Ann Swidler reviews Elsewhere, U.S.A., which considers the effect of modernity on human relationships:
Elsewhere, U.S.A. offers two big concepts to diagnose modern society's ills: the "elsewhere" society, and the "intravidual." "Mrs. and Mr. Elsewhere," workaholic professionals, always feel they should be somewhere else than where they currently are, and so they betray those around them as their mind races ahead to the next encounter, or they look around for a more desirable interaction. The intravidual is the reciprocal of this dissociated society: Rather than an integrated self, the modern person is internally fragmented.
And Matthew Yglesias examines the real and perceived threats to Israel:
The Iranian nuclear threat is, at this point, merely hypothetical. The Palestinian threat, by contrast, is quite real. What's more, Israel already possesses the best defense to any current or future nuclear threats -- second-strike capabilities. Clearly, any country would prefer, deterrent or not, that no regional rival acquire nuclear weapons. But if Israel really has as little faith in its own nuclear deterrent as its leaders suggest, it might want to consider asking why it built those deterrents in the first place. Iranian negotiators enjoy raising the prospect of a "nuclear free zone" in the Middle East -- which is to say Israeli nuclear disarmament -- as part of the resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue. This is normally treated as a nonstarter by the international community, but if Israel really thinks its nukes don't work as a deterrent and that an Iranian bomb is an existential threat, then why not explore this possibility?
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--The Editors
