Review of Our Own Worst Enemy, by Tom Nichols (2021) In recent times I have found the current American ethos best described as “I’ve got mine; you can go fuck yourself.” American individualism, rampant consumer capitalism, and the breakdown of any sense of community - the erosion of fundamental values necessary for a democracy to function … Continue reading The Triumph of Narcissism, Anger, and Resentment? →

A Dismantling of the American Dream In A Cool Million Nathaniel West parodied the myth of the American Dream through the “dismantling” of Lemuel Pitkin. In “All hail, the American Boy!” (The closing sentence of A Cool Million) Les K. Wright recounts his own would-be “dismantling” as the American Dream reveals itself for it truly is. The American … Continue reading “All hail, the American Boy!” →

I just received the Queer durch Tübingen catalog of the exhibition on the history of homosexuality in Tübingen put on by the Stadtarchiv of the city.  I was an active member of the IHT [Initiativgruppe Homosexualität Tübingen], the gay activist group, from 1975 to 1979.  I moved to Tübingen from Würzburg with my lover and began my doctoral studies at … Continue reading Queer durch Tübingen →

When the COVID-19 shutdown began in the spring of 2020, I posted on Facebook that I expected the pandemic to be, for me, a pain in the ass, a royal pain in the ass. I am a long-term (pre-highly active anti-retroviral therapy, or HAART) survivor of AIDS. I lived through the first 15 years of … Continue reading Guest Opinion: Susan Sontag and me: Epidemics I have lived through →