PATRICK LAWRENCE: Swiss Neutrality & its Enemies
We must contemplate a world without the Swiss as facilitators of peace processes if the neutrality initiative fails on Sept. 27. As reported here and there in Western media, although not very often or well or honestly, the Swiss will…
“Trump’s war with the ‘liberal’ press.”
Are there any innnocents in this fight? To our readers. We apologize for our silence lately. No sooner did we return from our summer lectures in Switzerland (published here and here) than we succumbed to bouts of Covid. We’re now…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Games Trump & Liberal Media Play
We are looking at a dysfunction that transcends the contest for power between liberal authoritarians — politely called “centrists” these days — and their rightist counterparts. If the Trump regime is any good at anything, it is escalation. Wars, sanctions,…
“‘Terrorism,’ this insidious word.”
John Whitbeck on power and the manipulation of language. Summer Readings. 25 September—Of all the epithets power deploys to condemn, demonize, or ostracize those who question or oppose its late-imperial hegemony, a couple have been prominently in vogue for some…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The War Outside Our Doors
In fighting Zionist genocide in Gaza, Macklemore, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor have something to tell us all. There are things to do and victories to achieve so long as there is a willingness to accept sacrifice. Let’s do some…
“What are the sources of our dignity?”
‘Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right.’ 19 September—The theme of this year’s Mut zur Ethik conference, a series of lectures held each summer in Zürich’s environs, was “Living in Dignity.” Given the world we see out…
“Peace ‘between the sword and the neck.’”
Dignity in Palestine. Summer Readings. We continue our Summer Readings with the first of two lectures delivered at this year’s Mut zur Ethik conference in German-speaking Switzerland. — P. L. 14 SEPTEMBER—I write from the Swiss village of Bazenheid, 60…
“The Russians treated them humanely. Their own command didn’t.”
Ukrainian POWs speak. Guy Mettan is in the business of turning orthodoxies upside down. His method has always impressed us as superbly effective. He eschews slant or any kind of polemic in favor of what we may call “pane of…
“‘Russia is running out of steam.’ Really?”
The Ukraine war as seen from Kursk. Summer readings. The New York Times just ran a pair of especially preposterous pieces concerning the state of the war the West wages, via Ukraine, against the Russian Federation. It seems John Ratcliffe, the…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: In Praise of French Students
If the streets of France have something important to tell us now, it is that the centrist, or liberal-authoritarian, model is crumbling as surely as the lycées of Lyons and Nimes. The French have had a certain gift for street…