A Must-Read Essay: Today in the
, we published an important essay this morning by Dr. Joshua Mitchell called “Red Pill, Blue Pill”, about the ongoing crisis in political theory—political theory being characterized by "evermore production in the academic world, ever less purchase on the world." You can read the full essay, with no paywall, here. I found it so compelling that I cite one of its key ideas in a chapter on the formation of the “Political Self” in my upcoming book. It’s interesting and perhaps telling that our culture has widely adopted (thanks to The Matrix and a flurry of excellent memes since) the metaphor of “taking pills”—which effect us upon ingestion, sometimes against our will, outside of our control; this process involves little agency or cooperation, sometimes even during the taking process itself. Anyway, read the essay.An Event: This week, I’m co-hosting with Jordan Castro (whose next novel, Muscle Man, comes out in September—
said: “Finished this and need a supp…