Author: Douglas McLennan

“No living artist I know of, however fervently activist, is renouncing art as a distraction from moral commitment, as the more extreme Constructivists did. But a good deal of recent polemical art suggests a use-by date that is not far in the future. Aesthetic judgment, based in experience, confirms differences between what is of its time and what, besides being of its time, may prove timeless. I feel that our present moment, marked by imbroglios of art and politics, forces the issue, even in face of tendencies a century old.” – The New Yorker

“For most of my life, I’ve been used to thinking of disabled people in the mainstream way – that is, in the third person. When I tick ‘yes’, I still can’t quite believe it. Even after eight years of paying close attention to disability scholarship and activism, when I picture disability, my mind still defaults to the stock images: the wheelchair symbol, the guide dog, the white stick, the prosthetic limb, the accessible toilet.” But… – Aeon

“Properly understood, liberalism offers an incomparably rich, four-century-long experimental history of a never-ending quest to find the best way for diverse people—and peoples—to live together well in conditions of freedom. It is a theoretical treasure trove and a practical experience bank. How telling, by contrast, that so-called “post-liberalism” cannot even come up with a proper name for itself; its very moniker reveals its epigonic character.” – Prospect

Humans are given to hierarchy—we measure ourselves against those around us and strive to better our relative position—but we are, at the same time, unhappy that this is true of ourselves. This predicament is the product of two drives. – Boston Review