I am warmed and somewhat abashed by your kind responses. One
of the anonymati had it right when he wrote:
“I quit. (Please tell me you love me.)”
“We love you!”
“I am here.”
Consider it my Sally Field moment.
I have been absorbed by three things ranging from the purely
personal to the world historical. My Parkinson’s grows worse, and although I
have not fallen since I use my roller everywhere in the apartment and out, it is
more and more of an effort to get about, to look after Susie, even to do such
simple things as making the bed.
At the same time, I have been thinking endlessly about the possibility –
only, at this point, a possibility – that I will teach an advanced seminar in
the Social Studies program at Harvard in the spring semester. It would be an intense historical,
philosophical, economic, political, mathematical, and literary encounter with
volume 1 of Capital, for perhaps no
more than a dozen students. I would have to teach it by zoom, of course, but I
proposed that things be set up so that the students gather in a seminar room as
in a regular course while I appear on the screen before them. As I observed to
the person with whom I have been talking about this, I know this can be done in
Star Trek on the Enterprise but I do not know wWeatherwisehether it can be done at Harvard. This
would very probably be the last course I teach and it would be a very nice way
go out. As I say, it is at this point only a possibility. We shall see.
Meanwhile, like everyone else in America, I am absorbed by
the unfolding of the several legal cases against Trump, the various responses
of the Republican Party and others, and the implications for America. As Niels
Bohr and Yogi Berra observed, prediction is difficult, especially about the
future. Nevertheless I shall offer my predictions for the next 15 months or
more.
I think Trump will be tried and convicted in the District of
Columbia before the Republican nominating convention next July. At that point,
he will have won enough delegates to be the nominee of the party. Because of
appeals and one thing another, he will not be in jail but he will be a
convicted felon. The timing of the other trials is unclear at this point. If
the Republicans do not nominate Trump, they will lose the election because he
will do everything in his power to defeat them out of spite. If they do
nominate him, I believe he will lose, both because of his status as a convicted
felon and because the abortion issue will significantly alter the pattern of
results. All of this assumes that Biden
will continue to be reasonably healthy. As the assassination in Ecuador reminds us, the
possibility of history altering acts of violence is always present in our lives
and cannot be predicted.
I apologize for having reacted so powerfully and inconsistently to the comments section of this blog. The norms and expectations of social media are still largely a mystery to me, as they are to many others of my generation.
11 comments:
Professor Wolff, It is a relief to be able to read a substantive post from you.
Best wishes....
Dear Professor, (and perhaps commentators)
Your blog is highly interesting, it would be a shame for it to end!
It was remarked by John Rapko in a comment on the previous post about the demographic of visitors, and perhaps especially commenters, with regards to age and gender.
As a young person, 22, I have a question. In all the time reading this blog, a couple years perhaps, I don't really recall much engagement with what I would consider the most devastating unfolding tragedy we are experiencing, one which may, if certain tipping points are reached, even destroy our civilisation. Is this not the political issue of our time? Even if all the responses to this question are sceptical, and even if human civilisation survives the climate crisis, many many people in the poorer regions of the world are going to suffer tremendously. In addition, we are seeing the extinction of much of the incredibly varying and beautiful creatures we inhabit this world with.
So my question is this: why the silence?
Warm Regards,
Max
Mark Twain might've said something like, "Quitting smoking is easy. I've done it many times myself." Same goes for social media... ;)
As the cool kids say, no worries, you do you.
Professor Wolff: I’m glad that you changed your mind. … Any chance that you’ll change your mind about Hegel?
@ Fritz,
... maybe when 'The Donald' is running around with an orange shirt
I am becoming increasingly convinced that jack Smith has several mountains of evidence which will fall upon Trump over the next 12 months. He will get buried by the facts and he realizes this. As I was thinking about this it struck me that the election will be dominated by two narratives: reality vs. projection.
Trump is relying on projection, the defense mechanisms in which you know what is said about you is true but that knowledge is unconscious. You deny the accusation and you accuse your opponent of the same thing. The “I am not, but you are,” defense. Trump is accused of weaponizing the DOJ in Smith’s indictment but insists that Biden has done exactly that. My favorite is Trump’s claim that the Biden’s are a ‘crime family’ when it perfectly clear that it is the Trump family that has earned that designation over decades. Jack Smith is “deranged”? No, but Trump is.
There is a pretty clear delineation that is becoming more clear by the day between reality and delusion. Trump is decompensating in front of our eyes. The old, successful pattern of denial, bullshitting, threatening and using his wealth to defend himself against lawsuits no longer works. His projections become more insane, such as Biden has 5,000 boxes of classified documents hidden in Brooklyn and his racist attacks against African American lawyers, judges and prosecutors. One can be sure that the fact that D.A. Fanni Willis, Judge Chutkin, and Alvin Bragg are African American are an infuriating aspect of his situation so in attacking them he accuses them of being racist. Projection. To have his facts in the hands of people he deems his inferiors is making him abosoltely nuts and his recent attack on Willis is indicative of this.
Narcissists fear one thing above al else: that their inflated self-image can be destroyed. Conviction of a few felonies will destroy his self-image. In sum, I suspect that the fate of the election rests on whether party of reality will get more votes than the party of delusion and projection.
"It would be an intense historical, philosophical, economic, political, mathematical, and literary encounter with volume 1 of Capital, for perhaps no more than a dozen students."
Wow. Has anyone come close to doing this? Hopefully you can get the 12 students to agree to have zoom video the sessions. What a closing act, if indeed it is. Your youtube visitors/subscriptions will spike. And from it, a short, powerful, relevant book.
Can we do anything to support the project?
Jerry
"Trump is decompensating in front of our eyes."
I've always believed that his being competent to stand trial would become an issue. He looks terrible without the makeup and has a diet to match. Trump has also mentioned leaving the country at least a couple of times.
Whatever happens he more spectacular the better. Back in 1956 I
innocently asked a family friend who she was voting for. She loudly proclaimed that the first time she was able to vote she voted for Harding and she was so disgusted by what followed that she swore she would never vote again and she hasn't and won't be voting now.
In the wake of the Scopes trial fundies went sort of quietist until the recent awakenings.
Disillusionment can be a wonderful thing. Folks who believe in casting out and who are willing to pay ~$2,500 for ~$2,000 worth of gold would benefit from a little.
Regarding Jerry's suggestion, I'd pay to watch the simulcast ... and isn't that how Home Box Office got started?
A malignant narcissist would never allow themselves to be determined incompetent to stand trial.
Anon, that's not how decompensation works.
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