Wisdom of Crowds – Details, episodes & analysis

An emergency pod: “War, or something resembling war, is breaking out in the Middle East,” says Shadi Hamid. A year after the October 7 massacre, Israel has all but destroyed Hamas. Last month, it killed Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, thus decapitating that terrorist organization. This week, it launched an invasion of southern Lebanon. In retaliation, Iran — the longtime backer of Hezbollah — has lobbed a barrage of ballistic missiles into Israel.

We decided to release the podcast early this week, before it is overtaken by the swiftly-moving events. What is this war about? What should the US do about it? Does anyone in the US political class truly believe that the Arab world is capable of democracy? Were the Abraham Accords foolish — or racist? How do you define a “rogue state”? What is Netanyahu right about?

Joining Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic to discuss these questions is Matt Duss, Executive Vice President of the Center for International Policy, co-host of the Undiplomatic Podcast, and former foreign policy advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders.

“A lot of [Arab Americans] are not going to pull the lever for Kamala Harris,” Shadi reports. Matt lambasts the “racist logic” of the Abraham Accords, which swept the Palestinian question aside and decided that “this is the best [America] can hope for, deals with modernizing autocrats.” Damir applies a realpolitik analysis, explaining the Israeli military strategy and arguing that American and European diplomats have no choice but to strike deals with the autocrats that rule the world. Shadi responds: “Realpolitik is supposed to be effective.”

It’s a passionate, intense discussion that strikes at the core preoccupations of Wisdom of Crowds: justice, war, and the state. Free for all subscribers: You will want to listen to the whole thing.

Required Reading:

* Shadi’s responses to subscribers’ provocations about the Middle East (WoC).

* Bruno Maçães’ article on the end of Western hypocrisy (Time).

* Jeffrey Goldberg’s 2016 article on “The Obama Doctrine” (The Atlantic).

* James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show (YouTube).

* The Abraham Accords (US State Department).

This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.

Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

What is human dignity? Is it a real thing, or merely an idea? If it’s real, then where does it come from? And why do only human beings have dignity? What about other intelligent beings? What about the octopus?

These are only some of the many questions that Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos talk about in a slow-burn, philosophical episode of Wisdom of Crowds. Because Santiago is executive editor of Wisdom of Crowds, Damir wants to learn more about his bedrock convictions. He cross-examines Santiago about his religion, politics, and formative experiences.

At first, Damir finds in Santiago a kindred spirit: both are skeptical about power and about big political theories. But Santiago does have one fundamental conviction that he is not skeptical about: universal human dignity. Damir presses Santiago on this topic. What is human dignity? How do you know it exists? And do only human beings have dignity? What about other intelligent animals? What about … octopi?

The ending is one of the richest parts of the conversation, so we made this episode is free for all subscribers.

* Daniel Patrick Moynihan documentary (PBS).

* Song about the guerrilla priest: Victor Jara, “Camilo Torres” (YouTube).

* “Of New Things,” Pope Leo XIII (Vatican.va).

* “On the Progress of Peoples,” Paul VI (Vatican.va).

* Jacques Maritain and the UN Declaration of Human Rights (UNESCO).

* The Cold War in Latin America (RetroReport).

* Michael Novak obituary (New York Times).

* Iraq War timeline (Council on Foreign Relations).

* Thomas Aquinas on the human soul (Summa Theologiae, New Advent).

* Valladolid debate on the rights of indigenous people (In Our Time, BBC).

* Octopus intelligence (Natural History Museum).

This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.

Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live

Greetings, dear Listeners!

We are releasing our podcast early this week. We figured that an episode about the unity of the American people would sound good right about now, given the circumstances. Damir’s Tuesday Note — which will respond to a Provocation — will be published this coming Thursday.

What holds the United States together? Three hundred million people of different races, religions, and histories, spread out over half a continent — do we have a system that truly represents all of them? Who is that “We” in “We the people” and “We hold these truths”?

Yuval Levin’s answer to these questions might seem quaint at first: The Constitution. A scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and editor of the policy journal National Affairs, he has written several books about American politics and institutions. His latest is called American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified our Nation and and Could Again. In it, he makes a compelling argument that the Constitution is more than a list of laws, rights and limits to political power. It is a set of institutional structures that safeguard social peace. It is a text about how to live together.

This is an ambitious reading of the Constitution, to say the least. And we had questions. Christine asks how the Constitution can be a unifying force when it has effectively become a tribal marker in our culture wars. Damir wants to know whether the need to reform the Constitution can be reconciled with Yuval’s basically conservative impulse to preserve and revere it.

This is a timely, serious conversation which takes a sober look at the most important tool we have to face this season of crisis. We urge you to give it a listen!

Required Reading

* American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation and Could Again by Yuval Levin (Hachette).

* A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream by Yuval Levin (Hachette).

* The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism by Yuval Levin (Hachette).

This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live

This week, Berlin-based journalist and New York Times Magazine contributing writer Elisabeth Zerofsky joins us to discuss how Russia's invasion of Ukraine has changed Europe. What explains the righteous fury of previously pacific Germans? Shadi asks Elisabeth and Damir what a "red line" in Ukraine could possibly be—or if it even exists. For example, how might the United States respond in hypothetical scenarios of large-scale massacres and the leveling of entire cities.

In the subscriber-only portion of the conversation, we debate whether Europe has a preference for white—and specifically non-Muslim—refugees. "Anti-immigrant" leaders on the far-right are, all of a sudden, discovering a soft spot for migrants. Are Europeans racist? Perhaps, the argument goes, it's easier to integrate Ukrainians because they are secular, culturally similar, and look like "us." Can that ever justify the double standard? Shadi decides to do away with caution and make a rather controversial argument.

Required Reading

- "Negotiating with Madmen" by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)

- "On Putin, Rationality, and Believing In Heaven" by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)

- Is EU Concerned? Twitter account

- "Gerhard Schröder Casts a Dark Shadow over Berlin's Foreign Policy"  (Spiegel)

- Benjamin Wittes' tweet

- "Why John Mearsheimer Blames the US for the Crisis in Ukraine" by Isaac Chotiner (New Yorker)

- Michael Cecire and Damir's Twitter exchange

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live

Shadi and Damir sit down again, four days into the war in Ukraine, to look at where things stand, and where things could be going. We talk best- and worst-case scenarios, why the West can’t get militarily involved, and why the Europeans in particular are so white-hot furious about Putin's invasion.

Shadi and Damir sat down to do a quick episode today as Russia commenced its invasion of Ukraine. They talk about how the world got to this point, what we in the West could have done differently, what could happen next, and what it means for the future of America. We hope you find this real-time attempt at analysis useful and helpful.

Required Reading

- "Negotiating with Madmen" by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)

- "America’s role in the Russia and Ukraine situation" (AP)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live

From Leon Trotsky to Sayyid Qutb to the Founding Fathers, Shadi and Damir discuss revolution in all its forms. The guys argue about the importance of ideas, the role of violence, and how order is legitimized. Can democracy keep the peace?

Part 2 of our conversation is available here for subscribers. Shadi and Damir turn their attention to the revolutionary impulses on both the conservative right and the woke left. While the intellectuals behind these movements likely don't consider themselves to be advocating for the overthrow of our system, does that mean they are fine operating in the system? Or are we approaching a tipping point of revolutionary impulse in America?

Subscribe here to listen. Members will also gain access to other paid content, including weekly bonus episodes, Q&As with Shadi and Damir, and our full archive of Friday Essays.

Required Reading

• The Prophet: The Life of Leon Trotsky, by Isaac Deutscher (Amazon)
• The Democracy Essays (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "Am I a Trotskyite?" by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)
• Hitler: A Global Biography, by Brendan Simms (Amazon)
• Terrorism and Communism: A Reply to Karl Kautsky (Revolutions), by Leon Trotsky, Foreword by Slavoj Žižek (Amazon)
• "Taking People as They Are: Islam as a 'Realistic Utopia' in the Political Theory of Sayyid Qutb" by Andrew F. March (American Political Science Review)
• "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror" by Paul Berman (New York Times)
• "Liberalism Has an Unhappiness Problem" by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "Sohrab Ahmari on Liberalism, Tradition, and Political Catholicism" (Wisdom of Crowds)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live

In this week's episode, we were joined by our friend Aaron Sibarium, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon. Aaron recently reported a piece showing how three states were rationing COVID drugs on race-based criteria. The article made a splash. Fox News covered the story, Trump referenced it in a speech (sloppily as always), and Twitter tried to rebrand it as a right-wing talking point.

Prioritizing woke ideology over medical realities can cost lives. But we tried to stay true to the Wisdom of Crowds ethos and made our best faith effort to ask whether race-based triage can ever be justified on practical or philosophical grounds. Is this the result of good intentions going off the rails, or is something more sinister at work?

Required Reading:

- "Food and Drug Administration Guidance Drives Racial Rationing of COVID Drugs" by Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon)

- "Hospital System Backs Off Race-Based Treatment Policy After Legal Threat" by Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon)

- "Hospitalization and Mortality among Black Patients and White Patients with Covid-19" (New England Journal of Medicine)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live

It used to be called "political correctness." It had its heyday in the 1990s, then it went underground. While we weren't paying attention, an entire architecture of speech restrictions was being built on campuses across the country. Greg Lukianoff, CEO of FIRE and co-author of the bestselling The Coddling of the American Mind, joins us to discuss what he calls the "second great age of political correctness."

When people say cancel culture isn't real, are they arguing in good faith? One part of the story is the lack of diversity in American universities—in disciplines like anthropology, the ratio of liberal to conservative professors is 42 to 1. If we care so much about diversity, why don't we seem to care viewpoint diversity?

Required Reading:

- "The Second Great Age of Political Correctness" by Greg Lukianoff (Reason)

- "How To Keep Your Corporation Out of the Culture War" by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (Persuasion)

- "The Polarization Spiral" by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff (Persuasion)

- The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

- The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium by Martin Gurri

- Manliness by Harvey Mansfield

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.live

This week we were joined by Sam Adler-Bell, cohost of the Know Your Enemy podcast. We examined the New Right, their earnestly held belief that liberals have already won the battle for the soul of the country, and America's crisis of legitimacy. Is it even worth trying to bridge the gap between left and right on cultural issues?

Required Reading:

- "The Radical Young Intellectuals Who Want to Take Over the American Right" by Sam Adler-Bell (New Republic)

- "Young, Radical, and on the Right (w/ Nate Hochman)" by Know your Enemy

- "Shadi Hamid on Being an Anti-‘Woke’ Progressive" by Matt Lewis

- "Michael Brendan Dougherty on Identity, Culture, and the False Promise of Liberation" by Wisdom of Crowds

- "Ross Douthat on Decadence, Wokeness, and UFOs" by Wisdom of Crowds" by Wisdom of Crowds

- "Sohrab Ahmari on Liberalism, Tradition, and Political Catholicism" by Wisdom of Crowds

- Trump’s Full Inauguration Speech 2017