under the eye of power reflection

posted 2024-05-28

Tring a new thing, book reviews. this one’s about Under the Eye of Power, by Colin Dickey

honestly quite good. a bit unfocused (as books like this are, as i assume it’s built from essays), but some real memorable stuff

of most note: the tension in america between absolute freedom and democracy. iow, democracy is a very social practice, and “liberty” (as popularly defined) is antisocial. it’s very obvious in retrospect (as insights are), but cool how colin d situates this deep into american life. in that tension, all of us are there