Very glad to see the update, Wesley. I’m one of those who has been subscribing from the beginning and has continued to do so throughout your hiatus. The Callin conversations and your twitter continue to be valuable to me and I feel not at all cheated by the opportunity to continue supporting this project. Looking forward to what you have in store next.
"An elite drunk on its own fantasies of virtue while in possession of every lever of power..." With the truckers' convoys and now Ukraine, the outpouring of righteousness is too fast and furious to chronicle. Good luck!
Wesley, as always your brutal honesty about your lack of production is one of your most appealing traits. In a world of lame excuses and double-speak, you just default the the simplest and most honorable path - telling the unvarnished truth. I hope your personal circumstances are resolved in a way that allows you to be happy, to the extent anyone with your level of self-awareness can feel “happy”.
Just know that this subscriber will be here when you return to more prolific production, as your voice is both unique and needed.
Thank you, Wesley. I look forward to the re-launch.
I hope it might feature a self-contained and concise description of The Successor Ideology. An accessible description of this phenomenon would be helpful for sharing with boomers stuck in the NPR daze who associate criticism of wokeness only with Trump and the authoritarian right.
Thanks for the update. I went through the "To cancel or not to cancel?" existential quandary back when your first month passed with only a single prefatory post. I didn't cancel then, and the thought hasn't crossed my mind since. Let's see how things are going at renewal time.
Hey Wes, thanks for the update, I look forward to reading your future output. Also, I'm the guy who suggested you might write about Jonny Kim. I was thinking about what you wrote about being an Asian American man in the introduction to The Souls of Yellow Folk and how Kim fits into that. In one sense he is the apogee of 21st century American masculinity, a combat-experienced SEAL, and the apogee of 20th century American masculinity (here I have in mind Wolfe's The Right Stuff), an astronaut. And he has the MD from Harvard. AND he has a troubled family background that he survived and overcame. And yet, this man, who is, as far as I can tell, a near perfect role model -- intelligent, humble, wise, accomplished, brave, conscientious, without any trace of a victim complex -- is also virtually unknown in his own country. Where have we gone from Wolfe's description of the astronaut as the ultimate proxy for his whole society (paraphrasing, obviously, & it's been a few years since I read TRS), a time when at least a plurality of kids would have said that's what they want to be "when they grow up," to today, when astronauts are relatively unknown (how many active astronauts can any of us name? I can still name all of the Mercury 7, if you give me a couple of minutes), and far more kids want to "grow up to be" social media influencers (which is on some level extremely ironic, "growing up" to be an "influencer"). The Kardashians are far more famous than Kim. What does that say about us? There is obviously a racialized angle to this question, which is why I thought of TSOYF, but I don't mean to pigeonhole you on that point, as I think Kim's (lack of?) place in society and media and our consciousness raises far broader questions about America in the 21st century. Anyway, it seemed to me like it might be in your wheelhouse, though not directly tied to your work on the successor ideology. If you're at all curious his interview with Jocko Willink is a great place to start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yujP3-AxXsI
I read this right after cancelling. My annual doesn’t renew until October, so we’ll see at that point if things have turned around (and if I’m employed, though if not I’ll have *way* bigger problems, speaking of personal turmoil).
Although I’d much prefer regular posts from you, I see a lot of myself reflected in your dynamic: Immense curiosity decoupled from a neoliberal drive to be “productive”. It’s comforting to see my own Gen X sensibilities in someone else, reality be dammed for a fleeting moment.
So I hope to see more of your insights, and I leave you with a glimpse of the Before Times, when daring people to blanch at stereotypes of minorities was considered the height of progressivism:
Thanks for the update, but I'm in for the duration--or at least the next little while, regardless. I realize there's a lot of competition out there for Substack $$$, but you're doing something singular--rigorous, audacious, thinking-beyond in a carefully historicized way--and I know I'm not the only subscriber whose sanity you've helped stabilize and restore. Please carry on.
Very glad to see the update, Wesley. I’m one of those who has been subscribing from the beginning and has continued to do so throughout your hiatus. The Callin conversations and your twitter continue to be valuable to me and I feel not at all cheated by the opportunity to continue supporting this project. Looking forward to what you have in store next.
"An elite drunk on its own fantasies of virtue while in possession of every lever of power..." With the truckers' convoys and now Ukraine, the outpouring of righteousness is too fast and furious to chronicle. Good luck!
Wesley, as always your brutal honesty about your lack of production is one of your most appealing traits. In a world of lame excuses and double-speak, you just default the the simplest and most honorable path - telling the unvarnished truth. I hope your personal circumstances are resolved in a way that allows you to be happy, to the extent anyone with your level of self-awareness can feel “happy”.
Just know that this subscriber will be here when you return to more prolific production, as your voice is both unique and needed.
All the Best,
Thank you, Wesley. I look forward to the re-launch.
I hope it might feature a self-contained and concise description of The Successor Ideology. An accessible description of this phenomenon would be helpful for sharing with boomers stuck in the NPR daze who associate criticism of wokeness only with Trump and the authoritarian right.
Thanks for the update. I went through the "To cancel or not to cancel?" existential quandary back when your first month passed with only a single prefatory post. I didn't cancel then, and the thought hasn't crossed my mind since. Let's see how things are going at renewal time.
Just relax, breathe deep, and say and do what you have always said and done. If what you say has value everyone will listen if it doesn't no one will.
Hey Wes, thanks for the update, I look forward to reading your future output. Also, I'm the guy who suggested you might write about Jonny Kim. I was thinking about what you wrote about being an Asian American man in the introduction to The Souls of Yellow Folk and how Kim fits into that. In one sense he is the apogee of 21st century American masculinity, a combat-experienced SEAL, and the apogee of 20th century American masculinity (here I have in mind Wolfe's The Right Stuff), an astronaut. And he has the MD from Harvard. AND he has a troubled family background that he survived and overcame. And yet, this man, who is, as far as I can tell, a near perfect role model -- intelligent, humble, wise, accomplished, brave, conscientious, without any trace of a victim complex -- is also virtually unknown in his own country. Where have we gone from Wolfe's description of the astronaut as the ultimate proxy for his whole society (paraphrasing, obviously, & it's been a few years since I read TRS), a time when at least a plurality of kids would have said that's what they want to be "when they grow up," to today, when astronauts are relatively unknown (how many active astronauts can any of us name? I can still name all of the Mercury 7, if you give me a couple of minutes), and far more kids want to "grow up to be" social media influencers (which is on some level extremely ironic, "growing up" to be an "influencer"). The Kardashians are far more famous than Kim. What does that say about us? There is obviously a racialized angle to this question, which is why I thought of TSOYF, but I don't mean to pigeonhole you on that point, as I think Kim's (lack of?) place in society and media and our consciousness raises far broader questions about America in the 21st century. Anyway, it seemed to me like it might be in your wheelhouse, though not directly tied to your work on the successor ideology. If you're at all curious his interview with Jocko Willink is a great place to start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yujP3-AxXsI
I read this right after cancelling. My annual doesn’t renew until October, so we’ll see at that point if things have turned around (and if I’m employed, though if not I’ll have *way* bigger problems, speaking of personal turmoil).
Although I’d much prefer regular posts from you, I see a lot of myself reflected in your dynamic: Immense curiosity decoupled from a neoliberal drive to be “productive”. It’s comforting to see my own Gen X sensibilities in someone else, reality be dammed for a fleeting moment.
So I hope to see more of your insights, and I leave you with a glimpse of the Before Times, when daring people to blanch at stereotypes of minorities was considered the height of progressivism:
https://youtu.be/IslF_EyhMzg
"Tell it like it is...make your mind up...forget my foolish pride....." "Did I hear somebody say KEEP ON ROCKIN' ?"
Hope you're okay and that your family situation is alright. Glad to see you writing again and I'm looking forward to the new content on 21 March.
Thanks for the update, but I'm in for the duration--or at least the next little while, regardless. I realize there's a lot of competition out there for Substack $$$, but you're doing something singular--rigorous, audacious, thinking-beyond in a carefully historicized way--and I know I'm not the only subscriber whose sanity you've helped stabilize and restore. Please carry on.
So, off we go into the wild blue yonder 😊.