The NY TIMES today has a detailed account of the extensive business connections of the Kushner family with a network of rather questionable financiers in Africa and Europe.
More and more, I think that the Trumps and Kushners are to the world of established international finance as Smerdyakov is to the old man and his three legitimate children in The Brothers Karamazov: The bastard who, by taking Ivan at his word, reveals the inner evil of his nihilism. They give the phrase "naked capitalism" renewed meaning.
But if the Trumps and the Kushners are collectively Smerdyakov, who exactly is Ivan? (I'm teaching Dostoevsky next week and the week after - it's on my mind.)
ReplyDelete