Provocation!
Your chance to provoke our in-house philosopher, Samuel Kimbriel.
provoke (verb): stimulate or give rise to a reaction or emotion, (typically a strong or unwelcome one) in someone
The Provocation. Wisdom of Crowds is a long, loud, sometimes contentious, often hilarious, ongoing argument — not only among our editors, but also the crowd. Once a month, subscribers have the chance to pester, goad, torment one of our writers— Shadi, Damir, Christine, Samuel, or Santiago.
This month, it’s
’s turn.Our in-house philosopher has been shaking things up lately:
Here Sam is debating with
about what politics is really about (and denouncing John Rawls in the process);here he goes after the technocrats;
here he’s on the podcast, explaining why liberals pull a switcheroo between being a player and a referee of public discourse;
and here Sam is giving a Left-populist case about political ideas.
In short, Sam’s been doing a lot of provoking of his own, lately. And it’s time for him to take some of his own medicine.
Enter your provocations in the comments below!
What counts as a provocation? Anything! A question you want to ask, a proposal you want us to assess, a judgment you want us to question — anything designed to inspire a response from our team.
What can a provocation be about? It can be about all of the things Wisdom of Crowds is about. Questions of right and wrong. Cultural trends. Political ideas. International conflagrations. Just and unjust wars.
Where do I send my provocation? Right here, in the comments! Post them and our designated writer of the month will pick the one that most inspires them.
Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!
In "Thinking is Risky," you make the case for wide-ranging intellectual ambition. However, as a thinker I often find you both (suspiciously) cautious and (laudably) courteous. Never mind us provoking you, how about you provoke us a bit more? What is your most ambitious and possibly half-baked hot take? What problem do you wish you could tackle and what's the best short-form answer you can come up with to it in a matter of days or so?
In a pickup basketball game the participants often call their own fouls. They are both players and referees. Do you think “democracy” is more like a pickup game or more like a game refereed by third parties who aren’t playing?