(A re-post of an essay I wrote last year on the anniversary of 9/11). I Where was I on 9/11? At the time I worked not far from the World Trade Center – at 11 Broadway, across from the famous Wall Street Bull that’s not really on Wall Street. At 9:02 AM I left for work from my apartment on the Upper West Side, one minute before the South Tower was hit and two minutes Continue Reading …
Our Negative Incapability: Optimism, Knowingness, and American Exceptionalism
In light of our recent recording on Voltaire's Candide (to be published in a few weeks), I've been thinking lately about the role of optimism in contemporary American culture (Candide critiques a kind of optimism in vogue at Voltaire's time that he associated with Leibniz' "best of all possible worlds" theory). A recent piece by Oliver Burkeman defends negative Continue Reading …