A statue of Jesus atop St. Peters Basilica at the Vatican. (Andreas Solaro / AFP via Getty Images)

A man and a boy arrive before a low, sprawling building, hurrying to enter before it closes for the day. The place is a government office of some kind, a Centro de Reubicacin in a fictional town called Novilla. Speaking in halting Spanish and unfamiliar with the word reubicacin, the man asks the clerk for help. He is seeking employment and a place to live. We are new arrivals, he tells the functionary. I have a child with me.Ad Policy Books in Review

So begins The Childhood of Jesus, the first in a trilogy of novels by J.M. Coetzee that continues with The Schooldays of Jesus and comes to a perplexing climax in The Death of Jesus. What is it like to start life anew? the first novel asks. The two that follow extend this line of inquiry, working into it questions of education and labor, of parenting and love, even if the overall conclusion remains ambiguous. The novels offer no definitive answers, although they do suggest that within this trilogy-length puzzle of what it means to begin, one might find the even bigger question of what the art of the novel means for Coetzee at this stage of his prolific career.

The opening lines of the first novel, with their sparse but carefully chosen details, prepare the reader for a kind of stripped-down realism. The Spanish relocation center is inspired, one assumes, by the global refugee crisis in Southern Europe. The reader is primed, almost by force of habit, to think of overcrowded camps along the Mediterranean, of displaced humans making their slow, painful way north, hoping against hope to secure the benefits reluctantly offered by the residual welfare states of Europe. And because the series bears the aura of Jesuss name, one also expects a touch of allegory, the kind of symbolism beloved of the dominant writers, artists, and human rights campaigners of our time. A liberal message about Jesus resurrected and retrofitted for our contemporary turbulence, one thinks. What could be a more apt response to authoritarian demagogues and their border walls? Jesus, after all, was a refugee.

Yet as we make our own uncertain way through the trilogy, we begin to realize that the contemporary refugee crisis provides little more than a rudimentary scaffold for the questions Coetzee is interested in pursuing. We see the occasional obtuseness of the city bureaucracy, the generosity of the stevedores among whom Simn, the man, finds work carrying sacks of grain, and the eccentricity of the neighbors encountered by David, the child, at the housing complex where the new arrivals are assigned an apartment. Throughout, we look for the clues that might give us insight into the trilogys titles, the signs that might be portents. And yet steadily, almost every element of the novels interpretive schema crumbles, before it completely falls apart.

Simn, it turns out, is not Davids father but a fellow refugee met on their boat. His mother is believed to be somewhere in Novilla, but they have no name or description for her, even though Simn believes he will recognize her by instinct. And as he and David go about their existence, life in Novilla turns out to be safe but dull. The diet is composed mostly of bread, the labor largely manual, the interactions among adults more or less devoid of erotic charge. Workers can attend philosophy classes, and all the buses are free. We begin to realize that Coetzee has led us intorather than an allegory of our contemporary world or a representation of Jesussan in-between nowhere place, a mildly oppressive utopia or a relatively humane dystopia, a paradoxical realm where human beings arrive, no matter their age, as if they had just been born.

Readers of Coetzee have been in such a world before, although it may take them a while to realize it. In 2003, the year he received the Nobel Prize, he published the beguiling Elizabeth Costello. Structured as a series of lectures delivered by its eponymous protagonist, a writer and fierce campaigner for animal rights, the novel features talks that had been delivered by Coetzee, a vegetarian who has written about animal rights. And if this metafictional slippage is insufficient, Elizabeth Costello goes even further: It includes a dazzling chapter, At the Gate, that is a reworking of the Before the Law episode in Kafkas The Trial.

In contrast with the realist locations where Costello delivers her lectures, mostly colleges and universities in the West, this final chapter presents her disembarking from a bus in a town that has not much specificity to it and whose minimalist features (cafs, a windowless dormitory for new arrivals, and a bandstand on which the musicians play Strauss waltzes) seem to belong to an obscure Italian or Austro-Italian border town in the year 1912. Costello, otherwise our contemporary, has, it seems, slipped into a time that is not historical so much as an amalgamation of the literary and the metaphysical. Beyond the gate lies the great unknown, visible to herwhen a guard allows her a peekonly as a flash of blinding light. The journey that brought her here, to this country, to this town, that seemed to reach its end when the bus halted and its door opened on to the crowded square, was not the end of it all.Current Issue

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One wonders if her arrival is a gesture toward the afterlife. Many of the novels lectures, after all, are concerned with questions of aging, physical decline, and death. But if so, this gesture comes with a twist: When asked by the authorities in charge of the gate to write a statement of her faith, Costello has trouble articulating this in a manner both truthful and emotionally satisfying to her. God has failed in her world, as has socialism; she cannot even quite believe in art anymore. And so the novel ends, leaving us with a question: What is the afterlife for those who do not believe in one?

This question of belief and its absenceaesthetic and metaphysicalanimates the Jesus trilogy as well. Like Elizabeth Costello, the novels take place in a world that veers away from realism as well as allegory. Even if a Kafkaesque realm circa 1912 is not quite the setting, Novilla and Estrella, where Simn and David move later, are cities that deliberately deny the contemporary. There are televisions but no cellphones, cars but no aircraft, soccer but no Internet. Yet what makes the Jesus novels even more disorienting, perhaps, is that their rejection of realism and contemporary reality comes not at the end point of a life, as with Elizabeth Costello, but is instead inserted into an existence that is both at its beginning and its end, where the arc of a life flashes by so quickly that one might wonder if it existed at all.

Five years old in The Childhood of Jesus, David is 10 by the time the trilogy comes to a close. In those five years of living, the questions about art, God, morality, and politics that so troubled Costello abound. Now, however, they are inflected with an even greater ambiguity. Seen largely through the eyes of Simn, one of a series of father figures encountered in the novels, David is an unsettling character for the reader. In the first novel, he is initially portrayed as an ordinary child, understandably bereft in his new, bewildering surroundings, his metaphysical questions only as troubling as those encountered from the lips of anyone that age. Yet Coetzee is only sporadically interested in interiority and relationships, and the trilogy takes the first of its many perverse turns when Simn, against the desperate protestations of David, hands him over, along with the apartment he has been allotted by the Novilla bureaucracy, to a woman called Ins.

Even though Ins is clearly not Davids biological mother or particularly maternalher days until then involved playing tennis with her two brothers in the company of a German shepherd called BolvarSimn is certain that this is the mother David was destined to have. At first reluctant to assume such a role, Ins eventually accepts this responsibility, even as Davids behavior puts him at odds with a series of educational institutions. Although this leads at the end of the first book to Ins and Simns fleeing with David, his resistance to all but the most unconventional forms of pedagogy persists in The Schooldays of Jesus, where David, now nearly 7, has enrolled in what is called the Academy of Dance. There he falls under the tutelage of a mysterious musician, Seor Arroyo, and his charismatic wife, Ana Magdalena, and can finally indulge his singular epistemology, which revolves around the notions that the only book worth reading is Don Quixote and that numbers are connected to the stars. When he performs his special dance of Seven at an academy gathering, the effect is uncanny: As if the earth has lost its downward power, the boy seems to shed all bodily weight, Simn observes, to become pure light.

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As we make our way through The Schooldays of Jesus, we begin to realize there is more than just the ethereal to David. His resistance to learning and his difficult relationship with adults contain something other than trauma, something that seems to be almost a thought experiment on Coetzees part, a dismissal of theories of both nature and nurture in relation to the development of a child. Characters flit in and out of Davids penumbra, the other children reduced mostly to bit parts. Toward Simn, who often comes across as pedantic and affectless, David is willful and dismissive. Ins, he treats as his follower.

Then there is Dmitri, encountered first as a doorman at the Academy of Dance, a large, slovenly figure given to showing pornography to the children and fixated on Ana Magdalena. David, who seems strangely drawn to him, becomes even more interested after Dmitri sexually assaults and murders Ana Magdalena. A long, confusing trial leads not so much to Dmitris incarceration as to frequent encounters between him and David, whom Dmitri considers his king.

The Death of Jesus picks up their stories after the trial. With the Academy of Dance temporarily shut down, David takes to soccer. Revealing himself to be a gifted winger on the field, he is scouted by a man who runs an orphanage. David moves there, abandoning Simn and Ins, but his tenure as a player at the orphanage proves to be brief, and soon he is reacquainted with Dmitri: A mysterious ailment leads to a long hospitalization for David, and Dmitri resurfaces as a hospital worker. The doctors are unable to diagnose Davids illness, and midway through the novel comes the death signposted in the title. This is a bold move for any novelist, but Davids death brings no closure. Instead, the mystery continues, as Dmitri believes himself to be the sole recipient of a message from David, even if the content of that message, he writes in a long letter to Simn, is still obscure. For Simn, struggling with sorrow after Davids death and leafing through their copy of Don Quixote as if it were a relic, there is no message at all or at least none that can ever be known. The question of faith and its absence that we saw in Elizabeth Costello returns but in even more contradictory fashion, leaving us with almost nothing beyond the fact of the labor that has produced this puzzling trilogy.

Writing about the works produced in the twilight of an artists career, Edward Said marked out for special scrutiny those in which the artists late style was expressed not as harmony and resolution but as intransigence, difficulty, and unresolved contradiction. Building on a phrase and idea taken from Adorno, Said used Ibsen to make his point. Ibsens final playsin particular When We Dead Awakenoffer, in contrast with Shakespeare, not harmony, Said explains, but only an occasion to stir up more anxiety, tamper irrevocably with the possibility of closure, and leave the audience more perplexed and unsettled than before. As description, this seems quite apt for Coetzees Jesus trilogy, which raises so many questions and offers almost no definitive answers.

One wonders, for instance, in spite of the intermittent allegorical elements, whether the problem being wrestled with here is art rather than religion. It is an interpretation given some weight by the recurrent, quasi-talismanic status of Don Quixote and by the possible reading of David as a variation on its archetypal fictional protagonist as much as a version of Jesus of Nazareth, a boyish echo of the late knight of La Mancha. If David is adrift, it is perhaps also because he is traveling through a form that, while new to Cervantes, is undeniably worn some four centuries later in the hands of Coetzee.

Much of Coetzees career has, in fact, tilted at the windmills of literary realism. The struggle is there in his first book, 1974s Dusklands, with its twinned but stylistically quite different novellas that take on the Vietnam War and colonialism in southern Africa. The campaign is continued in anti-apartheid works like Waiting for the Barbarians and Life and Times of Michael K. Only in his most popular novel, Disgrace, does he offer us something of an exception, one that comes across as the norm only because its thematically freighted realismof white masculinity in postapartheid South Africawas rewarded by prize committees, winning its author the Booker for a second time as well as reliable placement in liberal arts curricula everywhere.

Coetzees angular relationship with realism has grown only more acute after he was awarded the Nobel and moved from South Africa to Australia. His subsequent fictional works appear to campaign against realism with even greater intensity. Elizabeth Costello was followed by Slow Man, another novel about the aging body that also features Costello, who appears a third of the way through, claiming that its protagonist is a character in a novel she is working on. Coetzees challenge to the realist form found its most singular expression in 2007s Diary of a Bad Year. Riffing on Defoes A Journal of the Plague Yeara work that suddenly has its own ominous valenceCoetzee produced not so much a novel as an extended set of essays on the modern state. The narrative element reduced mostly to footnotes, the main text of the novel involved a series of treatises by Seor C, a writer who, like Coetzee, has just immigrated to Australia from South Africa and who excoriates Anglo-American democracy for its self-congratulatory rhetoric even as it leaves in its wake the wreckage of the Iraq War, Abu Ghraib, and Guantnamo.

If not realist, though, there was no doubt that Coetzee was addressing the moment in Diary of a Bad Year. There was no escape or evasion here, only a fiercely moral intelligence that has been in operation since his earliest works of fiction, a courage to take on the same liberal Anglo-American world that has, by and large, celebrated his status as an artist. The Jesus trilogy, however, while rejecting realism, seems also to jettison the contemporary world. Readers must make their way through a series of novels that do not seem to pose political questions and whose metaphysics often appear to pertain to a realm far removed from that of humanity. There are barely any reference points, only a bewildering succession of Spanish names in a land that could be anywhere vaguely European and where all the charactersother than perhaps David, the boy knight-kingare devoid of memories.

So, just as the past is more or less absent, the present in the Jesus novels (and in particular the final one) is not fully substantial, either. In spite of the housing and work and food provided to new arrivals, everyone is in some deep sense unhoused. Different as the adult characters Simn, Ins, and Dmitri may be from one another, they all give the impression of wandering through the fragmentary remnants of modernitythe state, the novel, and realism. They are in exile in a manner that sidesteps the contemporary questions we thought in the beginning they were intended to examine: border control regimes, displaced people from the Global South, the new authoritarianism.

There is no reason to believe, given Coetzees long writing career, that he is not opposed to the latest manifestations of cruelty expressed by the modern state. But the Jesus novels also suggest that the estrangement felt by their charactersand by us as readerswhile disquieting and profound, occupies an uneasy relationship to our alienation from the contemporary. In Diary of a Bad Year, Seor C talks about a helpless quietism that has become the norm for citizens of modern Western democracies, an inner emigration. But in writing an allegory that is barely an allegory and a trilogy of novels that are often not novels, Coetzee appears to have made his own literary displacement total, external as well as internal. Drawing on Adorno, Said spoke of difficult late works as constituting, for the intransigent artist, a form of exile. Coetzees late work is exemplary in that regard.

Continued here:

J.M. Coetzees States of Exile - The Nation

Representational image. | Image Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle

Jeffrey C Alexander is Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology at Yale University and co-director of its Center for Cultural Sociology. He is among the worlds leading social theorists with a keen interest in the recent rise of authoritarian-populist regimes across the world. Ajay Gudavarthy, associate professor at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU, who recently published India after Modi: Populism and the Right are in conversation here on populism and the future of democracy in the United States and India.

You are known to have inaugurated cultural sociology as against sociology of culture, wherein you stress on performance and dramaturgy as central to how power works and is also resisted. Do you think the current rise of populism has foregrounded performativity in any manner discernibly different from when democracies were not necessarily populist?

Theres been a long intellectual tradition arguing that populism engages in the aesthetics of rule more than democratic power, much less socialism. I think this is deeply mistaken. The reason I created social performance theory is to argue against historicist or ideologically specific understandings of the social location of dramaturgy. Performance is part of any social action, everywhere, and it permeates every attempt at legitimate rule, which pretty much covers the exercise of power everywhere at every time. This is not to say, of course, that right and left populist performances are the same. The culture, codes, and narratives of left and right are very different, so the performances that evoke them would differ, too.

You made an incisive point that the Left does not take culture seriously as it equates it with conservatism. But surely Gramsci was a front-ranking political thinker who argued in favour of mobilising culture. How do you think the Left needs to negotiate the question of culture today?

Gramsci was a major influence on my thinking in the early days of my intellectual formation, when I was a radical activist as a New Left Marxist. New Left Marxism was always very critical of economistic Marxism, the term that Lenin rightly used against the Mensheviks to justify the need for an activist political party to wake up the working and peasant classes. Gramsci was deeply affected by Lenin but was much more willing to be explicitly cultural (rather than narrowly political) because he was also deeply affected by Antonio Labriola, the very creative and open-minded Italian Marxist thinker who was heavily influenced by Hegel.

When I moved from cultural Marxism to cultural sociology, I brought the thinking of Gramsci, and of course Hegel, with me. But there is a lot more that has gone into creating cultural sociology than Gramsci. Theres semiotics, structuralism, and post-structuralism, especially Foucault; theres the literary theories of narrative; theres performance studies and Austins performative speech act theory; theres aesthetic ideas about form and sensibility.

The challenge for the left is, first, to realise that not all culture is political, not attached to domination, and to appreciate that. People of all ideologies need traditions, codes, and collective meanings; they need vibrant and powerful material symbols; they need to be engaged, both as actors and audiences, in compelling social dramas.

The second challenge for the left is to build a new utopian culture of an alternative society. Socialism/communism played such a role for 150 years, but its utopian power as a transcendental symbol has disappeared, dying in the last two decades of the 20th century. This is notat allto say that a heck of a lot more social democracy would be a bad thing! The more the better. It is to say, rather, that the symbol of socialism has been profoundly tarnished, for better and for worse. Its also to say that equality in the socialist sense of Marx, what he himself criticised in The German Ideology as an empty abstract equality, is no longer a viable description of a good society.

For me, the new utopia would have to be rooted in ideas about civil society, self-governance, radical democracywhat I call the civil sphereand in a particular vision of multi-cultural incorporation.

The progressive social movements that exert performative power today are all rooted in these values.

Through the idea of civil repair you offer a way of moving towards solidarity between various social groups with the universal as a normative ideal more than anything else. But in todays politics it is the Right that is able to articulate the ideas of solidarity and universal better than Black Lives Matter and anti-caste movements in India.

I wouldnt be that confident in your suggestion that BLM hasnt been successful in its performance of civil solidarity and multicultural incorporation! As public opinion polling has stunningly demonstrated in the last two weeks, white American opinion has come to support BLM and racial justice by a far higher percentage than in the first wave of BLM protests in 2013. [US President Donald] Trumps version of racist and anti-egalitarian solidarity is losing support rapidly, and the stage is being set for a dramatic victory of the centre-left in the November presidential elections.

Yes, Trumpand far right populism everywhereoutperformed the left over the last decade, and he was able to ride a backlash against BLM and Americas first Black president into power in 2016. But the regulative (law, voting) and communicative (journalism, polls, civil associations) of the civil sphere stood up against Trumps right populism over the last three and a half years. Democrats won a tremendous victory in the Congress in 2018, and #MeToo became the most powerful feminist movement in recent history during the administration of Americas most misogynist president.

Both right wing and left wing movements appeal to solidarity. Right movements defined more primordial, localised, kin, race, gender, and caste forms of particularistic solidity. Left movements define and defend broader, more civil forms of (expanded) solidarity. Creating civil repair can be seen as an unsettling frontlash movement, led by political and cultural avant-gardes; it always creates backlash and resistance, and this opens the way for conservative, right populism, and even fascist movements to come to power. In my forthcoming book, Populism in the Civil Sphere (Polity, January 2021), sociologists from around the world make use of this theory to explore left and right populism.

I find the ideas of myth and meaning at the centre of how the right in India is mobilising itself. Would it be correct to argue that rather than as a general pattern there are moments in history that are more prone to the autonomy of symbols and cultural codes?

While I know your recent work on right-wing Indian political culture, Ajay, and I consider it pioneering, I dont agree, no, with the suggestion that some historical periods or social formations are more prone to the relative autonomy of culture. It would be like saying are there periods where people like to eat and have sex more than in other times? I dont think so!

You seem to be arguing that even neoliberalism and capitalism are built on certain kinds of myths, and globalisation was itself a trauma response to what transpired during the Cold War. But surely global trade flows and financial capitalism cannot be reduced to a social imaginary, even if one agrees that cultural discourses do structure economic transactions.

In fighting against the reduction of materialism, cultural sociology has never sought to create an opposite kind of idealist reductionism in turn. Each sphere of society has its own, relatively independent social processes, especially as differentiation increases over historical time. Capitalism has its own so-called laws, though theres not like the iron laws of physics that Marx claimed they were in his introduction to the third volume of Capital! The globalisation of capitalism is an example of this internally-logical development: where there are falling costs of labour and land, capital will flow! The financialisation of capitalism in the West is another example. Yet, at the same time, I would insist that capitalism itself requires, and in a sense is built upon, certain cultural codes and performances. This is well explored in Callons Actor-Network Theoretical studies, as it is also in Roger Friedlands work on institutional logics. Without certain powerful understandings of the self, exchange, and reciprocity, contemporary capitalism couldnt function. The greatest economist of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, put such non-rational phenomena as trust at the centre of entrepreneurialism and financial markets alike.

How do you see the future of democracy in the US in the next decade or so? Do you see the ebbing of authoritarian populism and alternatives to global neo-liberal regimes emerging?

Good social scientists must be aware that historical development is contingent. Marshall Sahlins, drawing on Althusser, spoke about the structure of the conjuncture. Look at the extraordinary contrast between the historical essays of Marx, like The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, and the systematic theoretical works like Capital. That said, I believe that there are ample cultural and institutional reasons to believemore than merely to hopethat the right-wing populism will ebb in the US and that, at the same time, more solidaristic and egalitarian policies will be put into place to step the grotesque excesses of what is called (I dont like the term) neoliberalism. I am not convinced that neoliberalism emerged simply or perhaps even mainly for economic reasons; I think it came out of a particularly effective right-wing performative reaction to the decline of the socialist ideal in the 1980s.

Finally, your thoughts on democracy in India. You were particularly struck by Prime Minister Narendra Modi meditating in a cave. With an economy in recession, will cultural nationalist symbolism hold the same kind of power to generate meaning for representing the reality?

For intellectuals and citizens who remain deeply committed to democracywhether in its republican or liberal formthe fate of Indian democracy is one of the most critical questions of our time. Not only because of concern for the more than one billion people who live in India, but also because China is on the road to becoming a very politically threatening anti-democratic global power. Modern India shows for South Asia, just as Korean, Japan, and Taiwan show for East Asia, that democracy is not civilisationally limited, as the reactionary political scientist Samuel Huntington argued in his deeply misleading book, The Clash of Civilizations (1996). (By the way, I handed out anti-war leaflets inside of Huntingtons lecture class in 1968 while a student at Harvard!)

India is an Axial Age civilisation, a concept that my teacher Robert Bellah, and the great Israeli historical and comparative sociologist SN Eisenstadt, took over from Karl Jaspers interpretation of Webers comparative sociology of religions. Despite its egregious caste inequalities, Hinduism has inside of it critical and transcendental capacities and, despite its own egregious racial, religious, and institutional practices, British colonialism added to the critical and democratic capacities of contemporary Indian culture.

Gandhi is a good example of a great Indian leader and thinker who synthesised both, inventing a form of militant non-violence that has motivated civil sphere activism around the world. As long as India can maintaindespite Modis sometimes sinister desires and actionssome significant autonomy for its communicative and regulative institutions, India will move beyond Modi, his political party, and right-wing populist constructions of reality. When it will depends on what kind of political culture and performances the Indian Opposition can provide.

Originally posted here:

'India Will Move Beyond Modi, his Party, and Right Wing Populism'Prof Jeffrey C Alexander - NewsClick

Zhuangzi is a creative and flexible author, so it is no surprise that later in the same work, Confucius is ironically appropriated as the spokesman of Zhuangzis own position. This Confucius says he wants to become the disciple of an amputee, Royal Nag, because he looks at the way things are one [or whole] and does not see what theyre missing. He looks at losing a foot like shaking off dust. Royal Nag (and Zhuangzi) saw, long before contemporary epistemologists, that similarity and difference are standpoint dependent: Looked at from their differences, liver and gall are as far apart as the states of Chu and Yue. Looked at from their sameness, the ten thousand things are all one. In short, the common assumption that it is bad to be disabled makes sense only if we project our parochial and historically contingent human values onto the fabric of the universe.

One response to this critique would be that disabilities are bad, not because they are violations of the objective teleological structure of the universe, but because they are inefficient. Those who are disabled are simply less functional, less able to achieve their goals, than those who are normal. This leads easily to the conclusion that eliminating disabilities would be better, not just for society but for the disabled themselves. Contemporary technology seems to have put this almost in our grasp. With the advent of both genetic screening technologies and Crispr gene editing, we are approaching an age in which we may be able to design the human body; perhaps soon the new normal for the American family will be designer babies. We may be approaching a world in which illness is eradicated, a world of physical and mental harmony and homogeneity among all peoples. This, many would argue, is surely the stuff of a utopia a brave new world.

The seductiveness of this argument illustrates the danger of the hegemony of instrumental reasoning reasoning employed to find the most efficient way to a given goal. It is an important aspect of wisdom, but it also carries the temptation, especially in modern capitalist society, to reduce all of rationality to means-end efficiency. In some cases, means-end efficiency results in an inappropriate and inhuman standard.

To think that we have moved beyond this pitfall would be nice, but we havent. It is still very much with us. As the coronavirus pandemic began to overwhelm medical capacity in the United States in March, the disability activist and writer Ari Neeman argued that the triage guidelines that certain states were putting into use indicated that it was preferable to let a disabled person die simply because it would require more resources to keep that person alive. The principle of granting equal value of human lives, Neeman wrote, would then be sacrificed in the name of efficiency.

We do not mean, in this brief essay, to dismiss all of philosophy outside of Zhuangzi. The sayings of Confucius include a passage in which the master is a respectful and congenial host to a blind music master (Analects, 15.42), and the later Confucian tradition includes the stirring admonition, All under Heaven who are tired, crippled, exhausted, sick, brotherless, childless, widows or widowers all are my siblings who are helpless and have no one else to appeal to. Readers of the New Testament will recognize this as a core value in the teachings of Jesus. In fact, many figures and institutions in the Abrahamic traditions have been at the forefront of caring for the disabled, precisely by appealing to the Platonic view that humans ultimate value lies in their immaterial souls rather than their contingent material embodiments.

But in this time of rampant sickness and social inequality, and given our fundamental duty to extend equal treatment, compassion and care for others, we think Zhuangzi is an important and insightful guide, a Taoist gadfly, if you will, to challenge our conventional notions of flourishing and health. With the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act approaching, this ancient Chinese Taoist reminds us that it is the material conditions of a society that determine and define disability. We have the power to change both those material conditions and the definition of disability.

John Altmann (@iron_intellect) writes about philosophy for general audiences and is a contributor to the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series of books. Bryan W. Van Norden (@bryanvannorden) holds a chair in philosophy at Vassar College and is the author most recently of Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto.

Now in print: Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments and The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments, with essays from the series, edited by Peter Catapano and Simon Critchley, published by Liveright Books.

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Was This Ancient Taoist the First Philosopher of Disability? - The New York Times

Chris Packhams bid to get the courts to agree to hear a judicial review case against HS2 was heard yesterday andthe judges will give their verdict on it in three weeks.

But during those three weeks, HS2 will trash many more woodlands.

Now is the moment therefore to stand up against HS2,an icon of a dangerous vision of a tech-utopia.The struggle against this projectis conversely an act of facing up to the reality that the actual trajectory of our society is now bound to be non-utopian, given baked-in climate-degradation.

Sacrificed

Ive long been a staunch opponent of HS2. There are so many massive reasons to oppose it:the ecological devastation that building the line is wreaking;the vast slug of carbon that is going into the atmosphere from its construction, and that it is planned to run mainly on fossil power.

These first two considerations alone are enough to make it clear that HS2 makes our situation worse, is incompatible with a 2025 deadline for carbon-zero as called for by Extinction Rebellion.

Consider furthermore its extreme expense. For the same price tag as HS2, you could create perfect Dutch-style or better cycling infrastructure across the entire country, give every British citizen a free bike including free electric bikes for every OAPand still have plenty of money to spare.

Similarly, for a fraction of the money required to build HS2, we could re-open a bunch of old train lines to improve capacity: including the Great Central Main Line.

All this has been sacrificedfor the sake of knocking half an hour off the journey from Birmingham to London.

Lack

The project will also lock in and indeed incentivise unsustainable patterns of long-distance commuting.

This shows plainly that HS2 makes less sense than ever in the post-Covid world: where we can expect a permanent decline in commuting and in in-person business-meetings. HS2 is a white elephant in the era of the hegemony of Zoom! HS2 is old tech, yesterdays news.

At the same time Covid has shown us the true value of community, and of care; it is the beginning of a great relocalisation of our world. HS2 makes no sense in a world that is finally turning the corner on realising that speed and hyper-mobility are not everything, and in fact are not even good things!

But there are some who dont understand why HS2 is opposed by environmentalist organisations such as XR,and the popular naturalist Chris Packham. I think the real reason for that lack of understanding is that they dont understand why XR would oppose a train line asan alternative to planes -havent we got better targets to challenge than HS2?

It has occurred to me, only very recently, that this lack of understanding can be used to explain what XR is nowabout.

Collapse

How XRs emergency-response can and should be heard as a cri de Coeur, now that it is becoming clearer thatthe full post-Covid reset we desperately hoped for is not going to be forthcoming. Sunaks green investment package is dwarfed by his road-building package, let alone by HS2.

The world is already choosing not to reset deeply it is choosing this by, for instance, undertaking substantial polluter-bailouts.

HS2 has therefore just become a perfect target because the world is not about to stabilise. Because the future will be more local: either through choice, or through collapse. We need to make plain the moment that we have reached: one where mega-costly carbon-heavy mega-projects need to go extinct

So Ive suddenly gone from being a staunch opponent of HS2 to seeing the struggle against HS2 as one we must (and now can) win. Because the deepest reason for all of us to oppose HS2 with our bodies and with everything we have got is that such opposition makes clear that we are not signed up to a now-failed vision of a tech-heavy utopia.

A green industrial revolution is not going to save us. Maybe it could have done, a generation ago. But that ship has sailed. And now we are facing civilisational decline, perhaps collapse. Because the virus gave humanity its very last chance to be saved. And humanity said, on balance: no, were not going to be saved. Or at least: this civilisation is not going to be.

Rails

For this post-Covid world, we need to find iconic ways of representing this new story. Beyond a full imagined salvation, beyond that con, into a future where we need to focus on transformative adaptation and indeed on deep adaptation.

The way that groups such as XR most powerfully manifest a story is through actions. It now seems clear therefore that the struggle to stop HS2 takes on new significance. It is totemic for our new story.

HS2 itself tells a story of ultra-heavy-industry, of 2050, of a reformed business as usual at best. HS2 would put us on rails direct toward collapse. The struggle against HS2 tells a story of not being fooled by these tech-fix dreams. It tells our new story of no longer pretending that it is five minutes to midnight, and admitting instead that it is past midnight.

Hope dies; action begins. Pouring ourselves into the struggle to stop HS2 could just be the most powerful non-violent story-manifesting weapon we now have. A truly powerful one.We have the power to stop HS2 -and in the process truly to change the narrative and, if not turn the rising tide, at least stop fuelling it.

In these next three weeks, lets move to save some irreplaceable nature. And if the courts dont rule in Chris Packhams favour then, then the epochal struggle to stop HS2 will come down to Non-Violent Direct Action.See you not in the streets, but in the woods, where the rails would run...

This Author

Professor Rupert Read is a political liaison for Extinction Rebellion.

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The struggle to stop HS2 - The Ecologist

The 1975 have released the music video for Dont Worry, the latest visual from the Manchester quartets new albumNotes on a Conditional Form.

Done in the same CGI-rendered style as past videos like The Birthday Party, the simple, utopian Dont Worry clip shows a person walking through a shiny cityscape where buildings are surrounded by trees and sources of renewable energy (wind farms, solar panels, etc.). The passerby looks through the upper window of an apartment building and sees a dancer twirling around their plant-filled living room. The two characters eventually make eye contact, smiling and waving at each other at the songs end.

The 1975 releasedNotes on a Conditional Form this past May; the 22-track LP features the songs People, Frail State of Mind, Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America, Me and You Together Song, Guys, If Youre Too Shy (Let Me Know) and others.

In the weeks leading up to the new albums release, the band hosted listening parties for their first three albums every Friday on Twitter and Spotify, culminating in 2018s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. Healy also hosted aspecial podcastin partnership withThe Facewhere he interviewed heroes like Stevie Nicks, Brian Eno and Mike Kinsella.

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The 1975 Imagine Utopia in Their New Dont Worry Video - Rolling Stone

In mid-June, the Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office sent out a press release announcing that there were no known cases of coronavirus at the New Orleans jail. A week later, Christian Freeman, an inmate at the jail died in custody. During the autopsy, it was revealed that he had been positive for the virus at the time of his death.

Freemans death on June 25 and subsequent positive test raised questions about whether the virus had in fact been spreading in the facility undetected. As of last week, the cause of Freemans death had not been determined, according to a spokesperson for the Orleans Parish Coroners Office, who did not immediately respond to a request for an update.

But on Monday, the compliance director for the New Orleans jail, Darnley Hodge, sent a memo to U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, who oversees the jails federal consent decree, claiming that there were no known changes regarding the COVID-19 status of staff and inmates at the jail.

According to the memo, in response to Freemans positive test, all 55 of the detainees being held in Freemans pod were tested for the virus. All came back negative, with the exception of one test that is still pending.

In addition, all the staff that worked in the pod have been tested, and all came back negative.

The memo also says that Freeman, who had been in custody since December, had previously tested negative for the virus. It does not specify when that test was done.

Hodge declined to comment through a spokesperson from the Sheriffs Office, and it is unclear whether the jail plans to test the rest of the inmates in the facility.

The Sheriffs Office, which had been regularly releasing updates about the number of coronavirus tests administered and cases detected among the jails inmates, has not put one out since the June 18 release that announced there were no known cases.

At the height of the outbreak at the facility there were over 90 positive inmates, but Hodge and Sheriff Marlin Gusman have touted the jails program of mass testing and quarantine in response to the virus as a successful effort to prevent further spread of the virus.

Freeman was the second person to die in custody at the jail since officials claimed it was free of the disease. The first, Desmond Guild, died on June 19. Guild was negative for coronavirus when he died, according to the coroners office.

The two deaths come as Gusman is attempting to convince a federal judge to allow him to retake control of the jail from Director Hodge. Initially, Gusman asked the judge to throw out the consent decree altogether, claiming that The two deaths come as Gusman is attempting to convince a federal judge to allow him to retake control of the jail from Hodge, an appointed official who controls day-to-day jail operations as part of a court order in the consent decree case. Initially, Gusman asked the judge to throw out the consent decree altogether, claiming that it sought a jail utopia, reflective of the Court appointed Monitors personal preferences and idealistic aspirations, but later agreed to walk it back.

Emily Washington, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center who represents the plaintiffs in the consent decree litigation against the Sheriffs Office, declined to comment.

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Memo: Following death of inmate who tested positive, Sheriffs Office says no new known cases of coronavirus at jail - The Lens

The latest lifestyle, fashion and travel trends

The membership of The Wing reads like a Whos Who of the worlds most influential women Alexa Chung, Kerry Washington and Gloria Steinem have all endorsed the female-only club.

When its London branch opened in Fitzrovia last September, it felt like the start of a new movement. It was the first Wing outside of America, where there are 11 clubs, and the event was marked with an evening celebrating the power of women at the ICA. Founder Audrey Gelman, Lena Dunhams best friend who used to work for Hillary Clinton, flew in from New York while heavily pregnant and delivered a speech to a room of women about why she set up the club in the wake of Trumps 2016 election as an antidote to the presidents politics and old boys networks. Gelman wanted the co-working space to be a utopia for women of all definitions, with a library just for womens books and regular talks from female role-models. In the US, speakers included Jennifer Lopez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The London clubhouse is based in a five-storey Edwardian townhouse, decked out in Oliver Bonas-style pastels with millennial pink walls, a checkerboard roof terrace, Peloton bikes and portraits of feminist pin-ups Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Amal Clooney and Michelle Obama on the walls. The annual membership fee is 1,836 (triple that of womens club AllBright in nearby Bloomsbury and more than Soho House), but there are scholarships for those who struggle to afford the fee.

Gelman assembled a crack team to make the London branch a hub. General manager Lucy Harrison was thrilled to be called up. I was besotted by the idea of The Wing, it was full of feminist energy, she says. She has worked in hospitality for 15 years and got the job after a 12-stage interview process.

The Wing: inside London's newest members' club for women

Less than a year later, The Wing is under scrutiny and women in London and the US are cancelling their memberships. There have been claims of misgendering and racism at the club, focusing on a donation that The Wing made to Black Lives Matter that contradicted the way staff felt they had been treated. As these allegations swirled, last month, Gelman resigned, saying it was the right thing for the business and the best way to bring The Wing along into a long overdue era of change. So what has happened at what was supposed to be a feminist utopia?

An Instagram account called Flew the Coup is a window into what some former members of the club and ex-staff feel went wrong. One post on the US operation reads: Our general manager would constantly ask for massages from our Spanish-speaking staff, most of whom spoke very little English. I went to the staff room and found our GM on the floor with her sweatshirt lifted up, no bra, with a Latina worker giving her a massage. There are also posts about the subsidised memberships. One says: I was talked down to by rich white members. One member told another scholarship recipient and myself that we didnt deserve to be there ... she said: I paid for you to be here. Another post raises faux-wokeness, where staff felt unable to raise issues of gender and race.

Among Flew the Coups calls to action is a petition calling for The Wing to match its $200,000 donation made to Black Lives Matter and give it to workers laid off due to Covid, many of whom felt they had been victims of racism. And US staffers claims have sent ripples across the Atlantic. In London, six managers and 30 staff on hourly rates say they have been made redundant and there is uncertainty over when the club will reopen. Since then, many have spoken out about their mistreatment on a mass Slack channel created to replace The Wing apps chat function, which has been paused. Claims include staff feeling bullied, non-English-speaking employees being spoken down to and workers being berated in public.

Gina Martin, who campaigned to make upskirting illegal, was invited to be a founder member of the club but has since asked to have her membership terminated. She never witnessed any mistreatment, but acknowledges it was an exclusive space used primarily by women with money, privilege and a certain level of power, so has every reason to believe those who came forward. She adds: For me, this is a classic example of what happens when you mix feminism (and a type which only benefits white women) and capitalism. It doesnt mix. I didnt want to be part of that anymore. Martin says shes not comfortable with a club claiming to be liberating and championing women if its not all women and marginalised people. You cant just cater to the top echelons and say youre changing the world.

The rooftop of the London outpost of The Wing (The Wing)

The Wing denies all claims against it and a representative says: No one has ever been fired for raising issues of race or pay doing so would be illegal and it has never happened. We have made several public statements about the impact that Covid has had on our business and the resulting layoffs while the company has had no incoming revenue. It says it is addressing issues as a company because it is necessary and overdue. For each of its London employees, The Wing has pre-paid 48 sessions of mental healthcare through Talkspace, an online therapy provider, and every person who has worked there can withdraw a $500 grant if they did not receive one during the earlier round.

We need to reinvent the business in a way that reconciles the real tension between intersectional feminism and capitalism, and reimagine what The Wing looks like in a post-Covid future, a spokeswoman for the company said in a detailed email. We fundamentally believe in The Wings mission even if we havent yet achieved it. We believe we can be a force for anti-racism. We are grateful for the role our team and our members have played in pushing us in that direction.

The email explains that The Wing has a culture code, aimed at creating an inclusive space and dialogue, and the company is elevating leadership from within to create a newly formed office of the CEO, composed of co-founder Lauren Kassan, Celestine Maddy, and Ashley Peterson. The Wing will go on, but we need to tear down the foundations, evolve, and rebuild the way forward ... We are committed to doing this work in order to rebuild The Wing as something that serves not one kind of us, but all of us.

When The Wing launched in 2016, Gelmans mission was clear. We really feel the most powerful way to advance women is to gather them together, she said, telling the story of how she had the idea when she was working in public relations and needed a place to charge her phone between meetings. At the opening of The Wings flagship in New York, she and Kassan hosted a sleepover with pillow fights and a complimentary beauty bar. The application form for The Wing asks prospective members who call each other Wing women or Winglets to describe how they have promoted or supported the advancement of women, then to answer what they think is the biggest challenge facing women today. The organisation quickly gained a paid-up community of 12,000 across seven international outposts thanks to investors including WeWork and AirBnb, and its members duly became the standard-bearers for millennial feminism. There were plans to open a second London outpost, two more in New York and one in Paris.

The Wing co-founder, Audrey Gelman (in pink, centre) with (L - R) Rachel Racusen, Laetitia Gorra, Lucy Harrison, Marianna Martinelli, Zara Rahim, Brittany Halldorson and Giovanna Gray Lockhart (Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Wing)

I think they had the best intentions, says Harrison, who met Gelman and Kassan on Zoom when she was being interviewed. And the media often rushes to blame female founders, but they tried to do too much, too fast. The problem wasnt with them. You need depth and support structures for staff under appearances and The Wing didnt have that, so when problems arose there was no way of dealing with them.

One former London staffer, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that tensions emerged with management early on. I was completely unsupported and had zero contact with line managers or bosses before opening, she says. I was bullied by my boss, despite never having had a warning in my career. The professionalism and procedures just were not there. It feels like Ive been chewed up and spat out after working there. And there was a shroud of secrecy around the allegations that were coming out of the US.

You could definitely sense that there was a hierarchy, says another former member, a Croatian brand strategist, remembering how management staff ignored and spoke down to non-English-speaking cleaners. It felt like you had these tier-A women trying to make the world a different place, and then you still had your staff who are people like my auntie, Croatian, cleaning your toilets. Those two worlds dont match fully.

Founding member Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a social justice advocate, says the US allegations were unsurprising to anyone who paid attention to the class and racial dynamics at the club, while an American member of the London club says The Wings predominantly white management managing people of colour made her feel uncomfortable. The clubs management was restructured six months ago, with five white women put in charge.

The American member says: In the States its really common to have a white front-of-house and a back-of-house thats people of colour, mostly Hispanic, and its absolutely unacceptable. One of the reasons I like living [in London] is that you rarely see that, but at The Wing it felt like I was going back home in a bad way. She recalls staff being berated in public.

Its sad, the Croatian member adds, because The Wing was ultimately a great idea. Women need spaces where they can meet and build connections and grow. The problem is this was built on a completely f***ed up premise of profit and hierarchy and classism. The feminist branding that it tapped into, that all of us are equal, you cant fulfil that if you dont live that. In the end they hurt a lot of people.

Shell be surprised if the club doesnt close. Covid-aside, theres too much damage. None of the London members shes spoken to have had emails since the doors closed in March. Everything was just about the US. I think thats extremely f***ed up, especially if youre building a brand based on membership and this plug of were in it together. At the end of the day it was a tier one, white American experience that they tried to cash in on. I took the bite, but Im out of it.

Though staff and members hope that The Wings overriding mission continues. Audrey Gelman is not excused but what she was trying to do was still admirable, says one. The execution failed. I hope they find a way to make it up to the staff they have wronged.

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The Wing: how the 'feminist utopia' got it so wrong - Evening Standard

John Maynard Keynes (center) with philosopher Bertrand Russell (left) and Bloomsbury Group member Lytton Strachey (right). Image: PBS

A new biography reveals the full scope of John Maynard Keyness critique of unfettered capitalism, emphasizing the economists larger philosophical vision of the good life.

The Price of PeaceZachary CarterRandom House, $35 (cloth)

On September 9, 1938, John Maynard Keynes, fifty-five years old and the most famous economist in the world, read his essay My Early Beliefs to the Memoir Club, a circle of Bloomsbury Group friends who gathered occasionally to discuss the private reflections of its members. Keynes took the opportunity to revisit the philosophical principles of his confidants in the youthful exuberance of their twenties, our mental history in the dozen years before World War I. The rich, dazzling memoir, published posthumously at Keyness request (and subsequently included in his Essays in Biography), is well described by biographer Robert Skidelsky as a key document for understanding his lifes work.

The Keynes of My Early Beliefs was no longer a young man; recovering from a major heart attack, he read to the group reclining on a sofa to conserve his energy. Moreover, 1938 was not 1910; the intervening decades, shattering a long period of peace and prosperity, were characterized by war, disorder, and depression. Armed with this melancholy hindsight, Keynes would chastise his youthful cohort: as the years wore on towards 1914, the thinness and superficiality, as well as the falsity of our view of mans heart became, it now seems to me, more obvious. And as the Memoir Club assembled that evening, German troops were massed on the Czechoslovakian border, and Neville Chamberlain would soon climb aboard an airplane for the first time in his life, that he might reason with Adolph Hitler. This context surely informed Keyness retrospective lament, we were not aware that civilisation was a thin and precarious crust layered atop a cauldron of horrors simmering just below the surface.

Nevertheless, Keynes never wavered from the core principles of his early beliefs: this religion of ours . . . remains nearer to the truth than any other that I know, he wrote. His memoir articulated the central tenets of that shared philosophy: the commitment to a relentless interrogation of established norms and traditions, a rejection of shallow materialism, and a reverence for love, the creation and enjoyment of aesthetic experience and the pursuit of knowledge.

For Keynes, economics mattered because it would ensure people need not organize their lives around the empty chase of money. It would free them, instead, to live wisely, agreeably and well.

The Price of Peace, Zachary Carters new biography of Keynes, is insightfully grounded in three touchstones of Keyness life that are neatly encapsulated by My Early Beliefs: the horrors of World War I, his intimate association with the Bloomsbury community of iconoclastic writers and artists (including Virginia and Leonard Woolf, E. M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey), and the essential inseparability of economics from broader philosophical questions. The Great War shattered the illusion that civilization was secureand much of Keyness efforts in the three decades that followed were designed to save society from dystopias looming in the wings, particularly in the varied forms of authoritarian collectivism. Bloomsbury, to which The Price of Peace returns unfailingly throughout its narrative, properly situates both profound friendship, and, especially, a veneration of the arts, at the center of Keyness worldview. As for philosophy, Carters Keynes is the last of the enlightenment intellectuals who pursued political theory, economics, and ethics as a unified design. To approach Keyness economics innocent of such an understanding is to miss much, if not everything.

Across the first two-thirds of its pages, The Price of Peace is a breathtaking triumph. A renaissance man with a dizzying array of interests, pursuits, and accomplishments, Keynes sat prominently at so many diverse, rarified tables that just keeping up with him is an achievement, to say nothing of situating his lifereally his livesin broader context. Yet Carter does just that, in this smartly written, swiftly moving, well-researched, clear-eyed treatment of one of the most remarkable figures of the first half of the twentieth century.

Carter also has a good eye for spotting key contributions from Keyness vast writings, calling attention to essential essays including, among others, The End of Laissez-Faire, A Short View of Russia, Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, Can Lloyd George Do It? (all of which are reprinted in Keyness Essays in Persuasion), and, less well known but not to be underestimated, Art and the State and the innovative How to Pay for the War. In Economic Possibilities, Keynes touched the core of his understanding for why economists mattered: by solving the economic problem (the imperative to provide for adequate physical comfort and satisfactory necessities), people would no longer need to organize their lives around the empty chase of money, and instead have the freedom to pursue their varied, idiosyncratic interests that would allow them to live wisely, agreeably and well.

Short of that utopia, The End of Laissez-Faire (1926) heralded Keyness dramatic break with economic orthodoxy, signaled by his (then) heretical declaration, The world is not so governed from above that private and social interest always coincide. This disenchantment would grow still more pointed in the depths of the Great Depression: laissez-faire capitalism, he declared, is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuousand it doesnt deliver the goods. Along with Am I a Liberal? and Poverty in Plenty: Is the Economic System Self Adjusting? the essay Laissez-Faire marks the steps on the road to the Keynesian revolution that would culminate with the publication of his magnum opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, in 1936. But that runs ahead of the story.

Keynes was raised in an environment of reasonable comfort, and, more important, implicit security. His father, Neville, was a successful professor and administrator at the University of Cambridge; his mother, Florence, was a remarkable figure, active in social causes and local politics (she would eventually serve as the mayor of Cambridge). Keynes flourished at the storied Eton prep school, winning rafts of academic prizes, and then again at Kings College, Cambridge. After graduation he entered the Civil Service, laboring briefly in the India Office before being lured back to Cambridge, where he would teach economics, serve as editor of the prestigious Economic Journal, and publish his first book, Indian Currency and Finance (1913). Yet at age thirty Keynes was still more promising than accomplished. Everything would change in 1914.

The mass slaughter of World War I was the defining trauma for a generation of Europeans; it was also, for Keynes, where abstract economic theory collided with reality. Rushing to contain the financial panic unleashed by the commencement of hostilities (and taken aback by the short-sighted behavior of the financial community), Keynes learned from this experience, Carter argues, that markets were social, not mathematical phenomena. The precariousness of financial sentiment, and the key role that psychology plays in shaping those instincts, would remain essential to Keyness writing throughout his career, a disposition likely honed by his principal responsibility serving in the Treasury Department during the warfinding ways to creatively scape the bottom of the barrel of British finance (and, increasingly, to manage its desperate economic dependence on the United States).

The mass slaughter of World War I was the defining trauma for a generation of Europeans; it was also, for Keynes, where abstract economic theory collided with reality.

After the war Keynes was attached to the British delegation in Paris, ultimately resigning in protest over the Treaty of Versailles, which he cogently argued would prove a disaster. His polemic against the treaty, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), would unexpectedly bring him world fame; no one anticipated that a technocrats dissent would sell over 100,000 copies and find translation into a dozen languages. The bookdescribed by Carter as a landmark of political theory and one of the most emotionally compelling works of economic literature ever writtenis also, to this day, misunderstood. Moreover, for all its purportedly enormous (and in some circles, nefarious) influence, it was patently unsuccessful in bringing about the policies that its author was passionately advocating. Mostly remembered now for arguing that the reparations imposed on Germany were too high, Economic Consequences was primarily concerned with what the treaty failed to do: attend to the shattered economic heart of Europe. Without addressing the urgent problems wrought by years of total war, the inevitable economic chaos that would follow would in turn lead to political upheaval. Men will not always die quietly, Keynes warned, and in their distress may overturn the remnants of organization, and submerge civilization itself.

Keynes proposed, at the conference and in print, a grand scheme that included modest reparations, the cancellation of inter-allied debt, and large new U.S. loans to Europe. The plan was, from a political perspective, nave at best. Yet, as Carter notes, after a half decade of economic and political disarray, the U.S.-sponsored Dawes plan of 1924 was essentially a delayed, expensive caricature of the system Keynes had urged at Paris.

In the 1920s Keynes held no official government positions (those bridges had been torched), but he was now a prominent figure active on many fronts, producing two important scholarly books, numerous political pamphlets, reams of journalism, and advocating for the positions of the Liberal Party. A Tract on Monetary Reform (1923) is distinguished by Keyness attack on the barbarous relic of the gold standard, which he argued was inherently deflationary. (Casual critics of Keynes often hand-wavingly label him an inflationist, but in fact Keynes was quite anxious about inflation, which he thought would undermine faith in the legitimacy of the capitalist order. His position was simply, and quite rightly, that in those circumstances when forced to choose, in practice deflation was typically the greater evil.)

Keyness concerns along these lines were more explicitly articulated in yet another polemic, The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill, written after Keynes had failed to personally dissuade the then chancellor of the exchequer from returning the pound to the gold standard in 1925 at its long-standing pre-war value. The decision was a triumph of the interests of finance over industry, but one that would, as Economic Consequences predicted, prove disastrous for the British economy. These struggles informed the central concern of Keyness massive, sprawling, two-volume Treatise on Money (1930), namely, how to balance the goals of domestic monetary policy autonomy and international monetary stability. Carter makes the case that the contributions (and intellectual influence) of the Treatise are generally underappreciated today. And there may be something to thatlegend holds that when Joseph Schumpeter read the book, he literally burned the manuscript on monetary theory he had been laboring on, concluding that it had been rendered obsolete. But with the deepening of the Great Depression, Keynes was already racing ahead, developing what would emerge as The General Theory.

The Price of Peace is somewhat less sure-handed in its treatment of The General Theory, which, despite bringing about a fundamental transformation of our understanding of economics, is a difficult book. Keynes follows several strands of complex argumentation without pausing to guide the reader through the thicket, and his prose is uncharacteristically workmanlike. Nevertheless, The General Theory was a sensation, initially dividing the profession along ideological and especially generational lines. Within fifteen years its influence had reshaped the profession.

Laissez-faire capitalism, Keynes declared during the Great Depression, is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuousand it doesnt deliver the goods.

Once again, Carter is spot on in emphasizing the essential role of psychology, and especially the role of the collective sentiment of investors, for Keyness thinking. (Entrepreneurs were not driven by cold calculation but by animal spirits, Keynes wrote, and investors were not rewarded for calculating the underlying value of an asset, but for their ability to divine what other market players would find attractive. This in turn meant that the financial sector, left to its own devices, was unstable and prone to crisis.) And Carter is exactly right to emphasize that Keyness urgent, underlying motives remained largely conservative: he wanted to save capitalism from itself. Unfettered capitalismunfair, unjust, ugly, vacuous of social purpose, and ultimately inefficientwould bring about its own ruin. Worse still, left unreformed, it would likely unleash things that were much, much worse. Keynes, from the very start, was under no illusions about the horrors of fascism (unlike many of the British right, who were content to avert their eyes), and he had no taste, fashionable in many left-leaning Western circles of the day, for the Soviet experimentthe inherent brutality of which he saw through ten years before the show trials of the 1930s.

But to unpack the economics of the Keynesian Revolution readers should pay close attention to chapter twelve of The General Theory (The State of Long Term Expectation) and Keyness 1937 paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, The General Theory of Employment, his response to leading academic critics of the book. Especially in the latter it is unambiguously clear that the Keyness breakthrough was founded on two fundamental departures from orthodoxy. First, an economy, once stuck in a rut, could remain in a rut. And second, actors in the economy made decisions in an environment characterized not by risk (where the underlying probabilities of future events are properly understood and generally shared), but uncertainty (a setting where the future is inherently unknowable). The orthodox theory assumes that we have a knowledge of the future of a kind quite different from that which we actually possess, Keynes explained. This hypothesis of a calculable future leads to a wrong interpretation of the principles of behavior . . . and to an underestimation of the concealed factors of utter doubt, precariousness, hope and fear.

Across the long arc of its narrative, The Price of Peace devotes considerable attention to events in the United States (and Keyness attempts to influence and encourage President Roosevelt and aspects of the New Deal), strands which tie together most naturally during the 1940s. Keynes would devote the final years of his short lifehe suffered from serious heart diseaseto once again representing his government on matters related to the financing of a world war and its aftermath. This required regular travel to the United States from 1941 (when Keynes led negotiations over the terms of lend-lease aid) through 1946 (with the culmination of a series of exhausting multilateral conferences that led to the creation of the Keynes-inflected International Monetary Fund and World Bank). Over these years Keynes essentially worked himself to death in the service of his country. A major heart attack on a train bound for Washington in March 1946 preceded the one that would take his life, at home, one month later.

Entrepreneurs were not driven by cold calculation but by animal spirits, Keynes wrote. This in turn meant that the financial sector, left to its own devices, was unstable and prone to crisis.

Across the decades, from the teens through the forties, Carters facility in bringing Keynes to life is impressive. The only false note struck in this rich, nuanced, multifaceted portrait is the eagerness of The Price of Peace to recast Keynes as a protectionist, a claim asserted repeatedly throughout the volume. It is certainly true that in the early 1930s, first in a reaction to the pressures on Britains balance of payments intensified by the asphyxiating gold standard and then with the complete collapse of international economic cooperation in the depths of the Great Depression, Keynes wrote in favor of some protectionist measures. That Keynes would dare even to sample such forbidden fruit testified, once again, to his relentless pragmatism and bracing unwillingness to be bound by thoughtless devotion to received doctrine. But such flirtations were always qualified and faded over time. Even in his strongest moment of advocacy for such measures, in 1932, Keynes still paused to observe, among other gestures at debunking protectionist myths, Nine times out of ten [the free trader] is speaking forth the words of wisdom and simple truth. And in 1944, when the prospects for the international economy were quite different, Keynes had this to say in the House of Lords: The expansion of our export industries which is so vital to us would be much easier if obstacles to trade can be diminished or done away with all together.

Still, despite the misstep on protectionism (and it is an occupational hazard for biographers of Keynes to see a version of the man through the lens of the authors personal proclivities), it is hard to imagine improving on Carters final measure of his subject, which is worth quoting at length:

It is a disappointment that the last third of the book, which weaves it way through seven decades, does not meet the remarkable standard established in its preceding pages. It is hard to argue with the implicit subtext of these chapters: that the practice of postwar public policy in the United States, at times under the banner of Keynesianism, was in fact, from the start, a long, tragic retreat from the wisdom of Keynes. (Essentially, mainstream postwar Keynesianism was a tamed and housebroken interpretation of selected parts of the General Theory. For Keynes the free market was often dysfunctional, and the economy an unpredictable and occasionally dangerous beast, necessitating guidance by adroit improvisation. As domesticated by postwar economists, Keynesianism instead assumed highly functional markets that were more like automotive engines that benefited from occasional fine-tuning, which could be accomplished by a deploying a few standard, reliable tools.) But the execution of this agenda is idiosyncratic, uneven, and at times even clumsy, as if the book itself never recovers from the loss of Keynes.

Most unfortunate is the extent to which the balance of The Price of Peace is anchored in a peculiar fixation on the Canadian-American economist and paragon of American liberalism John Kenneth Galbraithwhich is not a slight against Galbraith, a figure of uncommon achievement. But the justification for settling on a thinker whose peculiar brand of Keynesianism was a sharp departure from the master as the protagonist in the final chapters of this biography is never established. Yet he takes on Zelig-like quality, popping up constantly, often in the oddest of places. To take a minor example, did Nixon really harbor a special hatred for Galbraith? This seems unlikely. Nixon was a legendary hater, and a cursory glance at a half-dozen good books on the brooding, paranoid President yields little more than a few perfunctory mentions of Galbraith, and none with the seething vituperation reserved for assorted enemies like, say, talk show host Dick Cavett. This is a consequential diversion, because it muddies a key strand of argument Carter is pursuing: that Keyness legacy fell into the wrong hands.

For Keynes, unfettered capitalismunfair, unjust, ugly, vacuous of social purpose, and ultimately inefficientwould bring about its own ruin. Worse still, left unreformed, it would likely unleash things much worse.

Paul Samuelson would emerge as perhaps the most influential (and representative) of a new generation of postwar Keynesian economists; he developed mathematical models of economics that derived directly from Newtonian physics. Keynes would likely have been aghast. The pseudo-analogy with the physical sciences leads directly counter to the habit of mind which is most important for an economist to acquire, he wrote to Roy Harrod in 1938. The young Americans were building on John Hickss earlier attempt to simplify the Keynesian revolution, and reconcile it with elements of the old orthodoxy. As Carter observes, however, Keynes had in fact presented a conceptual framework totally incompatible with Hicks project. Keyness student Joan Robinson labeled such efforts bastard Keynesianism. But the bastards won.

Following this line more purposefully could have disciplined the closing arguments of The Price of Peace, as there is a straight line to be drawn from the blunders of American Keynesianism in the 1960s to the rise of more conservatively oriented economic theories in the 1980s and subsequently a broad consensus in macroeconomic theory that was permissive of the catastrophic anti-Keynesian liberation of finance that followed. Instead, Carter reveals a preference for picking partisan fights that often obscure important subtleties, as seen in the strawmanning of Paul Volcker, and the conflating of New Classical Macroeconomics with Milton Friedmans monetarism (though political bedfellows, their economic theories were miles apart). And the notion that Vietnam underscored just how little Keynes had achieved at Bretton Woods is simply not coherent.

Finally, The Price of Peace stumbles with its treatment of the crucial Clinton years, burying the Keynesian lede by focusing extensively on tradethe North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organizationbefore finally turning to the great sin against Keynes: financial deregulation. It is unlikely that Keynes would have been much moved by U.S. trade deals of the 1990s; his lifes work was that of a monetary economist and a macroeconomist, and he did not generally dissent from what we now call microeconomic theory (the allocation of goods through the price mechanism).

The trade deals of the 1990s were not the final, tragic destination of anti-Keynesianism. Keynes would have likely seen opportunities in the WTO and shrugged at NAFTA. (Though he surely would have sharply criticized the abject failure of U.S. public policy to compensate those who would inevitably lose from such agreements.) But he would have been apoplectic at the great American financial deregulation project. For Keynes, in The Treatise, The General Theory, and at Bretton Woods, the mortal threat to his economic vision came from finance, not trade. In 1941, looking back at the ruins of the depression and towards an imagined future, he wrote, Nothing is more certain than that the movement of capital . . . must be regulated. Unregulated finance was inefficient, and prone to crisis; additionally, the notion that the financial sector would metastasize into something other than a simple facilitator of real economic activity was, for Keynes, a caricature of the ugly, rapacious capitalism that would lead to its own ruin, as it nearly did in the 1930s. And perhaps will again.

Read more from the original source:

The Keynesian Revolution - Boston Review

Peter Hujar, Christopher Street Pier #4 (1976), vintage gelatin silver print, 14 3/4 14 5/8 inches, paper No. 128278.02 ( The Peter Hujar Archive, all images courtesy Pace Gallery, New York)

Debuting on the last day of Pride month, amid pandemic and protest, Pace Gallerys Peter Hujar, Cruising Utopia is an online store masquerading as a disconnected, virtual exhibition. Featuring twenty of the artists photographs from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the compilation is a mix of portraits and city scenes. The introductory text describes Hujars subjects as a fabulous and often infamous cast of underground elites, which include Susan Sontag, Fran Lebowitz, Paul Thek, and David Wojnarowicz. While these elite white subjects are mostly named and contextualized in their portraits, the subjects of color seem to be more tertiary, barely named and mostly lacking context. Unnamed people of color are part of his scenes set along Chelseas now-mostly-demolished Piers and grace photographs like Two Cockettes (1971), in which two femmes from the gender-expanding performance group embrace. If the exhibitions title is a reference to Jos Esteban Muozs 2009 book, he too goes unnamed.

The photographs in Cruising Utopia demonstrate Hujars skill with composition and his attention to intimacy and shadow. His documentation of queer life remains a key archive but as he is (lucratively) canonized, exhibitions of Hujars work bear the responsibility of considering the limitations of his gaze and social circles. Yet with Cruising Utopia the curatorial framing is loose, and mostly comprises short quotations from (white) critics and artists including Bob Nickas, Arthur C. Danto, Vince Aletti, and Nan Goldin. These quotes, while lucid, are inserted without broader citation and safely rely on established authority.

Moreover, the main texts author goes unnamed, positioning it as that of a faceless gallery voice. Relatedly, each photograph is accompanied by a large button reading Available (or, in a few cases, Sold or Reserved), so one can inquire about purchasing prints, which are priced between $10,000 and $35,000, unframed. The 10% of sales that will be donated to the New York City AIDS Memorial from sales reads as an insufficient gesture considering the curatorial lackings and the current political moment.

Just a few days before this exhibition opened, the Reclaim Pride Coalition organized the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality, without corporate sponsors or police permits. It honored the radical legacy of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, led by trans people of color against police brutality, and for which Hujar was present. True to this ongoing history, several instances of police violence were reported along the route. This reality stands in stark contrast with images like Hujars Gay Liberation Front Poster Image (1970), which depicts a seemingly all-white group in smiles and celebration.

Further, the exhibition feels disconnected from current demands for structural institutional change backed by material commitments, and from Pace Gallery President and CEO Marc Glimchers own June 2 statement, in which he committed to looking in the mirror and making the changes that are needed, before continuing, [i]f we are not part of the change, then we are empowering the destruction of all principles and ideals we claim to hold dear.

As galleries and art spaces continue to grapple with their virtual presence, we must hold them accountable to the ways they are using their power. If an exhibition is to take up (virtual) space at any moment, but especially this one, it should do so with rigor, especially when centering a white artist increasingly validated by the market.

Initially only scheduled to remain on view for two weeks, it is also worth noting that Cruising Utopia does not include new scholarship or programming to deepen or broaden discourse around Hujars work. The value of his tender, transgressive images is not just an economic one.

Peter Hujar, Cruising Utopia continues online via Pace Gallery through July 28.

Editors note (7/10/20, 12:38 pm EDT): Since the publication of this review, Pace Gallery has announced the public program Cruising Utopia, A Conversation on Peter Hujar, scheduled for July 15.

More here:

Peter Hujar's Tender, Transgressive Portraits and Why They Require Nuance - Hyperallergic

Marc Kirschner, the co-

founder of Marquee TV, an arts-

oriented streaming service that launched in February, gets the question all the time: "People have been asking us when we were going to have 'Hamilton.'"

His answer: "Well, if we had 'Hamilton,' we would change our name to The Streaming Platform That Has 'Hamilton.'"

The platform that has Lin-Manuel Miranda's blockbuster is Disney+, which paid about $75 million for the live capture that premiered July 3. (In what surely must be a coincidence, Disney+ has dropped its free trial period.)

While watching theater on a screen now feels a bit weird, live telecasts were common in the late-'40s, 1950s and early 1960s, when programs like Playhouse 90, Studio One and The U.S. Steel Hour displayed the work of the finest playwrights, directors and actors.

Some of them are even streamable. Amazon Prime, for example, offers a 1957 telecast of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, once Broadway's royal couple, starring in "The Great Sebastians."

What about other options? While the state of theater streaming is in perpetual flux, here are answers to the most common questions. Be warned, however, that "Hamilton" is an outlier among Broadway hits.

Q: Where do I find musicals online?

A: There is actually a lot out there. The websites Filmed on Stage and Thespie can help point you to many of them, such as the West End production of "Gypsy," starring Imelda Staunton and available to buy or rent on Amazon, iTunes and YouTube. Musicals are a portion of the long-running PBS Great Performances series, while Netflix lists popular properties as different as "Shrek the Musical" and "Springsteen on Broadway." HBO will present the Spike Lee capture of "David Byrne's American Utopia" later this year.

Q: Aren't there one-stop shops?

A: Yes, and to nobody's surprise the popularity of subscription-based platforms has increased in recent months. The closest thing to a Netflix for theater is BroadwayHD, which has about 300 titles in its catalog, from hits like "Kinky Boots" to vintage nuggets, including Lee J. Cobb reprising his Willy Loman in a 1966 CBS telecast of "Death of a Salesman." The British-American Marquee TV is another service that offers all-you-can-watch for a weekly, monthly or annual fee. (Broadway On Demand is a newcomer in this market, and while its original interview programming seems promising, its high-profile stage offerings are underwhelming so far.)

Q: Why aren't all the big Broadway shows available for streaming?

A: Video recording a show is up to individual producers. They have tended to pass on the opportunity for two main reasons: cost, and the fear that streaming will cannibalize ticket sales. "To do what 'Hamilton' did would require a real outlay of cash from the producers," said Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League. That show's three lead producers, who have made fortunes from it, financed the filming themselves; for others, a multicamera investment can be prohibitive.

Q: What about those National Theater and Royal Shakespeare Company captures?

A: Britain and many other European countries got a head start because digital initiatives were made a condition for state funding, to help achieve accessibility, equity and sustainability. "Most countries started with that top-down view of digital, whereas in the United States it's an upside-down approach, which is one reason everything has lagged behind so much here," said Marquee TV's Kirschner.

He also points out that video recording is prohibitively more expensive in America. "To capture a Broadway production costs five to 10 times what it would overseas," he said.

Q: Why can I watch some streams whenever I want but for others I have to log in at a specific time?

A: There are three basic types of streaming. With livestreaming, you watch a show as it unfolds live, usually by buying a ticket or making a donation ahead of time. With scheduled streaming, audience members watch a recording of a show at a specific time. Streaming on demand is either a subscription model la Netflix or timed access where customers buy a ticket and have, say, 48 hours to watch the show.

"Each show we license might have different options," Prignano said. "Some only offer livestreaming, others only offer live and scheduled streaming, etc. If a show has a movie deal or an impending movie deal, it's more difficult to get streaming rights, and it'll be really difficult to get on-demand."

Q: With no Broadway until Jan. 3, at least, will we run out of new material to stream?

A: "We have enough in the pipeline to take us well into next year, when we can start shooting again," said Bonnie Comley, co-founder and co-CEO of Broadway HD.

Producers are also looking at ways to capture shows performed in front of empty or socially distanced houses. Actors' Equity Association is in the process of reviewing pandemic-prompted agreements, including for Zoom shows, that were released in March.

"One was to allow theaters to exhibit online archives of their productions, another to allow producers to do remote work," said Lawrence Lorczak, a senior business representative for the union. "We're in the middle of reviewing the terms for those two to make them more accessible for the producers and theaters."

Read the original:

Why can't we stream every Broadway show? - NWAOnline

July 06, 2020

There is a fine line between fury and tenderness in the photography of American artistPeter Hujar, which captures New York between the gayliberation movement of the 60s and the Aidsepidemic of the 80s. Whether its hisimage of two leather daddies kissing, or of fellow artist and lover Paul Thek in masturbatory pleasure, the beautiful and the brutal coalesce in his compelling work.

Within the broadercontext of American image-making, Hujar defines an era that is bookended by Diane Arbus and Robert Mapplethorpe, according to Oliver Shultz, who has curated anonline exhibition of the artistsphotographyfor Pace Gallery. In Cruising Utopia,weare confronted withtwo Hujars: the studio photographerwho captured his community of revolutionaryfigures and Downtown vagabonds at his East Village loft; and the flaneurwho cruised the citys West Side, where sexual encounters took placeamid trucks and crumbling piers.

The shows first pairing demonstrates the duality of his practice. In Christopher Street #2 (Crossed Legs), 1976, a man sunbathing by the Hudson River inshort shorts unashamedly bares his legs, with a hazy detail of a ship on the backdrop. There is no dramatically lit studio, but Hujars voyeuristic gaze and the subjects grand gesture recall his performative shots of artists John Giorno or Ethyl Eichelberger. The adjacent photograph, Christopher Street #4,taken in the same year and location, fits multiple men into the frame each with searching eyes, some withnaked chests and confident attitudes. The same ship is visible, similarly on the pictures upper left corner. Hujar photographed moments of exchange, says Shultz, whether they were with strangers on the street or friends and lovers at his studio.

Until hisdeath in 1987 due to Aids-related illness, Hujars Second Avenue loft was frequented by his close friends such as Susan Sontag, Fran Lebowitz and Greer Lankton, all of whom posed for disarming solo portraits. The exhibition includes a young Lebowitz waking up from a sleep; while Lankton stares into the ceiling, almost ready to surrender to her dream-state. Hujars $167 monthly rent was not unheard of at a time when the East Village was a bustling hub for artists, and yet henever chased after wealth or commercial success Lebowitz allegedly said, Peter hung up on any curator interested in giving him a show, on her friends disinterest in mainstream recognition during his funeral.

A stroll down almost any street meant another encounter with some brightsomeone who was not yet a somebody, says Stephen Koch, the director of the Peter Hujar Archive. He had a turbulent relationship with a then-emerging David Wojnarowicz, a dynamic similar to that of Rimbaud and Verlaine. In a picture from 1981, Wojnarowiczs arresting expression is accentuated by a flirtatious cigarette in his mouth; his thin long face surrounded by shadows. Hujar was able to convey his subjectsas almost sculpturalWojnarowicz and others appear larger than life, similar to dwarfing Greco-Roman statues placed on tall pedestals or New York skyscrapers he photographed behind West Side parking lots.

Orgasmic Man, 1969,catches a youngmannamed Dutch Anderson inclimax (the work is part of a namesake series, currently exhibited in Barbicans Masculinities: Liberation Through Photographyshow). His right hand gently carries his tilted head; his eyes lids create pools of wrinkles around his eyes, tightly shut in pleasure. Theres a compelling, arresting ambiguity to the image you dont know whether youre looking at a scene of ecstasy or agony, or if youre witnessing or trespassing, explains the author Hanya Yanagihara about her decision to use the photograph for the cover of her seminal novel, A Little Life (2015). The posers anonymous expression blankets ample human emotions, from the darkest to the most joyous,similar to the books four protagonists, as well as anyone looking at a Hujar photograph.

Peter Hujar: Cruising Utopia is accessible on Pace GalleryswebsiteuntilJuly 28, 2020.Ten per cent of all proceeds from the exhibition will be donated to the New York City AIDS Memorial.

See original here:

Peter Hujar's Illicit Photographs of New York's Cruising Utopia - AnOther Magazine

They say the youth and those in their early 30s are deluded in their optimism. I figured that, after such seismic change in the way we travel, work and socialise, and after all the clapping for NHS workers, viral pictures of wild boars on Italian streets and goats in Welsh villages, we would be granted some truly revolutionary economic package on emerging from lockdown to reflect our new attitudes to life. Perhaps a universal basic income. A Green New Deal.

How wrong I was.

There was nothing in the summer economic update this week for the worse-off. Nothing for the domestic violence victims, despite a surge in the number of women being killed or abused during lockdown. Nothing for social care or frontline workers. Nothing for nursing homes, no bonus for NHS staff. Nothing for renters, thousands of whom face eviction. The hostile environment continues for migrant workers.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

For all the big numbers from Rishi Sunak, it was much ado about nothing.

The government likes to claim our debt and deficit are high and both must come down if our economy is to function and provide the services we need. Yet we are currently experiencing zero or near-zero interest rates across the developed world. Borrowing might never be as cheap as it is now. And if we dont borrow and invest that money in the people, sectors and businesses that need it most, the cycle of poverty will simply continue.

What Sunak has delivered is a one-size-fits-all approach. A 500 voucher to encourage spending! A 1,000 bonus to employers for every furloughed employee they take back! And Tories say they fear the free hand-outs of socialism.

Trickle-down economics is clearly also alive and well. The government believes that by cutting VAT and stamp duty for houses worth up to half a mil, that richer people will have more money to spend and that will benefit everyone else. We know that doesnt work. The rich just get richer, and move as much cash as they can offshore.

And what about the Green New Deal? The green part of the package is worth 3bn a drop in the ocean and 2bn of that will be dished out by local authorities to retrofit homes and make them more energy efficient. It sounds like a lot of money, but that 2bn has to be divided by 343 local authorities. Sunak said this would remove a half megaton of carbon from the atmosphere, the equivalent of taking 270,000 cars off the roads. But there are almost 40 million cars on British roads, so excuse me for not jumping up and down with excitement.

I had imagined moving back to London and cycling my bike in the new cycle lanes and enjoying some kind of new, green urban utopia. Instead, the government opened car showrooms as soon as they possibly could. Talk about recklessness: thousands of people die in London alone every year from air pollution. Sometimes I walk down my local high street and want to bang my head against a wall as I spot an endless stream of vehicles. I get this funny aftertaste in my mouth as I gulp down the fumes; the noise drills a hole in my brain. I wonder, why do so many people not seem to care?

Chicldren play in the water during a cricket match between Abinger and Worplesdon & Nurpham in Abinger Hammer, Surrey

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People gather for the funeral of Dame Vera Lynn in Ditchling, England. During World War II she travelled to the frontlines, including Burma, entertaining British troops and boosting morale. She died on 18 June at her home in West Sussex

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Artist Anish Kapoor looks into his sculpture 'Sky Mirror' at Houghton Hall, King's Lynn, ahead of the opening of his largest UK exhibition of outdoor sculptures

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Players take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on the first day of the first Test cricket match between England and the West Indies at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton

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Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, which re-opened to the public after being closed due to the coronavirus lockdown

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People visit Columbia Road Flower Market, London, as it reopens following the easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions across England

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A diver cleans the inside window of the seal tank at Tynemouth Aquarium in North Shields, as it prepares to open on Saturday after further coronavirus lockdown restrictions are lifted in England

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Former Team GB Rhythmic Gymnastic dancer Hannah Martin during a training session at Ouse Valley Viaduct in Sussex

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A protest for Justice for Shukri Abdi on Trafalgar Square in London, following a raft of Black Lives Matter protests across the UK

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Police at the scene of an incident at the Park Inn Hotel in central Glasgow. Scottish police said armed officers shot dead a man after a suspected stabbing in the city centre left six others injured, including one of their colleagues. Several roads were closed and the surrounding area was cordoned off

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People enjoy the hot weather on Margate beach

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Tony Bennett the owner of The Devereux pub in Temple, London. Pub and hospitality bosses have cheered the Government's proposals to allow customers through their doors again on July 4 as "a welcome relief". PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday June 23, 2020. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that pubs, restaurants and cinemas will be able to reopen from July 4, with "one metre-plus" distancing measures in place

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Police forensics officers carry out a search near Forbury Gardens, in Reading town centre, the scene of a multiple stabbing attack which took place at around 7pm on Saturday, leaving three people dead and another three seriously injured

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Soccer Football - Premier League - Everton v Liverpool - Goodison Park, Liverpool, Britain - June 21, 2020 Children play football outside the stadium before the match, as play resumes behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

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Arsenal's midfielder Nicolas Pepe kneels before the Premier League match against Brighton and Hove Albion at the American Express Community Stadium in southern England

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Bianca Walkden during a training session at the National Taekwondo Centre in Manchester

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French President Emmanuel Macron gestures about social distancing alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he arrives at Downing Street for a meeting. Macron also visited London to commemorate the 80th anniversary of former French president Charles de Gaulle's appeal to French people to resist the Nazi occupation during World War II

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Players kneel, as well as, having 'Black Lives Matter' in place of names on their shirts prior to the start of the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Sheffield United at Villa Park in Birmingham. The league resumed after its three-month suspension because of coronavirus

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Motakhayyel ridden by Jim Crowley, right, wins the Buckingham Palace Handicap during day one of Royal Ascot. This year, the flat racing's biggest meeting, is behind closed doors due to the coronavirus outbreak

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Queues form at Primark at the Rushden Lakes shopping complex after the government relaxed coronavirus lockdown laws significantly, allowing zoos, safari parks and non-essential shops to open to visitors

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A man kneels at a commemoration to mark the third anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire in London. The fire claimed 72 lives on 14 June 2017

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Protesters confront police in Whitehall near Parliament Square, during a protest by the Democratic Football Lads Alliance

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A Black Lives Matter supporter sings to crowds who marched with her in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square in London. The death of an African American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world

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Scouts show their support at the Lord Baden-Powell statue in Poole. The statue of Robert Baden-Powell on Poole Quay is to be placed in "safe storage" following concerns about his racial views

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Social distancing markers around the penguin enclosure at London Zoo. Staff have been preparing and are now ready for reopening next week with new signage, one-way trails for visitors to follow, and extra handwashing and sanitiser stations in place

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Protestors hold placards and shout slogans during during a protest called by the Rhodes Must Fall campaign calling for the removal of the statue of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes outside Oriel College, at the University of Oxford

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Hermione Wilson helps to install a new artwork at Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, created as a tribute to the NHS titled "A Thousand Thank Yous" originally devised by the late Allan Kaprow which consists of colourful painted messages on cardboard and has been directed remotely by London-based artist Peter Liversidge

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The Edward Colston statue has been pulled down by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol. Colston was a 17th century slave trader who has numerous landmarks named after him in Bristol

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Children pose for their family in front of discarded placards fixed on a wall in Piccadilly Gardens after a Black Lives Matter demonstrations in Manchester. The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world

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Protesters kneel in Trafalgar Square during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in London, England. The death of an African-American man, George Floyd, while in the custody of Minneapolis police has sparked protests across the United States, as well as demonstrations of solidarity in many countries around the world

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Protestors march from Windsor Castle in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement

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People wearing face masks hold banners in Hyde Park during a Black Lives Matter protest following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis

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Street artist Nath Murdoch touches up his anti-racism mural in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

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Customers socially distance themselves as they queue to enter Ikea in Warrington. The store opening saw large queues of people and traffic on adjacent roads as it reopened after the lockdown. The furniture and housewares chain reopened its stores across England and Northern Ireland subject to several restrictions, keeping its restaurants closed and asking customers to shop alone

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A man wearing a protective face mask kneels in front of police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of African-American man George Floyd near the U.S. Embassy, London, Britai

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Visitors at Grassholme Reservoir in Lunedale, Co Durham are able to cross an ancient packhorse bridge as work on the dam wall means water levels have dropped signifcantly to reveal this monument of the pas

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British Tennis player Maia Lumsden in action at Bridge of Allan Tennis Club. People can meet family and friends outdoors and play sports such as golf and tennis again as the country is moving into phase one of the Scottish Government's plan for gradually lifting lockdown

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I was optimistic about this brave new post-Covid world until the Tories reminded us who they really are - The Independent

GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. TGIF!

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES HIT THE AIRWAVES After months of packing their campaign war chests, some Democrats running in the crowded primary to fill Rep. Joe Kennedy III's open House seat are spending thousands of dollars on television ads.

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Earlier this week, Newton City Councilor Jake Auchincloss spent nearly $30,000 to air his first television ad. Then Democratic socialist Ihssane Leckey, a former Wall Street regulator, reserved $110,000 worth of cable TV airtime on Thursday. And now City Year co-founder Alan Khazei is also placing a TV ad buy, according to a source.

One reason campaigns are shifting to TV is because the congressional race is wide open. An internal poll from Newton City Councilor Becky Grossman's campaign showed 60 percent of voters are undecided on who to vote for. TV may play an outsize role in the primary this year candidates can't hold large events due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the state's expanded vote-by-mail and early voting options mean many voters will cast ballots much sooner than Sept. 1.

So far, the candidates with the most money in the bank are going up on television. Auchincloss has $1.16 million in cash on hand for the primary, his campaign says, while Khazei is reporting $809,000 in his primary war chest. Leckey raised eyebrows this week when she posted a $710,000 fundraising haul this quarter, which was largely made up of $650,000 from her and her husband's life savings, according to the Leckey campaign.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: POSTAL WORKERS BACK MARKEY Sen. Ed Markey will announce a new endorsement from the Massachusetts Postal Workers Executive Board this morning. The group is backing Markey in his reelection campaign against Rep. Joe Kennedy III. The American Postal Workers Union is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO and represents more than 200,000 current and retired postal workers.

THE GREAT DEBATE The coronavirus pandemic has knocked candidates off the campaign trail for months, but debates ahead of the state's Sept. 1 primary are finally starting to take shape in most districts, though two candidates running for federal office say they've been unable to get a debate on the calendar.

Rep. Richard Neal and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse have a pair of debates in the works, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. The Democrats have been invited to two debates in August, one hosted by WGBY-New England Public Media, The Springfield Republican and MassLive.com and the Berkshire Eagle; and another hosted by 22 News, WWLP and Springfield CW.

Rep. Seth Moulton will face his primary challengers Jamie Belsito and Angus McQuilken in three debates in August hosted by local Democratic committees, his campaign said. And the Democrats running to fill Rep. Joe Kennedy III's open House seat will debate at the end of July.

Its less clear whether Rep. Stephen Lynch will debate his progressive challenger. Emboldened by progressive primary gains in other states over the last several weeks, infectious disease specialist Dr. Robbie Goldstein is accusing Lynch of "trying to run out the clock" to avoid a debate. The campaigns have been in talks to attend a series of forums where one candidate would speak after the other, rather than a one-on-one debate, according to planning emails obtained by POLITICO. Lynch did not debate his 2018 primary challengers.

"Its clear that Representative Lynch is trying to run out the clock, and that he is not only scared of our campaign to bring progressive change to Washington, but is scared to face the voters of the 8th district," Goldstein said.

"We're happy to entertain any requests. It's more challenging in Covid times to arrange these things, but always happy to," said Lynch spokesperson Scott Ferson.

On the Republican side, Senate candidate Kevin O'Connor is calling on his opponent Shiva Ayyadurai to schedule a debate. Ayyadurai's campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.

"I'm ready to go," O'Connor said, adding that attempts to schedule a debate were met with "radio silence" from his opponent.

Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: [emailprotected]

TODAY Sen. Ed Markey and state Rep. Joseph McGonagle, Jr. distribute meals at the LUMA food pantry in Everett. Rep. Joe Kennedy III makes campaign stops in Gloucester and New Bedford, followed by an event in Quincy with former Rep. Bill Delahunt.

Mass. reports 177 new confirmed coronavirus cases, 25 new deaths, by Jaclyn Reiss, Boston Globe: The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts among confirmed cases climbed by 25 to 8,053, the state reported Thursday. The number of confirmed cases climbed by 177, bringing the total to 105,138, as key metrics the state is using to monitor the reopening remained generally steady.

Massachusetts unemployment claims fall again, by Jim Kinney, Springfield Republican: There were 26,755 new unemployment claims filed in Massachusetts in the week ending July 4, according to numbers released Thursday by the federal government. Thats down 2,944 from 29,699 new claims for unemployment compensation filed in the week ending June 27.

Massachusetts Senates police reform bill held up due to concerns that it didnt undergo public hearing, by Steph Solis, MassLive.com: The Massachusetts Senates wide-ranging police reform bill is held up over criticisms that legislators didnt get enough time to review the bill and that the proposal hasnt been put to a public hearing. The Senate plans to meet at 10 a.m. Friday to discuss the bill after Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Webster Republican, tabled the bill over concerns about a lack of a public hearing and insufficient time to debate the bill.

State commissioner for deaf placed on leave amid ties to controversial fraternity, by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: The Baker administration on Thursday placed the states chief advocate for the deaf on administrative leave amid allegations he told staff members he wore robes resembling Ku Klux Klan garb and made apparent Nazi salutes while he was a member of a controversial college fraternity three decades ago.

Massachusetts State Police hand out punishments for troopers in overtime scandal, by Lisa Kashinsky, Boston Herald: State Police are handing out punishments for the remaining troopers embroiled in the infamous Troop E overtime scandal, announcing that one member has been fired and five more could get the boot while others face suspension without pay. One officer whose overtime fraud charges were sustained by the department and upheld by a Department Trial Board was terminated earlier this week, while five others have trial boards currently scheduled.

Massachusetts hospitals collectively saw more than $2 billion in losses as coronavirus spread, data shows, by Steph Solis, MassLive.com: Massachusetts hospital collectively saw more than $2 billion in net losses in early 2020 as the coronavirus spread to the United States and shook stock markets, according to data compiled by the state Center for Health Information and Analysis.

Boston schools mapping reopening, with 6 feet of social distancing built in, by Jenna Russell, Boston Globe: Facing an intense two-month sprint before the scheduled first day of school on Sept. 10 and mounting demand for details on their reopening plans Boston school officials say they will release three possible blueprints for the fall by the end of this month. One thing is already certain: the district will base its plans on 6 feet of social distancing in schools, not the 3-foot minimum included in state guidelines.

The Coming Eviction Crisis Will Be Worse Than You Think, by Sofia Rivera, Boston Magazine: When Gov. Charlie Baker signed the statewide eviction and foreclosure moratorium in late April, it was an approval with an asterisk: The freeze would lift 45 days after the COVID-19 state of emergency ended or 120 days from the date the bill was passed, whichever came first. Theres no predicted end to the pandemic in sight, but the sand in the 120-day hourglass is set to run out on August 18.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: Jesse Mermell Earns 19 Local Endorsements from Somerset, Mansfield, Medfield, Foxborough, Wellesley and Brookline, from the Mermell campaign: Jesse Mermell today expanded the coalition of local leaders supporting her campaign for Congress by earning 19 endorsements from six key communities. As COVID-19 has devastated local budgets across the country, it is essential that the next Congresswoman from the Fourth District has the right experience, vision and coalition to fight for federal funding to support our municipalities, said Mermell.

Charbonnier suspends candidacy for 12th Suffolk House seat, Dorchester Reporter: Cam Charbonnier, one of four candidates on the ballot for the September 1 election for state representative in the 12 Suffolk district, suspended his campaign today, citing the dynamics of the pandemic and the inspiring civil rights movement. A long time aide to Mayor Martin Walsh and the only white candidate in the field to succeed Representative Dan Cullinane, said that upon further reflection and conversation he realized that this is not my moment.

With latest SJC pick, Baker faces history and calls to meet the moment, by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: Over eight years, former Governor Deval Patrick effectively reshaped the states judiciary and its very top rung, appointing five new Supreme Judicial Court justices, many of them groundbreaking picks. Yet, quietly and quickly Governor Charlie Baker is poised to surpass not only Patricks influence on the states highest court, but that of any governor in nearly five decades.

District attorneys clash over young killers seeking parole based on brain research," by Shelley Murphy and John R. Ellement, Boston Globe: Nyasani Watt was 10 days shy of his 18th birthday when he fatally shot another teenager and wounded his friend on a Dorchester street in 2011, with a gun that had been handed to him by Sheldon Mattis, who was already 18. Both of them were convicted of first-degree murder for killing 16-year-old Jaivon Blake and sentenced to life in prison. But only Watt will get a chance to argue for parole some day because mandatory life sentences are banned for juvenile killers.

Sen. Warren: Trump was a failure before coronavirus crisis, CNN: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) thinks that Donald Trump was a failed president even before the coronavirus crisis hit the US, and that his failures will play a big part in the 2020 presidential election.

To US Rep. Richard Neal, President Donald Trumps petulance reinforces Supreme Court victory in tax case, by Jim Kinney, Springfield Republican: U.S. Rep. Richard Neal said Thursday that he, and by extension the American people, are one large step closer to seeing President Donald Trumps closely guarded tax records following rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court sent House subpoenas for the records back to lower courts for further rulings.

Supreme Court Gives Progressive Challenger Ammunition Against Rep. Richard Neal, by Daniel Marans and Arthur Delaney, HuffPost: A progressive mayor who is challenging Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal (D) from the left seized on Thursdays Supreme Court rulings as evidence of Neals failure as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to hold President Donald Trump accountable. In a pair of historic opinions written by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court rejected Trumps lawyers arguments that the president is immune from subpoenas of his personal records.

Animal rights advocates sue federal government over treatment of research primates, by David Abel, Boston Globe: In the wake of regulators formally rejecting a petition to improve the conditions of non-human primates used in federally funded research studies, a group of local animal rights advocates has sued the US Department of Agriculture, saying the agency refuses to raise standards for the animals.

Calls grow for coronavirus mask mandate ahead of Trumps New Hampshire rally, by Lisa Kashinsky, Boston Herald: Pressure is mounting on New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu to issue a mask mandate ahead of President Trumps rally in Portsmouth on Saturday, as locals fearing a surge in coronavirus cases brace for an influx of outsiders.

Three Massachusetts marijuana companies fined for use of pesticides, control violations, by Melissa Hanson, MassLive.com: Three marijuana companies in Massachusetts are facing fines for various violations, including the use of pesticides by two businesses and issues of control that would violate a state cap by the third business.

Herald: HEAR HIM ROAR. Globe: Portsmouth wary about what Trump rally could bring," "High court opens door to Trump's finances," "City schools look for more room to keep 6 ft. distance.

Springfield mayor: DOJ report knocking police narcotics unit disturbing and disappointing, by Stephanie Barry, Springfield Republican: Mayor Domenic Sarno called a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Justice assessing the police departments narcotics unit as out-of-control and excessively violent disturbing and disappointing during a press conference Thursday. The 28-page report released late Wednesday presented a withering picture of the unit, highlighting instances of falsified reports, lax oversight and alleged beat-downs of arrestees with a particular focus on punches to the head and neck.

Emails indicate Provincetown arts center director aware of Jeffrey Epstein cover-up, by Ethan Genter, Cape Cod Times: When Richard MacMillan was hired as co-executive director of the Fine Arts Work Center in spring 2019, his main focus was to raise money for the prestigious arts institute. The center, known for its seven-month artist-writer fellowship program, was in the middle of a $5 million fundraising campaign, and MacMillan was chosen in a national search to help reach or exceed that goal.

Newton is not a utopia. Task force to review policing, by John Hilliard, Boston Globe: Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller launched a sweeping review of the citys police force this week, as a newly appointed task force began work to develop recommendations that she said will impact the departments direction for years to come. The 12-member advisory group met for the first time Wednesday, and comes after advocates have called for a broader discussion about the role of policing in Newton and the communitys relationship to its residents of color.

Needham man cited in Newton protest incident, Associated Press: Police in the Boston suburb of Newton have cited a man for driving his pickup truck through a group of young Black Lives Matter demonstrators. The man, identified only as a 55-year-old Needham resident, was cited for operating a motor vehicle so as to endanger and failure to use care when starting a motor vehicle, police said.

Methuen mayor says 45 layoffs coming, by Bill Kirk, Eagle-Tribune: With the city facing a $7 million shortfall, Mayor Neil Perry said Tuesday the budget he is presenting to the City Council Wednesday will include up to 45 layoffs of city workers. Perry, who has been hospitalized this week, said that on the plus side, the last fiscal year ended with a $2 million infusion into the free cash account -- which is money left over at the end of the fiscal year.

Worcester police to start processing license to carry requests again, by Brian Lee, Telegram & Gazette: The Police Department on Monday will begin to process first-time license to carry applications, in line with the governors third phase of reopening businesses and organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The applications will be done by appointment, said Lt. Sean Murtha, a department spokesman. The police hadnt processed first-time LTC applications since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

TRANSITIONS Kimberly Atkins joins Boston Globe Opinion as a senior writer and member of the Editorial Board. Tweet.

Claire Richer joins American Wind Energy Association as federal affairs director. She was previously a legislative aide to Sen. Ed Markey.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Edie Mead Holway, Andy Flick, chief of staff to Rep. David Trone and former political director for the Serve America PAC, and Samuel Weinstock, legislative aide for Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

HAPPY BIRTHWEEKEND to Sen. Ed Markey, who turns 74, WBURs Jack Lepiarz, Maximos Nikitas and Chris Maloney, partner at the Black Rock Group and a Mitt Romney alum, who all celebrate Saturday. And to Sunday birthday-ers to Charlestown state Rep. Dan Ryan, Daily Hampshire Gazette reporter Scott Merzbach and Paul Shone.

Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause youre promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: [emailprotected].

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AIRWAVES getting CROWDED in House race POLICE bill hits hurdle in SENATE TRUMP comes to N.H. on Saturday - Politico

Will NobleA Modernist Utopia In The Clouds Floats Above DulwichDawson's Heights is an unlikely utopia floating above Dulwich. Image: Londonist

From Dog Kennel Hill in East Dulwich, you can sometimes make out in the far distance, what appears to be a modernist castle or ziggurat floating on the clouds. Walk towards it and it gradually reveals itself to be Dawson's Heights a council estate of almost 300 homes, built between 1964-72.

Though not as well-known as some of London's other post-war housing estates, Dawson's Heights is a landmark building. It was built in the wake of the Parker Morris Committee, which outlined new standards of living space for public housing.

Designed by a then-26-year-old Kate Macintosh, Dawson's Heights goes above and beyond. Each flat has its own private balcony. Cars are relegated to the outside of the building, creating a green sanctuary within. Flats either overlook this courtyard with rose beds and play equipment or out towards the City, where the horizon increasingly bristles with high-rise silhouettes.

In recent years, some of London's great housing estates, including the Heygate in Elephant and Castle and Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, have fallen to the wrecking ball. But though not listed, Dawson's Heights has been immaculately kept, and is beloved by its lucky resident community.

Which begs the question: why doesn't London have more estates like this?

Macintosh appeared on a 2019 Channel 4 documentary about the rise and fall of the UK's council estates. In it she explained how people living in private accommodation close to Dawson's Heights started to complain that the quality of living was better for council tenants. Private developers were being shown up and they pushed prime minister Margret Thatcher to ditch Parker Morris standards.

In short, Dawson's Heights was just too damned successful to be repeated.

Last Updated 06 July 2020

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A Modernist Utopia In The Clouds Floats Above Dulwich - Londonist

Looking for a new book to read?

Summer is finally here -- and while we're already building up our must-read pile for the next few months, we have a feeling it's going to be getting even larger.

Especially with some of the releases hitting shelves over the next few weeks.

Here are 14 amazing new books you won't be able to put down this July.

Lola Nox, the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker, thinks nothing can scare her. That is, until her father is brutally attacked in theirNew York apartment -- and she soon finds herself packed off to live with a grandmother shes never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her fathers most iconic horror movie was shot.

The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away. And theres someone or something stalking Lolas every move.

The more she discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. It doesn't help that Lolas got secrets of her own - and if she cant find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her

Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao on her very first morning on the island of Capri -- and she instantly cant stand him. She cant stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she cant stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really cant stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa.

The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George.

But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fianc, she finds herself drawn to him again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fianc and ultimately herself, as she tries to deny George entry into her world and her heart.

Astrid Strick has always tried to do the best she could for her three children. And while they're now grown up (finally), you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

Elliott doesnt have any idea who he really is, or how to communicate with his own sons. Porter is, at last, pregnant but feels incapable of rising to the challenge. Nicky has fled to distant New Mexico, where hes living the bohemian dream. And Astrid herself is up to things that would make her childrens hair curl.

Until now, the family have managed to hide their true selves from each other. But when Nickys incorrigibly curious daughter Cecelia comes to stay, her arrival threatens to upturn everything...

Thomas Brogan is a serial killer. Having left a trail of bodies in his wake, and with the police hot on his heels, it seems like Thomas has nowhere left to hide.

That is until he breaks into an abandoned house at the end of a terrace on a quiet street. And when he climbs up into the loft, he realises that the can drop down into all the other houses on the street through the shared attic space.

Thats when the real fun begins. Because the one thing that Thomas enjoys even more than killing, is playing games with his victims. And his new neighbours have more than enough dark secrets to make this game his best one yet

Jean Swinney, the feature writer on a local paper, is disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother.When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud.

But the more she investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen herself, her husband Howard - with his dry wit and gentle disposition - and her charming daughter Margaret.

But they are the subject of the story Jean is researching for the newspaper, a story that increasingly seems to be causing dark ripples across all their lives. And yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness.But there will be a price to pay - and it will be unbearable.

Stephanie and Patrick are recently married, with new-born twins. While Stephanie struggles with the disorienting effects of sleep deprivation, theres one thing she knows for certain she has everything she ever wanted.

Then a woman from Patricks past arrives and makes a horrifying allegation about his first wife. He always claimed her death was an accident but she says it was murder.

He insists hes innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. But is Patrick telling the truth? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake?

Laurens daughter Zara witnessed a terrible crime but speaking up about what happened comes at a price. When Zaras identity is revealed online, it puts a target on her back and shes left with one choice: to disappear.

To keep daughter safe, Lauren will give up everything and everyone she loves, even her husband. There will be no goodbyes. Their pasts will be rewritten. New names, new home, new lives.

The rules are strict for a reason. They are being hunted. One mistake a text, an Instagram like could bring their old lives crashing into the new. They can never assume someone isnt watching, waiting.

Awfully opinionated for a girl is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, thats the general consensus.

Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No.

How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton?

Ailsa Tilson moves with her husband and children to Trinity Fields in search of the new.New project - a house to renovate. New people - no links to the past. New friends - especially her next-door neighbour, the lonely Verity, who needs her help.

Verity has lived in Trinity Fields all her life. She's always resisted change. Her home and belongings are a shield, a defence to keep the outside world at bay. But something about the Tilsons piques her interest.Just as her ivy creeps through the shared garden fence, so Verity will work her way into the Tilson family.

And once they realise how formidable she can be, it might well be too late.

Olive is many things. Independent. Adrift. Anxious. Loyal. Kind. She knows her own mind.

And its ok that shes still figuring it all out, navigating her world without a compass. But life comes with expectations, there are choices to be made and sometimes stereotypes to fulfil.

So when her best friends lives branch away towards marriage and motherhood, leaving the path theyve always followed together, she starts to question her choices because life according to Olive looks a little bit different.

Twenty-five years ago, troubled teenager Charlie Crabtree committed a shocking and unprovoked murder.

For Paul Adams, its a day hell never forget. Hes never forgiven himself for his part in what happened to his friend and classmate. Hes never gone back home. But when his elderly mother has a fall, its finally time to stop running.

Its not long before things start to go wrong. A copycat killer has struck, bringing back painful memories. Pauls mother insists theres something in the house. And someone is following him.

Which reminds him of the most unsettling thing about that awful day twenty-five years ago.

Dublin, 1918. In a country doubly ravaged by war and disease, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city centre, where expectant mothers who have come down with an unfamiliar flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders: Doctor Kathleen Lynn, on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney.

In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over the course of three days, these women change each others lives in unexpected ways.

They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.

Utopia Avenue might be the most curious British band you've never heard of.

Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band produced only two albums in two years, yet their musical legacy lives on.

This is the story of Utopia Avenue's brief, blazing journey from Soho clubs and draughty ballrooms to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was receding into something much darker - a multi-faceted tale of dreams, drugs, love, sexuality, madness and grief; of stardom's wobbly ladder and fame's Faustian pact; and of the collision between youthful idealism and jaded reality as the Sixties drew to a close.

There haven't been many details released aboutMaloriejustyet, but if it's anything likeBirdbox,we can only imagine how terrifying it will be. Definitely one to add to the TBR pile.

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14 new books you won't be able to put down this July - Her.ie

Upload season 1- Courtesy of Katie Yu/Amazon Studios

SDCC 2020 is going to be very different to what were used to. Amazon Prime Video is trying to make the most of it for fans of The Boys, Upload, and more.

Due to the coronavirus, SDCC 2020 isnt happening. Well, not in the way we know it. Instead of people heading to the convention, its coming to us at home. There will be many pre-recorded panels for fans to watch at home. [emailprotected] is going to be completely free for anyone around the world to watch.

Amazon Prime Video is part of the lineup, but is going one step further to bring the sense of SDCC to us. After all, its not just about the panels. Conventions are about the experiences you can do, including the activations. And we know Amazon loves its activations.

Deadline reports that The Boys, Upload, Utopia, and Truth Seekers will head to [emailprotected] The shows make sense with a new season of The Boys premiering in September, a huge success with Upload back in May, and the chance to promote the two new shows heading to Amazon Prime Video soon.

There will be panels for all four shows. These are pre-recorded but fans have already had the chance to get many questions in. So, there will be some fan Q&As. There will also be some behind-the-scenes stories and breaking news about the shows.

Everything will be available to stream on Amazon. You dont need a Prime membership.

The panel order is:

All the videos will be available until Sunday, July 26.

One of the best things about conventions is the activations. Amazon tends to put a lot on, and this was something many fans were disappointed about missing out on. Well, you dont need to miss out.

Amazon is bringing a range of virtual programming. Its the first of its kind and will be interesting to see if other networks follow suit.

On Saturday, July 25, youll be able to join in the ComiXologys panels and a live drawing session. Theres also a comic book movie trivia night planned.

The movie trivia night is on Friday, July 24 at 5 p.m. PT on comiXologys Twitch channel.

Next up is the Summer Game Fest through Twitch. This is the place to experience the future of gaming, another major part of conventions.

Youll also be able to get your own customizable The Boys promo items completely free! There are two items to choose between and then a variety of pre-set images to pick. The items ship 10-15 days after [emailprotected]

Fans of Hanna will also get an event. Hanna Unlocked is an adventure game powered by The Escape Game. Youll drop into places between the two seasons, becoming a Utrax agent. Its up to you to piece together the events, get the intel, and figure out where Hanna and Clara are. John Carmichael will give you your orders.

Finally, Neil Gaimans Sandman is included in the virtual convention element. Its to celebrate the Audible release of the graphic novel. You can submit a description of a memorable dream via Drawn from the Dreaming or 515-SANDMAN. Selected dreams will be illustrated by some of the top artists around, including possibly one of the original artists of the novel. If you submit a dream, youll get an exclusive free audio episode from The Sandman and an overview of the story so far told by the one and only Neil Gaiman.

Now is the time to get ready and plan for [emailprotected] You can check out all the latest from the first-ever Virtual Con from Amazon Prime Video at the official website.

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Amazon ready for SDCC@Home with first-ever virtual con - Amazon Adviser

In Jerome K Jeromes The New Utopia, a man wakes up from a 1,000-year-long sleep, and finds himself in a future London where he needs a bath.

No; we are not allowed to wash ourselves. his guide tells him, You must wait until half-past four, and then you will be washed for tea.Be washed! Who by? the man asks.The State, replies the guide.

Replace the state with a corporate or a public-private partnership, carpet the sidewalks with cameras, let AI and neural networks take over every aspect of urban life and you get very close to the vision of a smart city where sensors rule the senses and the Internet of Things is god incarnate.

Now consider an alternative. You step out of your air-cooled, passive solar home and cycle slowly to the terraced wetland park which protects your city from floods while serving as habitat for birds.

Its waters are teeming with fish, community gardens abloom with flowers attract pollinators, the green terraces of every house brim with fresh produce.

Despite the summer sun, you are protected much of the way by the shade of living root bridges that cover the bicycle tracks. Squirrels play overhead, birdsong animates the world.

Living root bridges are not fairy tale nor are wetlands that perform multiple ecological functions, most famously the ones flanking Kolkata.

Julia Watsons book Lo-TEK-Design by Radical Indigenism, presents many such examples of traditional ecological knowledge from 18 countries some of which can be adapted into alternative visions for future cities.

In another 30 years, 68 percent of the world population will be city-based. NASAs Earth Observatory estimates that 18 percent of the global carbon footprint comes from the top 100 high-emission urban areas of the world.

Obviously if we have to fight climate change we will need to address this by building eco-friendly metropolises which are not necessarily smart cities.

A study done by Yigitcanlar and Kamruzzaman has shown that there is no simple linear relation between smartness and carbon-dioxide emissions.

Others have demonstrated that measures for sustainability are not necessarily driven by advanced technologies. Still smartness is often conflated with sustainability and the race for hi-tech nirvana continues.

Acknowledging no singular definition of the concept, India has taken ambitious targets of building 100 smart cities within and around existing urban centres with a total project cost of Rs 2,05,018 crore.

The aim is to create institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure layered with smartness which in some cases involve eco-friendly measures.

Another contentious issue about the use of advanced technologies to power cities of the future is centred on privacy.

In this quest for convenience and efficiency a variety of data-driven, deep learning applications including mobile games to modify transport choices, face-identification based security measures, telemedicine and so on will be employed which will require citizens and governments to hand over personal information to giant tech companies.

The US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence points out how Chinese AI start-up Cloudwalk has been helping Zimbabwe build a national facial recognition database while Kuala Lumpur is adopting a smart city platform called City Brain, developed by Chinese tech giant Alibaba. US corporates are also eager to get into this game.

Naomi Klein writing about the corporate push for tech-enabled solutions in the backdrop of the pandemic rightly points out that not every solution is technological.

Leaving aside the question of privacy it is also worrying that smart solutions are prone to malfunction and tend to eat away jobs. Again, commentators like Ayona Datta draw our attention to questions of equity, justice and ownership surrounding the technopolises of the global South. Where will all the land to build these smart cities come from? she asks.

A deeper critic of smartness that overlaps sustainability concerns points out the anthropocentrism of cities and suggests urban alternatives which are shared domains for multiple species. Christoph Ruprecht from the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto says, Multispecies cities are thriving ecosystems, constantly re-shaped by their many-species inhabitants to facilitate mutual flourishing. He points me to an ongoing unique experiment For the Love of Bees a living social sculpture project to imagine Auckland as the safest city in the world for bees.

An ardent champion of the multispecies cities imagination, Ruprecht dismisses the smartness paradigm. A smart city is ultimately a dead city, he avers, not unlike artificial plastic plants, unable of receiving or giving care. We need to keep these warnings in mind before rushing headlong for high-tech dreams.

Rajat ChaudhuriClimate activistEmail: rajat@rajatchaudhuri.net

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What will be the new Utopia? - The New Indian Express

The New 411

By Raymond Ward

Spearheading a new generation of forward-thinking sales companies primedto reimagine the industry even before COVID-19, Utopia takes POVs first ever mini-series And She Could Be Next to the virtual March Du Film.

The multi-part documentary series directed by Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia follows women of coloras candidates and organizerswho are transforming U.S. politics from the ground up, including history-makers Stacey Abrams (Georgia) and Rashida Tlaib (Detroit).

If ever there was a moment where we need to be reminded of the leadership of women of color, that time is now, said executive producerAva DuVernay. If youre an immigrant, a young person, a person of faith, or simply someone who has felt unseen for too long, you will find yourself reflected in this story.

After being selected for its world premiere this year by the Tribeca Film Festival, PBSs documentary showcase POV aired And She Could Be Next earlier this week in the United States, with Utopia taking it to the virtual Croisette for international sales. Co-founded in 2019by director Robert Schwartzman, Los Angeles-based Utopia offers an array of flexible and filmmaker friendly sales and distribution services.

The world has its eyes on the U.S., comments Utopias Head of Sales, DavidBetesh. We believe there is strongbuyerappetite for socially-driven work of the highest quality, and thats just whatour Emmy and Academy Award-winning partner POV is known for. Its especially a thrill to launch this series internationally during what is unquestionably an epochal and borderless moment of reckoning around issues of race, gender, and representation. The seriesis a natural addition to our slate of high-quality features and documentaries,includingthe Steve Bannon portrait American Dharma from Academy Award-winner Errol Morris.

Other films onUtopiasCannes market slate include the upcoming ensemble comedy,The Argument, starringDan FoglerandMaggie Q;the basketball documentary Jump Shot, produced by and featuringtwo-time NBA champion and MVP Stephen Curry; and the comedy feature Mister America fromAdult Swims Tim Heidecker.

Looking to Advertise? Contact the Crusader for more information.

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'And She Could Be Next' highlights women of color transforming US politics | The Crusader Newspaper Group - The Chicago Cusader

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) COVID-19 has not stopped creativity in the ViBe District. Within the last few months, dozens of new works of art have been added to the area.

This weekend, the public will be able to to see them up close and personal.

#SecondSaturday is a guided tour series of the ViBe District murals. The popular event was put on hold when the coronavirus first hit Hampton Roads, but then the tours started up again in June after the state of Virginia moved into phase 2.

We only allow 25 guests at a time. We encourage people to bring masks, especially when we pop into some of the art workshops and studios along the tour, said Executive Director Kate Pittman.

As of now, 31 new pieces are now on display throughout the art district. One of the latest projects includes a new parking lot designed by students.

We have a parking lot on 18th Street painted in partnership with 17 Virginia Beach Schools. Teachers came out to paint the designs they created with their students earlier this year, Pittman added.

Near the Mediterranean Parklet, 11 new community fence murals have been added. The ViBe District reached out to local citizens who created these masterpieces at their homes while quarantined.

The ViBe District is also an advocate for diversity and inclusion in regards to the work they showcase.

The ViBe Creative District and Utopia Feni nonprofits announce a new partnership to spotlight local minority artists in Virginia Beachs arts district.There are three new pop murals on display. We want to make sure all of our featured artists are know we support them and we want to make sure each one is seen in our community, said Pittman.

#SecondSaturdaytour of the ViBe District murals leaving fromFathom Coffee. This tour begins at 10am and will last about one to 1.5 hours. To RSVP, visit the ViBe Creative District Facebook Page.

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#SecondSaturday Mural Tour in the ViBe Creative District - WAVY.com

Fourteen major Broadway productions are partnering with HeadCount, a non-partisan organization that promotes civic participation through music, culture, and live performance, to encourage Broadway fans across the United States to register and vote. Although Broadway performances in New York City remain suspended through the remainder of 2020 due to COVID-19, fans of all ages can join their favorite shows in making their voices heard at the polls this fall.

Participating shows whose campaigns launch today include Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations; Chicago; Come From Away; Company; David Byrne's American Utopia (which previously hosted a HeadCount voter registration booth in the Hudson Theatre lobby at each performance); Dear Evan Hansen; Girl From The North Country; Hadestown; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; Jagged Little Pill; Mean Girls; Moulin Rouge! The Musical; Plaza Suite; and TINA - The Tina Turner Musical. Additional participating shows will be announced soon.

Through HeadCount's national organization efforts, fans across the country can register, check, or update their voter registration status online and find localized information about polling dates, sites, and candidates. By doing so, they will be entered to win Broadway show tickets (applicable when performances resume) and more.

More information on each show's initiatives, all of which run through October 1 to encompass National Voter Registration Day on September 22, can be found at the links below:

Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations - HeadCount.org/ATP or text VOTER ATP to 40649

Chicago - HeadCount.org/Chicago or text VOTER CHICAGO BWAY to 40649

Come From Away - HeadCount.org/ComeFromAway or text VOTER AWAY to 40649

Company - HeadCount.org/Company or text VOTER COMPANY to 40649

David Byrne's American Utopia: HeadCount.org/DBAU or text VOTER DBAU to 40649

Dear Evan Hansen - HeadCount.org/DearEvanHansen or text VOTER EVAN to 40649

Girl from the North Country - HeadCount.org/GFTNC or text VOTER GFTNC to 40649

Hadestown - HeadCount.org/Hadestown or text VOTER HADESTOWN to 40649

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - HeadCount.org/HarryPotterandtheCursedChild or text VOTER CURSED CHILD to 40649

Jagged Little Pill - HeadCount.org/JLP or text VOTER JLP to 40649

Mean Girls - HeadCount.org/MeanGirls or text VOTER FETCH to 40649

Moulin Rouge! The Musical - HeadCount.org/MoulinRouge or text VOTER MR! to 40649

Plaza Suite - HeadCount.org/PlazaSuite or text VOTER PLAZA to 40649

TINA - The Tina Turner Musical - HeadCount.org/Tina or text VOTER TINA to 40649

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COMPANY, DEAR EVAN HANSEN, JAGGED LITTLE PILL and More Partner With HeadCount to Promote Voter Registration - Broadway World