate at this moment. Suffice it to say, however, that David was instrumental in my career and development as a writer, editor, and thinker. I will miss him.
My friend and former colleague Aaron Ross Powell has a lovely tribute to David here.
What I’ve been reading:
Books: I recently finished Erasure, the book upon which the film ‘American Fiction’ was based. I haven’t seen the movie and, given the number of cringeworthy moments packed into the story, I’m not sure I will. That said, the book was an at-times challenging but ultimately rewarding read for me. It’s a scathing critique of race, self-image, intellectualism, and authenticity in American culture and the marketplace that feeds on all of these.
It’s an impressive book, but I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. Mild spoilers/content warning: Albeit a story within a story, there are several episodes of sexual violence crudely described from the position of the perpetrator; there are fictional conversations between long-dead authors, philosophers, and historical villains peppered throughout the book that assume a certain level of cultural literacy; and the book features a not terribly sympathetic protagonist that tries to detach himself from his own story, so to speak. Honestly, it’s like a more pretentious and literary ‘Bamboozled.’ But I like ‘Bamboozled’ and Percival Everett is a helluva wordsmith, so it suited me fine. I’ll get around to reading James, Everett’s most recent book that was shortlisted for the Pulitizer, but I need to read Huckleberry Finn first. (I’ve been putting that particular Twain off for decades because I typically dislike reading dialect…which is part of the reason Erasure was a challenge for me.)
On the web: If you liked my essay last week discussing the politics of enemies, you should check out “Defying Tribalism” by Fintan O’Toole from last November’s NYRB. I didn’t read it or even know about O’Toole’s essay until after I published my piece: it was one of those rare instances when the Facebook algorithm pushed something useful into my feed. It contemplates similar themes, but also the broader problems tribalism poses to liberalism.
Over at the Defector, Asher Elbein looks at a new X-Men series featuring Magneto and what the evolution of the character as a Holocaust survivor means vis-à-vis Israel-Palestine, when victims become villains. I’m not Jewish, but the human cruelty of war has long been an intellectual fascination of mine—consuming media about war is my most Dad-core trait—and Elbein deftly walks the reader through Magneto’s iterations and internal conflicts.
My wife Dara wrote a piece for MSNBC analyzing Biden’s latest border move by changing the asylum system. For the life of me, I have no idea why Dems keep thinking making migration harder is a winner for them. But Dara clearly explains why this move doesn’t do what the administration hopes it will, at least in anything but the immediate term. You should also check out her April essay in the American Prospect looking at the disconnect between U.S. government policy and American communities regarding refugees.
At the NYT, a reflection on Cass Elliot demonstrates how discrete choices from long ago can distort what we understand history to be, and how prejudices past and present can color those understandings.
I have more to say, but will save it for later this week.
Thanks for reading.
Until next time, wishing you peace, love, and soul…
JPB