Mitchell Abidor, Author at Public Seminar

History

The Paris Commune—Myth Made Material

As George Sorel explained, myths “provide an intelligible exposition of the passing of principles into action”

May 18, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____ Revolutions are materialist events in their essence. The explosive outgrowth of specific circumstances in specific places at specific times, the product of a specific history and a specific society, they are also, paradoxically, the bearers and result of what the philosopher Georges Sorel in his Reflections on Violence called “myths.” ...

History

The Paris Commune of 1871 – Myth and Reality

It was not a spontaneous, prefigurative gathering of people waggling their fingers at a general assembly in the spirit of Occupy: it was a working government, and it passed a lot of decrees

April 28, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____ This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, often regarded as the first instance of the working-class seizing power and establishing a government dedicated to its interests. The uprising occurred in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, after the defeat of France, the collapse of Napoleon III’s Second Empire, ...

The Paris Commune of 1871 – Myth and Reality

Uncategorized

Why Phillip Roth is a Great Jewish and a Great American Novelist

A new biography captures the whole man: his kindnesses, his pettiness and his prickeries

April 6, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____ There will undoubtedly be eye-rolling in some quarters over Blake Bailey’s 800-page biography of Philip Roth, that self-hating Jew/misogynist/self-absorbed relic of an era of history that America has (perhaps) outgrown. And yet, Philip Roth: The Biography – not a biography, the biography – is a book as sensibly, sensitively, and insightfully ...

Why Phillip Roth is a Great Jewish <em>and</em> a Great American Novelist

Uncategorized

The Matzneff Affair: Should Love Have No Age Limit?

Sex and the Sixties, from Lolita to Vanessa Springora’s consent

March 16, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____ Almost every allegation of sexual aggression that has been made in these years of #MeToo has had “he said she said” moments. The woman accuses, the man denies or excuses, and the public chooses who they believe. The 1986 affair between the then 14-year-old Vanessa Springora and 50-year-old writer Gabriel ...

The Matzneff Affair: Should Love Have No Age Limit?

Europe & Central Asia

How the Most Powerful Frenchman in the World Embraced the Philosophy of Sade – and Lost All of His Power

Libertinage isn’t liberating, it’s a form of fascism

February 11, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____Recently, I’ve been watching Jalil Lespert’s Netflix miniseries Room 2806: The Accusation. This four-episode docu-drama recounts the rise and fall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at the time the President of the International Monetary Fund and a leading candidate for the French presidency. Strauss-Kahn (familiarly known as DSK) was arrested in New York ...

How the Most Powerful Frenchman in the World Embraced the Philosophy of Sade – and Lost All of His Power

Uncategorized

Mourning Maradona

Football, populism and Argentina’s civic religion

December 3, 2020 • by Mitchell Abidor

Diego Armando Maradona, the controversial and brilliant Argentine football star, died on Wednesday, November 25, 2020 in a Buenos Aires hospital. One of the defining figures in international soccer during the 1980s, Maradona is the stuff of legend. In his performance against England in the 1986 World Cup, he invoked ...

Democracy

Confessions of a Poll Worker

When I volunteered to work on Election Day, my melting pot neighborhood taught me about the complexity of Trump’s America

November 5, 2020 • by Mitchell Abidor

It’s not the least of the paradoxes of the Trump era that this wannabe authoritarian did more than any decent man to lead Americans to assume their civic duties. Trump’s attacks on the electoral process led 52,000 New Yorkers to sign up for work at the polls, 18,000 more than in ...

Activism

Why Street Fighting Is No Way to Resist Fascism

The French left’s popular front strategy from the 1930s is a better way to resist the far right

October 15, 2020 • by Mitchell Abidor

It is almost futile to try to pinpoint the ideological underpinnings of antifa. Natasha Lennard in her writings speaks of Foucault and “microfascisms,” but in America, antifa groups seem to be inspired more by the anarchist Hakim Bey and his proposal to create “temporary autonomous zones.” Mark Bray, in ...

Why Street Fighting Is No Way to Resist Fascism

Public Health

Tense Times with Protesters in a Brooklyn Hot Zone

As New Yorkers brace for a second surge, Orthodox communities that resist public health directives, and the NYPD, lead the way

October 8, 2020 • by Mitchell Abidor

----- On the morning of October 7, I discovered that Marine Park, the neighborhood in deepest Brooklyn where I live, is in the red zone of neighborhoods experiencing alarming increases in the number of positive COVID-19 tests. While the rest of New York state has a positive test rate of 1.2%, the ...

Tense Times with Protesters in a Brooklyn Hot Zone

Politics

The Man Who Predicted Twitter Mobs

Gustave Le Bon and the mind of the crowd

July 10, 2020 • by Mitchell Abidor

In May, the New York Times published an opinion piece I wrote on the position taken by Democratic Socialists of America and Jacobin magazine on the presidential election. Both DSA and the magazine had expressed opposition to support for Joseph Biden, and the editor of Jacobin announced his intention to ...

Mitchell Abidor

The Paris Commune—Myth Made Material

As George Sorel explained, myths “provide an intelligible exposition of the passing of principles into action”

The Paris Commune of 1871 – Myth and Reality

It was not a spontaneous, prefigurative gathering of people waggling their fingers at a general assembly in the spirit of Occupy: it was a working government, and it passed a lot of decrees

Why Phillip Roth is a Great Jewish and a Great American Novelist

A new biography captures the whole man: his kindnesses, his pettiness and his prickeries

How the Most Powerful Frenchman in the World Embraced the Philosophy of Sade – and Lost All of His Power

Libertinage isn’t liberating, it’s a form of fascism

Mourning Maradona

Football, populism and Argentina’s civic religion

Confessions of a Poll Worker

When I volunteered to work on Election Day, my melting pot neighborhood taught me about the complexity of Trump’s America

Why Street Fighting Is No Way to Resist Fascism

The French left’s popular front strategy from the 1930s is a better way to resist the far right

Tense Times with Protesters in a Brooklyn Hot Zone

As New Yorkers brace for a second surge, Orthodox communities that resist public health directives, and the NYPD, lead the way

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