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Eric Dane Walker's avatar

Re: the "Why did so may people vote for Trump?" paragraph. The questions there proliferate beyond the taming guidance of synopsis. So while I'm going to suggest a book, I'm not sure I can say with any crispness which itch it's intended to scratch.

I have in mind Overdoing Democracy by Robert Talisse, a philosopher at Vanderbilt. In particular, what he says about (what he calls) the political saturation of social space will, I'm guessing, play nicely off of the Robert Putnam book Tyson recommended (if the Putnam of that book is still anything like the Putnam of Bowling Alone.) The work is largely diagnostic, but it's an interesting diagnosis. Of what? Of the cold civil war that preceded Trump but has been aggravated by events during his tenure as president. At any rate, it tells a story that supplements the economic-alienation story whose exhaustiveness you rightly doubt.

Do note that the book is idea-delivery, businesslike. So the prose, while having a certain craftsmanship, isn't meant to be relished. But at least it's not too distracting. (Unlike the prose of many other academics who write public-facing work under the hideous assumption that doing so means adopting high TED-Talk-style.)

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Robert Detman's avatar

I feel like I'm going to have to go into the woods with Celan. Great piece!

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