Hugo Cyr (Quebec): The Distinctive Federal Imaginary. Asher Maoz (Peres): Judaism and Democracy. From The Symptom, Ellie Ragland on what Lacan thought women knew; and Slavoj Zizek on femininity between goodness and act and on the real of violence, cynicism, and the “right of distress”. Jon Nathanson on the economics of infomercials. Tom Lamont reviews The Library: A World History by James WP Campbell and Will Pryce. Want the best person for the job? Don’t interview — a dreaded ritual doesn’t help employers make good decisions; in fact, it may even hurt. Cinzia Arruzza on the (sad) story of (Banksy’s) beaver. The Right-wing washing of Mandela: Much of the American right supported apartheid, almost to the bitter end — why we must remember that. The fetish has become an endangered species: David Rosen on the mainstreaming of sexual perversion. Homage to the idols of idleness: Jessica Kerwin Jenkins on how our productivity obsession denies the whimsy and the freedom that living fully demands. Spare us your monogamy speech: Your view of your own moral superiority is not going to make someone else’s relationship better or worse. The introduction to Everyday Utopias: The Conceptual Life of Promising Spaces by Davina Cooper. The idea of life after death lives on in near-death experiences and messages from beyond the grave — what’s the evidence? The photographer who took Obama/Cameron selfie is ashamed of mankind.
