Don't You Have A Substack Already?
A little explanation
Yes, I do have a Substack called A Guide to Unreality . It has been going on pretty well, accumulating subscribers and engaging in quality conversations about my passion, which is speculative fiction (science fiction, horror, fantasy and fairy tales). I am an academic and a writer, and I am very happy to share my expertise and knowledge with readers and writers of SF everywhere.
But as I started to share Notes on this platform, I realized that the ones getting most passionate responses are on subjects unrelated to SF, such as the problems with the left, Israel, and Jewish history. While I am always ready to speak out on the last two subjects - I am Jewish and Israeli, after all - there are many excellent Substacks already covering it, such as Future of Jewish and The Beginning of Wisdom
But I understand the left as few people do. First, I am a professor of the Humanities, and during my career, I have been watching the rise of woke from the front row, first amused, then concerned, then horrified. I know more about the roots of this ideology that most lay people, having studied postmodernism and neo-Marxism in the course of my degrees. And second, I was born in the USSR. I know its history which so many on the left would rather forget or minimize. And this is also an experience I want to share.
So, here is an experiment. I will publish a limited Substack covering a specific list of subjects. This will run alongside my A Guide to Unreality, which will continue uninterrupted. If you subscribe to one, please consider subscribing to the other. Both are free. I want to engage in conversations and help people understand the bewildering moment that is now.
Let me be clear about my perspective. I am a proud Jew and a Zionist. I am a classic liberal. I am not a conservative as this term is used in the US today. I am a free-speech absolutist. But most of all, I am an intellectual. My commitment is to the truth as I see it to be rather than to a political party or a partisan ideology.
Here is a tentative list of topics I want to cover. Feel free to add your own in comments.
What is ideology?
What is fascism?
What is socialism?
Why do utopias always end in violence?
Foucault and Critical Theory.
Feminism and gender.
Post-liberalism.
Neo-Marxism and its discontents.
A brief history of racism
What is the far right?
If these topics interest you, please consider subscribing to my new Substack!
I've subscribed! And thanks for the shout-out!
I consider myself a kind of Burkean conservative, if I have to label myself (although I have moments of what Orwell called a Tory Anarchism), but I think a commitment to truth has to precede our party political loyalties or we will get stuck in the nihilism of the current era.
Also, as I've said before, I think the voices of former Soviet states are going to be important as we try to navigate out of the era of woke without (hopefully) over-correction, so I think this is very important.
I am really looking forward to this!