A resounding endorsement of Rawls’ philosophy and a complex recipe for something better than what we have now.
A student of the philosopher John Rawls applies his ideas to a brand of politics capable of shaping a “good society.”
By London School of Economics professor Chandler’s account, Rawls is “the towering figure of twentieth-century political thought.” The principles that he promoted are thoroughly constructive, pointing to a liberalism that is not hidebound but instead “a broad and evolving intellectual and political tradition,” accounting for other evolutions. Rawls’ liberalism stands firm on cooperation, reciprocity, and fairness. Thinking through his philosophy, Chandler examines what are called “basic liberties,” which include not just Bill of Rights guarantees but also “freedom of choice in questions of sexuality and reproduction” as well as what religion we might want to follow, if any, and what kind of work we might want to do. The central idea is that we may not impose our standards on others simply because they’re our standards, instead respecting the views and practices of others. Citizenship in a good society requires the “duty of civility,” which is to say an openness to difference and principled disagreement. Teaching this civility, Chandler adds, will require a rather thoroughgoing reorganization of education to make “every young person aware of their rights and freedoms, of how the political system works, and about the diversity of religious, moral and political beliefs in society.” Of course, creating that education is going to cost money, which means raising taxes, and in particular taxes on the very wealthy—an opinion that wealthy individuals are likely to dispute, which introduces thorny questions of majority will. Thorny questions or no, Chandler brings good cheer and a positive outlook to the work of reshaping society, which marks an advance on the usual gloom and doom.
A resounding endorsement of Rawls’ philosophy and a complex recipe for something better than what we have now.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9780593801680
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
A welcome call to grow up and cut out the whining.
The New York Times columnist serves up a cogent argument for shelving the grudge and sucking it up.
In 1976, Tom Wolfe described the “me decade” as a pit of mindless narcissism. A half century later, Bruni, author of Born Round and other bestselling books, calls for a renaming: “‘Me Turning Point’ would have been more accurate, because the period of time since has been a nonstop me jamboree.” Our present cultural situation, he notes, is marked by constant grievance and endless grasping. The ensuing blame game has its pros. Donald Trump, he notes, “became a victor by playing the victim, and his most impassioned oratory, such as it was, focused not on the good that he could do for others but on the bad supposedly done to him.” Bruni is an unabashed liberal, and while he places most of the worst behavior on the right—he opens with Sean Hannity’s bleating lie that the Biden administration was diverting scarce baby formula from needy Americans to illegal immigrants—he also allows that the left side of the aisle has committed its share of whining. A case in point: the silencing of a professor for showing an image of Mohammed to art students, neither religiously proscribed nor done without ample warning, but complained about by self-appointed student censors. Still, “not all grievances are created equal,” he writes. “There is January 6, 2021, and there is everything else. Attempts by leaders on the right to minimize what happened that day and lump it together with protests on the left are as ludicrous as they are dangerous.” Whether from left or right, Bruni calls for a dose of humility on the part of all: “an amalgam of kindness, openness, and silliness might be an effective solvent for grievance.”
A welcome call to grow up and cut out the whining.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781668016435
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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