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

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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.

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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)

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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)

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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

 

What was it like to live through the fall of Kabul? How should we think about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan? And with famine enveloping the country amid an unprecedentedly severe state collapse, how should we approach—and deal with—the ruling Taliban authorities?

This week we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili and Dr. Omar Sadr, both of the newly-launched Afghanistan Project at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Governance and Markets, to talk about what lies ahead for the long-suffering Afghan people.

Recommended Reading:

- "Afghanistan: a Vicious Cycle of State Failure" by Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili- The Afghanistan Project - Center for Governance and Markets, University of Pittsburg- "Afghans at risk of near-universal poverty, UN report warns" by Peter Beaumont (The Guardian)- "In Afghanistan, the threat of widespread famine looms as drought and hunger continues" by All Things Considered (NPR)

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As Biden struggles to get his massive spending bill passed, WoC's former Associate Editor Matt Winesett joins Shadi and Damir to talk about guns, gentrification, opera, the race for Governor of Virginia, and the sad state of the Republican Party.

Required Reading:

• Matt's essays at WoC.
• "Trump's Look Backward Poses Peril for GOP," by Gerald F. Seib (WSJ).
• The Citizen app.
• "Glenn Youngkin's Viral 'Child' Ad is Missing Important Context," by Glenn Kessler (WaPo).
• "Nice Woke Parents" (Wisdom of Crowds).

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Damir and Shadi talk about health security theater during this latest phase of the pandemic, before going on to discuss how technocratic approaches tend to worsen and exacerbate polarization in democratic societies. Also: can anyone make a moral case for democracy without recourse to God?

Required reading:

• The Islamic World Today: Issues and Perspectives (Brigham Young University)
• "The danger of bringing religious zeal to the political realm," by Shadi Hamid (Deseret News).
• "One in 5,000," by David Leonhardt (NYT).
• Public Opinion, by Walter Lippmann.
• "Limits to Democracy," by Roger Scruton (New Criterion).
• "Solutionism Is Not the Solution," by Damir Marusic (WoC)

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

Welcome to summer, dear crowd! This week, we have a live episode for you — live from the Aspen Ideas Festival. Sam Kimbriel recorded this episode with Tamar Gendler, a Dean and Philosophy professor at Yale University, and Erin McFee, a Future Leaders Fellow at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre in the London School of Economics.

The subject, very broadly, is forgiveness. Is it good or bad? Do we know what it means? Can one forgive wrongly? And could forgiving foreclose the possibility of achieving justice in this world?

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It's no secret that the United States is in a bad place. Fiona Hill saw the chaos and blunders up close, as deputy assistant to President Trump and top Russia advisor at the White House. In November 2019, she was a witness in House hearings during the Trump's first impeachment.

Fiona has a new book out There Is Nothing For You Here and is back at the Brookings Institution. She joins Shadi and Damir to talk about whether she would would have agreed to work under Trump knowing what she knows now. Was there anything redeeming about Trump in the flesh? Fiona also discusses growing up poor in British coal country, seeing our divisions from inside the Trump administration, and how to apply the lessons other countries have learned in building unity at home.

Does America need a national reconciliation process? Can the country's divides be fixed through policy innovation or must Americans resign themselves to living with people who are beyond the pale?

Required Reading:

• There is Nothing For You Here, by Fiona Hill
• Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy
• "The Role of Islam in European Populism" by Shadi Hamid (Brookings)
• "Dealing with the Dignity Deficit", by Damir Marusic (The American Interest)

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

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Elbridge Colby joins Shadi and Damir to talk about his challenging new book The Strategy of Denial, an unflinchingly clinical argument for confronting China. Does China's authoritarianism make it our enemy, or is confrontation inevitable regardless? Will our allies stick by our side just because China is a bully? And what does Henry Kissinger get wrong about power politics?

Required Reading:

- "Will the Next American War Be with China?" by Benjamin Wallace-Wells (New Yorker).

- Age of Ambition, by Evan Osnos.

- "Diplomacy is a Dirty Business," by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds).

- Federalist No. 11. 

 

Is America the most successful third world country on earth? Shadi and Damir welcome Samuel Goldman, author of the new book After Nationalism, onto the podcast for a raucous discussion on national identity, the likelihood of another civil war, and the possibility that, because it has more in common with Latin America than Europe, the United States may be the best place on the planet.

Required Reading:

• After Nationalism, by Samuel Goldman.
• A symposium on the book at Law and Liberty.
• Sam's column at The Week.
• Bruno Maçaes on dreampolitik.
• "The Case Against Consensus," by Shadi Hamid.
• "Who Are America's Peers," by Samuel Goldman.

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 summer, the inherent ugliness of the world reasserted itself. And yet we Americans still found a way to make it all about us, who we think we are, and what we think we represent. Shadi and Damir sit down to talk about the remarkable frivolity of our politics today, and whether there's any way out.

Required reading:

• Shadi's recent Friday Essay on Carl Schmitt.
• Damir's recent Friday Essay on the Missionary Position.
• Damir's tweet on politics.

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

How did it all go wrong? Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, a leading scholar of Afghanistan, joins Damir and Shadi to dissect the Taliban's victory and discuss what it tells us about the failures of America's nation-building effort. Why did the Afghan government collapse so quickly? Have the technocrats and NGOs in the democracy promotion industry been completely discredited? And for the sake of the Afghan people, should we now help the Taliban succeed in governing the country? Things get heated.

Murtazashvili is director of the Center for Governance and Markets and associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan. She lived in Afghanistan for 3 years, conducting fieldwork in rural villages across the country, and previously worked at the US Agency for International Development and the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.  

Recommended reading:

• Jen Murtazashvili in the Washington Post
• "Afghanistan is not the Balkans," by Thomas Barfield (ResearchGate)
• Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, by Thomas Barfield (Amazon)
• Nassim Taleb on the Taliban's refusal to deadlift
• "When Terrorists and Criminals Govern Better Than Governments," by Shadi Hamid, Vanda Felbab-Brown, and Harold Trinkunas (The Atlantic)

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Parents in the 1990s believed they were doing their children a favor by instilling in them the ethos “do what you like, follow your dreams, and things will work out.” But Michael Brendan Dougherty, author of  My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son's Search for Home, argues that sometime in the 2000s, this promise of liberation revealed itself as a curse, feeling more like abandonment than instruction. In a wide-ranging conversation, he, Shadi, and Damir talk about the meaning and importance of identity, where modernity falls short, the promise and peril of nationalism, and much more.

In Part Two, available here for subscribers, the conversation continues with a discussion about immigration in America and Europe, if Islam is the religion of the future, whether white Americans have a distinct identity, and if right-wing governments in Poland and Hungary are harbingers of the future or the last gasps of a dying ideology.

Subscribe here to listen to the rest of the discussion. Members will also have access to our recent two-part conversation with Ross Douthat as well as our weekly Friday Essays.

Recommended Reading:

• My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son's Search For Home, by Michael Brendan Dougherty (Amazon)
• "Critical Race Theory as Metaphysics," by Michael Brendan Dougherty (National Review)
• "Why the Fight Over Critical Race Theory Matters," by Michael Brendan Dougherty (National Review)

Wisdom of Crowds associate editor Matt Winesett joins Damir and Shadi to debate Donald Rumsfeld's legacy and if his mistakes permanently discredited nation building and democracy promotion abroad. They also discuss how younger Millennials perceived the Iraq War, whether Bushism or Trumpism would better serve the GOP's future, how much politicians' personal character ultimately matters, and much more.

Their conversation continues in a bonus episode, out next week. Subscribe here to get it straight to your inbox.

Recommended Reading:

• “The Defense Secretary Who Let Bin Laden Get Away,” by Peggy Noonan (The Wall Street Journal)
• “The Hubris of Donald Rumsfeld,” by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)
• “Oh, the Audacity!” by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)
• Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam (Amazon)
• American Conservatism: Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition, by Andrew Bacevich (Amazon)
• "Dispatches From the Conservative Bubble," with Matt Winesett, Damir Marusic, and Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "The Poetry of D. H. Rumsfeld," by Donald Rumsfeld (Slate)

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

Damir calls in from a conference in Slovakia and describes what life is like in a land without widely available vaccines. Shadi addresses why he won't just register as a Republican already (or convert to Catholicism). And they both discuss if Europe is in danger of sinking into irrelevance, whether George W. Bush should have sent troops to Crimea, the relationship between America's power and its values, and much more.

Recommended Reading:

• "Biden Talks a Big Game on Europe. But His Actions Tell a Different Story," by Jeremy Shapiro (Politico)
• "Morality is Impossible Without Power," by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "How Liberal Triumphalism Breeds Passivity," by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)
• The Avery James tweet

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Damir and Shadi return to a familiar topic, but this time with a twist. Damir manages to sound like an optimist. He argues that the fad of wokeness will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions, while Shadi thinks it's probably too late. They also discuss whether justice is possible without God, the rather odd fact that Shadi's first academic article was on feminist theory, why white parents seem nonplussed about indoctrinating their kids, and whether a rising crime wave will undermine the woke revolution.

The debate continues in a special bonus episode, out on Saturday. Subscribe here to get it straight to your inbox.

Recommended Reading:

• "How America Fractured Into Four Parts," by George Packer (The Atlantic)
• "How Michel Foucault Lost the Left and Won the Right," by Ross Douthat (The New York Times)
• "Stop Blaming the Pandemic for America's Violent Crime Wave," by Zaid Jilani (Inquire)
• "Nice Woke Parents, Episode 4," (The New York Times)
• The Harper's Letter

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“What fascinates and terrifies us about the Roman Empire is not that it finally went smash,” W. H. Auden once wrote, but rather that “it managed to last for four centuries without creativity, warmth, or hope.” In his latest book, The Decadent Society, Ross Douthat suggests contemporary America may be in a similar spot. He joined Shadi and Damir to discuss the factors contributing to our present state of decadence, and possible avenues out—from wokeness to a new post-liberal politics to UFOs.

In Part Two, available here, the conversation continues with Damir asking Ross if wokeness will burn itself out or if it must be countered with a new, more compelling faith. Shadi, Ross, and Damir also discuss why more and more elites are no longer Christian, if meritocracy has failed, the role of rationalism and faith in sustaining the American project, and why—despite his religious conservatism—more liberals don't hate Ross.

Recommended Reading:

• The Decadent Society: America Before and After the Pandemic, by Ross Douthat (Amazon)
• "Can the Meritocracy Find God?" by Ross Douthat (The New York Times)
• Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, by Ross Douthat (Amazon)
• "Sohrab Ahmari on Liberalism, Tradition, and Political Catholicism" (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "Sohrab Ahmari on Liberalism, Tradition, and Political Catholicism—Part Two" (Wisdom of Crowds)

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

On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump, as President of the United States, enjoys “absolute” immunity for “his core constitutional powers,” but that he “enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does if official.” The ruling has an obvious immediate impact on the upcoming presidential elections. But it also suggests far-reaching questions about political sovereignty, and our system of government.

In this episode, Sam and Damir get together to hash out the theoretical implications of the Court’s ruling. Joining them is Yale Law professor and friend of the pod Samuel Moyn. Moyn argues that the Court’s decision was as much a product of “comparative risk assessment” of our current and near-future political situation, as it was a theoretical statement about our political system. Damir pushes on the question of the meaning of sovereignty, and what immunity implies in terms of the limits of presidential power. Sam sums up the decision as having reached “the limits of business as usual.”

In the bonus section for paid subscribers, the discussion strikes a philosophical note. Sam describes his views about the “Platonic” and “prophetic” sources of law, Damir asks whether Thomas Hobbes is still relevant, and Moyn explains his idea of “collective self-creation.” Law, politics, philosophy, and prophecy — this episode is packed with the drama of our time.

Required Reading

* Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court Immunity Ruling (supremecourt.gov).

* Richard Tuck, The Sleeping Sovereign: The Invention of Modern Democracy (Cambridge).

* Eric Nelson, The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding (Harvard).

* “Broad Reflections on Trump v. United States,” by Jack Goldsmith (Lawfare).

* Plato, Euthyphro (Internet Classics Archive).

* Summary of the Kelsen-Schmitt debate (YouTube).

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!

An Iranian-born immigrant, Sohrab Ahmari has become one of America's most prominent and controversial Catholic commentators. His new book, The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos, asks us to rethink our understanding of freedom and choice—and the fact that we have too much of it. What does it mean to be a "political Catholic"? What is the value of a state-imposed Sabbath? Does civilization require heartfelt religious belief, or is there a benefit in simply going through the motions? And can a liberal society avoid enforcing an oppressive orthodoxy of its own?  

Part two of the conversation with Sohrab is available here for subscribers. Part one ends on a bit of a cliff hanger, with Sohrab suggesting the law is not just a reflection of the public's wishes but can be a moral teacher for the public as well. The conversation then moves into other interesting territory, including on how Sohrab has gained more respect for Islam since his conversion to Catholicism.

Subscribe here to listen to the rest of the discussion; you won't want to miss it.

Recommended Reading:

• The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradition in an Age of Chaos, by Sohrab Ahmari (Amazon)
• From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith, by Sohrab Ahmari (Amazon)

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What do Shadi and Damir's divergent responses to the Gaza crisis tell us about questions of morality, idealism, and power? Damir presses Shadi on his recent commentary about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians—and the line between analysis and polemics. Shadi argues the Middle East still matters—and that it's in America's national interest to be moral. Damir counters by saying that it is the job of the analyst to complicate stories, not necessarily to resolve them.

Required Reading:

• "I'm Angry About Palestine. Should You Be?" by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "Don’t take the narrow view of what’s happening in Gaza," by Shadi Hamid (The Atlantic)
• "A separate peace? What the Gaza crisis means for Arab regimes," by Shadi Hamid (Brookings)
• The Shadi vs. Dershowitz showdown (The Megyn Kelly Show)
• "Four Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (Carnegie Connects)

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Damir returns to the office and is surprised by how it feels. Shadi marvels at the precipitous decline of outrage—but wonders if our collective tuning out of politics might have drawbacks. And why have so many corporations gone woke? All this and more on this week's episode of Wisdom of Crowds.

Required Reading:

• "Tema Okun's 'White Supremacy Culture' work is bad," by Matt Yglesias (Substack)
• "Can We Please Ditch the Term 'Systemic Racism'," by John McWhorter (Substack)
• "Biden Struggles With Western Pandemic Disunity" by Ed Luce (Financial Times)
• "Democracy’s Skeptics—and Its Necessity," by Osita Nwanevu (Wisdom of Crowds)

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The liberal idea arose partly as a response to the religious wars of 17th-century Europe. Could something similar occur in the Islamic world today? Mustafa Akyol thinks so—and his new book Reopening Muslim Minds offers a fascinating and forthright case for reinterpreting Islamic history and revisiting Islamic law. Mustafa joined Shadi and Damir to talk about what inspired the book, starting with his arrest by Malaysia's "religion police." They go on to debate Islam's proper role in public life, how to interpret sharia in a modern context, the promise (and dangers) of "rationalism," and what makes Islam attractive in the first place.

Part two of the conversation with Mustafa is available here for subscribers. If the first hour catches your interest, join us as we wade deeper into various controversies. The discussion turns to whether Islam will follow a similar trajectory as Christianity, apostasy laws, the case of Turkey, whether democracy is a means or an end, and what all of this means for American foreign policy. Subscribe here.  

Required Reading:

• Reopening Muslim Minds: A Return to Reason, Freedom, and Tolerance, by Mustafa Akyol (Amazon)
• "Where Islam and Reason Meet," by Mustafa Akyol (The Wall Street Journal)
• Sharia: Theory, Practice, Transformations, by Wael B. Hallaq (Amazon)
• Mustafa's New York Times archive

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Berlin-based journalist Elisabeth Zerofsky joins Shadi and Damir to talk about how Europeans are coping with the pandemic. What's it like living under an actual lockdown? Is Brexit vindicated? Does Europe now feel America envy? And would Damir make an effective demagogue? The answers to all these questions and more, answered in just over an hour.

Required Reading:

• Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, by Svetlana Alexievech (Penguin)
• "The Right-Wing Pundit ‘Hashtag Triggering’ France," by Elisabeth Zerofsky (The New York Times)
• Elisabeth's New Yorker archive
• "Why is Everything Liberal?" by Richard Hanania (Substack)

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The journalist, author, and firebrand Glenn Greenwald joins Shadi and Damir for a two-part episode ranging from Glenn's investigative work in Brazil to his increasingly contentious relationship with the liberal establishment in America. In part one, Glenn talks about the corruption case at the center of his new book, why respectable middle-class people supported an authoritarian bigot, and how living in Brazil has shaped his views on American politics—including the January 6 riots at the Capitol.

Part two of their conversation, for subscribers only, is available here. The conversation gets more personal, with Glenn discussing if he considers himself a man of the left, why he is disliked by American liberals, what he has against wokeness, and whether he would have considered serving under a Bernie Sanders administration. His answers might surprise you.

Required Reading:

• Securing Democracy: My Fight for Press Freedom and Justice in Bolsonaro's Brazil, by Glenn Greenwald (Amazon)
• Glenn's Substack
• Glenn's Twitter

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Damir and Shadi pull back the curtain on the thought process behind Damir's latest essay. The central question: If Europe's social democracies offer far more support to their citizens, why has America weathered both the Great Recession and Covid-19 pandemic better than the European Union?

Required Reading:

• "Selfishness and American Resilience," by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "Janet Yellen and Mario Draghi Have One Last Job," by Adam Tooze (Foreign Policy)

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Shadi and Damir discuss America's cratering religious affiliation and church attendance, and if the U.S. is losing any unifying culture it once had.

Required Reading:

• “Church membership in the U.S. has fallen below the majority for the first time in nearly a century,” by Sarah Pulliam Bailey (The Washington Post)
• “America Without God,” by Shadi Hamid (The Atlantic)
• “The Paradox of American Faith,” by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)

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On today's show, Jason Willick of the Wall Street Journal's Editorial Page stops by to discuss all things representation: Does the filibuster still serve a beneficial purpose?  How can we balance both rural and urban interests? Should representatives mirror their voters' preferences or rely on their personal judgment? And how does the rise of Big Tech factor into all this?

Required Reading:

• The Politics of Size: Representation in the United States, 1776–1850, by Rosemarie Zagarri (Amazon)
• Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide, by Jonathan A. Rodden (Amazon)
• Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in England and America, by Edmund S. Morgan (Amazon)
• Representation in the American Revolution, by Gordon S. Wood (Amazon)
• Representation, by Monica Brito Vieira and David Runciman (Amazon)
• The Concept of Representation, by Hanna F. Pitkin (Amazon)
• Political Representation (Cultural Memory in the Present), by F. R. Ankersmit (Amazon)
• The Democracy Essays (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "Civility and Consensus Are Overrated," with Osita Nwanevu and Samuel Kimbriel (Wisdom of Crowds)

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Too many commentators today want a "return to civility" in political discourse. Osita Nwanevu, a staff writer at The New Republic, and Samuel Kimbriel, a political philosopher, think that's misguided—rather than ignoring our fundamental disagreements, we should be arguing about them much more honestly. This episode's example: Osita's proposal to abolish the U.S. Constitution.

Required Reading:

• Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation, by Samuel Kimbriel (Oxford University Press)
• “The Constitution Is the Crisis,” by Osita Nwanevu (The New Republic)
• "The Democracy Essays," by Samuel Kimbriel and Osita Nwanevu (Wisdom of Crowds)

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What happened on Thursday night was a debacle for Joe Biden and an embarrassment for the nation. About this, our three hosts — Christine, Damir and Shadi — all agree. And they are all angry about it. But who is to blame? Biden himself? The DNC? The media? Trump? All of us?

Shadi, Damir, and Christine work through their post-debate anguish and anger — and try to figure out who is responsible for the predicament that the country finds itself in today. “We are gripped by an inability to call balls and strikes anymore,” says Damir. In this episode, they try anyway.

Required Reading:

* Derek Hudson, “We Need to Talk about Biden” (Wisdom of Crowds).

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

In another sprawling episode, Shadi and Damir talk about Germany's decision to surveil one of its leading political parties and what this says about modern liberalism. They also discuss Shadi's Islam-as-Keto metaphor, the EU's legitimacy problem, and how theodicy relates to democracy.

Required Reading:

• “Germany Places Far-Right AfD Party Under Surveillance for Extremism,” by Katrin Bennhold (New York Times)
• “German Court Suspends Right to Surveil Far-Right AfD Party,” by Melissa Eddy (New York Times)
• “Goodbye to Europe,” by Luuk van Middelaar (London Review of Books)
• “Keto is basically ‘the Islam of diets,’ which probably explains why it’s so effective,” by Shadi Hamid (Twitter)

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David Adesnik of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies joins the show to discuss Trump's foreign policy legacy and how much Biden's will differ. David also talks about his evolution from liberal Democrat to neoconservative, Shadi presses him on the Abraham Accords, and Damir reveals the problem with popular conceptions of "progress."

Required Reading:

"Why 'Anything But Trump' Should Not Be Biden’s Foreign Policy Mantra," by David Adesnik and John Hannah (The National Interest)

"From Trump to Biden," by David Adesnik and John Hannah (Foundation for Defense of Democracies)

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Was Barack Obama America's last "realist" president? Was he even a realist at all? Emma Ashford of the Atlantic Council joins Shadi and Damir to answer these questions and more. They also discuss democracy promotion, whether to confront China, and why Shadi supported Bernie's candidacy even though Shadi is an interventionist.

Required Reading:

"Reality Check #1: Build cooperation cycles, not security spirals," by Emma Ashford (Atlantic Council)

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What is driving our current political upheaval? Shadi and Damir discuss a few different theories including the decline of religion, the absence of an aristocracy, and, crucially, modern America's obsession with dogs.

Required Reading:

• "The Weimarization of the American Republic," by Aaron Sibarium (American Purpose)
• "Reflections on What's to Come," by Shadi Hamid (Wisdom of Crowds)
• "The Death of Our Most Cherished Pieties," by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds)

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New York Times justice reporter Katie Benner joins the show to talk about January 6, the FBI and DOJ response, the limits of 9/11 comparisons, and if the threat posed by right-wing militias is overstated.

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Shadi regrets not investing in GameStop. Damir thinks that once you say democracy must be saved from the masses, protecting Wall Street from the retail-investing crowds is the next logical step. Finally, does Shadi still consider himself a progressive?

Required Reading:

The Tolerance Dilemma

Joker and Our Leaderless Future

Locke's essay on toleration

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Hours into the Biden administration, Shadi and Damir sit down with author Bruno Maçães to talk about Trump, January 6, the future of world order, and the sources of American exceptionalism.

Reading List:

• Bruno on Substack.
• History Has Begun: The Birth of a New America, by Bruno Maçães (Oxford University Press)
• "The Roleplaying Coup," by Bruno Maçães (City Journal)

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Is 1/6 our new 9/11? Are we in danger of making decisions in the heat of the moment that we will come to regret? Is the United States splitting apart fatally? And what will there after COVID be like?

Megan McArdle, the person most responsible for the invention of Wisdom of Crowds, joins Shadi and Damir to chew over our post-insurrection reality.

Reading List:

• "Why we should be frightened by tech companies’ censoring of conservatives," Megan McArdle (Washington Post)
• "Trump fed off the establishment’s moral outrage. So did his followers," Megan McArdle (Washington Post)
• "Trump's Exit," Heather MacDonald (City Journal)

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Ben Judah joins Shadi and Damir for a first attempt at digesting what happened this week in Washington. Was it a coup attempt? Are we at a moment of catharsis where the country can start to rebuild? Or are we in for even more darkness?

Reading List:

• "Japanese Lessons for the American Coup," by Noah Smith
• "The Weimarization of the American Republic," by Aaron Sibarium

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A wide-ranging episode: a day or so after Damir's birthday, Shadi discusses his longest bout of self-isolation ever, Damir talks about Teddy Roosevelt and how enlightened views on slavery were completely compatible with that old-timey colonial racism. Plus national stereotypes, arranged marriages, and Domino's Pizza!

Reading List:

• A tweet by (Captain) David Ryan.
• Shadi on Riada Akyol's podcast.
• Damir on Michael Weiss' podcast.

 

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You might have noticed that Wisdom of Crowds got a facelift this week. We touched up our homepage and added two new features: CrowdSource and Provocations (read more about both here). In this spirit of renewal and relaunch, on the podcast we are getting back to our bread and butter with a classic Shadi and Damir episode.

This week’s episode deals with the virtues of resignation. Is giving up ever the right choice to make, either in politics or in one’s personal life? Shadi has been reading a book about “settling” — On Giving Up by Adam Phillips — and he muses on the topic in latest piece in Wisdom of Crowds: “Giving Up is Good for You.” Damir worries that giving up means resignation, a rejection of life, a denial of adventure. He considers Shadi’s mention of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Does Shadi understand the full implications of Nietzsche’s philosophy? Damir wonders. In the bonus section for paid subscribers, the talk turns toward war and geopolitics, where Shadi discusses how wars end in" “settlements” — a form of giving up. Finally, the conversation wraps up with a reevaluation of Damir’s personal philosophy, and a look back at last week’s podcast episode with Phil Klay.

Required Reading:

* “Giving Up is Good for You” by Shadi (Wisdom of Crowds).

* Adam Phillips, On Giving Up.

* Friedrich Nietzsche (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

* Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

* Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals.

* Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Science.

* Adyashanti official page (YouTube).

* Podcast episode with Phil Klay (Wisdom of Crowds).

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

Andrew Sullivan joins Shadi and Damir to try to put the last four years of Trump into some kind of perspective. Was he stopped or did he succeed? Is he a symptom or a source of decay—or both? Is our republic doomed, or will things just go back to normal? And what's the proper role of a writer and intellectual in troubled times: to analyze or be engaged?

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On Friday, December 4, 2020, Shadi and Damir went live on Periscope—Damir from Croatia, Shadi from DC. On their minds: how different cultures react, deal with, and adapt to COVID, how even vaccination is becoming a partisan issue in the United States, and how to think about the state of exception in democratic societies.

Check out the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/l8elM2Bq7TM

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A glitchy episode (apologies), as Shadi and Damir record across the Atlantic, with Damir in self-isolation and with shaky internet in Croatia. Damir talks about his run-in with the law, and Shadi admits Republicans' rejection of democratic outcomes is bringing out his uncompromising inner partisan.

Reading List:

• Democrats calling for "deprogramming."
• Shadi's "raw power" first draft.
• Shadi getting back on-side with the Left (members only).

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