Attention to the Unseen

Rebecca Solnit writes: As Donald Trump deteriorates and his grasp on power fades, he has been lashing out furiously at female journalists and ethnic groups, most recently Somali Americans. His insults land because of their animosity and his power, not their accuracy. Likewise, his administration’s attacks on immigrants are sloppy and driven by lies. It’s strikingly clear that the target is not individuals with criminal records. It’s anyone and everyone guilty of being brown. Native Americans with tribal identification cards,…

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The New York Times reports: From the passenger seat of a sky blue Prius, Amy Oba craned her neck to get a look at the federal detention center, a hulking tower surrounded by a black chain-link fence and laced with barbed wire. On a recent evening, she was on patrol, part of a group of Japanese Americans who are keeping a watchful eye on the actions of immigration agents in Los Angeles. “I definitely think about my family when we…

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Ivan Krastev writes: The Trumpian revolution has divided Europe. Unlike during earlier moments of friction, such as the United States’ 2003 invasion of Iraq, the split is not between pro- and anti-American countries. This time, it is between pro- and anti-Trump political camps. The most important change is that European perceptions of the U.S. political system are now starkly polarized. In a June survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations, supporters of far-right parties such as Germany’s AfD, Italy’s…

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  In the thicket of daily news, it’s often hard to place events within a broad historical context. Indeed, during periods of rapid change the present can feel like it is perpetually erasing the past. We fixate on the now and the what next? and rather than becoming illuminated, get sucked into a black hole of actions stripped of meaning. For this reason, the perspective of a scholar such as Sean Wilentz, the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American…

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Mike Brock writes: This is, after all, a philosophy blog. And right now, a strange paradox confronts us: at the precise moment when everyone declares liberalism dead or dying, the liberal tradition is displaying more intellectual vitality than I’ve witnessed in my lifetime. The despair is everywhere. Establishment liberals mourn the end of technocratic consensus. Progressives declare the Enlightenment project failed. Conservatives celebrate democracy’s inevitable collapse. Neo-reactionaries publish blueprints for what comes after. Even defenders of liberal democracy often sound…

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Ivan Krastev writes: Late in life, the 18th-century French liberal thinker Abbé Sieyès was asked what he had done during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. He replied, “I survived it.” Reflecting on Sieyès, Michael Ignatieff counsels that it is through survival that liberals can withstand revolutionary times. They need to work hard to remain politically relevant, so that once the revolution has run its course (if they are lucky enough to have survived it), they can try to preserve…

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