Thank you, Margaret, for your own Project 2025, and for those gift links. I have a paragraph that I come back to whenever the future feels bleak, it’s by T H White, from “The Once and Future King.”
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn.”
I hope we will all “learn something,” and pass along what we’ve learned, so that there are fewer and fewer of the “poorly educated” among us.
Thank you for being a source of both intensive media criticism and hopeful encouragement. Americans will continue to need both as we make our way through Trump's second term.
I especially appreciate these reflections on President Carter's life. I will hold his example close to my heart in the deeply troubling times ahead. Americans are going to need plenty of reminders that humans have the capacity to demonstrate moral strength in the face of depravity.
If anything could restore my Christian faith and motivate me to attend church (and that's a tall order), it's remembering how Carter's faith drove his actions.
Ms. Sullivan, please also keep reminding us of concrete actions we can take to resist and disrupt the destructive acts of Trump/MAGA/right-wing agents. I'll need to refill my bucket of hope and determination every day.
I appreciate you mentioning that faith is only one way to stay the course, because I consider myself an agnostic who is nostalgic for Lutheranism. I love your use of the word "thicket" in this context. I'll be sharpening everything from my toenail clippers to my machete collection to navigate this briar patch (as my North Carolina folks would say). Best wishes to you and your readers for a new year that inspires joy and laughter through it all.
As always, journalists tend to either to be hypercriticial of public figures or to turn them into saints. President Carter did many good things, but he tolerated Hamilton Jordan, whose flaws were many. I covered the 1976 Democratic convention, and Carter's folks did not exude kindness to the media. And even actions, such as deregulating the airline industry, left many rural communities without dependable transportation.
My one hope for 2025 is that news stories contain far fewer adjectives and far more facts about government policies and their impact on average citizens. Far less focus on outrageous quotes and tweets, and political infighting. Far more reporting on what Congress, and the White House and the courts actually do. Far more separation between opinion, which is just that, and news.
Thanks for pointing out that Carter was still a fallible human being with flaws like the rest of us, because I know very little about him. I appreciate your perspective as a journalist during his presidency.
I’m headed to the Dylan movie today, but I just saw “Wicked” last week. Not only is it just a spectacular musical, but it’s also a cutting satire on our very own times. I had seen the play years ago and never noticed this. Maybe it took the events of the last 10 years to open my eyes. Anyway, I highly recommend seeing it if you haven’t yet. Happy New Year, everyone.
In 1968, the Soviet physicist-turned-dissident Andrei Sakharov wrote a remarkable essay titled Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom, which circulated underground before it was published in the West by the New York Times. This quote from that essay has always stood out in my mind and is as pertinent in the U.S. today as it was in the Soviet Union in 1968:
“Intellectual freedom is essential to human society — freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices. Such a trinity of freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorship. Freedom of thought is the only guarantee of the feasibility of a scientific democratic approach to politics, economics and culture.”
While not an easy read (it isn't the writing; that's superb, it's the subject, and the thoroughness), Caste: the origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson is explaining so much.
As I used to say when I was working in community development, you can't solve a problem if you can't define it.
The more thoroughly you define it, the greater success you will have in solving. Wilkerson is superb at defining our culture of caste.
Caste is outstanding. You're correct that it's a difficult read. It caused me to reflect on the true meaning of the privilege that I have, where it comes from, and why it is so pernicious. I've been fortunate to see Wilkerson speak twice, once when she was promoting The Warmth of Other Suns and again after Caste had been out for a while. The second opportunity gave me a truer sense about her than the first, which was sponsored by the Seattle Art Museum. That audience was primarily middle-aged or older white people--like me. The second was sponsored by a local nonprofit agency that promotes housing for underserved populations in Seattle, particularly focusing on Black people who are being forced out of their traditional neighborhoods. The audience was more diverse and younger. She was dynamite in both settings, but she was clearly able to be herself in the second venue. She is a treasure. I can hardly wait until she writes another book!
I just finished reading Erik Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest,” about the events surrounding the attack on Fort Sumter and the onset of the Civil War. The parallels to the country’s situation today are remarkable and disconcerting.
Thanks to you, Ms. Sullivan, for helping me be part of the Resistance.
Great to find you this morning, Margaret. Thanks for the extra credit links as well. I’ll finish reading those after breakfast. Keeping hope alive . . .
Thank you, Margaret. You are an indispensable voice in these fraught times. Thank you for your thoughtfulness, your reasoned and constructive criticism of the media, and your optimism. Onward. Happy New Year.
Thank you as always for your insights. I'm not a journalist, but my own project 2025, outside of my paid work, is to continue, when possible, with a couple of long-term volunteer projects in my neighborhood. I'm also moving ahead with researching an ancestor who broke the law for many years, taking advantage of trust within his community. I'm fascinated not only by what might have made him an outlier but also how his community responded when his crimes were discovered. I'm reading The FIrst Tycoon by T.J. Stiles, a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, which highlights how very new our country's financial and transportation systems are. I'm also rereading Wolf Hall. I'm interested in exploring moral transgression: how individuals justify and normalize their behavior, and what elements might influence them to behave otherwise. Somehow, this all seems relevant to our precarious time or, at any rate, it's giving me a way to stay my own course.
Many thanks, Margaret. I’ve just finished any Gamerman’s The Crazies: the cattleman, the wind prospector, and a war out west. Really masterful and a reminder how complicated stories are when you chase them through all their local details.
Thank you, Margaret, for your own Project 2025, and for those gift links. I have a paragraph that I come back to whenever the future feels bleak, it’s by T H White, from “The Once and Future King.”
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn.”
I hope we will all “learn something,” and pass along what we’ve learned, so that there are fewer and fewer of the “poorly educated” among us.
That’s wonderful. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have to reread that book.
Thank you so very much for that. For personal family and larger world reasons, this is just the balm I needed this morning.
All the best in 2025 to you and yours.
Thank you for being a source of both intensive media criticism and hopeful encouragement. Americans will continue to need both as we make our way through Trump's second term.
I especially appreciate these reflections on President Carter's life. I will hold his example close to my heart in the deeply troubling times ahead. Americans are going to need plenty of reminders that humans have the capacity to demonstrate moral strength in the face of depravity.
If anything could restore my Christian faith and motivate me to attend church (and that's a tall order), it's remembering how Carter's faith drove his actions.
Ms. Sullivan, please also keep reminding us of concrete actions we can take to resist and disrupt the destructive acts of Trump/MAGA/right-wing agents. I'll need to refill my bucket of hope and determination every day.
Carter’s faith is inspiring, but we all can find our own ways through the thicket. I will do as you suggest; thanks!
I appreciate you mentioning that faith is only one way to stay the course, because I consider myself an agnostic who is nostalgic for Lutheranism. I love your use of the word "thicket" in this context. I'll be sharpening everything from my toenail clippers to my machete collection to navigate this briar patch (as my North Carolina folks would say). Best wishes to you and your readers for a new year that inspires joy and laughter through it all.
I so do love your columns, care, insights, generosity, keen knowledge, and ACTIONS. You’re tops in my reading. Thank you so very much,
one grateful reader.
That’s very kind, and means a lot.
As always, journalists tend to either to be hypercriticial of public figures or to turn them into saints. President Carter did many good things, but he tolerated Hamilton Jordan, whose flaws were many. I covered the 1976 Democratic convention, and Carter's folks did not exude kindness to the media. And even actions, such as deregulating the airline industry, left many rural communities without dependable transportation.
My one hope for 2025 is that news stories contain far fewer adjectives and far more facts about government policies and their impact on average citizens. Far less focus on outrageous quotes and tweets, and political infighting. Far more reporting on what Congress, and the White House and the courts actually do. Far more separation between opinion, which is just that, and news.
Thanks for pointing out that Carter was still a fallible human being with flaws like the rest of us, because I know very little about him. I appreciate your perspective as a journalist during his presidency.
Demon Copperhead was a favorite read this year. Reason for hope in desperate circumstances.
Thanks for continuing to be a voice in the media wilderness. Best to you in this coming year, friend.
I loved that one too. Thanks Karen. Nice to see you here!
I’m headed to the Dylan movie today, but I just saw “Wicked” last week. Not only is it just a spectacular musical, but it’s also a cutting satire on our very own times. I had seen the play years ago and never noticed this. Maybe it took the events of the last 10 years to open my eyes. Anyway, I highly recommend seeing it if you haven’t yet. Happy New Year, everyone.
In 1968, the Soviet physicist-turned-dissident Andrei Sakharov wrote a remarkable essay titled Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom, which circulated underground before it was published in the West by the New York Times. This quote from that essay has always stood out in my mind and is as pertinent in the U.S. today as it was in the Soviet Union in 1968:
“Intellectual freedom is essential to human society — freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices. Such a trinity of freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorship. Freedom of thought is the only guarantee of the feasibility of a scientific democratic approach to politics, economics and culture.”
While not an easy read (it isn't the writing; that's superb, it's the subject, and the thoroughness), Caste: the origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson is explaining so much.
As I used to say when I was working in community development, you can't solve a problem if you can't define it.
The more thoroughly you define it, the greater success you will have in solving. Wilkerson is superb at defining our culture of caste.
Caste is outstanding. You're correct that it's a difficult read. It caused me to reflect on the true meaning of the privilege that I have, where it comes from, and why it is so pernicious. I've been fortunate to see Wilkerson speak twice, once when she was promoting The Warmth of Other Suns and again after Caste had been out for a while. The second opportunity gave me a truer sense about her than the first, which was sponsored by the Seattle Art Museum. That audience was primarily middle-aged or older white people--like me. The second was sponsored by a local nonprofit agency that promotes housing for underserved populations in Seattle, particularly focusing on Black people who are being forced out of their traditional neighborhoods. The audience was more diverse and younger. She was dynamite in both settings, but she was clearly able to be herself in the second venue. She is a treasure. I can hardly wait until she writes another book!
I just finished reading Erik Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest,” about the events surrounding the attack on Fort Sumter and the onset of the Civil War. The parallels to the country’s situation today are remarkable and disconcerting.
Thanks to you, Ms. Sullivan, for helping me be part of the Resistance.
Thanks re Larson’s book. He’s one of the best of our time.
Great to find you this morning, Margaret. Thanks for the extra credit links as well. I’ll finish reading those after breakfast. Keeping hope alive . . .
Way to go! Good luck and happy new year!
Thank you, and the same to you. One of my first resolutions is to send some money to The Guardian.
Thank you, Margaret. You are an indispensable voice in these fraught times. Thank you for your thoughtfulness, your reasoned and constructive criticism of the media, and your optimism. Onward. Happy New Year.
Thanks, Margaret! You're setting such a good example.
I'm saving this piece as an inspiration for disheartening times. I like the idea of A Project 2025 as I navigate my Resistance!!
I love Bob Dylan. Thanks for the recommendation 😀
Thank you as always for your insights. I'm not a journalist, but my own project 2025, outside of my paid work, is to continue, when possible, with a couple of long-term volunteer projects in my neighborhood. I'm also moving ahead with researching an ancestor who broke the law for many years, taking advantage of trust within his community. I'm fascinated not only by what might have made him an outlier but also how his community responded when his crimes were discovered. I'm reading The FIrst Tycoon by T.J. Stiles, a biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, which highlights how very new our country's financial and transportation systems are. I'm also rereading Wolf Hall. I'm interested in exploring moral transgression: how individuals justify and normalize their behavior, and what elements might influence them to behave otherwise. Somehow, this all seems relevant to our precarious time or, at any rate, it's giving me a way to stay my own course.
Your ancestor's story sounds fascinating. I would read that book.
Thank you, Margaret, for your own Project 2025. I am going to amplify it whenever and wherever I can.
Many thanks, Margaret. I’ve just finished any Gamerman’s The Crazies: the cattleman, the wind prospector, and a war out west. Really masterful and a reminder how complicated stories are when you chase them through all their local details.
You asked for book recommendations. The young journalists you are enthusiastic about might gain something regarding what they are up against by reading this book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/243405/bad-news-by-anjan-sundaram/