This weekend, I want to take the occasion of this past Martin Luther King's Birthday holiday to share a few quotes from one of his less well-known works, "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" Published in 1967, it was his fourth and final book before his assassination the following year. Like much of his written work, it is very interested in tackling questions of political economy and their relationship to racial oppression. King had a keen sense of the ways in which the "Negro question" was a labor question, and he returned to that idea again and again in interviews, essays and books. |
In chapter five of "Where Do We Go From Here," for example, King notes that poverty is endemic to market society and can't be eliminated by growth alone. |
We have come a long way in our understanding of human motivation and of the blind operation of our economic system. Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty. |
His solution is a guaranteed income, "pegged to the median income of society," that would "automatically increase as the total social income grows." |
But this chapter isn't just King laying out his vision for the welfare state. As in the rest of the book, he is sketching his view of what it means to live in a democratic society. For King, poverty and inequality are as corrosive to the bonds of community as segregation. And so the point of a guaranteed income isn't just to alleviate suffering, but to make democratic life actually possible. |
The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluidity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking. |
The point of all of this isn't to make some statement about what King would or would not support today, but to use the opportunity of the holiday to remind everyone (and myself) that his thinking on race and discrimination was intertwined with his thinking on class, labor and the capitalist system, that King was, in fact, a thinker with valuable insights into the nature of American society. |
You can find "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" as a single volume or as part of "A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches." I recommend the latter if you want a truly comprehensive look at King's thought as it developed over the course of his life on the public stage. |
My Tuesday column was on why we shouldn't expect the next Trump to come from the current crop of Republican politicians. |
It's hard to overstate how important this was for Trump's first campaign. If modern American politics is entertainment as much as civics, then Trump was its star performer. And his audience, his supporters, could join in the performance. This is crucial. Trump could say whatever they wanted to hear, and they could take it in as part of the act, something — as one sympathetic observer wrote — to be taken seriously, not literally. Words that might have doomed any other Republican candidate, and which have in the past, meant nothing to the strength of Trump's campaign. |
And my Friday column was a look at how our democracy barely weathered the Trump era and how the challenge before us is a radicalized and anti-democratic Republican Party. |
In his Inaugural Address on Wednesday, Joe Biden said that after four years of Trumpian chaos — including two months of thrashing against the results of the election, culminating in an attack on the Capitol itself — "democracy" had "prevailed." But it might have been better, if inappropriate to the moment, for the new president to have said that democracy had "survived." |
Susan Watkins reviews Anne Applebaum's "Twilight of Democracy" for the New Left Review. |
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This photo was taken during the election night party in 2017 for Doug Jones of Alabama, at the moment the U.S. Senate race was called in his favor. I chose it for this week because the expression here was how I felt when, on Wednesday, Joe Biden was inaugurated with much fanfare and little trouble. |
This week's playlist is a continuation of last week's. But where that one spanned about a half-decade, all of the music in this one is from a single year, 1993, which I think is one of the great years for hip-hop in terms of quality and creative output. You can listen to the whole thing here or with Apple Music. Hope you enjoy. |
"Protect Ya Neck" by the Wu-Tang Clan |
"Chief Rocka" by Lords of the Underground |
"Who Got Da Props" by Black Moon |
"We Can Get Down" by A Tribe Called Quest |
"Six Feet Deep" by the Geto Boys |
"Jeep Ass N****" by Masta Ace Incorporated |
"I Ain't Goin' Out Like That" by Cypress Hill |
"Let Me Roll" by Scarface |
"You Know How We Do It" by Ice Cube |
"93 'Til Infinity" by Souls of Mischief |
Now Eating: Pressure Cooker Mushroom Risotto |
A favorite of my toddler! This recipe comes from Serious Eats, and the only adjustment I made was to nix the miso paste, since I didn't have any on hand. I also used dried morel mushrooms instead of porcinis because that's what I had in the pantry. Serve with a crisp green salad. |
- 1 quart homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
- 1½ pounds mixed mushrooms, such as shiitake, cremini, oyster and chanterelle, trimmed and thinly sliced, stems reserved
- 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
- 2 medium cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1½ cups risotto rice, such as arborio
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon light miso paste
- ¾ cup dry white wine
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 ounce finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving
- handful finely minced mixed fresh herbs, such as parsley, chervil, tarragon and/or chives
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Place chicken stock and dried mushrooms (if using) in a microwave-safe container and microwave on high power until simmering, about 5 minutes. Remove from microwave. Using a slotted spoon, transfer porcini to a cutting board and roughly chop. Add fresh mushroom scraps to container with porcini-infused stock and set aside. |
Heat olive oil and butter in the base of a pressure cooker over high heat, swirling, until foaming subsides. Add fresh mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until excess moisture has evaporated and mushrooms are well browned, about 8 minutes. |
Add onion, garlic and chopped porcini (if using) and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are softened and aromatic, about 4 minutes. Add rice and cook, stirring, until rice is evenly coated in oil and toasted but not browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in soy sauce and miso paste (if using) until evenly incorporated. |
Add wine and cook, stirring, until raw alcohol smell has cooked off and wine has almost fully evaporated, about 2 minutes. |
Pour stock into pot through a fine-mesh strainer, discarding mushroom stems. Scrape any grains of rice or pieces of onion from side of pressure cooker so that they are fully submerged. Close pressure cooker and bring up to low pressure. Cook at low pressure for 5 minutes, then depressurize according to the instructions for your pressure cooker. |
Open pressure cooker and stir to combine rice and cooking liquid; a creamy consistency should begin to develop. Stir in cream (if using), cheese and herbs. If risotto is too soupy, cook for a few minutes longer, stirring until it begins to thicken more. If it is too thick, stir in some hot water. It should flow slowly when you drag a trail through it with a spoon. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately on hot plates, passing extra cheese at the table. |
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