Jonah Goldberg, host of The Remnant and author of Suicide of the West, joins Adaam for a session of unfettered nerdery and gloom, in which definitions shall be debated, Straussian hats worn, and metaphors unapologetically mixed. They cover the meaning of “utopianism,” the revolutionary force of monotheism, the power of language, the messianic urge from Christ to the Jacobins, the lack of new ideas, the obstinacy of human nature, and the importance of gallows humor.

On the agenda:

-Jonah’s origin story [2:00]

-Monotheism, a radical idea [6:00]

-Postmodernism and the charisma of words [19:00]

-Utopianism, left and right [27:00]

-Maimonides against Messianism (and Sayyid Qutb) [38:00]

-Are ideas dangerous? (On Rousseau, the Jacobins, Strauss, Annihilism) [53:00]

-Dark humor and Holocaust jokes heuristics [1:21:00]

-Blindspots [1:43:00]

Also:

-Adaam and Ruth Weisse on the 10th Commandment

-Adaam and Yuval Levin talk about the nature of liberalism, beauty and conservatism

-Howard Jacobson at Tablet Magazine on the death of a tailor

Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday thoughts, subscribe to: http://uncertain.substack.com.

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