There has always been a great deal of idle speculation about what it is that people find so fascinating about Hitler’s Germany. My favorite theory—which hardly makes it correct—is that people want to understand what allows people to do such depraved things to each other. That people probe the Holocaust looking for ways that we […]

I’ve long been seeking one thing—a song, a poem, a quotation, even a book—that once found will magically save all people—save them from their greed, their fear, and their unnecessary antipathy for one another. One day I met my anti-prophet, who told me this: I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t exist, it can’t […]

I’m not even sure where I first heard the term “Professional Human Beings,” but it’s an idea I can’t seem to shake. I often think that the world needs more Professional Human Beings. But I should be clear: this is different than needing more “professionals.” Professional Human Beings are people who spend their time being […]

The first half of Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley can easily be seen as a justification for terrorism and a condemnation of torture—the obvious reading for an American in a country now more or less obsessed by the topics. If justifying terrorism seems a hard thing to do, The Wind that Shakes […]

When you look around at the world, it’s easy to be angry. There are socio-political problems all over: Darfur, Myanmar, Iraq, China, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Somalia… the list could go on and on. There are also the scourges of poverty and hunger that never seem to leave us. And the more mundane but pervasive problems […]