Eli Zaretsky, Author at Public Seminar

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Trumbo

December 3, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

Ignore Manohla Dargis’ mean-spirited put-down of Trumbo and see the film. Dargis’ basic point is that the film is not complex enough, which can only mean that it needed a shot of anti-Communism to complicate and “deepen” its portrayal of the Hollywood blacklist. The truth is that the anti-Communists of ...

Theory & Practice

What is Socialism? What is Revolution? A Note on Bernie Sanders

November 20, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

Defying the pundits, Bernie Sanders dominates the struggle for the Democratic nomination by describing himself as a “democratic socialist” and calling for a “political revolution.” True, almost everyone assumes that Hillary Clinton will be the nominee, and this is probably correct. Yet the Clinton campaign stands for nothing -- it ...

Theory & Practice

A Response to Jeffrey Goldfarb

November 11, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

Dear Jeff, Thank you for your open letter. I am afraid that in spite of your admiration for the color gray, you have distorted all of my positions, reducing complex, nuanced arguments to black vs white caricatures that I do not recognize and that I disown. Briefly: For me, the central issue ...

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No More Mr. Nice Guy: Trump’s “Anti-Domestication” Tactics

September 14, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

While one can point to many forerunners -- PT Barnum, Ross Perot and George Wallace come to mind -- Donald Trump also represents something new. After all, he called Mexicans rapists, blamed a female reporter’s questions on her menstrual cycle, denounced a war hero for his bravery, threatened to destroy ...

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The Obama “Legacy” and Trump, Sanders and Clinton

September 6, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

There is no Obama Legacy. There are achievements to be sure, but a legacy means a way of thinking about the world, and about America, associated with a particular Presidency, and aside from the very important fact that we elected our first Black President there is no legacy. Obama’s ideas: ...

Education

Rape Culture and the College Campus

September 3, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

The idea that colleges and universities are “rape cultures,” that is cultures in which rape is normalized due to invidious gender norms, is a false and malicious one that should rejected by all progressives. Young women go to college for reasons very similar to those of young men, among which ...

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Syriza and the Public Sphere

July 13, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

Having been closely following the Greece events, I can’t remember a recent story, at least in the American and British papers, that does not describe Syriza in such terms as “adolescent,” “unserious,” “gamesmanship,” “jousting,” “inexperienced,” and “unprofessional.” One might think from reading the news that the Greek people are latency ...

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We Are All Greek

June 30, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

During the thirties Edmund Wilson recalled his reaction to the stock market crash of 1929 as “not depressing but stimulating. One couldn’t help being exhilarated by the sudden unexpected collapse of that stupid, gigantic fraud.” I fear that we may be coming to a point when many people throughout the ...

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The Invention of Money

April 12, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

The invention of money -- discussed last week by Julia Ott -- is one of the greatest of all human inventions, comparable to the invention of the wheel, if not quite up to the discovery of fire. If we situate this invention in the context of the class we can ...

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Capitalism and Science: A reading of Daniel Boscov-Ellen on Ecology

March 20, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

I believe the question of capitalism’s relation to ecological crisis can be clarified by relating capitalism and science. There are strong affinities between these two enterprises. Consider: The medieval world-view was human and/or God-centered. The earth was the center of the universe. The stars and planets rotated in perfect circles. They ...

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Identity Politics on Steroids or What do Women Want?

March 19, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

Last week Johanna Oksala asked is capitalism good for women? And if it is not, are there reforms that can make capitalism good for women? Rather than rehearse her complex and fascinating answers to these questions, let me rather interrogate the assumptions that underlie them. One, of course, is that ...

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The Israeli Disaster

March 18, 2015 • by Eli Zaretsky

There is no question that the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next Israeli government is a disaster for Israel and the world. Israel is a state that was formed in 1948 by the United Nations in response to worldwide public opinion. It is a state whose legitimacy was ...