7th
Honest, provocative, elegant, Tony Judt is for me one of those writers that when I see his name in the byline I drop everything and read the article. His recent memoirs in the New York Review have been tremendous—-particularly the essay about ALS, “Night.”
Here he is on our current predicament:
“Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever remains of our sense of collective purpose. We know what things cost but have no idea what they are worth. We no longer ask of a judicial ruling or a legislative act: Is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help bring about a better society or a better world? Those used to be the political questions, even if they invited no easy answers. We must learn once again to pose them.”
