Last Week This Week 4-17-16

Wrath /ræθ/ noun

            1
:  strong vengeful anger or indignation
 (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical effect)

            2
:  retributory punishment for an offense or a crime: divine chastisement
        

On WBT

David James reviews Roy Scranton's Learning to Die in the Anthropocene and Adrian Bonenberger argues memorizing policy does not magically make you a good leader.

Learning to Die in the AnthropocenePolicy-e1460692412148-vintage

Editor’s Recommendations

Advocacy

538 comes in with the numbers to show that government transparency does more than hold public officials accountable. The release of the Laquan McDonald video finally inspired the citizens of Chicago to get rid of one of America's worst prosecutors, but it also seems to have decreased gun violence in the short term. WBT's Matt Hefti wrote about our shared guilt for Laquan McDonald's death last year.

Aviva Stahl's "Why Young Sex Criminals Get Locked Up Forever" explains the bizarre and ineffective world of civil commitments for sex offenders.

Politics 

With Bernie Sanders and Britain's Jeremy Corbyn leading a growing socialist zeitgeist (or at least a massive reappraisal of the social contract), George Monbiot at The Guardian has written a lengthy and informative article on the history and pervasive worldwide influence of Neoliberalism, quite possibly the source of all our current problems.

A piece at Slate, possibly influenced by David's recent piece on Alexander Hamilton, discussing how the popularity of the Hamilton musical might affect changes to the proposal of putting a woman on the $10 bill. For some reason, the proposal is only to put a woman on the back, and it's not clear why Andrew Jackson is still occupying our money.

Excerpt in Foreign Policy from a book by David Rieff examining American culture. This chapter discusses kitsch in the Holocaust Museum. Amazing.

Technology 

The most famous and controversial Utilitarian philosopher, Peter Singer, discusses the ethical problems presented by Artificial Intelligence.

Fiction

Fascinating article in The Paris Review by a man who has actually created an online version of Borges' Library of Babel, and a discussion of the many interesting consequences which still spring from this king of short stories.