A COSMOPOLITAN LAWYER: JUST SOME READINGS I HAVE ENJOYED LATELY

First, this blog replaces my previous blog, thecosmoplitanlawyerblogspot.com . Second, unlike that earlier blog, the present one is primarily meant as a record of my readings. It is not meant to suggest that others will be or should be interested in what I read. And third, in a sense, it is a public diary of one who is an alien in his own American culture. A person who feels at home just about anywhere, except in his birthplace . . . America.

Friday, September 8, 2017

POLITICAL LABELS

Guido Morselli, The Communist, translated from the Italian by Frederika Randall, with an introduction by Elizabeth McKenzie (New York: New York Review Books/Classics, 2017) (From the back cover: "Walter is, always has been, and always will be a Communist, he has no doubt about that, and yet something has changed. Communism no longer explains the life he is living, the future he hoped for, or, perhaps most troubling of all, the life he has led." Query: We tend to describe ourselves with specific, though ambiguous, political labels: left, right, moderate, centrist, liberal, progressive, conservative, republican, democrat, social democrat, socialist, libertarian, independent, communist, nationalist, globalist, etc. Yet, what do these labels mean if they do not provide the standards by which we actually live--and assess and judge--our lives?).