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| Snow Bird (Photo by Jan) |
Tony Judt is the political philosopher who has most grabbed my attention, challenged me, and inspired me. There are other brilliant minds in the world. What I've found magnetic about this man is the absolute engagement of his ideas with the real world. Judt doesn't hoist his brilliance up into a tower; he stays attached to the concrete predicaments of our world. This beats out the false humility of politicians and philosophers alike.
Judt died of ALS in August of 2010, the same disease that took my wife Mary 10 weeks later. According to Judt's widow, dance critic Jennifer Homans, he kept writing until shortly before his death - as did Mary, who dictated her last blog post to me the Sunday afternoon before the Tuesday morning of her death. ALS leaves the mind sharp to focus on approaching extinction - and also to narrate it. I have felt a particular connection to Homans, since we both went through accompanying our spouse through ALS's devastation as honestly as possible, while trying to understand parenting to two traumatized children.
Judt's final book is now published. He was assisted in writing it by historian Timothy Snyder. It has been many years since I have felt so galvanized and challenged and deeply inspired by any one work. I don't always agree with Judt, nor even understand him, but this last book cements my indestructible respect.
Judt attributes our world's growing insecurity to excessive economic freedom. He says huge-scale problems like the shattering of nation states or global climate change have altered the role of political thinkers, from imagining a better world to trying to prevent a worse one. He speaks of the deep structural challenge from what he calls the "massification" of liberal democracy.
His example is the stealing of the US election in 2000. There was little difficulty in getting the news of this fraud out. But then - people just didn't care. He contrasts this with what might have been the case in the limited 19th Century version of democracy, when a small group of people ran things - and would have greatly cared about a stolen election. His conclusion is not to abandon democracy or limit it, far from that. Instead, Judt uses examples like this to help us think about our tools and systems of governance.
All through this writing, Judt examines contemporary issues, but maybe more important, he leads a thoughtful meditation on the role of philosophers, politicians and citizens who wish to be better engaged in the world around them.
Judt's uncomplicated writing in this last work is based on open and sturdy thinking, but he travels in wide arcs to secure his thinking. A recent posthumous essay by Judt in the New York Review of Books, based on that last book, begins, "Intellectual activity is a little bit like seduction. If you go straight for your goal, you almost certainly won't succeed."
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| Tony Judt |
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| Jennifer Homans |
by Tony Judt
Penguin, 2012
$36 hardbound or about $20 electronic or Amazon
Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet
by Jennifer Homans
Random House, 2011
$12-20 on line or in stores
