Latest news with #Jacobin
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Alasdair MacIntyre, philosopher who saw a ‘new dark ages,' dies at 96
Advertisement MacIntyre belonged to a different moral universe. In his best-known book, 'After Virtue' (1981), he argued that thousands of years ago, the earliest Western philosophers and the Homeric myths generated 'the tradition of the virtues,' which was treated as objective truth. Value neutrality, to Mr. MacIntyre, was the goal of 'barbarians' and a sign of 'the new dark ages which are already upon us.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Such language might make Mr. MacIntyre seem like a wistful reactionary. In fact, his worldview was far less predictable. He never entirely disavowed his youthful Marxism, applauding Karl Marx's critique of the individualistic and acquisitive spirit of capitalism. He maintained a certain sort of modesty from his days as a self-appointed champion of the working class — he never earned a doctorate and disliked being called 'professor' — and he continued showing the dialectical passion of a Trotskyist, occasionally launching into what one colleague called 'MacIntyrades.' Advertisement His chief opponent was what he called 'modern liberal individualism,' a category in which he included not just supporters of the Democratic Party but also conventional conservatives, leftists, and even anarchists. All were guilty of 'emotivism': the belief that humanity was essentially a collection of autonomous individuals who selected their own principles based on inner thoughts or feelings. This starting point, Mr. MacIntyre argued, could lead only to eternal, unresolvable disagreement. He went so far as to suggest that every tradition of modern politics had come to 'exhaustion,' and he rejected many essential tools of modern moral philosophy: Thomas Hobbes' social contract, John Locke's natural rights, Jeremy Bentham's moral consequences, and Isaiah Berlin's pluralism. Instead, he valued storytelling, tradition, and rational debate, embedded within a shared moral community. He found these qualities in the thinking of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, who promoted 'a cosmic order which dictates the place of each virtue in a total harmonious scheme of human life,' he wrote in 'After Virtue.' Within such an order, moral truth was objective. 'After Virtue' gained extraordinary popularity for a work of late-20th-century moral theory, selling more than 100,000 copies, Compact magazine wrote in a piece published after Mr. MacIntyre's death, titled 'Postliberalism's Reluctant Godfather.' That was an apt label for someone who managed, in recent years, to earn multiple tributes from Jacobin, a journal on the socialist left, and First Things, which is on the religious right. Mr. MacIntyre seemed to grow increasingly uncomfortable with his influence as it came unavoidably into focus. Advertisement In 'After Virtue,' he wrote that morality arose out of a belief in human telos — the ancient Greek notion of purpose being intrinsic to existence. People of the modern world, he said, had two choices: Follow Friedrich Nietzsche in trying to honestly face a world without the traditional notion of a human telos, rendering moral thought baseless, or follow Aristotle and recover moral purpose by fostering a society dedicated to the cultivation of virtue. Mr. MacIntyre illustrated what that might look like with an analysis of what he called 'practices' — shared, skillful activities including chess, architecture, and musicianship — as examples of where virtue still had meaning. These pursuits, he said, intrinsically provide 'standards of excellence' and reward traits such as justice, courage, and honesty. In them, he saw a possible modern basis for virtue. 'After Virtue' was acclaimed by leading philosophers, including Bernard Williams, who in a 1981 review for The Sunday Times of London wrote that even Mr. MacIntyre's exaggerations were 'illuminating'; that his intellectual history of the moral self was a 'nostalgic fantasy' and yet also 'brilliant'; and that, whatever questions the book raised, 'the feeling is sustained that one's question would get an interesting answer.' In a subsequent book, 'Whose Justice? Which Rationality?' (1988), Mr. MacIntyre provoked sharper criticism. His argument now promoted Roman Catholicism with Aquinas, not Aristotle, as its paragon of moral thought. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum wrote a memorable takedown in The New York Review of Books accusing Mr. MacIntyre of dropping some of his own principles — such as his devotion to local traditions — when discussing Aristotle, Augustine, and the pope. What really interested Mr. MacIntyre, she argued, was not reason but authority: the ability of the Catholic Church to secure wide agreement, and, by extension, order. Advertisement She was one of several distinguished thinkers to challenge Mr. MacIntyre's idealized view of the past, arguing that historical societies were not as unified as he claimed and that unanimity itself was not so great. In a review of 'Whose Justice? Which Rationality?' published in The Times Literary Supplement, Thomas Nagel wrote, 'MacIntyre professes to be freeing us from blindness, but he is really asking for the return of a blindness to the difficulty of moral thought that it has been one of the great achievements of ethical theory to escape.' Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre was born on Jan. 12, 1929, in Glasgow, Scotland. His parents, John and Emily (Chalmers) MacIntyre, were both doctors. In the 1930s the family moved to London, where his parents treated patients in the working-class East End neighborhood. In 1949, he earned a bachelor's degree in classics from Queen Mary College at the University of London. In the 1950s and '60s, he earned master's degrees in philosophy from Manchester University and Oxford while holding several lectureships. As a student, he joined the Communist Party, but he also steered debates of Britain's Student Christian Movement as its chair. In about 1970 he moved to the United States, where he taught at Brandeis University and gradually left Marx for Aristotle. In the 1980s, he converted to Catholicism and took to seeing Aquinas as the master thinker of the Aristotelian tradition. He had a series of academic appointments but mostly taught at Notre Dame, where his wife, Lynn Joy, is also a philosophy professor. Advertisement His two previous marriages ended in divorce. In addition to Joy, his survivors include several children. He and Joy lived in Mishawaka, Ind., a city near Notre Dame. For decades, no single tendency seemed to define readers who took inspiration from Mr. MacIntyre's work. There were heterodox Marxists, the skeptic of liberalism Christopher Lasch, and former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. But more recently, one constituency claimed Mr. MacIntyre's work most completely and prominently: the Trump-supporting, religious, anti-consumerist, and illiberal right. Two leading commentators of this world, Patrick Deneen and Rod Dreher, have written books that pay tribute to Mr. MacIntyre. In 2017, the publication of one of these books, Dreher's 'The Benedict Option,' prompted an odd debate between Dreher and Mr. MacIntyre, with each man accusing the other of commenting on a book of his that he had not actually read. During a lecture at Notre Dame, Mr. MacIntyre deplored becoming part of an ideological battle of his own time. 'The moment you think of yourself as a liberal or a conservative,' he said, 'you're done for.' This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
America has a bad case of TDS
There are many different types of laughter. There is the good laughter caused by joy, surprise, happiness, or perhaps even ecstasy. There is laughter at the absurd when one cannot even make sense of what they are experiencing. There is also the laughter of rage and anger. There are laughs from emotional discomfort and anxiety. There is hysterical laughter in the face of death or other great peril when the danger is so extreme that you hear a person laughing and then realize it is you. Some people laugh during funerals and other times of great grief and sorrow. I experienced this once at an Irish wake for a friend who took his own life. One person started laughing while telling a story about our departed friend, and then another person laughed, and the laughter spread around the table. There has been a lot of laughter in America during the Age of Trump. With Trump's return to power, almost every day there is some new shattering of norms, one of those 'this should not be happening but somehow it is' moments where malignant normality and the spectacle somehow keep getting worse as the country collapses into autocracy and authoritarianism. The guardrails of democracy and 'the institutions' and 'the rule of law' have been laid bare and splayed open; they are so very weak. Germany's democracy collapsed in 53 days; America's democracy is still holding on, barely, but I am unsure it will make it to 90 days. As for the midterms in 2026? Good luck. But for all the laughter that has happened (and is happening) during the long Trumpocene, little if any of it is truly funny. I suspect that much of this laughter has been to keep from crying because of the grand tragedy. Trying to gain a better perspective, I have repeatedly returned to physician Gabor Mate's 2022 interview at Jacobin: In a social sense, we have really lost the way. There are certain human needs that are not negotiable. We can't negotiate them away. We can give up on them, but then we suffer when we do. When they're not met, there's going to be suffering and ill health in every sense of the word. They include having a purpose in life, having agency and authority in one's own life, and being connected to other people. Meeting all of these needs is required for full health, full wholeness. On a social level, that means that all the institutions and political structures and ideologies that undermine those qualities need to be either jettisoned or transformed. Both the Left and the Right have got these traumatic imprints that they enact. The Right very often consists of abused people who identify with power so they'll never be hurt again. That's basically it. You know, like a [Donald] Trump. Big Daddy will protect me so that I'll never be hurt again, like I was hurt by my real daddy. And they hate vulnerability. They attack vulnerable people because they hate their own vulnerability. So that's the thumbnail traumatic imprint of people on the Right very often. People on the Left, on the other hand, also suffered in their childhoods, and they take that anger that's not resolved in them and they project it into the politics, which makes them not very tolerant and much less effective. When they talk to people who just don't see it their way, who are not aware or maybe more ignorant, or not in touch with the real issues, there's a tendency to speak in a very hostile and very demeaning way. That's unresolved trauma on the part of the people coming from the Left, as it was in my case. Self work, particularly for people who want to make a difference, is really important. To the degree that people don't do it, they might attract some followers with a certain degree of charisma, but they will not convince anybody that doesn't already see it their way. Last month, five Minnesota Republican state senators introduced a bill declaring that 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' exists and that it is a type of 'mental illness.' As The Independent reports, "symptoms include 'Trump-induced general hysteria,' where a person struggles to distinguish between 'legitimate policy' and 'psychic pathology,' which is expressed with verbal hostility or acts of aggression against Trump and his MAGA supporters." This attempt to declare 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' a mental illness per Minnesota law was widely met with mockery and derision. Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy described the bill as "wasteful, frivolous and the worst bill in Minnesota history." Murphy continued, "If it is meant as a joke, it is a waste of staff time and taxpayer resources that trivializes serious mental health issues. If the authors are serious, it is an affront to free speech and an expression of a dangerous level of loyalty to an authoritarian president. The authors should be ashamed, and the citizens we're hearing from are rightfully outraged." The liberal schadenfreude and mockery grew louder when one of the bill's sponsors was recently arrested for allegedly committing a crime that further reveals the hypocrisy and absurdity of a Republican Party that claims to be the great defender of 'family values' and 'morality' in America. In reality, there is nothing funny or humorous about an Orwellian thought crime law that in effect punishes dissent by declaring critics of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement to be mentally or emotionally sick. This is a standard tactic of dictators and other authoritarians where those who are 'mentally ill' and 'sick' because of their incorrect thinking are removed from society and put in prisons, reeducation camps, 'mental hospitals' or worse until they are 'cured.' To that point, Donald Trump repeatedly attacks and slurs his critics and perceived enemies, both as individuals and as a group, as being 'sick' 'deranged,' 'crazy,' 'lunatics,' 'mentally ill,' 'mentally impaired,' and/or 'retarded.' Trump has also promised to purify and purge the 'blood' of the nation from 'the enemies within' and other human poison. In all, the proposed Trump Derangement Syndrome law in Minnesota is an example of how the Trump administration and its allies' war on multiracial, pluralistic democracy and society is national. The states are being used as testing grounds and the leading edge of this revolutionary project. For example, among its many actions — some of which appear to be clearly illegal and violations of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights — the Trump administration has issued executive orders de facto declaring 'DEI' and 'gender ideology' and teaching the real and complex and challenging history of the United States to be a thought crime. The Trump administration is systematically targeting the country's educational system, including private colleges and universities, if they do not agree to comply with this ideological regime. The Smithsonian museum system was recently ordered to purge exhibits and other material deemed to be 'anti-American' (this echoes events in another country during one of the darkest times in human history when 'politically incorrect' art, books, and other material were purged for being 'degenerate'). The Trump administration recently gutted funding for the country's libraries and museums through the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Scientific and other research deemed not to be in accordance with the approved ideology of the Trump administration has also been terminated. The Trump administration's thought crime and larger anti-democracy program is an amplification of such laws and policies in Florida, for example, where 'critical race theory' was banned and educators and institutions that taught 'divisive' history and concepts were punished under the 'Stop WOKE' Act and other laws. Georgia has also passed a law banning the teaching of 'divisive concepts,' i.e., the truth and facts about racism and the color line and its enduring role in American society. Texas, Oklahoma, and other red states have enacted draconian laws that take away women's reproductive rights and freedoms. These laws include making it illegal to help a woman leave the state to terminate a pregnancy and basically putting bounties on medical professionals and other people who help women to exercise their reproductive freedoms and rights. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and other parts of the former Confederacy and Jim Crow terror regime are engaged in systematic voter nullification and voter purges targeting the African-American community and other members of the Democratic Party's base. In a 2021 interview with historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, attorney David Pepper explained the relationship between these state-level laboratories of autocracy and the larger national-level right-wing anti-democracy project: I think it's a huge blind spot. If we looked at another country and we saw the combination of steps that are taking place in our states, what would we say? Here we have attacks on independent courts, rigged legislative elections, laws that make protests by the opposition harder, laws that create immunity for people who run over protestors with their car or attack independent election officials. All of this adds up to a dramatic turn away from democracy towards autocracy. Some states don't meet almost any definition of a functional democracy at this point, and in places like Texas and Ohio, statehouses have a huge amount of power over national elections. These states resemble what we call "competitive autocracies": they look and feel legitimate, even though the results of their elections are essentially predetermined and rigged…. Once you tear away at the protections and pillars of a democratic system, things can convert very quickly, and you start getting truly unhinged legislatures. Statewide elections in some states are still relatively competitive, although voter suppression and purging have taken a toll. Yet in the statehouses there is a system that Vladimir Putin would be impressed with. For example, in Ohio, even if a majority of people voted for a Democrat, the Republicans would still be in the majority or super majority in the statehouse. When outcomes are guaranteed, there is zero accountability. In total, Trump's shock and awe campaign as detailed in Project 2025 and Agenda 47 is a revolutionary project to take control over all areas of American private and public life. The White Christian Nationalist 'Seven Mountains' strategy is a parallel and complementary plan to remake American society into a White Christian Authoritarian theocracy by taking over government, the military, religion, education, family, business, the arts, entertainment and the media. In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, Trump declared himself above the law like some type of Caesar or Napoleon. The United States Supreme Court has given Trump sufficient reason to confidently make such a declaration when it deemed him outside and above the law and able to do whatever he wants as long as he claims the cover of 'presidential acts.' The German word for this control over the entirety of society is 'Gleichschaltung,' which means 'synchronization' or 'bringing into line.' On this, historian Terrence Petty warns in a recent essay at the Forward: Now, it's American democracy that is in peril. As Trump takes a sledgehammer to the rule of law, intimidates and bullies those who stand in his way, hacks away at press freedoms, guts government agencies, and continues to demonize those whom he sees as 'woke,' who will dare to stand in his way?... In Trump's America, how far are we down the road to Gleichschaltung? Americans can still preserve the democracy we've enjoyed for 249 years, but only if we want to. As has been widely reported, historian Timothy Snyder and philosopher Jason Stanley have both decided to leave Yale University and move to Canada where they have accepted professorships at the University of Toronto. Snyder and Stanley are leading scholars of authoritarianism and fascism who, since at least 2016, have been among the loudest public alarm-sounders and critics of Trumpism and the MAGA movement. They correctly warned that it is an existential threat to American democracy and society. Neither Snyder nor Stanley is sick with Trump Derangement Syndrome. During a recent interview with PBS, Stanley summarized his reasons for leaving the United States as 'I think the probabilities are not in the favor of U.S. democracy.' When the likes of Timothy Snyder, Jason Stanley, and other leading experts of authoritarianism have concluded that it is time to leave the United States, all Americans should be very afraid. The American people have been warned. Again.
Bloomberg
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
What Would ‘Transportation Abundance' Look Like?
By Abundance seems poised to be the policy literati's favorite term of 2025, as an array of center-left academics, activists and pundits continue to spread its gospel. The buzzy word is the subject of an eponymous book by the journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson; in it, they write that abundance 'reorients politics around a fresh provocation: Can we solve our problems with supply?' In recent months, the merit of that idea has been debated in outlets ranging from the Washington Post to the Financial Times to Jacobin, while philanthropies, think tanks, and a growing number of elected officials have all chimed in.
Miami Herald
28-03-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Tombs of military leaders and local's intuition: See latest archaeological discoveries
The summaries below were drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All linked stories were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists. Throughout history, cultures have left behind a trail of breadcrumbs for archaeologists to follow. New sites and artifacts are found all the time, revealing forgotten secrets of the past. Here are some of the latest discoveries: 3,100-year-old tomb of military leader found in Egypt. Take a look at its treasures In Ismailia Governorate, Egypt, archaeologists uncovered a 3,100-year-old tomb belonging to a military leader under Ramesses III. The tomb contained bronze tools, arrowheads, alabaster jars and a gold ring, highlighting the leader's importance. Surprisingly, a second, older skeleton was found, suggesting the tomb was reused. | Published March 21 | Read More | Hidden paintings discovered under plaster in 13th-century church in France. See them In Morlaix, France, restorations of the Jacobin convent revealed hidden paintings beneath plaster, dating back to the 13th century. The artwork includes coats of arms and a faded crucifixion scene, offering insights into the region's noble families. The discovery is part of a larger restoration project to preserve the historic site. | Published March 24 | Read More | Fossil hunter accidentally uncovers 4,000-year-old ax in Poland. See the discovery In eastern Poland, a fossil hunter stumbled upon a 4,000-year-old ax head, belonging to the Corded Ware culture. Made of silicon, the ax was well-preserved and offers a glimpse into the tools used by this ancient pastoral-agricultural society. The find adds valuable knowledge to the region's archaeological collection. | Published March 24 | Read More | Massive Iron Age hoard — one of largest ever — unearthed in the UK. See the finds In North Yorkshire, England, a metal detectorist discovered a massive Iron Age hoard, including over 800 objects like chariot pieces and ceremonial spears. The items, many intentionally damaged, suggest displays of wealth and power by the region's elites. This significant find enhances understanding of Iron Age Britain and its connections to Europe. | Published March 25 | Read More | Local's theory about ancient standing stone in UK forest turns out to be true. See it In Farley Moor, UK, a local enthusiast's theory about a standing stone led to the discovery of a 3,700-year-old ceremonial complex. Archaeologists found evidence of a stone circle and ceremonial platform, revealing the site's historical significance. This discovery transforms the understanding of the Farley Moor site and its Bronze Age rituals. | Published March 25 | Read More | McClatchy News continues to follow the discovery of intriguing archaeological discoveries from around the globe. Check back to see the latest finds.
Miami Herald
24-03-2025
- General
- Miami Herald
Hidden paintings discovered under plaster in 13th-century church in France. See them
On the northwestern tip of France where the English Channel meets the Celtic Sea, the inlet city of Morlaix traces its history to the Romans. The city was later passed between the lords and dukes of the era, eventually falling under power of the English in 1187 and then again in 1522. But during the 13th century, Morlaix residents built a church and later a convent, and this building stands today as the oldest religious monument in the city. Now, restorations of the Jacobin convent have revealed never-before-seen artwork dating back centuries, according to a March 21 news release from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research. Researchers, archaeologists and historians began studying the building in September as part of the Musée des Jacobins restoration project, according to the institute. The research began with graphic documentation from topographers and photogrammetrists and with an analysis of historical written and graphic documents, officials said. The entire building was built in three major phases, researchers said, the first of which started in the mid-13th century and included the original nave of the church. The convent was founded in 1234, and this section includes a simple rectangular plan with arched bays. The second phase occurred in the 14th century when there were significant modifications to the building, according to researchers. Workers added an aisle that separated the nave from the choir, and large arches and octagonal pillars formed the barrier, researchers said. In order to make this change, the north wall was demolished, part of significant changes documented in written sources in 1342 and 1371. The third stage included the addition of a chapel which formed a transept-like structure on the north side, according to researchers. At the top of the chapel, the coat of arms of the Dukes of Brittany was painted, or possibly that of Anne of Brittany, the Duchess. As they worked their way through the analysis for restoration, however, they noticed traces of polychromy, or use of multiple colors, in several areas and paint appearing behind layers of plaster, according to researchers. Multiple burial niches were also found when researchers removed modern plasterwork, including triangular decorative elements, according to the release. Other coats of arms were found painted atop pillars and on frames, officials said, from at least four different families. The coats likely all belonged to noble families wishing to make their marks in a religious space, according to the researchers. Notably, a very faded painting of the crucifixion scene with Jesus on the cross was also uncovered, the image of his crown of thorns sticking out from an orange and yellow backdrop. The figure of Christ is accompanied by two others, one of which appears to be a kneeling knight, officials said. The paintings are being studied, and will be restored as part of the larger building project, according to officials. Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research.
