John Yoo is away overseas this week, so Lucretia and I are joined by Glenn Ellmers, author of the brand new book The Narrow Passage: Plato, Foucault, and the Possibilty of Political Philosophy. Do not be intimidated by the mention of Foucault or anything else in the title, as this crispy-written and very accessible book comes in at a reader-friendly 79 pages (Glenn admits that it began as an essay that grew a little out of control).
It sheds a lot of light on our current culture war, which is really a continuation of the ructions in the country from the left that began in the 1960s but fooled us by receding briefly into the shadows for a time when the Cold War ended. More than that, though, the roots of our current contentions trace all the way back to Plato, from whom we may also find some answers. And as we say, all this in 79 pages!
Lucretia and I also dilate the Farce of the Week in Washington, the latest lower court rulings that look like promising attacks on the administrative state and additional evidence that a new era in jurisprudence is taking hold, and why the Equal Protection Clause was such a mess at the Supreme Court for 150 years, contra Alan Dershowitz’s argument that Earl Warren had it in hand all along that I wrote about here on Thursday. No sale!
We’ll be back next week with John, when we’ll subject him to a heroic pummeling over his new co-authored book everyone should get, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court. Send in your questions!
Our topical exit music this week is “Nihilist” by a group called The Ancients, which fits our discussion in this episode on both ends.
So listen here, over at Ricochet, or wherever your cast for your pods.
P.S. This was another two-fer podcast week for me, as I subbed for Peter Robinson on the flagship Ricochet podcast today, where we joined special guest Carol Roth in beating down on the World Economic Forum and its sinister agenda to reduce us all to serfs. You can listen to the episode here.
P.S. (2) A loyal listener produced this original meme based on an old pic from my misspent time as a DC intern in my youth:
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