ARTICLES
“‘If you remember, you’re alive.'”
Oliver Stone on ‘JFK Revisited.’ There are many things to say about Oliver Stone’s just-released new film, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass. One of them is that Stone’s new work demolishes, thoroughly and conclusively, the official version of what happened…
“A post-imperial language.”
Conversing with novelist Peter Dimock. Ray McGovern, who I count a dear friend and supporter, once observed in one of his speeches that it’s not enough to dwell on the incessant rains that fall upon us. The true task is…
“Courage beyond doubt.”
Pilger on Assange. The Scrum welcomes John Pilger, the noted journalist and filmmaker, to its pages with these personal reflections on Julian Assange during the years of his captivity. There is as much heart as mind in this piece, we find,…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Manufacture of Decline
Americans suffer the same disabilities as the Europeans of 1919: They cannot think. They cannot speak plainly among themselves. “We modern civilizations have learned to recognize that we are mortal like the others. We had heard tell of whole worlds…
“The ‘sacred outcast.'”
Assange behind glass. Part 3. The Scrum concludes publication of an extended essay on the Julian Assange case that first appeared in Raritan, the quarterly journal. Proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, during which the Crown Prosecution Service presented…
“‘The experiment of total domination.'”
‘Assange behind glass.’ Part 2. The Scrum continues to publish an extended essay on the Julian Assange case. As court proceedings continue in London—a travesty of due process by any serious measure—and in the face of the shocking silence among corporate…
“Assange behind glass.”
Shards of a shattered life. The Scrum begins today to publish an extended essay on the Julian Assange case. We offer it as our contribution to the admirable worldwide effort to bear witness to the WikiLeaks founder’s courage as a publisher…
“A note to readers.”
A year’s publication draws near. As The Scrum prepares to mark its first anniversary as an independent publication on Substack, we look back with measured satisfaction (though no hint of complacency) and forward to another year of work readers will find worthwhile….
“Weak minds.”
Oligarchs and their scapegoats. This is the second of a two-part series on the causes of America’s decline—economic, industrial, social, spiritual—and two prominent intellectuals who address themselves to remedies. Part 1 can be found here. From secrecy and deception in high…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Obituary for Russiagate
The fraudulent fable has died, but its consequences live on. Russiagate, that fraudulent fable wherein Russian President Vladimir Putin personally subverted American democracy, Russian intelligence pilfered the Democratic Party’s email, and Donald Trump acted at the Kremlin’s behest, is at…