tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56873474592081585012024-03-19T06:22:43.140-04:00The Philosopher's StoneA Commentary on the Passing Scene by
Robert Paul Wolff
rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger5312125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-27190777990263689752024-03-05T10:29:00.004-05:002024-03-05T10:29:30.880-05:00TERRIFYING<p><span style="font-size: large;">Thank you to whomever it was who posted this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/04/opinion/nuclear-war-prevention.html">link</a> to the New York Times story. It is terrifying and all quite plausible. Keep in mind that these terrible descriptions concern the effects of fission bombs, not fusion bombs which are a thousand times more powerful.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com60tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76759392932461321762024-02-28T18:16:00.001-05:002024-02-28T18:16:36.746-05:00LET US REMEMBER<p><span style="font-size: large;">The decision by the Supreme Court to take the case only grants Trump de facto immunity if he wins the election. If he loses the election, the trials continue and sooner or later he will go to jail. But if he were found guilty in the January 6 case on or about the time when he was nominated as the Republican candidate for president, he would still stand for office and if he won, the rule of law would end and he would be dictator for life.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">So the fact remains, we have to beat him at the polls and we have to hang onto that victory in the Congress in whatever way we can so that Biden is inaugurated for a second term.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">If Trump wins election it does not matter what happens in Georgia – even if the trial were held and he was found guilty, he would simply refuse to abide by the decision and deploy the military to quell any attempt to force him to abide by it.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-84497716988193759712024-02-19T11:15:00.001-05:002024-02-19T11:15:47.923-05:00QUESTIONS<p><span style="font-size: large;">Can anybody point me to someplace where I can get information on the value of capital in the United States not including homeownership? As a start perhaps could anybody point me to a site that would tell me the dollar value of all publicly owned companies? Piketty is quite useful but he includes homeownership in his figures (because that is the way it is listed in the sites that he uses as sources for his information). </span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com91tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-87799893413519955242024-02-11T17:45:00.000-05:002024-02-11T17:45:09.216-05:00NODDING IN<p><span style="font-size: large;">It has been quite a while since I have posted on this blog, and I thought that as I wait for the Super Bowl to get started I ought to just say a few words about where I have been and what I have been doing.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I have been right here in Chapel Hill, of course, even more limited by my Parkinson's than previously, but I have been working very hard on my lectures at Harvard on volume 1 of Capital. This is for me an extremely exciting coda to my career, and I am putting everything I have into it. I only hope those who are attending and participating are enjoying it as well.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I am so appalled and distressed by the carnage in Gaza that I cannot speak about it rationally. I have no idea what it is going to happen and of course I have no influence on it at all so all I can do is anguish.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">As for American politics, I am both optimistic about the election and terrified. I remain convinced that Biden will beat Trump more decisively this time than last, helped by the total dysfunction of the Republican Party and by the issue of abortion, which is our secret weapon. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps if I do a good enough job in my lectures, it will inspire one or two of those listening to take up the struggle as I pass from the scene.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Be well, all of you, and try to be nice to one another. In the larger scheme of things, we are all on the same side.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-62848284072393268782024-01-25T13:46:00.000-05:002024-01-25T13:46:20.021-05:00UPDATE ON MY LECTURE SERIES<p><span style="font-size: large;">I gather that the lectures will be recorded and that it is quite possible to remove from them any indications of the identities of the people listening to them. Let me emphasize that my concerns grew out of my anxieties, not out of theirs. For all I know, everyone planning to attend the study group would be happy to have his or her name published. I pursued my career during a time when it was almost impossible not to succeed. In the immortal words of Ann Richards, we were born on third and thought we had hit a triple. But these are times when grand jury members have their personal details posted online and members of the House Republican caucus who do not support Jiim Jordan for the speakership get death threat calls.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I will let you know whether I can make the lectures available, and if I can I will.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com180tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-13323118277983945102024-01-23T09:27:00.000-05:002024-01-23T09:27:20.372-05:00WHY I WILL NOT BE POSTING MY HARVARD LECTURES<p><span style="font-size: large;">This morning I read through the enormously long series of comments you folks have posted to my last blog post. Hidden in that series were several requests, from Jerry Fresia and others, that I make my Marx lectures available to all. Let me explain why I have decided not to do that.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There are now 37 people signed up for the study group, including large numbers of undergraduates, several graduate students, and 10 or 11 members of the faculty. It is going to be hard enough to get the undergraduates to speak up in the presence of the faculty. I plan to make a little joke about it, suggesting that I am so old that they all look the same age to me, but I am sure we all know that the norm would be for the undergraduates to sit quietly and wait to hear what the faculty ask or comment.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I am genuinely fearful that if I make available on the Internet lectures on Karl Marx in which the faces of undergraduates are clearly visible and in which some of them actually ask questions or make objections, it is entirely possible that they will be identified, attacked, have their futures compromised professionally, and so forth. In light of what has been happening in this country lately, I do not think my fears are irrational. My primary commitment is to those students and I simply will not take the chance that some of them may be targeted or harmed, either professionally or personally, by their participation in the study group.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-33521579229323232502024-01-15T12:11:00.001-05:002024-01-15T12:11:36.169-05:00WHERE HAVE I BEEN?<p><span style="font-size: large;">While you folks have been having all sort of interesting conversations in the comments section, I have been hard at work preparing for my Harvard study group on volume 1 of Capital. The enrollment is now up to 35, with nine faculty, 23 undergraduates, and three graduate students. As I am sure some of you can imagine, this study group is for me, at the age of 90, both a great challenge and a very exciting opportunity. I have been thinking about very little else, except for the unavoidable problems of my Parkinson's. I watch a good deal of television news and keep up with the ins and outs of the legal cases enveloping Trump, but although I have all sorts of expectations, I have little or no professional knowledge and experience that would make my speculations any more useful than those I see on television. The same is true for the events unfolding in the Middle East. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The more I think about volume 1 of Capital, the more persuaded I am that it is the most important work of social and economic theory ever written. It has all sorts of problems, God knows, and important parts that are clearly wrong but the core idea is so powerful, and so original, that the book stands head and shoulders above everything else written on the subject. I hope very much that I can communicate that to the participants in the study group.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com160tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-32797609740318278482024-01-04T15:57:00.001-05:002024-01-04T15:57:19.248-05:00SUPERANNUATED REFLECTIONS<p><span style="font-size: large;">Turning 90 has had an unexpected effect on me. All my life, I have struggled against my
limitations and against my tendency to veg out. I have not really worked very
hard save for a few moments in my life, but I have done a lot of worrying about
whether I am doing enough. I have been
struggling with my Parkinson’s disease for several years now and as I grow
steadily less able to move around or even to walk very well at all, I have fretted about it and struggled against it. Being 90 years old seems to have given me
permission to relax and accept my limitations. In effect, I say to myself, “you
are 90 years old, of course you cannot do as much as you used to, it is all
right.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Right now of course all my attention is focused on the study
group I will be starting to teach at the beginning of February. Since I will be
talking about things that I have been working on for 40 years, I do not really
need to do much planning but I lie in bed giving lectures in my head, sorting
out what I want to say and in what order, enjoying the fact that I am being
given this one last chance to teach, which is what I most love to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, I will take great enjoyment from watching the
so-called originalists and textualists on the Supreme Court struggle to find
ways to avoid applying the obvious meaning and intention of article 3 of the 14<sup>th</sup>
amendment. These days, you must take your pleasures where you find them.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-10213173260637217692024-01-03T15:06:00.002-05:002024-01-03T15:06:16.263-05:00HARVARD<p><span style="font-size: large;">Well, I looked at some of former president Gay's supposed plagiarisms, and they were not very impressive. I would hardly call them plagiarism. But then, the essays in which they were to be found were not terribly interesting either. Out of curiosity, I did a little searching for information about the people who have been president of Harvard since I was an undergraduate there. James Conant was an impressive scientist. Nathan Marsh Pusey was not an impressive intellect at all, but he resisted McCarthy in his former position and that was a good thing. Derek Bok was a reasonably impressive legal scholar. Most of the presidents of Harvard in the past 70 years have been people one would not really be interested in talking to if one had a chance.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I actually met Conant when he was the head of the American portion of a divided Berlin. Since I was a traveling Sheldon fellow he agreed to see me. Not very exciting. I also had lunch once with a committee that was meeting with Pusey. He seemed to me very much like a retouched photograph of himself. Academic administrators by and large are people who do just enough to get tenure and then go into administration.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I should not imagine any of this will have an effect on my Marx study group, which starts February 2. Eight faculty and 25 students signed up for it and I am really excited to have a chance to teach again.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I do not know yet whether I will be permitted to record the sessions or whether that is a good thing. I will let you know. Meanwhile, I am safe and protected in my retirement community while all the rest of the world is going to hell. I gave another thousand to the DLCC. It is pretty much all I can do.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-54719487203089100082023-12-29T13:13:00.001-05:002023-12-29T13:13:45.534-05:00IDLE SPECULATION AS I CRUISE INTO MY NINETIES<p><span style="font-size: large;">I have been reading lately about serious inquiries into the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors to our planet, so I thought I would say a bit about how unlikely I think that is.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">There are, it seems to me, three possibilities: the first is that some other group of sentient creatures picked up radio waves coming from earth, and came by to take a look; the second is that some sentient creatures were just wondering about in our galaxy and stumbled on this earth at a time when they could pick up radio waves and infer that somebody was here; the third is that some sentient creatures sent out search vehicles throughout the galaxy which picked up our radio waves, sent word back home, and brought folks looking to see who we were. I am leaving entirely out of consideration the possibility that we are being visited by creatures from other galaxies – they are so far from us that that seems to me entirely beyond the realm of possibility.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Radio waves travel at the speed of light and they were discovered in the 1880s here on earth. Let us suppose that the most advanced creatures we can imagine are capable of interstellar travel at a rate half the speed of light (I am not sure that is even theoretically possible but what the hell.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The first and third possibilities mentioned above would mean that radio waves left earth at the speed of light – let us suppose, in the 1880s – and creatures came back to take a look. A little simple calculation tells us that those creatures would have to live no more than 40 light years away from us – 40 years for radio waves to reach them and 80 years for them to suit up and travel back.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Well, our galaxy is the Milky Way. It is roughly 80,000 light years in diameter, which means that it has a surface area (it is, so to speak, flat more or less) of roughly 20 billion square light years. The circular area around the home planet of these extraterrestrials within which they could receive messages from us and come back to see who was there is roughly 5000 square light years. So unless thesse creatures happen to live in a circular area around us that is one four millionth the area covered by the Milky Way, possibilities one and three are ruled out. The possibility that these sentient creatures had just gone off on a 50,000 year jaunt and happened by just when we were sending out radio waves is so small I cannot even estimate it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I rest my case.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-74963412965419121162023-12-27T09:09:00.000-05:002023-12-27T09:09:04.821-05:00I MADE IT<p><span style="font-size: large;">It is now nine-tenths of a century since I was born. My big sister, Barbara, is still 3 1/2 years older than I am and Susie is still almost a year older than I am.Today begins the 20 day period each year when Susie and I are the same age, but despite the fact that I fell in love with her more than 75 years ago, I still have not managed to catch up.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Later today I will do a zoom call with all my relatives on the West Coast, and I continue to plan for the study group I shall lead at Harvard beginning February 2. Thirty-three people have signed up now, including nine members of the faculty, and I am looking forward to it with great anticipation, but my pleasure at all of these things is compromised and undermined by the terrible events unfolding in Gaza and elsewhere.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I often describe myself as a Tigger, and it is true that I am in general a cheerful person, but it is difficult these days not to become an Eeyore. </span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-77005727661026199012023-12-20T15:58:00.002-05:002023-12-20T15:58:41.274-05:00YOU GOTTA FIND FUN WHEREVER IT POPS UP<p><span style="font-size: large;">These are hard times, and it is difficult to find fun in this world, so you have to take your enjoyment where you find it and be grateful for it. This decision by the Colorado Supreme Court is simply delicious. I have no opinion whatsoever on the correctness of their judgment nor do I have any idea what the Supreme Court is going to do, but what I am sure is that no matter what the Supreme Court does it is going to infuriate Republicans. If the Court decides to save the Republican from themselves by declaring that Trump is not eligible to appear on the ballot for the presidency, Trump and the Republicans will go wild. If they decide that their originalist interpretations of the Constitution do not count this time even though they count whenever they want them to count, they will look like fools. This is a gift from heaven. Enjoy it.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-34786807985784199012023-12-16T15:57:00.000-05:002023-12-16T15:57:19.477-05:00ANSWERS TO SOME QUESTIONS<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Buried in
the blizzard of comments that have been posted on this blog concerning the
Israeli/Hamas situation there have actually been several comments addressed to
me, and I am going to try to answer them now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">First of
all, I do not yet know whether my study group on Marx next semester will be
recorded or whether it can be shared with others. I will find out and let you
know later. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Second, someone back there aways responded to my remark that I
knew next to nothing about the Israeli situation by asking what I knew about
South African apartheid or Afro-American studies when I demonstrated at Harvard
and joined the Afro-Am department at UMass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When I joined the anti-apartheid demonstration, I had already spent six
weeks teaching in South Africa and had traveled around the country. I was
hardly an expert but I felt comfortable enough with what I had learned to take
a position. As for Afro-American studies, as I explained in the book I wrote
about my experiences in that department, I knew less about the subject in an
undergraduate major when I joined the department. I was invited to join by
people who knew that I was ignorant of the subject but who thought I could help
with the creation of the PhD program, which I did. At various times, I invoked
the experience of Eastern European Orthodox Jewish communities at which I little
Christian boy would come on the Sabbath and do things that the Jewish community
was forbidden by their religion to do, such as lighting the candles. I referred
to myself in a self-mocking way as the Shabbos goy of the Afro-American studies
department. Only after I had spent more than 10 years in the department and
read dozens upon dozens of books and learned a great deal from my colleagues did I feel comfortable about presenting my own views in a book. My total
experience of Israel was a three day visit with my wife on our way to Paris one
year about 20 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Despite by
level of ignorance, I will try to answer the question that was posed by
somebody (I do not remember now who asked the question), namely what I would
propose that the Israeli government have done in response to the Hamas attacks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let me
say, to begin, that I do not think the attacks constituted anything remotely
like a threat to the existence of Israel. Israel is the most powerful nation in
the Middle East, the only nuclear power. The attacks on October 7 were fully as
terrible as everyone has said but they no more constituted a threat to the
existence of Israel then the 9/11 attacks in the United States constituted a
threat to the existence of the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Leaving
aside what Israel should have done 50 years ago or 30 years ago or even 10
years ago or one year ago, what could it have done on October 8 in response to
the attacks? I do not think there was ever the slightest possibility that
Israel would do any of these things, but it could have and here is what I say.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">First,
they could have mobilized their military and paid attention to their
intelligence services to make sure that such attacks did not happen again.
Second, they could have worked as hard as they could to carry out a hostage
swap, releasing as many of their prisoners as they needed to to get back the
hostages. Third, Israel could have stopped supporting Hamas by green lighting
transfers of funds to the Hamas operatives in Gaza from Qatar and elsewhere.
Fourth, Israel could have launched a full-scale effort to support the creation
of an independent Palestinian state. Fifth, Israel could have ordered its
legendary security forces to start carrying out targeted assassinations of
Hamas leaders, in Iran, Qatar, and anywhere else they could be found. They
could make it clear that this was not a knee-jerk response to the attack but a
full-scale assault on Hamas from the top down that would continue so long as
there was anywhere in the world a Hamas leader who was still alive. Sixth,
Israel could have launched constant Secret Service attacks on Hamas leaders in
Gaza, after the hostages had been returned. Seventh, Israel could have pulled
some of the settlements in the West Bank back into Israel and created the
genuine possibility of a real Palestinian state. Finally, as part of this
effort, Netanyahu could have kicked the extreme right wing parties out of his
government and struck a deal with the centrist parties which included keeping him
out of jail, this being his price for all of the above.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As I say,
there was never the slightest possibility that the Israeli government would
doing any of these things but they could have and it would have saved 20,000 or
more Palestinian lives, gained them the immediate and undying support of the
world community, and actually strengthened Israel and made it more secure.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, you
asked and that is what I have to say.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com93tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-53463838072472798482023-12-13T10:47:00.001-05:002023-12-13T10:47:20.707-05:00GOOD NEWS FOR ME IN THE MIDST OF TERRIBLE NEWS FOR THE WORLD<p><span style="font-size: large;">While I have been watching the world go to hell, I have also been preparing to teach by zoom a study group next semester at Harvard on volume 1 of Capital. This will be a noncredit study group meeting two hours a week for 12 weeks, and it gives me the opportunity to pull together everything I have ever done on Marx in one integrated narrative. At the moment, with a sign-up sheet still open, 18 people have said they want to participate. Of those 18, seven are members of the faculty, several are graduate students, and the rest are undergraduates, almost all of whom – faculty and students – are associated with the Social Studies program of which I was the first head tutor 63 years ago. I am very excited about this opportunity and plan to pour into it such energies as I can mobilize.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">All I can really do about the world is give money to organizations supporting Democratic candidates in the next election. I have given $4000 or $5000 so far, and I imagine I will give another $5000 before I am done with donations.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I read the many interesting comments on this blog about the Israeli situation and although I have strong feelings, I have not weighed in because I do not have any kind of specialized knowledge. There have been times in my life when the world was in worse shape than it is now, but I was young then and had hopes for the future. Now, as I am two weeks from my 90th birthday, it is difficult to feel that same hope.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com77tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-20102099949195563792023-12-04T10:47:00.005-05:002023-12-04T10:47:45.467-05:00DISAPPOINTMENT<p><span style="font-size: large;">I had been hoping that Trump would be trapped in the January 6 trial for six weeks or longer, forced to sit in the courtroom and listen to the case proceed against him. But I checked online, and apparently the answer is that he is not so forced. So long as he is present at the beginning of the trial, and voluntarily chooses to leave, he may do so and leave it to his lawyers to defend him. Pity, I had great hopes for the Spring.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-85017077472106503342023-12-04T10:43:00.000-05:002023-12-04T10:43:02.186-05:00A PURELY PERSONAL OBSERVATION<p><span style="font-size: large;">In recent months, my Parkinson's has worsened to the point at which I find it very difficult to walk at all. Fortunately, the little electric powered scooter that I purchased from another resident here makes it very easy for me to get around the apartment and even to go down to the main building to have dinner each evening. What is really odd is that cognitivelly I seem unchanged. I spend a great deal of time thinking about the study group that I shall lead at Harvard starting at the beginning of February on volume 1 of Capital, I re-read old essays I have written, I follow the world news obsessively, and although I am of course slowed down a good deal from what I was in the late 1960s, when I was teaching at Columbia, I feel unchanged cognitively. In three weeks I shall be 90 years old and yet in my mind I feel 50 or 60.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Life is strange.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-47791437586027977062023-11-30T07:55:00.000-05:002023-11-30T07:55:23.563-05:00NIL NISI BONUM DE MORTUIS<p><span style="font-size: large;">Gregory of Tours was a sixth century bishop who wrote a long<b> History of the Franks</b> which is one of
our principal sources of information about the Merovingian period in early medieval
Europe. In the late spring of 1958, I
read it along with many other books of European history in my desperate effort
to prepare myself to join five brilliant young Harvard Assistant Professors of History
in teaching Social Sciences 5. At one
point, Gregory describes the rather scrimy life of a minor Merovingian
princeling who spent his time feuding and whoring and killing and generally
being a bad actor. The otherwise forgettable lout managed to live to be about
80, which was of course very long in those days, before dying peacefully in
bed. Gregory sanctimoniously observes of him, “and thus God’s justice was
demonstrated yet again” or something to that effect.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I thought about this passage when I got up this morning and
read that Henry Kissinger had died at the age of 100.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-50447283832871477352023-11-28T13:50:00.005-05:002023-11-28T13:51:54.158-05:00GIVING THANKS WHERE THANKS ARE DUE<p><span style="font-size: large;">A long time a.go, I observed on this blog that my score on the game of Free Cell was pretty good but that I could not get it higher. David Palmeter reported that he had a very very high score but used the undo facility, which I had shunned. Encouraged by him, I began to use that facility and since then have not lost a game. Yesterday, my all-time score went up to 98.4%, for roughly 15,000 games total. I have always been grateful to him for this encouragement and I thought I would just pass it along now. Thank you, David.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-90681319803377433472023-11-27T15:14:00.002-05:002023-11-27T15:14:30.116-05:00WASTE NOT, WANT NOT<p><span style="font-size: large;">The release of roughly 130 prisoners and detainees from Israeli jails has created empty space, so with great efficiency, the Israeli forces have gone out and arrested another 120 or so Palestinians to take their place. Waste not, want not.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-11830458408696105122023-11-26T18:30:00.000-05:002023-11-26T18:30:02.814-05:00IN CASE YOU HAD ANY DOUBTS<p><span style="font-size: large;">As the Israeli hostages have been released, there have been endlesss heartwarming television pictures of the released women and children being welcomed back into their families. When crowds gathered in the West Bank communities to welcome back the release Palestinian prisoners, Israeli police and military disperse the crowds with teargas and refuse to allow them to put on any sort of public demonstration that might appear on television.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-6521014782188402992023-11-26T12:38:00.005-05:002023-11-26T12:38:53.245-05:00TIME PASSES<p><span style="font-size: large;">I have not been posting lately because, as I have indicated,
I do not think that I have the kind of specialist knowledge of the Israeli
situation that would give what I say any merit. But I have been watching those
reports obsessively. First CNN and then MSNBC finally began to have reports
about and interviews with the families of the Palestinians being released, and
not at all surprisingly, one finds those stories as moving as the stories about
the released Israelis. Now that
reporters can get into Gaza more easily, we begin to see pictures of the total
devastation that has been wrought in Gaza city by the Israelis. Having supported Hamas for years as a counter
to the Palestinian Authority in order to make any possibility of an independent
Palestinian state impossible, and having been caught completely by surprise by
the Hamas attack, Netanyahu is now committed to the total destruction of Hamas.
It is my impression that the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of 20,000 or
more Palestinians is, from his point of view, a feature not a bug of the war
effort he has mounted.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">I suppose we shall have to leave it to history and the
experts to make a final judgment on the performance of Biden, but it seems to
me it may turn out in the end that he has played this disaster as well as he
possibly could to retain some influence with Israel and pressure them to back
off from their war plans. I have no idea whether this is true. It may just be my
desperate effort to find some suggestion of hope in a disasterous situation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, if a may turn to a much happier matter, my
grandson Samuel (or Sam, as he wishes to be called now) will turn 18 next month
and I have been brooding about what to give him as a birthday present. He is
currently applying to colleges and his father tells me that he will be taking a
course next semester on Middle Eastern affairs. Considering all of that, I have
decided to give them three books.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The first is a copy of the great work by Erich Auerbach,<b> Mimesis</b>. I read<b> Mimesis </b>many many years ago, and not surprisingly I was fascinated
and delighted by it, but it has been decades since I looked at the book and
when Samuel’s copy (whoops, I mean Sam’s copy) arrived from Amazon, I picked it
up and reread the first chapter. Lord it is a wonderful book.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The second book I decided to give him, to prepare him for
his course next semester, is Edward Said’s <b>Orientalism</b>.
Coincidentally, the edition of the Auerbach book that arrived is a fiftieth
anniversary reprint with a special new preface by Said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">The third book I chose is my book<b> The Ideal of the University</b>, which
began as a series of </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">lectures at the
University of Wisconsin Madison and was published 54 years ago.</span></span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">If hr reads those three books, I think he will be ready
for the great adventure of college.</span><o:p></o:p></p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></div>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-77605045635496442202023-11-18T19:02:00.000-05:002023-11-18T19:02:24.811-05:00STIL HERE BUT NOT HAPPY WITH THE WORLD<p><span style="font-size: large;">Susie's son has been visiting all week from Seattle and we have been spending a lot of time with him. That and the terrible situation in the world have kept me from posting. I have no expertise in the Israeli matters, as I have made clear, but I am so upset that I simply lurk in my study and brood.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I am very excited about the study group I shall be leading at Harvard in the spring and I spend a lot of time in the middle of the night thinking about what I shalll say. Lord knows, the world does not really need a deep dive into volume 1 of Capital at the moment but it is what I do so I shall do it. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I remain hopeful that a combination of the concern about abortion rights and the almost certain conviction of Trump in the DC case before the Republican nominating convention will combine to give the Democrats a win a year from now. Perhaps what is happening in the United States now will put to rest for a while the myth of American exceptionalism.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-61047697138137296572023-11-13T14:19:00.001-05:002023-11-13T14:19:27.367-05:00VALUABLE BACKGROUND<p><span style="font-size: large;">When I joined the senior common room of Winthrop House at Harvard in 1959, one of the most interesting people I met was William Polk, an assistant professor of political science and an extremely knowledgeable person about Middle Eastern affairs. Bill went on to be an advisor to McGeorge Bundy and to play an important role in the diplomatic developments in the Middle East. In my "My Stuff" collection of essays, books, and other materials you can find a two-part account by Bill going back more than 100 years of the development of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I posted it on my blog more than 10 years ago. I have just reread it to acquaint myself once more with the details, which I had almost completely forgotten. If anyone is interested in the background of the current terrible events taking place there, I recommended it strongly. I trust Bill's knowledge, his objectivity, and his moral perspective.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com52tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-63013875862049328732023-11-11T12:24:00.002-05:002023-11-11T12:24:47.146-05:00MORE MUSING ON A LAZY SATURDAY<p><span style="font-size: x-large;">After anguishing for several weeks about the New York Times
poll showing Trump beating Biden in 5 out of 6 battleground states, commentators
turned their attention on Tuesday night to yet another series of Democratic
Party victories in local off year elections and ballot initiatives. The endless
television commentary about these events almost entirely ignored what I remain
convinced is the single most important factor, after abortion, in the upcoming
election cycle: the outcome of the first of a series of trials of Trump at the
federal and state levels. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">Judge Chutkan has made it clear that she will not
move the March 4th date for the beginning of the trial in DC, and has even
scheduled jury selection for the weeks prior to that time to make sure that the
trial can begin on her date specified. Some while ago, Jack Smith announced
that the prosecution’s case would take from 4 to 6 weeks, so sometime in late
April, we can expect the prosecution's lead litigator to announce “Your Honor,
the prosecution rests.” </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">It is not clear at that point what sort of case the
defense can put on, because they cannot argue that Trump truly believed he had
won the election without putting him on the stand, and everyone seems to agree that would be a disaster for the defense. Nevertheless, one way or
another, by early or middle May the case will go to the jury. I think we can
project that by early June they will come back with a verdict. If, as I expect,
the verdict is guilty on some or all of the counts, the Republican party will
be faced with the prospect of convening its July presidential nominating
convention with Trump having won enough delegates to take the nomination and
having been found guilty in the most important trial facing him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">At that point, the Republican Party will have an impossible
choice: to nominate Trump while they await his sentencing or perhaps await the
carrying out of the sentence already handed down, or to change</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"> their rules on
the spot to avoid nominating him, with all of the attendant chaos that would
produce.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">The same New York Times poll that showed Trump beating Biden
in 5 out of 6 battleground states also asked the question “if Trump is
convicted of one or more of his charged crimes, how would you vote,” and something
like 6% of the Trump voters announced that they would then vote for Biden,
giving him victory in all of the battleground states.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: large;">We have a long year ahead of us and I for one will give as much
money as I can to the Democratic legislative campaign committee, to support
Democrats in local races across the country, but I really do think the odds are
very strongly in Biden’s favor.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-86145317873336338062023-11-07T07:28:00.001-05:002023-11-07T07:28:26.405-05:00GOOD NEWS FOLLOW-UP<p><span style="font-size: large;">My Harvard non-course is set for 13 Fridays from 2 to 4 PM starting in early February. I am really pumped.</span></p>Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.com24