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?
Sam, I infer you lean Democratic and Christian... in the partisan world we live in, how do you distinguish between your political leanings and moral convictions? I mean, I know how I do it... but what is the place for your religion in your politics and how do you manage compromise with actors/ideals/beliefs your faith disagrees with.
One way might be to remain impossible to pin down, as Damir often points out, but I'm sure there's much more to it than that.
Dear Sam, I understand your views on immigration stem from empathy with immigrants seeking a better life, but how do you balance that with a sense of order or justice? How do you propose the left work with or persuade right leaning voters who are not necessarily fueled by hatred or nationalism on this issue? What about those who are?
Regarding your lively debate with Damir on politics and power, let me build on his Nietzsche reference and fuse the alternatives for your consideration. Perhaps politics is grounded in philosophy and metaphysics if “life as such is will to power - : self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent consequences of it”. Can you countenance utility as the measure of the natural world?
Dear Sam, everything I’ve heard you say that Democrats should have done differently makes me less likely to vote Democrat. How do you think Democrats should try to appeal to voters like me?
Sam, you consistently argue that we need to see more digging in politics today. That liberalism is not very good at getting to the kinds of answers our politics and society need. I'm not sure I entirely disagree with you on this really important point :) I was wondering and sorry if I have missed this, do you think this requires a complete reinstitutionalization of our politics? If lacking these bigger answers and probing deeper is a feature not a bug of our current set up is this not simply a problem with liberalism but a deeper systemic issue with how we do politics?
If it is this, I was wondering how can we reimagine politics do you think in a practical sense? Is it a replacement of ballot democracy? A new way of organising political parties and democratic society more generally? Or has this kind of concretization not yet manifested in your thought? Again, I'm sorry if I have missed this my brain is currently quite scrambled but thought I'd take the opportunity of the provocation to ask! :)
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?
Dear Sam, why do you put cheese on everything you eat
Sam, I infer you lean Democratic and Christian... in the partisan world we live in, how do you distinguish between your political leanings and moral convictions? I mean, I know how I do it... but what is the place for your religion in your politics and how do you manage compromise with actors/ideals/beliefs your faith disagrees with.
One way might be to remain impossible to pin down, as Damir often points out, but I'm sure there's much more to it than that.
Dear Sam, I understand your views on immigration stem from empathy with immigrants seeking a better life, but how do you balance that with a sense of order or justice? How do you propose the left work with or persuade right leaning voters who are not necessarily fueled by hatred or nationalism on this issue? What about those who are?
Regarding your lively debate with Damir on politics and power, let me build on his Nietzsche reference and fuse the alternatives for your consideration. Perhaps politics is grounded in philosophy and metaphysics if “life as such is will to power - : self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent consequences of it”. Can you countenance utility as the measure of the natural world?
Dear Sam, everything I’ve heard you say that Democrats should have done differently makes me less likely to vote Democrat. How do you think Democrats should try to appeal to voters like me?
Sam, you consistently argue that we need to see more digging in politics today. That liberalism is not very good at getting to the kinds of answers our politics and society need. I'm not sure I entirely disagree with you on this really important point :) I was wondering and sorry if I have missed this, do you think this requires a complete reinstitutionalization of our politics? If lacking these bigger answers and probing deeper is a feature not a bug of our current set up is this not simply a problem with liberalism but a deeper systemic issue with how we do politics?
If it is this, I was wondering how can we reimagine politics do you think in a practical sense? Is it a replacement of ballot democracy? A new way of organising political parties and democratic society more generally? Or has this kind of concretization not yet manifested in your thought? Again, I'm sorry if I have missed this my brain is currently quite scrambled but thought I'd take the opportunity of the provocation to ask! :)