The nineteen-sixties are on my mind a lot. If your goal is to slow climate change, or reverse inequality, or stop racism, or rebuild democracy, you will need the national solidarity that comes from patriotism. How do you do this without engaging in a nationalism that people dont like, which is I think the reason that liberal, progressive politicians have always had trouble doing it? They see reason to fear the possible outcomes in Ukraine. The Will Smith-Chris Rock slapping incident (also known as "Slapgate" or "The Slap") took place during the 94th Academy Awards on March 27, 2022, when actor Will Smith walked onstage and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face during Rock's presentation for Best Documentary Feature.The slap was in response to Rock's joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head, which she had . I respond with shame and defiancemostly shame. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Essays and reporting. Packer, the author of the books The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (2013) and The Assassins Gate: America in Iraq (2005) talked to me about what it was like to report his story. Far creepier, however, are the some of the more "complex" explanations for Bales's crime, notably one proffered by Iraq war supporter and neocon-enabler George Packer, in the New Yorker, who denounces "the smugness of the antiwar crowd" and instructs us to avoid "easy condemnations." After all, says Packer, But she also said the NewsGuild believed the writers were misclassified as contractors, when they were really akin to full-time employees, and she laid out a path for them to join the union. Packer doesn't preach about this. This seems like the only way that face-to-face interactions between Americans from wildly different backgrounds could happen. Here I was re-creating what Iraqis told me had happened months or years ago, and I kept pressing them to be as specific as possible, which often ran up against their desire not to be identifiable. But that is precisely the problem: Packer - I believe, and please correct me if I am wrong - has no training in North Africa's history and politics and I don't think he has spent much time there except for these quick hit trips for the long New Yorker piece (again, please correct me if I am wrong). 2,141 likes. The New Yorker. Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award, George Packer is a venerated staff writer for The New Yorker-with four tours on . We are blunt. Say what you want, but Biden is . Buy on Bookshop. George Packer, a staff writer from 2003 to 2018, has covered the Iraq War for The New Yorker and has also written about the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone, civil unrest in the Ivory Coast . Hes in a strong position. IN "The Assassins' Gate," his chronicle of the Iraq war, George Packer tells the tale of Drew Erdmann, a young American . In a new book, the journalist George Packer argues that the country is divided into four warring factions. They loom larger in times like now, when inequality is soaring and trust in institutions governments, corporations, schools, the press is falling. And thats Sanders, as well. On Saturday afternoon the primary participants of The New Yorker's delightful and addictive "Campaign Trail" podcast collected for a live version of same, sort of like when Monty Python did The Secret Policeman's Other Ball. Even more, segregation ended because of the civil-rights movement. The past four years have severely tested those ideals, and under the leadership of Jeffrey Goldberg, who became editor in chief the month before . In recent years, a small group of scholars has focussed on war-termination theory. All rights reserved. And thats with us all the time, and we have to fight it. In his article, Packer outlines what he calls "four rival narratives four accounts of America's moral identity.". That were two countries, and one of them is going to have to defeat, and in some ways destroy, the other? "They originally thought of it as a [Jeff] Bezos piece," he said. George Packer (Togo 1982-83) In The New Yorker. Patriotism, to me, is closer to what Im trying to describe because its like loyalty. The difference is that Gerald Ford, knowing that Vietnam was lost, was politically able to bring refugees here in large numbers and felt morally compelled to do so. Weve all lived with the red-blue division for about twenty years. While he was working on the article, Brad Stones book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon was published -- a book Packer said he found to be excellent. It obviously has to do with leadership. In his new book, " Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal ," George Packer writes that the United States is in a state of disrepair, brought about primarily by the fact . And, if there is a return to that, then Im happy. Robert Siegel discusses President Bush's speech outlining a strategy in the war in Iraq with Reuel Marc Gerecht, contributing editor for the Weekly Standard, Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, former Middle Eastern specialist for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1985 to 1994 and author of The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab . That is Bidens project. When he came back from book leave in mid-2013, Packers New Yorker editors suggested the idea to him. We found out last year we had something really big to do. He reports that men employed by Americans as . The best way to make it is to get government out of the way and to cut taxes and deregulate and set us free in order to use our industry and talent to make something new. George Packer, a staff writer at The New Yorker, is the author, most recently, of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America.. They might even be repelled by it. No matter what happens, Mr. Remnick told writers on one recent Zoom call, he would not ask them to cross virtual picket lines. He is the author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, a New York Times bestseller, which won the 2013 National Book Award for non-fiction. The writers in the room had been invited merely to a meeting to understand what the existing union drive meant for them, Mr. Taub said, and had no sense that they were secretly being organized. That dynamic poses a threat to both traditional, top-down media institutions and organized labor. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Free America in the eighties, Smart America with Clinton in the nineties. It doesnt help. Iraqs population is largely Arab, with the major exception being the Kurds. After a month in office, he has already proved himself unable to discharge his duties. Packer, George (February 11-18, 2013). He proposes a different vision, which he thinks offers brighter possibilities, centered around the concept of equality and non-demagogic appeals to patriotism. Like many Germans of my generation, I am fully aware of the fact that we owe the U.S., and it breaks my heart to see a good friend choose the path of (self) destruction. Packer was born in California around 1960. To me, thats like saying Do we stop looking at the data on poverty because there are disparate outcomes among different groups? No. Generationally, hes closest to Clinton. On one recent Zoom call with union leaders, Mr. Wright, a former Teamster and longtime W.G.A. But, in comparison with Iraq, America acquitted itself with a measure of honor by evacuating and resettling its Vietnamese friends in the United Statesa hundred and forty thousand of them by the end of 1975. [6], Packer was a Holtzbrinck Fellow Class of Fall 2009 at the American Academy in Berlin.[7]. The moment, of course, seems all the stranger, in that much of the conflict is playing out virtually, while everyone is working remotely. And Mankoff responded accordingly: "What I absolutely take satisfaction in is that, as I leave as cartoon editor, I leave The New Yorker and my successor with a bumper crop of new and talented cartoonists who came in under my tenure," Mankoff told the Washington Post's Michael Cavna. Theres an overlap. "A place in history". And those are mostly Black farmers who have been dispossessed through decades by the Department of Agriculture and by state and local governments. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. All of these are public stories that are familiar to those who follow Amazons moves in the publishing world; what Packer does it put them all in one place and make them comprehensible to a general audience. Were nave. Most Iraqi refugees I spoke with have found the reception from their Arab neighbors rather chilly. Its been the most dominant narrative in our society. His new book, The Unwinding , depicts an America weakened by . The country itself needs us to somehow be committed to it, and not just to ourselves and to our political tribe, and to our cohort and the people who share the bubble with us. In one recent Zoom call, writers even complained to Mr. Remnick of their fears of being bullied on Twitter if they diverge from union talking points. Fitzgerald intuited that, with the old restraining deities of the 19th century dead and his generations faith in man shaken by World War I, celebrities were the new household gods. Virtually all of The New Yorker writers I spoke to said they supported the unions core economic goals, and believed the junior staff members deserve pay increases. American history is one way to get in touch with it. They have little faith that the U.S. can achieve it, but even less that their own government and security forces can. For more information:. Its the first time since Free America emerged, in the nineteen-eighties, that weve had a serious new political project as ambitious as thatof simply improving peoples lives in jobs, in working conditions, giving labor more power, breaking up monopolies, providing health care. But why does neither of them appeal to you? How do you decide which details to include? But in times of widespread opportunity, the distance between gods and mortals closes, the monuments shrink closer to human size and the centrality of celebrities in the culture recedes. Almost half a century later, the ghost of the scandal that launched Woodwards career haunts the Trump White House. I had this idea about the way international organizations go into Bosnia or Northern Ireland or Israel and just get the warring sides to build a school together, or put on a play together. Free Americans' individualistic, leave-me-alone conception of . There was a rebellion from below within Free America. A new mood of activism has swept through the home of the mascot Eustace Tilley. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. 1960) is a US journalist, novelist, and playwright. Twitter reacts to Kentucky crushing Auburn,Auburn was unable to keep up in the second half. And if we have a politics that focusses on that, and tries to bring us closer to that, I think thats a healthier narrative than any of the four Ive described. They're scared of doing something that might look a little unsafe. The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century. You write, Because people still live their lives in an actual place, and the nation is the largest place with which they can identify. Is a Woman Ever Going to Win the White House? By George Packer. This is an excellent question, and a huge one. The employees ultimately backed down, rejecting the notion of unionism for what seemed in part to be cultural reasons. In an interview with ESPN, Toma said the field was watered the Wednesday morning before the game, which took place on . But many writers also see what The New Yorker offers as a good deal: a prestigious place to publish that allows them to retain the rights to their work. montreal bypass to new brunswick map; mark bouris byron bay house; are belvita breakfast biscuits good for diabetics; is hello alice grant legit; the squad fs19 mods; famous muslim tennis players; google street view caribbean Betrayed, from the issue of April 2, 2007. Or has the threat to liberalism by Just America been overstated? The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. George Packer's new Atlantic story traces a theme of disappointment with President Joe Biden's failure to live up to his initial ideals as he tracks Biden's shifting views on the long war . And I know that thats a tricky and maybe dangerous thing for some Americans, but the first thing Id say is, if you suppress that in yourself, or if you refuse to acknowledge it in others, you will insure that the worst versions of it, like Trumpism, will have the field, because most people still feel that. Some salaries at The New Yorker start at $42,000 a year and remain under $60,000 after 20 years on the job. Interesting facts in his article: When a buyer searches for a book on Amazon.com, the results are partly determined by the fees paid by publishers; publishers pay Amazon a percentage of the profits they make through the online store each year; those percentages have gone up; although publishers may be squeezed by Amazon, they remain dependent on the company for as much as 30% of their sales, a number thats still growing. But this is the direction we have to go in. You are referring to Roosevelts jab at Woodrow Wilson in the years before America entered the First World War: A milk-and-water righteousness unbacked by force to the full is as wicked as and even more mischievous than force divorced from righteousness. No one wants to come out in support of either righteousness or watery milk (I know I dont), but, unfortunately, Roosevelts cult of force doesnt answer the hardest questions of foreign policy, either. And Just America has rightly said, Thats not working for a lot of Americans who still are second-class citizens.. Human Rights in North Korea to Stay on UN Security Council Radar,US News is a recognized leader in college, grad school, hospital, mutual fund, and car rankings. I ended up travelling through Europe and the Middle East for about a month, with two weeks in Baghdad. Persuasion doesnt work. On every trip to Iraq, I have met remarkable American individuals in military and civilian ranks, but, like most people I have talked to about Iraq, I am stunned by the level of general American incompetence there. A recent essay in the Atlantic by George Packer, author of the 2013 book Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, makes the case that America is, in fact, a failed state. There has been no progress in terms of higher education opening up to Americans of lower classes. Ably guided by moderator Dorothy Wickenden, Ryan Lizza, Hendrik Hertzberg, and George Packer engaged in a spirited and relatively unepigrammatic discussion about . Those two things together, I think, have given us Real America. When he came back from book leave in mid-2013, Packer's New Yorker editors suggested the idea to him. One point of view is that you have to be aware of racism and different identities and different inequalities if you want to take the step of improving everyones life. The conflict has seized the attention of the industry not just because of the employees glee at holding the brand hostage in public, but also because it highlights big questions facing contemporary media. One of the things Packer mentions is the Gazelle Project, referencing Stones book. But politically, if that is its messageif identity is its messageI think its going to be an uphill battle. Assigned reading, Professor John Nelson the unconnected george packer new yorker, 92, 35, october 31, 2016, pp. But the alternatives to American power will be even less appealing. Join our community book club. Thats where its strongest, and at this point its dominant. It means were better. That and time and a change in Washington will eventually, I hope, restore Americas good name. Am I really prepared to say its over? Initially, Amazon was going to give Packer access to report about the company from the inside, then things changed. She changed a bit during the campaign, but I think of her as something of a throwback. And this is also the Democratic Party going along with the Reagan consensus. For example, in your Letter from Sudan, published in the magazine last year, you described the Sudanese politician Hasan al-Turabi right down to his flower-patterned polyester socks. Where do you get your inspiration? I think nationalism is destructive. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. We dont want so strong a union that mediocrity reigns and its impossible to get rid of poor performers. You have expressed Iraqi opinions in your own words. Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America Doug Sovern, KCBS Radio Political Reporter - Moderator. Anyone can read what you share. Obama did what you are talking about, in terms of making compromises in the way he talked about certain issues. But the other chunk of the story is how much Gutekunst wants to see more of Love in the regular season. George Packer. I try not to use it for books more than I have to, he said, because I see a real value in walking into a bookstore and seeing things jump off the shelves.. When you say that if liberals do not engage in a certain form of patriotism then that space will be taken over by the right, are you talking about winning votes? Theyve agreed on a $55,000 starting salary and are hashing out issues like caps on potential health care cost increases, people familiar with the talks said even as the Guild threatens a strike. An organizer for the NewsGuild who was present, Nastaran Mohit, told the writers she had avoided involving them in the original organizing drive because she knew how close many of them were to management, and she was worried theyd snitch. They also have deep confidence in his ability to make their work better. Maybe this says that the Democratic Party is about to undergo something big. His 2021 book Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal describes the fragmentation of American society in recent decades into four mutually antagonistic "four Americas": "Free America" (economically liberal), "Smart America" (educated, affluent and socially liberal), "Real America" (white rural precariat) and "Just America" (urban, progressive and economically disadvantaged). Richard Armitage, when I interviewed him, placed the blame on a complete lack of accountability at the highest levels. Some, led by Tad Friend and Jia Tolentino, used the threat of a union and the suggestion that Cond Nast had illegally classified many of them as contractors, which the company disputes to set up a process by which some writers could become employees with health benefits. He has tried to be reassuring, even as the prospect of putting out the print magazine without editorial staff members looms. The union includes 120 people and there are about the same number of staff and contributing writers. Im identifying, to some degree, with my parents, who were in their forties and on a college campus during the student revolution, and it was not an easy time. Almost any Republican now can be slotted into the Reagan mold or the Trump mold, or theyre pretending to be one but theyre clearly the other. He is best known for his writings for The New Yorker and The Atlantic about U.S. foreign policy and for his book The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq.Packer also wrote The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, covering the history of the US from 1978 to 2012.In November 2013, The Unwinding received the . It has set off reflections on their status and revealed the rare bond and unusual deference many of them feel toward Mr. Remnick. In 2019, she was a judge of the National Book Award in Nonfiction. The unionization effort has created an uncomfortable moment for the writers at The New Yorker, who have the kind of jobs and influence every journalist wants but few attain. Union activists tend to be less charitable, and feel hes trying to have it both ways. 2023 Cond Nast. The book is kind of a quarrel with myself because, on the one hand, I am in a state of utter disgust and rage at the Republican Party, and its lies, its conspiracies, its racism, its cynicism. Compare that to the several hundred Iraqisalmost all of them refugees from the Saddam erawho have been allowed to immigrate to the United States over the past few years. The midterm elections are the last obstacle to Trumps consolidation of powerand the greatest obstacle to voting is the feeling that it doesnt matter. It never rains on a Twitter picket line. His decency, his dignity, his ability to explain what democracy isIm not sure well ever see that again. The answer to your question depends on how much can be achieved by this movement. But your point is valid, and I think that partly explains the Packers' willingness to continue pushing cap charges into the future with these restructures. I feel the same about our country. Unionized employees from Cond Nast marched from New York University to the home of Anna Wintour, Cond Nasts global chief content officer, last Tuesday. Theres been nothing like it since the 1930s. And maybe we needed that. Regarding his abilities, the . 2023 Cond Nast. I dont know enough to agree or disagree., But in terms of telling the story, it was helpful. Or, to be more . It doesnt happen in neighborhoods. Is it a failure of leadership? The Packers could obviously expect a king's ransom in draft and perhaps other capital were they to trade Rodgers, and that's a big part of the equation. Sarah Palin was the early warning sign that Free America was breaking up. They wanted to hear how bad things were. Packer has made four tours on assignment in Iraq for The New By George Packer. I very much enjoyed this piece, because it seems to fit . And so, if Smart America is a new aristocracy in which families essentially pass on membership to their children, then its in the end going to be a destructive force, even if a lot of good things have come from it. Its all particularly personal at The New Yorker, where the campaign has pitted a culture built on personal relationships and deep trust against a group of employees who reject the idea that they should be subject to the whims of any boss, no matter how benign. The magazine was once a charity case among flush glossies, but its subscription business, which boomed in the Trump years, has given its editor unique leverage: The New Yorker avoided companywide layoffs last year, and has also been left out of the rest of Cond Nasts painful drive toward centralization. That I have much more skepticism about, because of social media, because of the conservative information environment. The book achieves this mainly by tracing the lives of various individuals from different backgrounds through the years. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. But some also shun its blunt and adversarial language. In his new book, Adam Hochschild remembers a time when a crusade for democracy abroad released a demonic spirit of intolerance and violence at home. They have all kinds of identities. "The Betrayal," George Packer's latest narrative for the Atlantic, is a large and masterful work of journalism that should be read by everyone concerned over the crisis of American . Nobody was interested in a union rep coming between them and Mr. Remnick on editorial decisions. Do you think youre more likely to say, when looking back on Just America in this period, Wow, that was a crazy time that many of our institutions on the left went through, and they did a lot of harm, or You know what? ranges across the country to chronicle the time when "the coil that held Americans together in its secure and sometimes stifling grip first gave way." "I am the empire at the end of the decadence." Thus said the French poet Mallarm. Its more like a bunch of instincts and prejudices. She joined the L.A. Times in 2010 as staff writer in Books and left in 2018. Browse archives for February 04, 2015. George Packer broke with the magazines tight-lipped traditions by sharing details of his own deal with Cond Nast. Across the board, American institutions have failed. Ben Rhodes was the Presidents speechwriter, foreign-policy adviser, and confidant. the democrats lost the white working class. Some of the large pieces, which are chopped up and welded onto the rest in roughly 20-page blocks, began as articles in The New Yorker, where Mr. Packer is a staff writer. They originally thought of it as a [Jeff] Bezos piece, he said. And youre right that eight years of Obama in some ways gave us Trump. New Yorker writer Packer (Interesting Times: Writing from a Turbulent Decade, 2009, etc.) Its as if he didnt experience the late sixties and the seventies in the way, say, Bill Clinton did. First of all, I agree about Obama. Many writers have tweeted in support. in 2015 and has continued apace. 1. . While the union won headlines by marching to Ms. Wintours house, which was guarded, disappointingly, by two low-key men in shapeless cotton shirts, Ms. Wintour has no real involvement in The New Yorker. What are celebrities, after all? George Packer, writer at the New Yorker and author of the new book "The Unwinding: An Inner History Of The New America." He also recently wrote the New York Times op-ed " Celebrating Inequality . He was a supporter of the Iraq war. And it then felt like half the country, in 2015, responded to seven years of this by choosing a lunatic white nationalist to be its nominee for President. A month after releasing long-lists of 10 in each of the four . Because of the difficulties of working in Iraq and the concerns Iraqis have about their safety, this story presented logistical challenges. He is the author of several books, including The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century, and The Assassins Gate: America in Iraq, which was named one of the ten best books of 2005 by the New York Times and won the New York Public Librarys Helen Bernstein Book Award and an Overseas Press Club book award. Were informal with waiters. Well, I think Smart America is the one its closest toin a sense, its one generation overthrowing the previous one, children overthrowing parents. What am I writing about here?, What he came up with, he explained, is Amazons relation to the world of culture -- especially books.. purchase. I have no hope that Congress or any of the Presidential candidates (and that emphatically includes the Democrats) will bring about a fundamental change in the way the United States defines its global strategy, or the way it projects its interests. At the same time, you may not sell those policies through the frame of specific identities. I just think its a nightmare scenario, and so Im maybe a little bit quixotically doing what I can to put a thread in us. Well be lucky if we do. His uncle, George Huddleston, Jr., succeeded to his father's seat in the House of Representatives from 1954 to 1964. Neither of these issues is new. Everyone I met on my last trip feared a wider catastrophe without American troops. As I read your article, I got a sickening feeling that we have been here before. So its not as though there was a wild rejection of him. George Packer on "Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century," by Daniel Oppenheimer. It seemed like a way to jolt the picture productively. A deal was finalized late last month. And that was a really potent story that Reagan told, and that the Republican Party lived by for decades, and to some extent still does. November 2, 2022. (The NewsGuilds president, Susan DeCarava, said in response to questions about the exchange that it does not comment on confidential organizing conversations.), The meetings host, Adam Davidson, had already been among the writers talking to Mr. Remnick about setting up a health care plan for writers. And as the labor movement seeks to level the playing field, will the stars go along? His essays and articles have appeared in Boston Review, The Nation, World Affairs, Harper's, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, among other publications. The New Yorker George Packer is an author and staff writer for The New Yorker . Well, I agree. My worry is that the philosophical and practical direction of this movement is making those achievements less likely. Johnson, one of the publishing industrys rare Amazon critics, pushed back against Amazons predatory practices. George Packer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and (most recently) the author of The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. A lot of people think of Just America as a response to Trump, too, which is why its interesting that youre defining it as just as much a reaction to Smart America. The Gazelle Project -- that was me, Melville Houses Dennis Johnson told Packer. Instead, youll be speaking to them ideologically, and they might tune you out. And its legacy might be similar. Its like loyalty to whats yours.
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