Sam Smith - For the first time I can remember, I feel somewhat at odds with a lot of liberal talk. It's not that I oppose the goals, but rather I find myself uncomfortable with some of the approaches and language being used to reach them. For example, the huge preference for the phrase "anti-racism" … Continue reading Why I feel a bit odd
American notes
The time we’re in
Sam Smith - The other day I found myself wondering who among the famous and powerful I still admired and discovered my list painfully short. Instead, I began thinking of liars and con artists or, at best, popular figures much better at appearing to be what they were meant to be than actually being it. … Continue reading The time we’re in
Recovering decency
Sam Smith - One of the matters that rarely gets discussed these days is how power has replaced decency as a fundamental standard of our society. Thanks to the rise of corporatism, legal interpretation of social matters, media priorities and entertainment values, we have become obsessed with having more power than others, rather than healthily … Continue reading Recovering decency
Brighten things up with a new America
Sam Smith - Okay, we get it. Trump is mentally unstable, cruel, incompetent and dishonest. But if we only talk about Trump & Co, we will end up with a singularly depressive image of our land and its people. I know it's easy to do. Hell, I've been doing it myself, but increasingly I've been … Continue reading Brighten things up with a new America
What the hell do we do now?
Since 1989, the Review has occasionally published a guide to getting through the crummy era that we are still in. To aid our readers get through these tough times, we offer another updated edition of our guide. Sam Smith, 2018 Face the facts: The First American Republic is over. The Constitution is being trashed by … Continue reading What the hell do we do now?
An alternative 9/11 report
Sam Smith, 2014 - It is now almost three years since the World Trade Center attack. During this period we have invaded two Muslim countries and moved far closer to the apartheid regime of Ariel Sharon. We have not taken a single important step to reduce hatred of the U.S., respond to justified complaints of … Continue reading An alternative 9/11 report
Introduction to “Why Bother?’
Why Bother, in a wonderfully engaging and erudite manner, addresses the great question confronting democracy, community and justice -- and that is civic motivation. Prepare to be motivated. Sam Smith is an antidote to mindless speed reading. He makes you pause between paragraphs in order to mull over the captivating morsels he is placing in … Continue reading Introduction to “Why Bother?’
Notes on the end of the First American Republic
In 2003 I initially suggested that the First American Republic was over. Although the idea has gained credibility in some progressive circles, it remains unimaginable to traditional media, politicians and academics. Instead, there has been a bounce in talk of American “exceptionalism” even though when America was, in fact, exceptional it seldom used the term. … Continue reading Notes on the end of the First American Republic
Post-First American Republic update
Sam Smith As the Review has unfashionably suggested from time to time, the First American Republic ended in the 1980s. I put it like this in in a talk in 2004: We live in a nation hated abroad and frightened at home. A place in which we can reasonably refer to the American Republic in … Continue reading Post-First American Republic update
A historian’s view of now (written sometime in the future)
From our overstocked archives Sam Smith, 2012 - One good way to step away from the daily news and try to figure out what’s really going on is to imagine oneself as an historian returning to this time some decades hence. What might you see as having happened in the years since Reagan’s inauguration? Here … Continue reading A historian’s view of now (written sometime in the future)
My bi-polar week
Sam Smith, February 2016 Earlier today my wife and I went to the funeral of a Maine farmer we’ve known for almost 50 years. Several of his grandchildren lived with us this past week as Charlie was winding down in hospice. Back in the 1940s and 50s, Charlie had become one of the first people … Continue reading My bi-polar week
America’s increasing proto-ISIS behavior
Sam Smith - If you step back from the ideological goals of ISIS, it is clear that its way of achieving these goals is what upsets decent folks the most, a presumption that if what you are seeking is considered godly, then you are entitled to achieve it anyway you want. We are horrified when … Continue reading America’s increasing proto-ISIS behavior
Derivative America
Sam Smith, 2002 - The word from the Secretary of State that what this country really needs is "rebranding" provides further confirmation that America itself has become a derivative, a socio-political version of those financial instruments Roy Davis has described as having "no intrinsic value, but derive their value from something else . . . … Continue reading Derivative America
The real World War III: Corporations vs. nationhood
Sam Smith The recent IMF loans to Ukraine with their dictatorial provisions are one more example of the world’s concealed great war, which is to say the massive invasion of nationhood by corporations. Far more dangerous than any current military threat, corporations have already taken huge territories, legal and financial as well as geographical. Our … Continue reading The real World War III: Corporations vs. nationhood
Normalizing failure
Sam Smith The tediously unsuccessful manifestations of American intervention in the Middle East brings to mind the lengthy unwinding of the Vietnam War during which our leaders – like alcoholics avoiding treatment – never admitted that they had made terrible mistakes and never publicly discussed the alternatives. They just ran it all out until they … Continue reading Normalizing failure
