The Ideas Letter
Issue 56 of The Ideas Letter explores the various intellectual and psychological byways of autocracy. We kick off with an esteemed engagé scholar who has redefined modern sociology: Richard Sennett. From The Hidden Injuries of Class (1972) to The Corrosion of Character (1998), Sennett has explored how class hierarchies persistently undermine an individual’s sense of agency. Sharing with us an adapted section of his forthcoming book, Sennett meditates on moral character and survival under political persecution. Written with his unique blend of personal memoir, sociological observation, and philosophical reflection, the essay uses his family’s experience under McCarthyism as a lens for understanding resilience, ethics, and today’s drift toward authoritarianism.
The strange career of David Rieff hasn’t yet had its proper chronicler—until now. For over forty years as a storied journalist and essayist, Rieff has raised urgent and uncomfortable questions about the practice of humanitarianism and human rights. But he’s careened into a late-style of anti-Woke scold. The sharp writer David Klion, now finishing a book on the legacy of neoconservatism, is here to explain Rieff’s wayward turn.
Michael McFaul, Stanford political scientist and former US Ambassador to Russia, hasn’t had so much of a strange career as a strangely conventional one. Lily Lynch takes the measure of McFaul’s new book Autocrats vs. Democrats, which casts the binary of democracy and autocracy as a gladiatorial fight to the death. Lynch is skeptical about the project, going so far as to suggest that the liberal-democratic project has lost both its aesthetic vitality and its conceptual coherence.
My great colleague Pedro Abramovay, a Paulistano living in Rio, takes a more nuanced approach to different regime types. Abramovay provides an expansive meditation on Brazilian cinema and politics, using the recent films The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho) and I’m Still Here (Walter Salles Jr.) to narrate Brazil’s ongoing struggle between authoritarianism and creative resistance.
Featured Essays
What is The Ideas Letter
Welcome to The Ideas Letter, a publication that prizes the unconventional. We are not in the business of persuading. We won’t try to convince you of anything—other than that the world is complex and reality ever-shifting. We are not here to advocate. What you will find, and we hope embrace, are contributions from across ideological aisles, from a broad range of disciplines and a true cross-section of thinking. If catholicity is your métier, and you are uneasy with banging the drum but would rather hear its many sounds, this is the place for you.
We really like critique. Not the mean-spirited or spiteful kind, but rather commentary that raises tough questions, unpacks assumptions, sometimes calls people on the carpet, and always provides opportunity for discussion. That is what we are really after—facilitating, augmenting, furthering, and bolstering debate around issues of consequence.
You’ll find here articles, essays, and criticism that will challenge you to think. Let us know your thoughts, and make sure to tell a friend. Or even someone with whom you disagree!