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Shadi Hamid Profile picture
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24 Sep, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Read this thread—and then read the amusingly and confusingly titled "The Missionary Position," marking yet another excellent essay by @dmarusic
Every week at @WCrowdsLive, @dmarusic & I take turns writing a "Friday Essay," for subscribers. We've published over 20 so far. You can find all of them here 👇🏽 wisdomofcrowds.live/friday_essays/
New Friday Essay about to drop!

Subscribe here to get it straight to your inbox like a rush of blood to the head: wisdomofcrowds.live/subscribe/ Image

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More from @shadihamid

Shadi Hamid Profile picture
21 Sep
This is a must-read from @dmarusic on the "missionary position" in foreign policy. The first two paragraphs are amusing and unexpected, drawing on Christopher Hitchens' provocatively-titled book on Mother Teresa. 1/x

wisdomofcrowds.live/the-missionary…
Something has changed in the American worldview. There has always been a particular kind of religious certainty about progress. But it has changed. The religious certainty remains. Today, though, when the arc of history bends, it bends in the passive voice. 2/x
This is ultimately why, despite my anger at how Biden did it and his lack of empathy, I couldn't help but support withdrawal from Afghanistan. (And I'd rather have America stop its often-horrific drone war featuring military brass who shrugged at collateral damage). 3/x
Read 6 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
20 Sep
I have a new essay in @DeseretNews on how rapid secularization creates a dangerous imbalance in societies and what we can do about it

[Thread]

deseret.com/2021/9/13/2267…
This piece is a sort of a sequel to my @TheAtlantic essay from April on 'America without God': theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

I try to take the argument several steps further, including outlining how each of us can resist the urge to find ultimate meaning in politics
Secularization in the U.S. leads to very different outcomes than secularization in the Middle East. Secularists in the U.S. need politics. "Secularists" in Arab countries, because they're still relatively religious, don't need politics quite as much

deseret.com/2021/9/13/2267…
Read 8 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
14 Sep
For today only, @dmarusic & I are un-paywalling our two most recent @WCrowdsLive essays. Check them out! Here’s mine—a reflection on counterfactual histories, novels, politics, fear, and the long, slow process of losing hope

wisdomofcrowds.live/when-we-were-y… 1/x
Some of you know I've been reading and thinking about James Salter's "Light Years" to the point of minor obsession. Anyway, the novel features this wonderful, if slightly depressing quote. 2/x Image
This essay was my best attempt to illustrate, with an unusual structure, how the personal and political intertwine in unexpected ways. I wanted to do something a bit more experimental to convey how lives slowly build over time. 3/x

wisdomofcrowds.live/when-we-were-y…
Read 6 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
13 Sep
We don't usually do this, but we're un-paywalling my latest @wcrowdslive essay for 24 hours. Sign up for free to get it delivered straight to your inbox at 9am tomorrow: wisdomofcrowds.live/signup/

.@dmarusic is biased and is perhaps slightly exaggerating but he claims it's "one of my best essays." Well, you be the judge

We'll also be lifting the paywall on @dmarusic's latest essay, which makes a bold argument that helps put into perspective the last few weeks of anger and frustration over Afghanistan and how to remember what went wrong

wisdomofcrowds.live/afghanistan-an…
Read 4 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
9 Sep
My essay on the legacy of 9/11 is out in @ForeignAffairs. This is my attempt to take stock of what went wrong and how—with a focus not on our own tortured souls but on the people of the Middle East

[Thread]

foreignaffairs.com/articles/middl…
Americans tend to lament 9/11 for how it divided us and led us into disastrous wars. As bad as it's been for us, though, it's been much worse for the Middle East. The past two decades have been the most costly and tragic in the region's contemporary history 2/x
After 9/11, Arab regimes took their cues from the Bush administration and used the "War on Terror" to fight their own largely unrelated battles. 3/x

foreignaffairs.com/articles/middl…
Read 8 tweets
Shadi Hamid Profile picture
31 Aug
It's interesting to watch leftists and progressives hail a speech where the president doubled down on his cruel, Kissingerian disregard for non-Americans. Callous, stubborn, and completely lacking in self-criticism. "America First" but this time under a Democrat
I don't understand why supporting withdrawal means you also have to be cruel and indifferent to the fate of millions of Muslims, but I suppose that's where we are now
Whatever Biden is on foreign policy, it's definitely not "progressive." It's nationalist and Trumpian
Read 6 tweets

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