A few orders of business: First, my apologies for not providing an update or post on Sunday. I was away for most of last week at a conference and I am terrible at working on the road. Second, I will probably not be putting out a longer piece this week as I am going on a bit of a hiking trip over the Easter holiday. Again, my apologies. Finally, some of these links are not the freshest, but I think they remain relevant. The final is an incredibly moving rendition of Antony’s “Friends, Romans, countrymen,” speech from Julius Caesar which my colleagues and I used to discuss the war in Ukraine at the above-mentioned conference. I hope you enjoy it. Ramble on!
The language of war and the war over language.
“As I read the letter after letter I couldn’t stop thinking about Boris’s refusal to speak his own language as an act of protest against the military invasion. What does it mean for a poet to refuse to speak his own language?
Is language a place you can leave? Is language a wall you can cross? What is on the other side of that wall?”
Long-termism (on meat) and short-termism (on Ukraine) from Vox’s Future Perfect. The second link includes several charitable organizations aiding Ukrainian refugees, the free press, the military, and politicians in the fight against Russia.
How to replace meat. Perspectives from Mark Bittman and Ezra Klein. To be clear, for nationwide policy, I prefer Klein’s approach, but my personal choices are aligned with Bittman’s.
Jacob Gorneau, an old classmate and incredibly intelligent person, was recently published along with a number of colleagues in Global Ecology and Conservation. Their research is on the commercialization of insects and arachnids. Full disclosure, I have not read it super closely and I am not the best reader of scientific papers, but I always want to circulate the work of those who were important in my own intellectual development.
Damian Lewis reciting “Friends, Romans, countrymen” from Julius Caesar. (Youtube)