The Failed Attempt to Rescue Marx’s Labor Theory of Value
The Center - “Without the notion of socially necessary labor time, nothing in Marx’s value form or overall theory of exploitation makes sense.” 1/1/2022
The Center - “Without the notion of socially necessary labor time, nothing in Marx’s value form or overall theory of exploitation makes sense.” 1/1/2022The Power of Facing: A Review of “Christopher Hitchens” by Ben Burgis
The Center - “One of the causes of tension with Noam Chomsky, for example, Burgis observes, was Hitchens’ recognition that the forces of anti-imperialism today are dissimilar to ‘Ho Chi Minh or the Sandinistas.'” 12/31/2021
The Center - “One of the causes of tension with Noam Chomsky, for example, Burgis observes, was Hitchens’ recognition that the forces of anti-imperialism today are dissimilar to ‘Ho Chi Minh or the Sandinistas.'” 12/31/2021Who Will Guard the Guardians: Dilemmas of Policing
The Left - “Policing needs to be seen as a profession to whose ranks people of every class might plausibly aspire.” 12/30/2021
The Left - “Policing needs to be seen as a profession to whose ranks people of every class might plausibly aspire.” 12/30/2021What Karl Marx Got Wrong About Value
The Center - “As a matter of economics, scarcity is the source of all value, even if it is a combination of ‘manufactured’ scarcity via monopoly control and relative scarcity due to the costliness of extraction and the preferences of consumers.” 12/27/2021
The Center - “As a matter of economics, scarcity is the source of all value, even if it is a combination of ‘manufactured’ scarcity via monopoly control and relative scarcity due to the costliness of extraction and the preferences of consumers.” 12/27/2021Editor’s Choice: The Best Interviews of 2021
The Center - Here are our editor’s choices for his favorite interviews of this past year. 12/21/2021
The Center - Here are our editor’s choices for his favorite interviews of this past year. 12/21/2021Editor’s Choice: The Best Articles of 2021
The Center - “As is tradition at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite Merion West articles of this past year.” 12/15/2021
The Center - “As is tradition at Merion West, here are our editor’s choices for his favorite Merion West articles of this past year.” 12/15/2021The Material Roots of Wokeness
The Right - “So, the fact that what is now called wokeness is a minority persuasion, believed by a small group of elite left-liberals and pursued through the instruments of the managerial state and corporate oligarchies, should not be surprising.” 12/12/2021
The Right - “So, the fact that what is now called wokeness is a minority persuasion, believed by a small group of elite left-liberals and pursued through the instruments of the managerial state and corporate oligarchies, should not be surprising.” 12/12/2021From Libertarianism to National Conservatism
The Right - “National Conservatism, one strand of a broader emergent post-Cold War fusionist conservative movement, has the potential for both capturing youthful energy and enthusiasm while grounding and directing it with prudence and realism.” 11/24/2021
The Right - “National Conservatism, one strand of a broader emergent post-Cold War fusionist conservative movement, has the potential for both capturing youthful energy and enthusiasm while grounding and directing it with prudence and realism.” 11/24/2021Keeping Wounds Green
The Left - “In the aftermath of the fiasco that was the Fall of Kabul, it was predictable that American commentators would detect a mirroring effect of the Afghan loss on political crises in the United States.” 11/22/2021
The Left - “In the aftermath of the fiasco that was the Fall of Kabul, it was predictable that American commentators would detect a mirroring effect of the Afghan loss on political crises in the United States.” 11/22/2021Excerpt: “Setting the Bar”
The Center - “I pedal away with an all-too-familiar question bouncing around my head: ‘What are we doing to these kids?'” 11/15/2021
The Center - “I pedal away with an all-too-familiar question bouncing around my head: ‘What are we doing to these kids?'” 11/15/2021Excerpt: “Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency”
The Left - “The End of Suburbia lays out the argument that with oil production peaking somewhere around 2027–28, and from then on heading into a steep decline, the living standards of those in suburbia will decline also.” 11/12/2021
The Left - “The End of Suburbia lays out the argument that with oil production peaking somewhere around 2027–28, and from then on heading into a steep decline, the living standards of those in suburbia will decline also.” 11/12/2021The Queens on the Throne of Kings
The Left - “Presiding over a declining empire is more arduous than presiding over one that is rising.” 11/8/2021
The Left - “Presiding over a declining empire is more arduous than presiding over one that is rising.” 11/8/2021“Is Nothing Sacred?”
The Center - “And this is exacerbated by a situatedness in a contemporary culture that has removed the sort of guardrails that would tell a would-be troublemaker that to defile something like a grave or a tribute to those lost in a mass casualty terrorist attack is unacceptable…” 10/28/2021
The Center - “And this is exacerbated by a situatedness in a contemporary culture that has removed the sort of guardrails that would tell a would-be troublemaker that to defile something like a grave or a tribute to those lost in a mass casualty terrorist attack is unacceptable…” 10/28/2021Libya, Syria, and the Future of Intervention
The Center - “No country, even the most powerful, can save lives in every conflict, but if it judges itself to be able to and its conscience is sufficiently moved by the killing, it should step in.” 10/22/2021
The Center - “No country, even the most powerful, can save lives in every conflict, but if it judges itself to be able to and its conscience is sufficiently moved by the killing, it should step in.” 10/22/2021My Generation Is Afraid to Live
The Center - “We are inheritors of incredible cultures, yet we have no appreciation or understanding of them. We have more informational resources than any generation prior, yet we are as ignorant as ever.” 10/20/2021
The Center - “We are inheritors of incredible cultures, yet we have no appreciation or understanding of them. We have more informational resources than any generation prior, yet we are as ignorant as ever.” 10/20/2021What Punk Rock Has Taught Me about the Radical Left
The Center - “The question, of course, is why an underground counterculture known for its outspoken, contrarian, and anti-authoritarian attitude would toe the woke party line, disavow empiricism, and do the bidding of elite ideologues rather than admit that the emperor is naked.” 10/14/2021
The Center - “The question, of course, is why an underground counterculture known for its outspoken, contrarian, and anti-authoritarian attitude would toe the woke party line, disavow empiricism, and do the bidding of elite ideologues rather than admit that the emperor is naked.” 10/14/2021