Top Stories
What we’re reading, watching and listening to this week.
Post-Election
Prohuman Foundation advisor William Deresiewicz, in Salmagundi, offers a provocative critique of an “exhausted establishment” that "has [staked] its position on the suppression of dissent" and "has made itself the enemy of the life force—of vitality, of eros." Deresiewicz asks whether excellence and creativity can thrive when subordinated to rigid moral dogma, and urges readers to reflect on what truly moves humanity forward.
[T]he most interesting and certainly the most courageous voices on the left half of the spectrum have been driven, en masse, from mainstream outlets and institutions. The resulting constellation of figures was first known as the Intellectual Dark Web, then as the heterodoxy. I’m not sure any term suffices now—so vast, with the emergence of podcasts and Substacks, and of legions of new voices that have bypassed the mainstream entirely, has the thing become. But right wing it is not.
In fact, it may be that the aptest name for the phenomenon I am describing—the eruption of creative energy outside of the inert progressive blob, and in reaction to it—is the not-left. . . .
Ventures have been launched—publications, conferences, institutes—that are dedicated to embracing a diversity of views. Old categories are crumbling. Old institutions are being supplanted. Old forms of status are becoming obsolete. There is ferment everywhere except the blob.”
Editor’s note: If you love brutally insightful, timely commentary wrapped in crisp, luminous prose, treat yourself. Though Deresiewicz writes in blistering terms about the left (and right), readers are not in for partisan jabs, but for a riveting, headlong charge toward clarity.
After Anti-Racism: Trading Guilt for Growth
Prohuman Ambassador Cameron Cox, for our own Prohuman Pathways, contrasts divisive approaches to DEI—and the attendant guilt and anger—with his hopeful, story-driven approach focused on forgiveness and reconciliation. He argues that the retreat of anti-racist frameworks presents an opportunity for better programming that cultivates social harmony through growth and connection.
Unresolved guilt festers into self-hatred and depression; unresolved anger hardens into bitterness and cynicism. Neither emotion, left unchecked, fosters the kind of progress we claim to seek. This realization set me on a decade-long journey to design training programs that confront these deeper issues—hurt, injustice, and the tangled emotions they evoke—while offering a path forward through forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope.
People crave real solutions to conflict and tangible pathways to genuine community. They sense, intuitively, that there are better ways to move forward than with guilt and anger.
Fred Luskin: ‘forgiveness is being at peace with your life’
Prohuman Foundation advisor Frederic Luskin recorded an interview with Jonathan Bastian for KCRW, exploring forgiveness as a path to inner peace, distinguishing it from reconciliation, and highlighting its power to heal emotional wounds without excusing harm. He shares research showing forgiveness reduces stress, depression, and even physical pain, offering practical mindfulness techniques to let go of grievance stories and embrace resilience.
Much of our difficulty with forgiveness, Luskin believes, stems from misunderstanding what forgiveness really means. It’s not the same as reconciliation; not every act of forgiveness requires repairing the relationship with the person who caused harm.
Extremists Lack Passion: A “Moderate” Toast to the World.
Prohuman Ambassador Seth Chalmer, in his Hamlet's Chimera Substack, delivers a short, spirited toast to the "moderate" who can passionately embrace life’s dualities. He challenges the notion of moderation as lukewarm, revealing a proactive capacity that makes life work, even amid extreme discontent.
To the ludicrously narrow specialists and to the absolute generalists; to the avant-garde and to the popularizers; the peaceniks and the warriors; the epicureans and the ascetics; the misers and the spendthrifts; the rebels and the normies; the Left and the Right; the artists and the pedants; the rationalists and the mystics; the freethinkers and the believers — here’s to them all.
The Freedom of Limits: Ataraxia and the ancient path to peace
Prohuman Foundation advisor Alexandra Hudson writes in her Civic Renaissance Substack about the ancient concept of ataraxia—inner tranquility through self-restraint—drawing on Stoic, Epicurean, and Aristotelian wisdom to argue that true freedom lies in embracing chosen limits. She invites readers to find peace in a chaotic, expansion-obsessed world by practicing disciplined serenity, offering practical steps to cultivate a balanced, meaningful life.
For the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics — and countless thoughtful people in the thousands of years since antiquity, from Michel de Montaigne to the Founding Fathers — ataraxia was the highest good: the ability to move through life undisturbed by chaos, anchored in self-possession, responsive but not reactive. It was a kind of beautiful detachment — not from life, but from the tyranny of being controlled by every twist of fortune or flicker of emotion.
This is not numbness. It is disciplined serenity.
Opinions expressed in selected articles do not necessarily reflect those of the Prohuman Foundation. We value diverse perspectives that enrich our understanding of topics close to our mission: to promote the foundational truth that we are all unique individuals, united by our shared humanity.