Wisdom of Crowds

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveLast week, President Biden granted his son, Hunter Biden, “a full and unconditional” pardon for any and all offenses from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. Because Hunter Biden has been a politically charged figure since the first Trump term, and because President Biden repeatedly promised that he would not use his power to protect his son, the presidential pardon was, for many, a strategic and moral mistake — an act of hypocrisy, in short.In this week’s episode, Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic question the assumptions that Biden’s critics are making. Is political hypocrisy inevitable? Might it actually be a good thing? Shadi has written extensively on the topic of hypocrisy, defending it in a unique way. Damir pushes back against Shadi’s moral interpretation of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not primarily a failure to live up to one’s morals, says Damir, but the failure of a powerful figure to live up to their morals. “Biden’s problem is that he did it [the pardon] so visibly,” says Damir.The conversation progresses to a discussion of the how Islam and Christianity deal with hypocrisy. It becomes a discussion about hypocrisy and international justice, where Damir asks whether international law can be said to exist if it cannot be universally enforced. Perhaps, Damir suggests, Shadi is less of an advocate for international human rights as he is a booster of American imperialism. It’s a classic Shadi-and-Damir give-and-take.In our bonus portion for paid subscribers, Shadi and Damir discuss whether the Department of Justice is ever truly independent of partisan politics, and explore an alternative history where the Democrats never pursued the Russiagate investigations against Donald Trump. Required Reading:* “Biden pardons his son, Hunter, after repeatedly saying he would not” (Reuters).* Shadi: “Can Hypocrisy Be Justified?” (WoC).* Shadi: “Why America Needs Hypocrisy” (WoC).* King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. * “ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova (International Criminal Court).* “Situation in the State of Palestine: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I rejects the State of Israel’s challenges to jurisdiction and issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant” (International Criminal Court). * Jason Willick post (X).This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

The headlines prove it: we live in turbulent times. Elizabeth Oldfield, our guest this week, recently published a book — Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times — about how to thrive during such a moment. “If we’re heading into (even more) turbulent times,” Elizabeth writes, “I want to be someone who is of use, not overwhelmed and panicking but steady and hopeful, able to contribute to weaving a canopy of trust under which other people can shelter.” Along with being a writer, a former think tank director and an accomplished broadcast journalist, Elizabeth is host of The Sacred, a podcast where she interviews cultural leaders who “shape our common life,” and asks them “about their deepest values.”In this week’s episode, Damir Marusic and Santiago Ramos turn the tables on Elizabeth, putting her in the interviewee’s chair. What is the source of the wisdom distilled in Elizabeth’s book? If it is religious faith, then is faith required in order to truly embrace that wisdom? Or is the grace of God required? What is “grace,” anyway? Santiago wants to understand how the wisdom that Elizabeth writes about can be appropriated for one’s self. Damir tries to distinguish that wisdom from self-help and therapy.The conversation touches upon art and faith, whether “despair” or “preserving civilization” are good reasons to adopt religion, the necessity of community, and the role that doubt plays in faith. At the heart of the discussion is Damir’s question: “How do we live in this world, and how do we cope with the existence of the horror of this world?”This episode is a searching, personal discussion that is just the thing we need this holiday season. In the bonus section for paid subscribers, Elizabeth talks about her experience of living in community, and also plunges deep into one of the biggest mysteries of the Christian faith.Required Reading:* Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times by Elizabeth Oldfield (Amazon).* Elizabeth’s podcast, The Sacred (Apple Podcasts).* Damir’s essay about therapy (WoC).* Shadi and Damir podcast episode on therapy (WoC).* Pensées by Blaise Pascal (Amazon).* Ayaan Hirsi Ali column explaining “Why I am now a Christian” (UnHerd).* Ayaan Hirsi Ali interview further explaining her conversion (UnHerd).* Elizabeth’s “middle class commune” (profile in the London Times).Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveThe Declaration of Independence affirms that all human beings are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Yet the Declaration is silent about who this Creator is. Is it the Jewish deity or the Christian God? Or is it the god of the philosophers — the blind watchmaker of the Enlightenment? The Constitution, on the other hand, doesn’t mention the divine at all, except for the phrase, “Year of Our Lord.”Mainstream liberals and conservatives, whatever they may think of the silence regarding God in our founding documents, believe in the American experiment. But as Jerome E. Copulsky writes in his new book, American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order, throughout American history there have been those who do not, radical groups who opposed the American project, root and branch, for being liberal, as opposed to Christian. In his book, Copulsky, professor at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, writes about the Loyalist churchmen who opposed the American revolution, the proslavery theologians of the 19th century, the “Theonomist” theocrats of the 20th century, and the “Integralists” of our own time.Jerome joins Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic to discuss his book, but as often happens in Wisdom of Crowds, the conversation takes an unexpected turn. Early on, Shadi presses Jerome to specify exactly what a secular liberal Founding really means for religious practice in the public sphere. Then Shadi submits his own interpretation of the modern state as an inherently secularizing force.Damir brings the question of the secularity of the American project to bear upon current events. To what extent was the American liberal state ever “neutral”? Or is technocratic liberalism the default, unspoken “religion” of the American state? Or was it, until Donald Trump came along? And is Trump, by filling his cabinet with representatives from various American ideologies, violating liberal neutrality, or simply exposing it for the fiction that it always was?In our bonus content for paid subscribers, Jerome discusses the National Conservative movement, as exemplified by intellectuals like Patrick Deneen and Adrian Vermeule, and its influence on Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. In the second Trump term this movement will have unprecedented access to power and, Jerome argues, pose a serious challenge to — and even a “betrayal” of — the American system.Required Reading* American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order by Jerome E. Copulsky (Amazon)* The Declaration of Independence (National Archives). * The Constitution of the United States (National Archives).* Everson v. Board of Education (FindLaw).* George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island (National Archives). * We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition by John Courtney Murray, S.J. (Amazon).* Common Good Constitutionalism by Adrian Vermeule (Amazon).* Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future by Patrick Deneen (Amazon). This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

Samuel Kimbriel, a WoC house philosopher, leads a dynamic discussion with political scientist Shadi Hamid and commentator Damir Marusic. They dive into the failures of liberalism and whether bad ideas or political strategies led to recent election setbacks. Kimbriel argues for a revitalized approach to liberalism that champions moral claims, while Marusic critiques rulership failures over ideological ones. Hamid mediates, underscoring the need for authenticity and emotional connection in politics, drawing parallels between present-day challenges and historical grievances.

Tuesday night’s election has left us with total Republican control of all three branches of government. What does this mean for the immediate future of the Republic? Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic get together to discuss. We are releasing this episode early and completely free for all subscribers.Will Donald Trump become a dictator? What is he capable of? What might be the worst aspects of his second term? Damir discusses mass deportations as the biggest risk. Shadi worries about Trump’s foreign policy in the Middle East. More than that, Shadi worries about a Donald Trump who all of the sudden has everything he’s ever wanted — a revenge victory — and finds it still unsatisfying. “What now?”Damir and Shadi are not very fond of the Harris-Walz campaign. Shadi laments that Harris never seemed comfortable on the campaign trail, and could never quite communicate authenticity. Damir says that Walz is an irrelevant politician, a “weirdo” with no discernible contribution to the Democratic cause. Two minds trying to figure out where things stand in the wake of what seems to be like a momentous election. The first of many attempts at Wisdom of Crowds where we will try to read the signs of the times.Required Reading:* Tim Alberta on the dysfunction in the Trump campaign (The Atlantic).* Politico piece why Kamala lost (Politico).* Shadi: “The Democrats can’t blame anyone but themselves this time” (Washington Post). * Turkish migrant interview (YouTube).* “What Do Men Want?” podcast with Shadi and Richard Reeves (Washington Post). * Megan McArdle, Jim Geraghty and Ramesh Ponnuru podcast: “Are Republicans Kamala-curious? Not so much.” (Washington Post). * Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank and James Hohmann podcast: “Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank and James Hohmann” (Washington Post). * Andrew Sullivan’s Election Night Notes on Substack.* Donald Trump’s interview with the Wall Street Journal editorial board.* Barack Obama roasts Donald Trump at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner (YouTube). This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

On October 21 in Washington, DC, Wisdom of Crowds hosted a special live taping of the podcast. WoC editor-at-large Samuel Kimbriel joined WoC contributor and New Republic journalist Osita Nwanevu, along with Georgetown political theory professor Joshua Mitchell, to discuss “Happiness and Misery in America” on the eve of the general elections. Joshua spoke from a more communitarian and conservative point of view, citing the drawbacks that come with the growth of the state: “When you have a regime founded on small government and mediating institutions, you have to develop personal and collective competence. … Early on, happiness is linked to competence and to doing. But as the state has grown larger, and more and more the functions of living have been left up to the state, we’ve become more isolated and we come to think of happiness more as feeling and self-expression.” Osita spoke from a left-liberal perspective. It might be less the case that we are unhappy, he argued, than that we think we ought to be unhappy, given the way life is structured today. “We think that Americans should be less happy than they are. If you think that Americans should be less happy, because they use smart phones a lot, then you should own that. … Liberals always are in the business of saying less than they actually mean. The pursuit of happiness is not just material well-being … happiness for the Founders … also meant moral and spiritual well-being.”This was a robust and rich clash of perspectives that generated much more light than heat. Osita cautioned against romanticizing the old America of traditional communities, arguing that the “freedom to seek what the good life is, without having it given to you by father or pastor, is an important part of what American civilization is.” Joshua agreed that sometimes the state has to intervene in local communities for the sake of justice — for example, to desegregate the schools in Little Rock — but he also cautioned that we will never be fully satisfied without some “concreteness of embodied relations with others. … We [Americans] are all cowboys … the rest of the world can’t believe the level of unboundedness we live with.”Free for all subscribers, this is a valuable and — crucially during this moment — civil conversation that will be interesting to anyone who cares about the soul of America. Give it a listen. Required Reading:* Joshua Mitchell (Georgetown faculty webpage). * Osita Nwanevu (personal website). * Surgeon General’s Advisory on Loneliness Epidemic (Department of Health and Human Services). * Declaration of Independence (National Archives). * Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (Amazon). * Friendship as Sacred Knowing: Overcoming Isolation by Samuel Kimbriel (Amazon).This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

For the past year, Shadi Hamid has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza — and the Biden administration’s complicity. Now he, like many others, is baffled by the Harris campaign’s disregard and seeming disdain for Muslim and Arab voters. In a week is election day, and he is wrestling with the moral and political implications of the choice at hand.In our pages earlier this week, Shadi and Haroon Moghul debated the merits of voting for Harris or not voting at all. You can read their full exchange here. This podcast episode continues that conversation, but goes deeper. It is, in essence, about voting: is there a duty to vote? In a two-party system, must we accept the lesser of two evils? Moghul is director of strategy at The Concordia Forum and author of Two Billion Caliphs: A Vision of a Muslim Future. Haroon shares all of Shadi’s misgivings about Trump and Harris, and has publicly chosen not to vote. “I don’t think you can get to democratic ends with a candidate who is at war with democracy,” Haroon says, “and I don’t just mean Trump, I mean Harris.” Shadi, on the other hand, takes a more pragmatic point of view: Sitting an election out doesn’t do anything real; it would be better for Muslim and other pro-Palestine voices to continue supporting the Democratic Party, hoping to influence it from within. Meanwhile, Damir Marusic applies his trusty sense for realpolitik to the question. He challenges Shadi, arguing that he’s conflating two very different strategies: electoral pressure and intra-party influence. He questions Haroon whether there is an actual “theory of a change” behind his choice not to vote. This is a passionate discussion, not so much about electoral politics as about the first principles undergirding citizenship. And it also asks an intensely personal set of questions: how do we ultimately make what can seem like an impossible choice? Required Reading and Viewing:* Shadi Hamid and Haroon Moghul debate: “Should Americans Vote for the Lesser of Two Evils?” (WoC).* Haroon Moghul, “What I Told My Muslim Students about Gaza” (WoC).* Biden’s comments admitting Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” while also saying “we’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel.”* “Prominent Muslim Democrat Demands Answers After Being Kicked Out of Harris Rally in Michigan” (Democracy Now!)* “Trump in Michigan makes play for Arab American and Muslim voters angry over war in Gaza” (CNN).* An emotional debate with our friend and Christian Zionist Robert Nicholson weeks after Oct. 7 (WoC). * Haroon Moghul, Two Billion Caliphs: A Vision of the Muslim Future (Amazon). This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

Damir Marusic and WoC executive editor Santiago Ramos get together to discuss Damir’s latest article, “Why We Need Nightmares.” In it, Damir writes about the the binding of Isaac — the chilling story from the Book of Genesis where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. Damir is fascinated both by the story and by a Caravaggio painting depicting it. “That’s the stuff,” he writes. But what is this “stuff”?While searching for an answer to this question, Damir and Santiago cover a lot of ground. They discuss the story of Abraham and Isaac, as well as the different ways that philosophers have interpreted it. They talk about Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kant. They come to the conclusion that, while we all have different words for it — terrifying, mysterious, sublime — everyone must grapple with the stuff. Grappling with the stuff is an essential part of living a human life, for believers and unbelievers alike.This episode covers the Bible, philosophy, art, music, and much more. It is not a debate, but an exploration of what exactly it is that makes certain stories, works of art, and experiences so moving, compelling, terrifying. We enjoyed recording this episode so much that we decided to make it free for all subscribers.Required Reading and Listening:* Damir, “Why We Need Nightmares” (WoC).* Damir, “The Pursuit of Passion for Its Own Sake” (WoC).* Damir, “It’s Not Really About Cancel Culture,” about Tár (WoC).* “Ending Summer on Violence and Despair, with Twitter’s Audrey Horne” (WoC).* The story of the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22 (King James Version). * Immanuel Kant (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).* Søren Kierkegaard (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).* Friedrich Nietzsche (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).* “Time of tension between dying and birth” quote by T. S. Eliot, in “Ash Wednesday” (Best Poems). * Mozart, Symphony No. 40 (Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, YouTube).* Roger Scruton on pop music as addictive (YouTube).* Keith Richards on heavy metal, “No lift, no bounce, no syncopation” (YouTube).* Caspar David Friedrich, “Sea of Ice” (painting of shipwreck/example of the sublime).* The Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter” (YouTube).* Nirvana, “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” (YouTube). * Shellac, At Action Park (YouTube). * Arvo Pärt, Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, YouTube).* Leonard Bernstein, “The Unanswered Question,” lectures (YouTube).This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit wisdomofcrowds.liveMusa al-Gharbi is a sociologist and assistant professor in the School of Communication and Journalism at Stony Brook University. He joins Christine Emba and Damir Marusic to discuss his new book, We Have Never Been Woke: Social Justice Discourse, Inequality, and the Rise of a New Elite. Don’t worry: the book is not another culture war polemic. Instead, it’s something much more useful: a work of social science that explains what “woke” means in terms of class and culture in the United States.In our conversation Musa describes the inner workings of a group that has gone by many different names: the PMC (Professional-Managerial Class), the New Class, the cognitive elite or the symbolic capitalists. This group enjoys higher wages and more autonomy than most workers, and its power is derived from knowledge-based work, which requires (at the very least) a college degree. Damir thinks that the PMC is merely hypocritical and self-interested, while Musa sees things differently. He argues that while this group has sincere interests in advancing social justice, they also have an interest in maintaining their own elite status. This contradiction is the source of so much of the insanity we see in American society today. Christine presses Musa for details about this insanity: to what extent is the symbolic capitalist class actually sabotaging positive social change, in order to preserve their privileges?Among the topics discussed is the nature of symbolic capital; whether self interest and political idealism are necessarily contradictory; how wokeness and anti-wokeness have similar incentives; violence and social change; and the economics of victimhood. This practical and illuminating episode will make you smarter about how America works. Required Reading:* We Have Never Been Woke: Social Justice Discourse, Inequality, and the Rise of a New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi (Princeton University Press). * Alex Press, “On the Origins of the Professional-Managerial Class: An Interview with Barbara Ehrenreich” (Dissent).* Musa al-Gharbi, “Social Movement Requires Force” (Salon).* Musa al-Gharbi, “The Symbolic Professions Are Super WEIRD” (Substack).* Musa al-Gharbi, “The Absurd Spectacle at Columbia Occludes the Grim Realities of Gaza” (Compact).* “Georg Simmel” (Encyclopedia Britannica). * Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction (Amazon).This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

An emergency pod: “War, or something resembling war, is breaking out in the Middle East,” says Shadi Hamid. A year after the October 7 massacre, Israel has all but destroyed Hamas. Last month, it killed Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, thus decapitating that terrorist organization. This week, it launched an invasion of southern Lebanon. In retaliation, Iran — the longtime backer of Hezbollah — has lobbed a barrage of ballistic missiles into Israel. We decided to release the podcast early this week, before it is overtaken by the swiftly-moving events. What is this war about? What should the US do about it? Does anyone in the US political class truly believe that the Arab world is capable of democracy? Were the Abraham Accords foolish — or racist? How do you define a “rogue state”? What is Netanyahu right about?Joining Shadi Hamid and Damir Marusic to discuss these questions is Matt Duss, Executive Vice President of the Center for International Policy, co-host of the Undiplomatic Podcast, and former foreign policy advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders. “A lot of [Arab Americans] are not going to pull the lever for Kamala Harris,” Shadi reports. Matt lambasts the “racist logic” of the Abraham Accords, which swept the Palestinian question aside and decided that “this is the best [America] can hope for, deals with modernizing autocrats.” Damir applies a realpolitik analysis, explaining the Israeli military strategy and arguing that American and European diplomats have no choice but to strike deals with the autocrats that rule the world. Shadi responds: “Realpolitik is supposed to be effective.”It’s a passionate, intense discussion that strikes at the core preoccupations of Wisdom of Crowds: justice, war, and the state. Free for all subscribers: You will want to listen to the whole thing.Required Reading:* Shadi’s responses to subscribers’ provocations about the Middle East (WoC). * Bruno Maçães’ article on the end of Western hypocrisy (Time).* Jeffrey Goldberg’s 2016 article on “The Obama Doctrine” (The Atlantic). * James Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show (YouTube). * The Abraham Accords (US State Department). This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe