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My Back Pages

Jonathan Wallace jw@bway.net

(An informal and incomplete topic index of The Ethical Spectacle).


My personal best:

An Auschwitz Alphabet, June 1995; Philip K. Dick and Human Kindness, March 1996; The Future, January 1998; Lying, May 2000; A Hard Rain, September 2001; Fat Boys and Buff Toys, December 2005; What the Sybil Knew, March 2009; Language, Lies and Power, October 2009; Return of the Medieval Mind, January 2011; Arrested, April 2012; Boo Radley as a Role Model, March 2015.


Abortion

Abortion, January 2012


Campaign Finance

Prohibit All Campaign Finance--the first issue, January 1995.

Expose the Metadata, October 1996.

Speech and Money, August 1999

Money as Speech, June 2014


Capitalism

Microsoft: An Unprincipled, Rapacious Company, April 1995.

Capitalism and the Tragedy of the Commons, April 1997

The Internet Bubble, January 2001

Securitization and Responsibility, January 2009

The Failure of Free Markets, April 2009

Welcome to Billionaireworld, August 2011

Class Warfare, September 2011

Run Over, January 2013

Middle Class Nightmare, August 2013

Shame or Rage, February 2014

Capitalism and Causation, March 2014


Climate Change

Sandy, November 2012

Earth's Normal Accident, February 2013

Our World Is Ending, May 2019


Coronavirus

A Coronavirus Journal, ongoing


Death Penalty

Texas Kills an Innocent Man, March 1995.

Humility, Compassion and Death, December 1997

The Death Penalty Legend July 2000

Timothy McVeigh and "Closure", July 2001


Democracy

Democracy and Capitalism, April 1996

Democracy and Stupidity, September 2000

Democracy and Illusion, October 2000

Democracy is Leaking, September 2002

Towards a One Party State December 2002

Democracy is Failing, March 2010

Could It Happen Here?, March 2011

Democracy and Size, April 2016

There is No 99%, June 2016


Freedom of Speech

The (Semiotic) Stench of a Burning Flag (Amendment) February 1996

Dreaming, Forgetting and Freedom of Speech, May 1997

My Web Libel Adventure, March 2001

The Chill, May 2003

Persecution, September 2007

Enemies, True Threats and the First Amendment, April 2014

What Is Free Speech?, July 2015

Free Speech and Responsibility, August 2015


Gun Control

My Constitutional Right to Own a SAM, February 1995.

On the Profound Difficulty of Knowing Whom to Shoot, September 1996

Speech and Guns,June 1998

Welcome to Murderworld, March 2008

The Reset Switch, February 2011


Health Care/ Health Insurance/ Safety Nets

Sharks and Nets, March 2005

Our Broken Health Insurance System, May 2005

Health Care and Human Kindness, August 2007

Health Care Reform and Rights Language, April 2010

Of Broccoli and Brotherhood: The Health Care Decision, July 2012

Republicans and Free Riders, May 2014

A Letter to Justice Roberts, June 2015


The Holocaust

An Auschwitz Alphabet, June 1995.


The Internet

Why the Internet Is "Dangerous", November 1995

Craigslist: The Failure of An Internet Community, November 2009

A Shameful Architecture, January 2014


Israel

Israeli Symbolic Violence, November 1996.

Israel at 50, May 1998

A Day in Jerusalem, July 1999

Israel, November 2000

Breakfast of Scorpions, May 2002

Gaza, August 2014

Israel as a Dollar Auction, September 2014

A Palestinian State, April 2015


Language

That Traitor, Language, March 1999

Katrina and Words, October 2005

Results vs. Spin, May 2006

Language, Lies and Power, October 2009


Law

Why I Left the Law, July 1997

Why I Hate Prosecutors, October 2007

Innocence, July 2009

Compassionate Lawyering, November 2014

Poor People's Courts, May 2015


Leadership

Compassionate Leadership, January 1996

Leadership, October 1998


Literature and Art

Philip K. Dick and Human Kindness, March 1996

Five Thoughts About Ulysses, March 1998 (someone did me the honor of plagiarizing this for a talk at a PEN meeting)

Accidental Angels, November 1998

Proust's Ruined Mirror, February 1999

Edith Wharton's House of Mirth, March 2001

DaVinci, Duration, Death, May 2001

Night Thoughts About Theatre, May 2010

Books That Wrote Me, November 2010


Morality

Morality Without God, October 1995.

Morality and Ice Cream, June 1999

Morality and Truth, December 1999

Ethics and Entropy, August 2012


Movies

Movies, Laundry, Same Thing, December 1995

Film Noir Construction Kit, September 1999

Steven Spielberg Wants to be a Real Boy, August 2001

The Ethics of Documentaries, November 2007


9/11

A Hard Rain, September 2001

What War Will Mean,October 2001

In The Valley of the Black Pig, November 2001

Military Tribunals, December 2001

God vs. God, January 2002

Huge, February 2002

Gulfari and the Magic Button, March 2002

In Memory of Salman Hamdani, April 2003

How Mourning Becomes Kitsch, June 2006


Nuclear Weapons

A Personal History of the Bomb, June 1996

Our Friend the Kill Vehicle, August 2001


Occupy Wall Street

See You At The Demo, November 2011

My Night in Jail, December 2011

Arrested, April 2012


Philosophical Musing and Ranting

The Prisoner's Dilemma, September 1995.

The Problem of Altruism, February 1997

Why I Am Not a Libertarian, August 1997

The Future, January 1998

Losing a Wheel, September 1998

Beckett: Entropy: Hawking: Time, May 1999

My Twentieth Century, October 1999

Natural Rights Don't Exist, April 2000

Lying, May 2000

Nonviolence, June 2001

Ethics of a Fish Dinner, August 2003

Ripples From Walden Pond, April 2007

Progress, January 2008

What Easter Island Means to Me, May 2008

Imaginary Emergencies, July 2008

What the Sybil Knew, March 2009

Alice's Woods, June 2009

Knowledge and Its Discontents, August 2009

Right and Wrong, September 2009

Ambition, January 2010

Gratitude, September 2010

Toolness, May 2011

Respect, October 2011

Narratives, March 2012

Chris of Astoria, September 2012

Individuality, May 2013

"Should" Is a Weasel Word, July 2014

Ebola, Honesty and Competence, October 2014

Boo Radley as a Role Model, March 2015

Turtle Dreaming, September 2015

I am a Hope Punk, December 2018

Turtle Rules, January 2020


Politics

Are We a Nation?, January 1997

Bill Clinton Should Resign, February 1998

Thomas Jefferson and the Crown of Creation, December 1998

Schrodingers Election, December 2000

The Empty Suitor August 2004

Stupid Smart Men, November 2006

Giuliani is Dangerous, June 2007

Trusting the Government, July 2007

Religion and Politics, November 2008

What's Going Wrong, February 2010

The Decay of the American Narrative, October 2010

Return of the Medieval Mind, January 2011

Labs and Cafeterias: Night Thoughts About Government, July 2011

Dear Greta: You Are Being Lied To, June 2012

Brett Kavanaugh and Rape Culture, October 2018

Collusion and Causation, March 2019


Protest and Activism

Kent State, May 4, 1970: America Kills Its Children, May 1995.

May 4: A Memory of Activism, August 2000

Mad Cowboy Disease, March 2003

Our Karma Just Ran Over Your Dogma, September 2004

Where's the Dissent? April 2006

A Letter to a Judge About Civil Disobedience, February 2015


Race

Race and Intelligence, December 2007

Black Lives, December 2014

Whiteness, December 2015


Same Sex Marriage/ Homosexuality

Same Sex Marriage, July 1996 (yes, July 1996).

Homosexuality as a Choice, September 2005

Same Sex Marriage, an amicus brief, March 2013


Space Travel

Planets of Desire, January 1999

Life and Death in Outer Space, December 2003

Billionaires in Space, February 2020


Technology

Towards a Morality of Tool Use, December 1996.

Biology, Technology, Vanity, August 1998

Is Software Art or Engineering?, November 1999

Night Thoughts About Technology, June 2010

Nuclear Power and My Ass, April 2011

Why We Can't Develop Software, December 2013


Torture/Terrorism/ Guantanamo

The Disappeared, April 2004, my amicus brief in the Padilla case

Torture, July 2004

Close Guantanamo, July 2005

No Torture. Ever., May 2009

Charlie Hebdo, January 2015

Ripples From Paris, November 2015


Trump and His World

A Very Short Essay About Donald Trump, January 2016

Solving for Donald Trump, February 2016

Trump as an Elizabethan, March 2016

Our Unbearable Lightness, May 2016

President Trump, July 2016

Trump Twitter Breitbart Hate, August 2016

Post-Truth, September 2016

Evil Hour, October 2016

Post-Cliff, November 2016

Haircuts and Civilization, December 2016

Wind is Changing, January 2017

The Resistible Rise of Milo Y. February 2017

Donald Trump and Human Agency, March 2017

Donald Trump's Poverty, April 2017

Donald Trump as Kitsch, May 2017

Donald Trump and Murder, June 2017

A Very Short Essay on the Trump Voter, July 2017

Donald Trump and the Prisoners' Dilemma, January 2018


War

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, November 2002

Vanity and War, February 2003

Civilian Casualties, November 2004

Fat Boys and Buff Toys, December 2005

The Anatomy of Incompetence, June 2010

Permanent War, June 2011


World Government/ Globalization

A Law of War Requires World Government, May 1996

Dictators and Turtles, February 2000

Night Thoughts on Globalization, November 2005

Self Determination, February 2009

World Government and Liberty, June 2013