The Ideas Letter
These past weeks there’s been no shortage of exhaling following a string of successes for challengers in Brazil, Serbia, and the US. You can almost see an Economist leader proclaiming: Democracy is Back! Certainly a degree of optimism is warranted after these long, cold, lonely winters. But a closer look at France’s presidential election next spring may dispirit the optimists. David Broder (no relation, for you old-timers) is a historian of French and Italian communism. In this issue of The Ideas Letter, he examines every side of the partisan politics riving the country. You won’t find a better analytical guide.
In Issue 59, Daniele Belleri wrote a bravura essay on Finnish design as a political instrument. Now he’s returned with a continent-wide meditation on the environmental concept of circularity, in which changes in the built environment—reuse above all—affect climate conditions. “Repair the present,” Belleri insists, and forget about restoring the past.
David Graeber, who passed away in 2020 at just 59, has long been hailed as an archetypal activist-anthropologist. He helped coin “We are the 99%” and played a key intellectual role behind Occupy Wall Street, as well as penning a number of bestselling and field-shaping books. Luke Kemp, the author of Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse, wades deep into Graeber’s work as scholar and activist—and finds it wanting. Graeber, he argues, ignored and distorted far more than most have heretofore recognized.
Ross Barkan’s writing spans far and wide, covering both fiction and nonfiction. His essay here, about UFOs, tells a larger story about how traditional cultural institutions are being displaced by the outré worlds of mysticism and the occult.
What is The Ideas Letter
Welcome to The Ideas Letter, a publication that prizes the unconventional. We are not in the business of persuading. We won’t try to convince you of anything—other than that the world is complex and reality ever-shifting. We are not here to advocate. What you will find, and we hope embrace, are contributions from across ideological aisles, from a broad range of disciplines and a true cross-section of thinking. If catholicity is your métier, and you are uneasy with banging the drum but would rather hear its many sounds, this is the place for you.
We really like critique. Not the mean-spirited or spiteful kind, but rather commentary that raises tough questions, unpacks assumptions, sometimes calls people on the carpet, and always provides opportunity for discussion. That is what we are really after—facilitating, augmenting, furthering, and bolstering debate around issues of consequence.
You’ll find here articles, essays, and criticism that will challenge you to think. Let us know your thoughts, and make sure to tell a friend. Or even someone with whom you disagree!