Leonard Benardo in The Ideas Letter:
Welcome to the second edition of The Ideas Letter, where heterodox ideas come to life. Our spotlighted podcast this issue focuses on a long-forgotten 1972 cause célèbre book. At the time of its release, the tract was fodder for household conversations across the US. Anthony Lewis of The New York Times called it “likely to be one of the most important documents of our age,” arguing that it showed “the complete irrelevance of most of today’s political concerns” to the world’s existential plight. Sound familiar in 2023? It should.
We are also featuring a video panel from the recent Vienna Humanities Festival, chaired by yours truly, which brings out lesser-heard dimensions of the identitarian debate. The politics of identity is front and center in the disagreements you’ll see. Identity (not to mention democracy, human rights, international law, and occupation) are never far from the vexing and toxic debates on Israel/Palestine. And nobody gets more to the heart of the problem with dispassionate passion and analytical chops than Adam Shatz, whose tour de force raises the necessary questions around which debate can advance.
More here.