Volunteer, Dammit!
Subject: Weisberg's
Virtue, Wieseltier's Venom
Re: ""
From:
michael berube
Date: Sun Nov
21
Kudos to Jacob Weisberg for reading Cornel West on
his own instead of relying on Leon Wieseltier's version. Wieseltier's 1995
essay on "the decline of the black intellectual" wasn't really the "devastating
critique" of West's work that Weisberg once took it to be, and it's relatively
good to hear that although Weisberg had hitherto set his lights by it, he no
longer agrees with Wieseltier's conclusion that West's work is "almost entirely
worthless."
The truth is that Wieseltier's piece was a
shameful, spite-ridden hatchet job on West, motivated almost entirely by the
fact that West had been profiled in The
New Yorker in 1994 and
then assessed (along with lesser lights bell hooks and Michael Dyson) by me in
a January 1995 essay that likened contemporary black intellectuals to the New
York intellectuals of the postwar period. (Robert Boynton in the Feb. 1995
Atlantic Monthly had pressed the same analogy, by reference to Skip
Gates, Shelby Steele, and Stanley Crouch, and the analogy sent all too many
black and Jewish intellectuals into frenzies of identity politics and
territorialism. Wieseltier's reaction was the worst, somewhat akin to his
frantic, ill-informed denunciation of the essay by Lionel Trilling's son in a
recent issue of the American Scholar .)
It's true that West can be formulaic, derivative,
clunky, and annoyingly self-absorbed (though surely in this last category
Wieseltier is more than a match for him). And he really is a mass of
contradictions. But his virtues are considerable nonetheless, and as Weisberg
writes, suit him well for the role of Bradley's counselor. This is much more
than can be said for Wieseltier, hence the venom of his essay. A tip of the
hat, then, to Mr. Weisberg, whose work I've enjoyed often in the past five
years--ever since his devastating critique of The Bell Curve in a fall
1994 issue of New York magazine.
(To reply, click
here .)
[Michael Berube is the author of Life as We Know It
A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child .]
Subject: Weisberg's
Chekhov
Re:
""
From:
David Edelstein
Date: Mon Nov
15
A very lucid analysis. But Jacob, you make fun of
the Chekhov references without explaining them. West has really grappled with
the great plays and found in the lack of a central consciousness (the
protagonists are not mouthpieces for the playwright) and refusal to demonize
even the most destructive-seeming characters a hallmark of Christian
forgiveness. I confess I don't know as much as I should about Christian
theology (and I'm not sure Chekhov knew all that much, either), but I do share
West's (and many others') view of Chekhov as a kind of saint of the drama
(albeit a saint with a rarely acute bullshit detector). It's not risible; I
wish all political theorists and politicians would read Chekhov.
(To reply, click
here .)
Subject: Shapiro on
the Stump
Re: ""
From:
David Margolick
Date: Thurs Nov
18
In touting Walter Shapiro's candidacy for the
Senate, you neglected to mention one thing: Walter is a seasoned campaigner,
having run for Congress in Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1972. And more recently he's
done a lot of public speaking, appearing on the New York comedy-club circuit.
After dealing with audiences that tough, town meetings in Binghampton or Utica
would be a breeze.
(To reply, click
here .)
[David
Margolick is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair .]
Subject: Chatterbox
Mandates Volunteerism?
Re: ""
From:
Harris Collingwood
Date: Wed Nov
10
Timothy Noah says he supports requiring high
schoolers to perform some sort of volunteer service. If this service is a
required activity, how can it be voluntary?
(To reply, click
here .)
Subject: Re:
Chatterbox Mandates Volunteerism?
Re:
""
From: Tim
Noah
Date: Wed Nov
10
Good point. I could argue that you still get to
volunteer (i.e., choose) whichever service you want to provide, but probably I
shouldn't have used the word "volunteer" at all.
(To reply, click
here .)
Subject: Bill
Bradley's No Jerry Brown
Re: ""
From:
Tarja Black
Date: Tues Nov 23
The NYT fronts and
the WP carries inside Bill Bradley's speech Monday in which he charged
that Al Gore had little interest in campaign finance reform because the current
money-raising system favors incumbents.
--"Today's Papers," Nov.
23
Bradley portrays himself as the guru of an
insurgent movement fighting for campaign finance reform. But he's more closely
linked to big money than to grassroots. ("Bradley's unexpected challenge to
Gore is backed by numerous corporate titans, especially those from Wall
Street," writes John Broder in his Oct. 24 New York Times piece,
"Bradley Relies on Wall Street to Raise Funds.")
In contrast, Al Gore's
contributions come more often from humble folks like my own family. As the
current U.S. News & World Report notes:
Vice President Al Gore is
trouncing challenger Bill Bradley in the battle to collect federal matching
money. In fact, he's on a record-breaking pace. ... The agency matches
donations up to $250 from individuals, leading Gore allies to crow that they've
received more small donations than Bradley.
The biggest contributors
in the room, at a recent Al Gore fundraiser here in California's Antelope
Valley, were my husband and I. Our check was for $20.
(To reply, click
here .)
Subject: My Own
Vote.com Experiment
Re: ""
From: Paddy
Lewis
Date: Tue Nov
23
As an interesting sidebar to your story on
vote.com, I tried it out tonight. I am always looking for new ways to improve
the democratic process, and thought, taking into account the caveats in your
article, this sort of thing could work well in my job as communications manager
for a large city council in New Zealand. I couldn't resist voting, even though
I was sure technology would catch me out as I am (a) not an American citizen,
nor (b) a registered Congress voter [refer a].
I plugged in my e-mail address and the zip code of
some obscure FBI building in Washington and waited for the e-mail reply telling
me to go away. Nope. I got a thank-you e-mail too. Does this mean the U.S.
really is taking over the world and I can now expect my Congressperson to come
knocking here in good old God zone next election?
(To reply, click here .)
