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The Top 5 articles for your week:
“Kazuo Ishiguro Sees What the Future Is Doing to Us” (New York Times Magazine)
Because Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go is my (Michael’s) absolute favorite, and his new novel, Klara and the Sun, revisits some of the themes of that book. This profile of Ishiguro captures some of what makes him such a salient voice, how his family history informs his deep humility, and why he believes this is a time for asking deep questions we have not asked as a culture for a long time. As a bonus, because of this article, I was led to Ishiguro’s recent appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Bookclub, where he discusses Never Let Me Go. Obviously, we recommend that you reach all of the articles we recommend in the Top 5—it’s the Top 5 for a reason!—but I especially hope you’ll read this one. And, if you haven’t yet, read Never Let Me Go, and let me know what you think.
“How vulnerable is the world?” (Aeon Magazine)
Because this essay considers the future of AI and how we may not have invented a technology that “destroys” us yet, but that’s not necessarily because we have reliable safeguards against such a development. It’s a heady piece, and a great chaser to Ishiguro’s profile. Though, like Ishiguro, I tend to think technocratic approaches to mitigating these kinds of concerns are insufficient without challenging the technological ethos which puts such developments on the horizon.
“Covid and friendships: the health cost of a year without socialising” (Sunday Times)
Because a psychology prof examined 148 studies on factors that influenced people’s risk of dying. Surprisingly, it was the social markers that most influenced chances of surviving (by as much as 50%). Friendships that include (and usually do) touch and connection — we’re missing them in this pandemic, and we don’t know how much Zoom is able to replace the benefits we get from friendship. (n.b. Sunday Times has a pretty strict paywall and we don’t use them a lot for this very reason; they’re offering a free one-month trial right now if you’d like to read this article)
“American Cynicism Has Reached a Breaking Point” (The Atlantic)
Because “Topple the media is about as Propaganda 101 as it gets. It’s the Lügenpresse, it’s Newspeak, it’s the coup leaders heading straight for the TV station. Cynicism is, among other things, a habit of disordered vision: It looks at friends and sees foes. It looks at truth and sees deceit. Cynicism, at scale, makes democracy’s most basic demand—seeing one another as we are—impossible.”
“Lauren Underwood Is the Future” (Elle Magazine)
Because we know we went a bit dour with this week’s Top 5, but we wanted to end it with this piece on the youngest Black woman elected to Congress and someone who, while she doesn’t shy away from her progressive stances, is refreshingly pushing the idea that she is a public servant who must listen to each of her constituents no matter their party or positions. We’re big Lauren Underwood fans here, and this offers a good window into why she’s special.
Note: Michael offered his thoughts on the Equality Act in a post this past week for subscribers. Become a subscriber to get access to that post, along with news and analysis concerning faith, politics and public life.