March 7th, 2013

The Dictator’s Daughter

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By Thomas Meaney.

“Koreans voted for Ms. Park not so much out of nostalgia for her father’s iron fist, as out of longing for a time when the future seemed brighter than it does today.”

A Letter from South Korea.

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September 24th, 2012

A Brief Chat with Martin Amis

By Simon Taylor.

I don’t go back to my own stuff. As time gets thinner and shorter, the desire to push on is much stronger. I used to reread myself all the time. I thought a bottle of wine and a five-hour read of me was the ideal evening. But I don’t feel that anymore.

Martin Amis talks about Lionel Asbo and the technical inferiority of his earlier novels.

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July 7th, 2012

An Interview with T. M. Scanlon

By Yascha Mounk.

“Philosophy is about deciding what to think, not about convincing other people what to think.”

In his most extensive interview to date, Tim Scanlon talks about free will, choice, punishment, blame, tolerance, and the future of liberalism - as well as about his childhood and intellectual development.

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July 7th, 2012

Against Populism

By George Kateb.

“Our quarrel with populism is a quarrel with democracy. ‘The more democracy, the better’ is not true - whether in political, social, or cultural life.”

Six points on populism and its perils.

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June 27th, 2012

Towards a New Manifesto

By Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

“We cannot call for the defence of the Western world.”

In 1956, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer sat down to write an updated version of the Communist Manifesto. These are previously unpublished notes from their discussions.

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June 26th, 2012

A Rights-Based Utopia?

By Adam Etinson.

“Rather than worry about how we might preserve the utopian status of human rights into the future, we ought to worry about how to rescue utopia from the clutches of human rights.

A plea for substantive utopias.

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June 25th, 2012

After Utopia?

By Samuel Moyn.

There is a risk that human rights will be called on to do so much, precisely because no powerful imaginative alternatives exist, that they will lose even the minimal promise of transformation that allow the norms to inspire so many.”

A response to Adam Etinson.

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June 24th, 2012

The Liberal Case for Intellectual Property

By Yascha Mounk.

“Let us drop the deluded pretense that the defense of intellectual property is inherently conservative, or even reactionary.”

Why our society would be less egalitarian and artistic without intellectual property rights.

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June 23rd, 2012

Animals

By Jaime Karnes.

“I folded my problems into pretty paper animals to keep me company. I set them on the Formica dinette set. I jammed some into cracks so they’d stand up straight: organized warfare.”

A Short Story.

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June 21st, 2012

Aldous Huxley’s Theory of Democracy

By James Kierstead.

“For Huxley, a democratic society is one composed of individuals whose self-control has kept them free from the dependencies that create the conditions for hierarchy.”

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April 20th, 2012

47 Days

By Paul Lisicky.

“How often were two men in sync when they weren’t worn out or hyped up on drugs? Maybe their good luck had something to do with the fact that the two were wounded.”

A Short Story.

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March 16th, 2012

Bárbula Copies, A Funeral Home

By Slavko Zupcic.

(Translated by Jeremy Osner.)

We ran to him. We had a fucking corpse! Finally, we had a corpse.”

A Short Story.

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December 5th, 2011

Occupy Wall Street and the Rediscovery of Politics

By Jeremy Kessler.

“In taking to the streets with their peculiar brand of leadership and organization, the Occupy Wall Street movement taps into a deep American tradition of outdoor politics: for much of American history, the motor of progressive political change was the assembly of the people out-of-doors, coming together to debate and organize beyond the prescribed avenues of official political reform.”

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The Utopian is a critically acclaimed, cutting-edge magazine on philosophy, politics and culture.

Our past contributors have included Jürgen Habermas, Michel Houellebecq and Michael Walzer, among many others.

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Editors:

Alexander Lee

Thomas Meaney

Yascha Mounk

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Designer:

Justin Fowler

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Blog Editor:

Uri Ferrucio

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Editor at Large for Fiction:

Jaime Karnes

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Editor at Large for Politics:

Jeremy Kessler

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Business Manager:

Spencer Seconi

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