The Ideas Letter

In their visions of the future, socialists must begin accounting for artificial intelligence. So far, according to Evgeny Morozov, they’ve relied on old chestnuts rather than developing a strong theoretical basis for an AI-inflected socialism. Morozov argues that socialists should embrace the messy, “impure” nature of technology in order to shape a more humane future. This may just be the launching of a new theoretical program.

Regarding research programs, the historical sociologist Dylan Riley doesn’t consider Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism to be a useful intellectual guide to understanding today’s global malaise. Might Antonio Gramsci offer greater purchase on the state of play? Riley’s ultimate answer is to look squarely at politics, and to understand the damaged connections between the public and private spheres.

Matthew Shipp is perhaps the world’s premier avant garde jazz pianist whose personal language fuses innumerable influences yet remains unmistakably his own. In my interview with him, Shipp takes up questions of creative influence and personal sound, reflecting on the limits of language, the ineffable nature of originality, and how true greatness requires deep unlearning.

Our curated section kicks off with a lacerating review from Oliver Eagleton of Shadi Hamid’s grasping defense of American power in The Baffler. Stand guard all of you who purport to defend democracy à l’américaine!

We follow with Ida Danewid’s reinterpretation of the politics of James Baldwin, from a liberal champion of rights and equality to a more radical participant in global struggles. Does she succeed in her efforts to “undomesticate” Baldwin?

Last, my longstanding comrade-colleague, Darius Cuplinskas, interviews the naturalist Robert MacFarlane for the New Books Network.