I'm starting to get back into thinking about politics after a hiatus of sorts (between the declaration of the war in Iraq and a week or two ago -- the reason for the slow down should be a subject of a future post) <\/p>\n
I'm very grateful for The New York Review of Books<\/i>, which remains my favorite periodical. Two fine articles I can recommend: Which Way to Mecca?<\/a> by Clifford Geertz and Stanley Hoffman's America Goes Backward<\/a> Oh yes, Elizabeth Drew's The Neocons in Power<\/a> also caught my attention. Margaret Atwood's review<\/a> was probably the most fun to read (being a fine novelist gives her a leg-up on writing essays, I suppose) -- but it's not free for the reading, alas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m starting to get back into thinking about politics after a hiatus of sorts (between the declaration of the war in Iraq and a week or two ago — the reason for the slow down should be a subject of … Continue reading
\nThere is a lot to say that I cannot even begin to write out right now but I was really impressed with the fact that Geertz in preparing the article on Islam had read 50 books on the subject -- reflecting the obvious ferment around the topic. \"50 books! And just to start to get a feel for how things relate....\" Reading about the process and seeing how shallow my own understanding of Islam is (not surprising given how little I read or know in the concrete about Isalm) made me almost stop reading altogether on this topic.
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\nHoffman captures a lot of my own feelings and concerns about the current state of things. But I want to test out my thoughts in this area. I've been reading many blogs, looking for political viewpoints that are not my own but which are well-articulated and open to change when shown to be wrong. I need to do more processing before I jump in looking for dialog. Finding the right place and right people seems very important -- otherwise, one just gets embroiled in so much heat with so little light.<\/p>\n