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The Hofmann Wobble, by Ben Lerner

Decades after the truce, John Locke—whose philosophy influenced the American founding fathers more than any other—wrote about human nature as if it were an “unknowable x.” He knew that disagreements over religion (Jerusalem) and over reason (Athens) were dangerous, so he declared the question of human nature an unfathomable idea that people would... See more

Any news I might bring has already been brought. Thousands of scientific papers. Millions of newspaper column inches. Anyone who cares to pay attention already knows that we’ve broken Nature, and the world we know will soon end. This park, for one, is done for. This city I love, home to almost nine million, and one of humankind’s most extraordinary

Andrew Boyd • I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor

Alexei Yurchak in his fantastic book on the Soviet collapse, Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More

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Augé, Koolhaas, and…

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Kyle Chayka • Filterworld

I care, in the end, about expressing my obdurate singularity at any cost.

Wesley Yang • What Happens to All the Asian-American Overachievers When the Test-Taking Ends? -- New York Magazine - Nymag

My goal here is not to present a nuanced theoretical analysis, but, in a time of emergency, to affirm the truth of shared understandings and experiences and to insist that forms of radical refusal, rather than adaptation and resignation, are not only possible but necessary.

Jonathan Crary • Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World

If this all seems small and insignificant in the face of what I’m writing about here, I get it. We have been trained to think this stuff doesn’t add up to much. But consider that over the last five to ten years, almost every smart and well-credentialed climate thinker I read says the same thing: the best defense, the most meaningful work, the best