Wisdom of Crowds

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveToday’s guest is Geoff Shullenberger, the managing editor of Compact and a writer whose articles and reviews have appeared in American Affairs, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New Atlantis, UnHerd, and more. Last week, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Geoff wrote an incisive piece titled, “The Return of the Assassin.” In it, he observes that the nature of violence has shifted in recent years, away from the mass shooting and towards the targeted political assassination. Why this is the case, and what it bodes for the future, is the subject of this week’s podcast.The conversation provides historical perspective by comparing contemporary political (or quasi-political) violence to radical groups from the 1960s and 1970s like the Baader Meinhof group, the Red Brigades, the Black Panthers, and figures like Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. Shadi Hamid distinguishes between left-wing violence (utopian, seeking new systems) and right-wing violence (preservationist, maintaining hierarchies). Geoff challenges this framework, noting that recent shooter profiles don’t fit neatly into these categories. Damir Marusic notes that human beings always want events to “mean” something, but it may very well be that all this violence is essentially senseless.In our bonus section for paid subscribers, the guys discusses Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver; Geoff explains why he doesn’t think we are on the brink of civil war; was the Charlie Kirk assassination an “honor killing”?; was January 6 a “mobilization”?; what Trump does next; were we living under a liberal dictatorship in 2020?; Damir on “the rotten Democratic Party”; Shadi says: “Nobody is blameless, but that doesn’t mean everyone is equally to blame”; and more!Required Reading and Viewing:* Geoff Shullenberger, “The Return of the Assassin" (Compact).* Geoff Shullenberger, “Popular Justice” (The Point).* Tom Wolfe, “Radical Chic” (New York).* Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Amazon).* Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver (IMDB). * Oliver Stone, JFK (IMDB).* Oliver Stone, Talk Radio (IMDB).* Eric Bogosian, Talk Radio (Amazon).* La Verkin City, Utah, United Nations-Free Zone Ordinance.* Punk rock picture of Oswald and Ruby.Free Preview Video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

Our episode this week is more on the serious and somber side. Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic discuss the assassination of Charlie Kirk and speculate about its consequences. What are we learning about America and American politics in the wake of that horrible shooting? Is America heading toward low-grade civil war—like the Years of Lead in Italy during the 1970s? Does the Right control the culture and the media—and will it use this event to expand its political power? Does the Left have a problem with violence? Do we even have an opposition party?In light of how Trump has reacted to the Kirk shooting, Shadi begins with a mea culpa for having criticized the Left for its illiberalism in the past: it looks like the Right is worse. But Damir disagrees: what we are seeing now is an “inversion of what we had a few years ago,” though perhaps a bit worse. Shadi thinks out loud: “you’d think that having power would make you more magnanimous,” while instead, both sides “when they’re winning, they act like they’re losing.”So what is the prognosis? Shadi thinks the Right is an existential threat to American democracy. Damir says, “we are a turd spiraling down a toilet,” and we are currently on the Right side of the spiral — but “the spiral began before.”We are making this episode free for all subscribers — the issues discussed touch at the core of our mission at Wisdom of Crowds. As Shadi put it, Charlie Kirk, however different his ideology was from our own, was “someone I could’ve known, who could’ve been at my house.” The episode concludes with discussions of possible civil war, whether political categories make sense with regard to assassinations, and why the Years of Lead might be an apt analogy for what is developing in America right now.Required Reading and Viewing:* Donald Trump’s appearance on Fox & Friends (YouTube). * The Years of Lead in Italy (Wikipedia). * Shadi, “My Faith in America is Being Sorely Tested” (WoC). * Ukrainian woman stabbed (ABC). * Shadi, “Think you’re above conspiracy theories? Don’t be so sure” (Washington Post). Full video below: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

The Lyceum Movement is a nationwide grassroots organization that aims to build a healthier public discourse by bringing diverse groups of people together to investigate first principles. Every August, Lyceum hosts a big event in Des Moines: the Tallgrass Ideas Festival. And for the last three years, Wisdom of Crowds has been there, hosting a live taping of our podcast.This year, the Festival’s theme was trust. We hosted an episode about trust and technology, a topic on everybody’s mind. Our two guests were Daniel Corrigan, a philosophy professor at Iowa State University who focuses on the theory and practice of rights, and August Lamm, an artist, activist and writer who has distinguished herself by leading an active creative life completely off the grid — in New York, to boot. This was an engaging conversation about AI, work, time and happiness. I think it’s one of our best this year.Santiago Ramos starts the conversation with a quote from the late Henry Kissinger, who claimed that trusting AI requires more blind faith than the scientific method. Are we becoming less modern when we trust the “mechanical oracle” of AI? What does it mean to trust AI? Daniel, in his philosophical way, clarifies the terms. We can only trust people, he says, not machines. Machines can be reliable, but not trustworthy. So the question is: do we trust the companies that make the machines? August, for her part, says that we need to go back to first principles. Why do we need these machines in the first place? Why do we need social media? Why do we need AI? Why do we need everything to be so fast?The episode concludes with some interesting questions from the audience, about AI and natural resources; the difficulty discerning reality from fantasy; and how we can make software better. It’s well worth your time.Required Reading:* The Kissinger quote comes from this article.* Palantir’s one-pound contract with the British NHS.* Lyceum Movement. * Tallgrass Festival of Ideas.* Daniel Corrigan webpage on Philpapers.* August Lamm’s homepage.* Santiago Ramos, “The People v. the Oracle” (WoC). 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

A special treat from the Aspen Ideas Festival: a panel discussion about American community and politics, featuring a father–son philosophical duo.Michael J. Sandel is a professor at Harvard University, where he teaches political philosophy. His famous “Justice” course has been viewed by tens of millions worldwide. His son, Adam Sandel, is a philosopher, award-winning teacher, and holder of the Guinness World Record for most pull-ups in one minute. Together with Samuel Kimbriel, Wisdom of Crowds’ in-house philosopher, they discuss community, democracy, the evolving nature of justice, the importance of constructive visions for community, and the role of music in bridging divides. Tune in for a substantive and inspiring reflection on the meaning of democracy.Required Reading:* Adam Sandel, Happiness In Action: A Philosopher’s Guide to the Good Life (Amazon). * Michael Sandel, The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good? (Amazon).* Samuel Kimbriel, Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation (Amazon). 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.liveAmerican Primeval on Netflix. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on Hulu. Ballerina Farm on Instagram. American culture is living through a Mormon moment. It is a sign that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is growing in confidence and strength. But what are the drawbacks to becoming mainstream? What are the trade-offs involved in American liberalism? What can those of us who are not part of the LDS Church learn from the Mormon moment?Here to discuss this and more is Zachary Davis, the Executive Director of Faith Matters and Editor of the LDS magazine Wayfare. Zach is also a veteran podcaster, having hosted the podcasts Ministry of Ideas and Writ Large.The discussion begins with Santiago Ramos asking Zach for an account of LDS history, contrasting it with its depiction in American Primeval, the Netflix show. Christine Emba then asks about the various pop culture phenomena that have emerged within LDS culture. The conversation covers recent LDS history, as well as reflections on the costs of assimilation and how American liberalism can benefit from the growth of the LDS Church.In our bonus section for paid subscribers, Christina and Zach discuss Ballerina Farm; Zach explains LDS attitudes toward Trump; Santiago asks Zach whether he has hope for the future of America; Zach explains that Mormons believe the American Constitution is a sacred document; why Mormons love Muslims; rethinking first (theological) principles; and more!Required Reading:* Wayfare magazine.* McCay Coppins, Romney: A Reckoning (Amazon).* Jonathan Rausch, Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy (Amazon).* Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven (Amazon). * Public polling re: LDS (Pew Research).* American Primeval (Netflix).* Ballerina Farm (official website).* Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (Hulu).* The Soloists (Substack).* Romney’s 47 percent comment (MSNBC).* Utah rankings (U.S. News and World Report).Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

President Donald Trump federalized DC law enforcement this week, raising all sorts of questions — about democracy, authoritarianism, sovereignty and legitimacy — that are natural fits for us to discuss here at Wisdom of Crowds. Yes, Trump’s use of emergency powers to justify the takeover is constitutional, even if he is stretching the concept of what counts as an emergency. But Damir Marusic feels like things took a much darker turn this week, and nobody seems to have noticed. Weren’t people in the streets at the mere suggestion that Trump would deploy troops to American cities four years ago — when doing so was arguably much more justified? Shadi Hamid thinks many Democrats are just too disgusted by their own party to be able to muster a response. What’s the point? Anyway, like most Trump stuff, this is all just theater — Potemkin policing. Our democracy is still fine, isn’t it?…isn’t it?Required Reading:* “Trump has brilliantly orchestrated a legal coup,” by Kathleen Parker (WaPo).* “Donald Trump, DC Police Commissioner,” b y the Editorial Board (WSJ). 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“ ‘Barbarism’ is a word that keeps coming to my lips lately,” writes Damir Marusic in a brilliant new article this week. Barbarism seems to be the only real word that describes what comes after the liberal international order. But Damir isn’t pointing to the supposed barbarism of our enemies. His article points to the ways that we in the West — and in the United States — are becoming coarser and more egocentric. Like the poet said, barbarism begins at home. Shadi Hamid interrogates Damir about his piece in Socratic fashion. Is Damir maybe making a moral equivalence between the Trumpist Right and the hapless Left? While it’s true that the Left isn’t very effective, it can hardly be said to be barbaric. In the course of his answer, Damir discusses Alligator Alcatraz as the symbol of new American barbarism: kind of silly, but also, openly cruel. For Damir, barbarism isn’t just Nazism; it is the strong turn toward selfishness and narcissism that has taken place since the middle of the twentieth century. And he has a theory of why the turn took place: secularization and the death of God. On this point, Shadi agrees, but he still has questions. Is it political structures or innate nature that make us turn toward evil? If it is the former, how can politics help in this moment to keep us from becoming truly barbaric? It is a timely and intense conversation.In our bonus section for paid subscribers, Damir and Shadi discuss why “war is a force that gives us meaning”; Shadi compares violence to orgasms; Damir’s Calvinist sympathies make an appearance; Damir opposes “vulgar Nietzscheanism” with a “moral law” forged out of our “broken humanity”; Shadi wonders if Damir has finally become a moralist; can morality survive Pax Americana?; Gaza and barbarism; Christopher Hitchens and faith; the origin of the phrase, “Beyond the pale”; and more!Required Reading:* Damir, “Back to Barbarism” (WoC).* Thérèse Delpech, Savage Century: Back to Barbarism (Amazon). * Curzio Malaparte, Kaputt (Amazon). * Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Parable of the Madman” (Fordham University). Free preview video:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveWomen and men are having a hard time finding each other. A lot of women are giving up on finding a mate. Some women with mates are worried that their men don’t have any friends. Everyone hates dating apps. People are having fewer babies.These are among the many depressing stories that the media is telling about love and marriage today. How true are they…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveDead almost six years, Jeffrey Epstein is back in the news. The sordid details of his crimes, and the elaborate conspiracy concerning elites that he may or may not have been a part of, have become a central issue within the MAGA coalition. Conspiracy theories in general are now a part of daily political life. None of us can escape them. Most of us probably half-believe in at least one of them. Why is that?Today’s guest is the writer Matthew Walther, editor of The Lamp, biographer of John Henry Cardinal Newman, and a columnist for The New York Times. He has written extensively about Epstein, Russiagate, and the place of conspiracy theories in American politics. He joined Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic to ponder the Epstein saga and its potential to hurt Trump’s coalition. “We live in an awesome country, why do we have to make up stories about a decline that doesn't even really exist?” Shadi says near the beginning of the conversation. Walther explains how conspiracy theories are politically useful, and how they “almost on a dime can become useful to one side or another.” Damir agrees about the bipartisan nature of conspiracy-mongering: “For the Left it was the Pee Tape, and for the Right it’s this [Epstein] stuff.” The conversation goes deep into the nature of conspiracy theories and the psychological need they satisfy. Epstein, Stop the Steal, Russiagate and of course, the Kennedy assassination are all discussed. Walther quotes the English philosopher Gilbert Ryle as a guide: “A myth is, of course, not a fairy story. It is the presentation of facts belonging to one category in the idioms appropriate to another. To explode a myth is accordingly not to deny the facts but to re-allocate them.”In our bonus section for paid subscribers, the gang discusses the work of Seymour Hersh; Damir and Shadi argue whether the Democrats have ever had a cult of personality equivalent to that of Trump; Matthew argues that Obama is a lot like Trump; Matthew explains why Nixon was “the last, great technocratic leftist”; Shadi distinguishes emotional versus material self-interest in order to explain why MAGA won’t break with Trump; Damir and Shadi disagree about technocracy; and more!Required Reading:* Matthew Walther, “Sorry, This Epstein Stuff Isn’t Going to Hurt Trump” (New York Times).* Matthew Walther, “The Pointless Triumph of a Hapless President” (New York Times). * Matthew Walther, “The Jeffrey Epstein case is why people believe in Pizzagate” (The Week). * Matthew Walther, “The most respectable conspiracy theory in Washington” (The Week). * Matthew Walther refers to Paul Fussell’s concept of “high proles” in “Talking About Class in America” (American Conservative). * Jonathan Chait, “What If Trump Has Been a Russian Asset Since 1987?” (New York). * “The CIA Reveals More of Its Connections to Lee Harvey Oswald” (Washington Post). * Gilbert Ryle, The Concept of Mind (Amazon). * Musa al-Gharbi, “No, America is not on the brink of a civil war” (The Guardian). * “Airline Deregulation: When Everything Changed” (Smithsonian Air and Space Museum). Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

What is happiness? Why are so many Americans — by their own admission — unhappy? These are the central questions in this special episode, live from the Aspen Ideas Festival. At the festival, our house philosopher, Dr. Samuel Kimbriel, hosted a discussion with three distinguished thinkers. Adam Sandel is a philosopher and assistant district attorney in Brooklyn whose latest book is titled Happiness in Action: A Philosopher’s Guide to the Good Life. Agnes Callard is a philosophy professor at the University of Chicago who just published Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life. Finally, David Brooks is a well-known opinion columnist for the New York Times whose 2016 book, The Road to Character, explores the development of a good personality.Samuel sets the stage by reading off startling statistics showing that Americans are by and large less happy today than they were even five years ago. Adam advances the idea that what makes us happy is “an activity for the sake of itself, [an] activity that is intrinsically fulfilling in the moment.” This could be sports — he cites Roger Federer as an example of a happy man, at least during tennis tournaments.Callard counters: “We can’t will ourselves to do a thing for its own sake. When we know what the good is, we will do it for its own sake. Until then, we have to inquire.” She proposes an “intellectualist” approach to happiness, arguing that a life of inquiry is the best prelude to happiness.Brooks enters the fray by arguing against Callard’s intellectualist approach, saying that what moves human beings is “intensity” and “surrender,” and that the things that bring us joy are necessarily plural, not singular. Callard argues back, contending that Brooks confuses those things which human beings want with those things that are actually good.It’s a rollicking discussion complemented by Samuel’s deft moderation and questions from the audience concerning grief, internal versus external goods, and the common good. Free for all subscribers — you will not want to miss this episode.Required Reading:* Samuel Kimbriel, Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation (Amazon). * Adam Sandel, Happiness in Action: A Philosopher’s Guide to the Good Life (Amazon). * Agnes Callard, Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life (Amazon). * David Brooks, The Road to Character (Amazon). 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.liveIt’s the summer doldrums, so this week, Wisdom of Crowds is taking a break from politics and war and Trump. Instead, we are talking about culture. Our guest, Paul Elie, is one of the leading culture and religion writers in the United States. His words have appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and the New York Times. Paul’s latest book, The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s, tells the story of artists in the 1980s who grappled with religious ideas and stirred up controversy while doing so. U2, Madonna, Andy Warhol, Piss Christ, Sinead O’Connor and many more play a role in a masterful, novelistic retelling of that fateful decade in American cultural history.Damir Marusic is curious about Paul’s concept of “crypto-religiosity,” which Paul uses to describe an abiding sensibility in 1980s art and culture. Is it actually a unique category? Aren’t all Americans crypto-religious to a greater or lesser degree? Isn’t that the legacy of Protestantism? Santiago Ramos pursues a different line of questioning. What might a healthier relationship between institutional religion and cryptically-religious artists look like?In our bonus section for paid subscribers, Damir and Paul compare the 1980s music scene with that of the 1990s; Damir explains why the 1990s felt “less devotional and more ecstatic”; Paul talks about his first time listening to “Smells like Teen Spirit”; Santiago and Paul discuss the coming culture of “ex-vangelicals”; Santiago confesses to not having his s**t together in his 20s; Damir asks: “How can you do good punk rock if Bill Clinton’s the president?”; the three discuss why Trump hasn’t yet generated a counterculture or artistic resistance; Santiago mentions Macklemore’s Gaza song; Paul and Santiago discuss “radtrads,” and the coming rebellion against radtrads; Paul tells Damir why he should be religious; Paul explains why electoral politics is our modern day bread and circuses; and more!Required Reading:* Paul Elie, The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s (Amazon). * Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage (Amazon).* Julia Yost, “The Scandal of Dogmatism” (Compact). * Damir Marusic, “The Pursuit of Passion for its Own Sake” (WoC). * Damir’s discography from his punk rock days (Discogs).* Damir’s music with his band, The Miss (Bandcamp).* CrowdSource, “Protest Music” (WoC). Free preview video:

Last month, Francis Fukuyama was scheduled to come to Washington, DC for a live taping of Wisdom of Crowds. Unfortunately, as subscribers know, Frank lost his voice the morning of his scheduled appearance, and we were forced to cancel. However, we were able to record a bit of conversation with him and Shadi Hamid the following day, with a few colleagues asking questions.The conversation ended up being a quasi-“state of liberalism” address, perfect for July 4th weekend.The conversation begins with Frank discussing the current challenges to liberal societies, addressing why some in the West today might be dissatisfied with it, but also why people living in autocratic regimes throughout the world still long for liberalism. He talks about the lassitude and dissatisfaction that permeates liberal societies, and the contradictory desires for ever-greater equality and spirited competition that drive citizens to rebel against liberalism.During the question and answer session, Fukuyama takes questions about recent events. He discusses the rise of right-wing parties in Europe, as well as recent developments in France, Germany and Romania. He touches upon citizenship, borders, deportations and Trump’s immigration policies. And he answers the question that was on everybody’s mind that night: Is history still over?Required Reading* Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?” (National Interest). * CrowdSource, “Fukuyama’s Children” (WoC). * Damir and Shadi’s 2022 conversation with Francis Fukuyama (WoC).* Santiago Ramos, “Kicking the Ladder” (WoC).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“War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free.”So said the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. In his essay this week, Santiago Ramos says the opposite: “… war is a necessary evil; it is not what preserves the great achievements of the human race. War threatens those achievements, and we are lucky that more has not been destroyed already.” Santiago believes that pro-war voices which emerged during the recent Israel-Iran kerfuffle are expressing something more than the need to fight wars for self-defense and world order. They are voices which celebrate war as an essential, creative activity in history. Damir Marusic shares Santiago’s distrust of those pro-war voices. But he thinks Santiago goes too far in a utopian, kumbaya direction. War, Damir says, will always be part of the human condition. It is folly to believe that human beings will progress enough to one day beat their swords into plowshares forever. In response, Santiago accuses Damir of believing in original sin but without the possibility of grace. Damir denies this and clarifies this position: “I want no heroes among human beings.”This rollicking debate reaches a climax in our bonus section for paid subscribers. Damir discusses Iranian incentives after the recent American bombing and ponders the possibility of a future war. He challenges Santiago to consider Trump’s oft-repeated slogan, “Peace through strength.” Also in the bonus section: How much moralizing did Santiago do in his essay? the two men wonder. Santiago explains what he means by “a weird conscience-element in the air.” Why didn’t Venice get destroyed? Why did Dresden get destroyed? Can you disentangle justice from sovereignty? Can you have morality without God? Damir explains to Santiago why he (Santiago) needs to talk more about Jesus. Santiago tells Damir the story of the Catonsville Nine. Required Reading:* Santiago Ramos, “War Will Not Save ‘the West’ ” (WoC).* Damir Marusic, “Is Israel’s Attack on Iran Legal?” (WoC).* Josep Borrell’s “Garden v. Jungle” metaphor (Euronews).* David Brooks, “I Detest Netanyahu, but on Some Things He’s Actually Right” (New York Times).* Edward Luttwak interview in Asylum magazine (Wayback Machine).* Heraclitus fragment about war (Wikisource).* “Heraclitus” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).* “Russia fired new ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says” (Reuters).* “The 10 greatest controversies of Winston Churchill's career” (BBC).* Tim Bouverie, Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World (Amazon).* Daniel Berrigan, SJ, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Amazon).Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThe Israel-Iran war is about to enter its sixth day. As of this recording — Wednesday evening, June 18 — President Trump has not announced whether the United States will join the Israeli war effort.During this unpleasant lull, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic invited Sohrab Ahmari to discuss what we can expect from the war and its aftermath. In recent days, Sohrab has emerged as an essential commentator on the Iran Israel war. His article, “The Regime Change Maniacs are Back” is one of the most informative and talked-about pieces to come out in the early days of this crisis. Sohrab was born in Iran, and so direct personal experience of the country informs his analysis.“Collapsing regimes willy nilly does not create good outcomes,” Sohrab tells Damir and Shadi, and he should know. Sohrab was once a neoconservative hawk, a supporter of US interventionism abroad. But time has been a teacher and he has become, in his own words, “penitent.” He discusses the ways that Iranian society in particular could fracture in catastrophic ways should a state collapse follow regime change. Iran has a “perennially unsettled relationship between state and society,” Sohrab says. They have a word for it: estebdad, or arbitrary rule. Shadi and Damir pressure test Sohrab’s alarming prognostications, but in the end they find little to disagree with. The discussion shifts toward American perceptions of Iran and Israel, and how these are shifting both within the MAGA coalition and among Americans as a whole. They compare Tucker Carlson's recent interviews with Steve Bannon and Ted Cruz and what these say about the political dilemma faced by Trump as he decides whether or not to join the war. In our bonus section for paid subscribers, the three men discuss the role that evangelical Christianity plays in pro-Israel American sentiments. Shadi asks Sohrab whether Catholics are different from evangelicals in this regard. Sohrab teases out the differences between “Deep MAGA” and the GOP establishment that has learned how to “speak MAGA”; Damir and Sohrab both have heard that younger GOP staffers on the Hill are in despair over this war; and much more.Required Reading:* Sohrab Ahmari, “The Regime Change Maniacs are Back” (UnHerd).* Sohrab Ahmari, “Iran’s Devastating Hubris” (UnHerd).* Sohrab Ahmari, “America’s dime-store Nietzscheans” (New Statesman).* Sohrab Ahmari, From Fire, by Water: My Journey to the Catholic Faith (Amazon).* Brent Scowcroft on the Iraq War (PBS). * “How Trump Shifted on Iran Under Pressure From Israel” (New York Times).* Tucker Carlson interviews Ted Cruz (YouTube).* Tucker Carlson interviews Steve Bannon (YouTube).* “Azerbaijan: Israel’s Quiet Friend” (Middle East Eye).* “American Sympathy for Israel Reaches 'All-Time Low' in New Poll” (Newsweek).* “Less Than Half in U.S. Now Sympathetic Toward Israelis” (Gallup).* Jason Willick, “Why Israel would benefit from defeating Iran on its own” (Washington Post).Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThe war between Iran and Israel is bound to determine the future of the Middle East and, possibly, the whole world. The time is fitting, then, to release Shadi Hamid’s and Santiago Ramos’ conversation with Abbas Milani, professor of political science and Iran Studies at Stanford University. Professor Milani is a world-renowned authority on Iran, having published Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran and The Shah, a definitive biography of Mohamed Reza Pahvalvi, the last Shah of Iran, among many other books. He joined us this past December to discuss Iranian politics, secularism and the future.“A giant with a feet of clay, but with more staying power than some in the opposition think.” This is how Milani describes the state of the Iranian regime months before the war with Israel. The regime’s “base of support is fragile … has no unity of purpose,” and yet, “ten, fifteen, twenty percent of the population is [still] willing to go along with it.” It teeters on the brink of collapse while some international players, including Russia and China, “more or less” support it. Unfortunately, the regime faces no “cohesive opposition.”Milani explores the future possibilities for Iran. Iranians want a secular democracy, he argues, and an “Islamic democracy” is not possible, he says, because “democracy is acceptance of ambiguity in the human condition.” Santiago and Shadi push back on this point. Santiago points to figures like Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, Jr., who embraced both religion and democracy, while Shadi argues for the role that reason plays in Islam. Milani counters that there can be an Iranian modernity — if not an Islamic democracy — and that a future Iran need not follow “the path of Atatürk.”Our bonus section for paid subscribers will be useful to future historians of the Iranian revolution. Santiago asks Milani, “When did you stop being a Stalinist?” Milani discusses his ideological evolution. Milani talks about his year in prison — 1977 — where he shared the same cell block as many of the current leaders of the Islamic Republic. He talks about why he was arrested, what he read while in prison, why he wasn’t allowed to read the Koran in prison, and why it’s the case that “you understand the mettle of people very quickly in prison.” You will not want to miss this bonus section.Required Reading:* Abbas Milani, “Iran’s Incremental Revolution” (The Atlantic). * Abbas Milani, The Shah (Amazon).* Abbas Milani, Lost Wisdom: Rethinking Modernity in Iran (Amazon). * The Islamic Golden Age (Wikipedia). * Rūmī (Britannica). * Clifford Geertz (Institute for Advanced Study).* Leszek Kolakowski, Main Currents of Marxist (Amazon). * Antonio Gramsci (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).* Richard Rorty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).* Roberto Mangabeira Unger (Harvard Law School). * Profile of Mahmoud Taleghani (New York Times). * Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (Amazon).Free preview video:

It’s finally happened: Israel has attacked Iran. Wisdom of Crowds executive editor Santiago Ramos joined Damir Marusic for a live-streamed emergency q&a about the latest Middle East crisis. What do we know? What can we expect in the near future? What does this mean for the Middle East in the long term? And why does Damir think that Israel is America’s “junkyard dog”? For those who missed it, here is the video!If you missed the live stream and wish you hadn’t: there’s never been a better time to subscribe to Wisdom of Crowds! We are growing and we have new ideas coming down the pipeline. We are including two special offers below — a 14-day free trial and a 20% discount — for those of you who want a taste of what we’re trying to do here. We’d love to have you. Give us a spin. You’ll get much more, including the full episodes of our weekly podcasts and subscriber-only posts and open threads. Required Reading:* Richard Holbrooke junkyard dog metaphor (The Economist). * Damir Marusic on junkyard dogs (X). 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.liveWhy do artists try so hard to shock the public? Why is Kanye West singing about Hitler? Why are New York artists dabbling with fascism?The novelist and cultural critic Țara Isabella Burton joins Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos to discuss these questions and more. Last week, Tara published an essay on Wisdom of Crowds titled “The Point of Pissing People Off.” In it, she tries to figure out whether there is something positive at work in transgression and provocation — something good that comes out of shocking art.All three of our conversationalists agree: Kanye is not really being transgressive. But is there a good version of transgression? Tara suggests that we should think about transgression as a genre, with a certain form and structure, that can either succeed or fail. Damir is skeptical of analyzing transgression, and prefers to think of it as a moment of ecstasy. Santiago wonders if transgression is important for self-knowledge, and something valuable for society as a whole.In the course of the conversation, many transgressive works and artists are discussed, among them: Piss Christ; Madonna; Georges Bataille; the Marquis de Sade; and more.In our bonus section for paid subscribers, Damir talks about the difference between analyzing transgressive art and consuming transgressive art, and why he prefers the latter; Damir discusses the difference between the punk rock of his day, where Reagan was the enemy, and the transgressive art today, which hails Trump as a leader; Tara, Santiago, and Damir trade thoughts about the French Revolution; Santiago tries to get Damir to explain what he means when he talks about “the stuff”; they discuss the question of whether love is as powerful as transgression; Damir talks about his favorite part of the Gospels; and Tara talks about kitsch.Required Reading and Listening:* Tara, “The Point of Pissing People Off” (Wisdom of Crowds).* Tara, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World (Amazon).* Tara, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians (Amazon).* Damir’s discography from his punk rock days (Discogs).* Damir’s music with his band, The Miss (Bandcamp).* Kanye West, “Heil Symphony” (Spotify).* “Kanye West’s ‘Heil Hitler’ Song & Controversy Explained” (Yahoo! Entertainment). * The new Fiume Gallery in New York.* Piss Christ by Andres Serrano (Artchive).* Madonna, “Material Girl” (YouTube).* Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Amazon).* Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye (Amazon).* Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (Amazon).* Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (Amazon).* Previous podcast episode where Damir says, “That’s the stuff!” (Wisdom of Crowds).* Something Beautiful for God by Malcolm Muggeridge, a book about Mother Teresa (Amazon).Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveIs tech replacing humanity? Or is it sharpening the question of what it means to be human? What does it mean to live a good life — as opposed to passable life? What features of humanity become more important by contrast and necessity in the technological age? Is it possible to find a higher version of humanity in order to thrive?For this week’s episode — a live taping of Wisdom of Crowds — we invited Santi Ruiz to discuss these questions, and more. (Our other guest, Christine Rosen, unfortunately got sick in the last moment and had to cancel. We missed you, Christine!) Santi is Senior Editor of the Institute for Progress and edits Statecraft, a newsletter about public policy. But he is also an essayist and humanist who has written about culture and tech in his personal Substack, Regress Studies, as well as magazines like the American Conservative.Samuel Kimbriel and Damir Marusic interviewed Santi, with Damir taking on a more pessimistic view about the possibility of reconciling tech and the humanities, while Samuel remained open to optimistic scenarios.In our bonus section for paid subscribers, you will be able to listen to the audience Q&A, which includes questions about the End of History, the future of war, the British philosopher Nick Land, the future of coding, good versus bad friction, and an encounter between Good Santi and Evil Santi. Required Reading:* Santi Ruiz, “Technocapital is Eating My Brains” (Regress Studies). * The Statecraft newsletter.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveWe live in an increasingly weird world, where the weirdness is facilitated and accelerated by the Internet. We live in a world full of instantly-available bizarre pornography and terrorist attacks inspired by misanthropic ideologies whose manifestos are published online. Katherine Dee, an Internet ethnographer, writer and friend of Wisdom of Crowds, joins Christine Emba and Shadi Hamid to talk about the recent terrorist attack on an IVF clinic in California and Christine’s recent New York Times article about the social damage wrought by porn.Shadi shakes things up by posing a blunt question at the very beginning: Should we ban porn? It hurts men as well as women. Why not? Can we reconcile the ideals of liberalism with a state effort to suppress pornographic content? This question inspires Christine and Katherine to reflect about the ethics of sex work, the perils of reporting on dangerous and soul-crushing topics, as well as signs of hope in American culture.Throughout, Katherine applies her trusty reporter’s eye toward making an accurate, non-judgmental and perceptive account of what’s really going on with sex and ideology on the Internet. Christine, for her part, makes the case of norms and shame as useful tools for making society better. Shadi, in Socratic fashion, tests the strength of his interlocutors’ arguments.In the bonus section for paid subscribers, Katherine explains the nuances of “efilism” and “promortalism”; Shadi reflects on the meaning of suffering and how belief in God changes one’s approach to suffering; and Christine reflects on “cold, rational logical measure — suffering v. pleasure. Pleasure v. nothing.”Required Reading and Listening:* Christine Emba, “The Delusion of Porn’s Harmlessness” (New York Times). * Katherine Dee, “An Efilist Just Bombed a Fertility Clinic. Was This Bound To Happen?” (default.blog).* Katherine Dee, “The Nihilism of the Mass Shooter” (default.blog).* Katherine Dee, “The Trouble with Being Born” (default.blog).* Sophie Gilbert, Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves (Amazon). * Dan Savage on kinks (AV Club).* Andrea Dworkin, Pornography (Amazon). * XO Jane (Wikipedia). * “Supreme Court case on age limits for porn sites could affect 19 states” (Axios).* “Palm Springs IVF clinic bomber ID’d as Guy Edward Bartkus, a ‘pro-mortalist’ who opposed people being born ‘without their consent’” (New York Post).* Last week’s podcast: “How to Think about Power and Morality” (WoC).* Sin-eaters (Wikipedia).Free preview video:Full video for paid subscribers below:

As subscribers of Wisdom of Crowds will know, the war in Gaza has preoccupied Shadi Hamid for over a year now, and has taken a central place in his political thinking. Damir Marusic begins this episode by challenging Shadi on this point. Is he giving too much importance to one political and moral cause over all others? And is he giving too much importance to morality as such in geopolitics?The conversation eventually shifts when Damir tells Shadi that he is an “activist” when he writes in favor of a cause, and Shadi disagrees. Writers want to change the world, too, and that does not make them activists. Even Damir (Shadi argues) wants to change the world in some way with his writing. Even Damir has a preferred outcome. But Damir denies this: “My preferred outcome is that people recognize the world is fallen and irredeemable.” Instead, Damir says that it is precisely Trump’s “superpower” of being morally indifferent to norms and human rights that has, paradoxically, brought a few positive developments in the Middle East.This is a tense episode, one that digs deep into the psyches of both Shadi and Damir. “Then what?” Shadi retorts. “What’s the point of persuading people that the world is irredeemable?” Writing is just playing with words and power, Damir says. It’s “a slug trail I leave behind myself.”This episode cuts to the core of Shadi’s and Damir’s convictions, so we have made it free for all subscribers. You will not want to miss their conversation about Dresden, Hiroshima, Bucha, Trump and the Middle East, and more!Required Reading* Shadi’s essay, “I’m Not As Open-Minded As I Used To Be” (WoC).* Shadi’s new column, “A genocide is happening in Gaza. We should say so.” (Washington Post). * “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential” (The Lancet). * “Gaza will be entirely destroyed, Israeli minister says” (The Guardian). * Pankaj Mishra, “Unholy Alliances” (New Yorker). * Yglesias and Shadi exchange about Trump and the Middle East (X). * Damir’s Bucha essay (WoC).* “Trump announces US will stop bombing Houthis” (Politico) 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