It is an extra (((special))) episode on Uncertain Things as Ruth Wisse, senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund and author of Jews and Power, hosts Adaam for Friday afternoon cookies and Talmud. The two discussed the wave of resentment that threatens to consume American culture (or Annihilism, as Adaam stubbornly calls it), the problem (or lack thereof) of inequality, the Jewish rejection of Weakness Worship, and what it means to stand witness to evil.

On the (((agenda))):

-Neocons love assimilation [1:30]

-Accents are genocide [9:00]

-The idea that disparity is evil is evil [17:00]

-Charity and dignity (and pity) [27:00]

-Gratitude, resentment, and feminism [34:00]

-What’s up with American Jews… plus American liberalism… plus standing witness to evil [48:00]

Also:

-Adaam and Yuval Levin talk about the nature of liberalism, beauty and conservatism

-Howard Jacobson at Tablet Magazine on the death of a tailor

AEI Senior Fellow Yuval Levin rejoins the pod to discuss the enemies of continuity. He and Adaam debate the definition of conservatism and whether it’s the Annihilist urge that dominates the contemporary left or something else entirely. Oh, and if that’s not nerdy enough for you, they also go on a semi-Burkean detour to adjudicate whether beauty in art is related to truth (because someone had to!).

On the agenda:

-Cultural continuity and the modern conservative [00:10]

-The hubris of knowledge [10:19]

-Who are the enemies of continuity [17:54]

-Solipsism as morality [26:28]

-Rousseau and the new Jacobins [31:23]

-Redemptive destruction [39:00]

-Is despair anti-conservative? [48:54]

-Beauty [53:31]

Also:

-Our previous chat with Yuval Levin about Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine

-Adaam on the Jacobin temptation

-Yuval on American renewal

-Ken Goshen on why contemporary art sucks

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

Dan Senor, host of the Call Me Back podcast and co-author of The Genius of Israel, is bullish on Israel. Is there anything that could change his mind? He and Adaam discuss what makes Israeli society strong and what might make it turn against itself. They also can’t resist some media naval gazing and debate whether the fall of sense-making gatekeepers is a boon or a curse.

On the agenda:

-Brave new media

-Could anything make Dan go bearish on Israel?

-Something bigger than yourself

-The abominable dilemma (why Israel negotiates with terrorists)

-War is hell (and the rest is sentimentality)

-How to criticize Israel in an anti-Zionist era

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.