In This Issue

Letter From the Editor

This issue contains a multitude Of ideas. It explores the existential horrors Of hu man hubris and greed, masculinity and vulnerability, and the collapse of the intema tional order. But there is a notable commonality among these themes. Humans are capable Of immense, unfathomable amounts of cruelty. Towards ourselves, towards each other. It is easy to cast a sweeping condemnation on humanity as a whole. It is easy to turn to extremes, to think exclusively in black and white. However, it is im portant that we turn our attention to the systems that facilitate this cruelty and the individuals who resist We must consider how our systems of governance fail us, forcing us to turn on each other, to become selfish, hateful; teaching us how to turn a man into a monster before they can even turn the corner.

Poem by Nicholas Brandt

Mystery Puzzle by Alexyss Wofford

Narrative | Science Fiction

“Where, exactly, are we headed? you may ask. could tell you, but don't know if you'll understand. And — oh, what are you looking at? The space ship? That's sweet.”

Commentary | Political Economy

“In recent decades, concentrated market power has played an active role In erodingthe "total labor share," or wages from the percentage ot production going toward household income. When an increasingly shrinklng num- ber of firms can set the terms of trade, or steer policy in the legislature, or influence the judiciary to transform unfair or deceptive conduct - either criminal or tortious - and transform this clout into owning more of the market, a lack of structural remedies that deter that conduct will degrade any remaining semblance of economic security that's left.”

Op-Ed | Personal History

“Lincoln did not grow up in some progressive utopia that no longer exists. He grew up around several prejudicial people. He chose to see things differently. This is a choice that everyone, regardless of where you are from, must confront.”

Narrative | Science Fiction

“Henry put a hand on Bobbfs back, trying his best to make his aged arm perform a gentle caresse, "Be easy on sn•urself, my boy.”

Narrative | International Relations

“Then you're a Zionist." He didn't make eye contact with me. I took a step back. I didn't know what to say. I was horrified by the rhetoric of the Zionist students we met. The genocidal jokes they made in passing, referring to Palestinians as monsters, criminals — animals. The phrase 'a land without a people' replayed over and over in my head.”

Politics | International Law

“A system nominally designed to prevent war and allow "civilized" nations to sort out their issues was hollowed out to support allied colonial interests and was thus rendered unwilling and unable to defend itself. These repeated failures to react to threats alongside the apparent abandonment of its stated goals meant that it was practically un mourned at its death. 'Ihe collapse of the League eventually led to the creation of the Gnited Nations, a more robust version Of the League the stated goals of preventing large-scale conflicts, genocide, and undoing direct colonial rule Over the last eighty years, the UN has had varying degrees of success in these goals.”

Fiction

“Cultural loss What disappears. Chronocide instead argues the defendanes deliberate destruction Of the mechanism by which that culture would have otherwise continued.”

Op-Ed I politics/History

“Fascism will always demand more suffering. By throwing someone else under the bus to win an election or cement a career, you simply empower the bus. No matter how many bodies are thrown under it, it will keep coming. "They" are coming for us all eventually and may well get us all, even those of us in our ivory towers of law.”