The following is an exploration of the benefits of prayer for the 21st-century citizen, originally penned in the summer of 2025. “Why pray?” is the first in a long-term series of articles on faith and Artificial Intelligence that will be posted to The Critical Currents in the coming weeks and months. Enjoy!

“I’ll fail in the same way to understand with my reason why I pray, and I yet I will pray…my life now, my whole life, regardless of all they may happen to me, every minute of it, is not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it.” — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Introduction

The oldest archaeological evidence for organized prayer dates back 11,000 years to a world of hunter-gatherer bands roaming vast plains alongside gazelle grazing on expansive fields of wild barley, and migrant geese searching for water.¹ Constructed in what is now Türkiye, Göbekli Tepe is the world’s oldest temple, built overlooking the southern Anatolian plains. The site, littered with columns portraying scorpions, vultures, and other wild animals, is said to have had neither a permanent population nor a utilitarian function. Its construction predates the use of metal tools and even the advent of agriculture.² The discovery of the “proto-cathedral” challenges the long-held belief among scholars that it was the development of settled agricultural communities that allowed time to be spent on creating complex social structures and religious rituals. Instead, it may have been the formulation of rituals and the construction of temples, like Göbekli Tepe, that laid the foundation for agrarian civilization.³ To explore worship, humanity’s attempt at reaching out to the inexplicable and divine, is to examine the very essence of who we are; prayer, after all, is more human than harvest.

What is prayer?

Before discussing the benefits of prayer, it is necessary first to define prayer and religion. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines prayer as “an act of communication by humans with the sacred or holy—God, the gods, the transcendent realm, or supernatural powers.”⁴ While some would argue that secular meditation and other non-religious practices are forms of prayer, for the purposes of this essay, I will focus solely on the form of prayer that creates a bridge between man and the Divine. Thus, I will define religion as the broader context within which prayer occurs. American philosopher and psychologist William James defines religion in his The Varieties of Religious Experience: “Religion, …shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men (sic)...so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the Divine.”⁵

While James’ definition captures the personal elements of devotional practice, including the growing share of adults who identify as “spiritual, not religious,” his words overlook the significance of community. French sociologist Émile Durkheim defines religion as “...a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden–beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.”⁶ From here on, my definition of religion will consist of a synthesis of those introduced: religion is a system of practices and beliefs adhered to by a community, designed to cultivate both a communal and personal relationship with a higher power through prayer. It is with the support of this definition that I summarize the benefits of prayer as follows: the practice provides adherents with a community and delivers measurable psychological benefits.

Benefits of Prayer

During his decades of fighting for Indian independence, plagued with hardship, Mahatma Gandhi’s commitment to consistent prayer remained unwavering. On worship, Gandhi is said to have remarked, “Begin your day with prayer, and make it so soulful that it may remain with you until the evening. Close the day with prayer, so that you may have a peaceful night free from dreams and nightmares.”⁷ The Indian activist, politician, and revolutionary organized prayer meetings for Indians of all faiths. During these meetings, Gandhi lectured the crowds on the precepts of non-violence and freedom.⁸ In a nation beset with religious violence, Gandhi succeeded in uniting Indians of all religions–Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and others–by using what they all shared: prayer. With these ceremonies, Gandhi successfully demonstrated that religious cohesion was possible. Through the unity achieved through shared prayer, Indians could free themselves from British rule and its exploitation of resources and native religions.

The benefits of attending religious ceremonies are, of course, not limited to those of us involved in a fight for independence; religious groups are excellent places to build community, whether the adversary is colonialism or everyday loneliness. The benefits that stem from social connections formed during congregations are well-documented. Tyler VanderWeele, professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in his 2017 article on Religious Communities and Human Flourishing, writes, “religious service attendance is associated with an increased likelihood of subsequently making new friends, of marrying, of having nonreligious community membership, and of higher social support.”⁹ Additionally, VanderWeele notes “that those attending religious services at baseline are 30% to 50% less likely to divorce.” At a time when, according to the American Psychiatric Association, a third of adults in the U.S. feel lonely each week and 30 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds feel lonely every day, organized prayer can be an effective means of combating the loneliness epidemic.¹⁰

The requirement of prayer within most theologies means believers can set aside designated times for worship—often a social event—to counter our harmful culture of leaving social interaction to chance. Building new in-person friendships or potential romantic partnerships around shared religious beliefs at a time when adults struggle to meet new people is a compelling reason to start attending regular prayer-based gatherings.

A study conducted by Pew Research on Religion’s Relationship to Happiness Civic Engagement and Health Around the World indicates a significant correlation between participation in religious ceremonies and increased levels of happiness: “more than one-third of actively religious U.S. adults (36%) describe themselves as very happy, compared with just a quarter of both inactive and unaffiliated Americans.”¹¹ Similar results were found in almost every other country included in the study. Religiously active individuals were also found to outperform their nonreligious counterparts on four other well-being indicators, including physical health. Researchers attribute the increase in overall well-being—and even longevity—to the “social capital” that religiously active adults gain through regular prayer and participation in their faith communities.¹² That network of relationships can also provide a ready support system to rely on when, for instance, searching for a job or exploring other opportunities. Conrad Hackett’s team also suggests that prayer may help the faithful manage stress and suffering.¹³

It is clear that regular prayer offers tangible psychological and even physical benefits, especially when practiced among others. Prayer provides the lonely with company, the fearful with courage, and the lost with direction.

“Violent, irrational, & intolerant”

Critics of organized religion are quick to underscore the violent tribalism that often results. Examples, both historical and contemporary, are numerous and include the suffering brought about by partition in Gandhi’s own India, between his Hindu homeland and Muslim Pakistan. All despite Gandhi’s earlier efforts to create cohesion among different religious groups through communal prayer-based gatherings. The relatively recent acceptance of atheism has allowed writers such as Christopher Hitchens to savagely criticize belief. The British-American author and journalist, in his book God Is Not Great, characterizes organized religion as “Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.”¹⁴

While countless individuals have been killed in the name of religion, the same is true for most other identifiers that distinguish one group from another. Differences in race, education, ethnicity, gender, and political beliefs have all been at the root of conflict. The riots that took place during the Red Scare in the 20th century are just one example where fear over a new political ideology led to deaths.¹⁵ The fear of communism in the case of the Red Scare is not that dissimilar from the Western fear of Islam and Muslims in the 21st century. “Hard-Orientalist portrayals,” characterizations of Islam and all Muslims as violent extremists in the media, have been used to drum up fears of a Muslim invasion of the U.S. Since 9/11, these fears have been percolating both ideologically and legally.¹⁶ Islamophobia has repeatedly been used by the West to galvanize support for violence and foreign intervention in the Middle East; religion has been used as a justification by monarchs and politicians, among other differentiating features, for acts they were already committing or wished to commit for personal or political gain.¹⁷ Religion itself, especially prayer, should not be held responsible for the cruelty of individuals who cynically claim to be religious.

Conclusion

Some may find themselves asking: Why bother believing when there is no irrefutable proof of God’s existence? Why invest hours that could be spent pursuing hobbies and other pastimes? My objective is not to claim that there is any irrefutable proof of the Divine, sufficient to satiate our rationalist, empirical appetites. Neither do I suggest that you should take up prayer for the sake of acquiring salvation or any other metaphysical end.

My recommendation to take up worship is instead grounded in a desire to counter one of civilization’s greatest threats: chronic solitude and related mental health conditions brought about by social media. With advances in artificial intelligence capable of human-like interaction, we are likely to become even more isolated from one another. It is credible to imagine a future, perhaps even a likely future, where AI will replace traditional religious institutions in the coming decades, offering tailored companionship and new forms of prayer and spiritual practice. If this were to be our future, we would be vulnerable to manipulation and privacy violations that would be difficult to eliminate. Rather than entrusting our spiritual lives to wisdom emanating from soulless data centers, prayer is better left untouched by the technology that threatens to upend and reshape so many other aspects of our lives. We already have forms of worship that have evolved through human history and draw on our shared humanity, strengthening communal bonds. Why would we remove community from prayer? Without it—as we explored with Göbekli Tepe—prayer might never have developed.

Prayer offers a nearly cost-free solution to many of our modern troubles. Why must we prove God’s existence to return to or begin our practice? We, of course, do not. Instead, more people should take the Kierkegaardian leap of faith and reap the rewards of prayer.¹⁸ As weekly attendance at religious services dips below 30% in the U.S. and below 20% in Europe, and younger generations show little interest in worship, we must work to protect prayer and the religious establishments within which prayer occurs from extinction, or risk losing part of our humanity.¹⁹ Prayer, the panacea for the ills of the contemporary world, may have always been there for us—in the church, mosque, or temple just down the road.

Endnotes

1. Andrew Curry, “Göbekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?” Smithsonian Magazine, November 2008, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/.

2. IBID

3. IBID

4. Adalbert G. Hamman, “Prayer,” Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed June 12, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/topic/prayer.

5. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (Penguin Random House, 1982), 31.

6. Paul Carls, “Émile Durkheim (1858—1917),” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d., accessed July 14, 2025, https://iep.utm.edu/emile-durkheim/.

7. Gandhi Memorial Center, “Gandhi’s Inspiration from the Prophet Muhammad,” The Gandhi Message, March 22, 2023, https://www.gandhimemorialcenter.org/the-gandhi-message/2023/3/22/gandhis-inspiration-from-the-prophet-muhammad.

8. Manya Jain, “Final Days at Birla House: Gandhi’s Peace Mission Through Fasting and Prayer,” Enroute Indian History, August 16, 2024, https://enrouteindianhistory.com/final-days-at-birla-house-gandhis-peace-mission-through-fasting-and-prayer/.

9. Tyler J. VanderWeele, “Religious Communities and Human Flourishing,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 26, no. 5 (October 2017): 476–81, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417721526.

10. American Psychiatric Association, “New APA Poll: One in Three Americans Feels Lonely Every Week,” news release, January 30, 2024, https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/news-releases/new-apa-poll-one-in-three-americans-feels-lonely-e.

11. Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the World (Pew Research Center, 2019), https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/01/Wellbeing-report-1-25-19-FULL-REPORT-FOR-WEB.pdf.

12. IBID

13. IBID

14. Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve, 2007), 55.

15. David E. Hamilton, “The Red Scare and Civil Liberties,” Bill of Rights Institute, accessed July 14, 2025, https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-red-scare-and-civil-liberties.

16. Sophia Rose Arjana, “4. Monstrous Muslims: Historical Anxieties and Future Trends” In Religion and Popular Culture in America, Third Edition ed. by Bruce David Forbes and Jeffrey H. Mahan (University of California Press, 2017), 86-88.

17. IBID

18. M. Jamie Ferreira, “Faith and the Kierkegaardian Leap,” in The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard, ed. Alastair Hannay and Gordon Daniel Marino (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 207–34, https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521471516.009.

19. The Age Gap in Religion Around the World (Pew Research Center, 2018), https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/06/ReligiousCommitment-FULL-WEB.pdf.

Bibliography

American Psychiatric Association. “New APA Poll: One in Three Americans Feels Lonely Every Week.” News release, January 30, 2024. https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/news-releases/new-apa-poll-one-in-three-americans-feels-lonely-e.

Arjana, Sophia Rose. “4. Monstrous Muslims: Historical Anxieties and Future Trends” In Religion and Popular Culture in America, Third Edition edited by Bruce David Forbes and Jeffrey H. Mahan, 85-99. University of California Press, 2017.

Carls, Paul. “Émile Durkheim (1858—1917).” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed July 14, 2025. https://iep.utm.edu/emile-durkheim.

Curry, Andrew. “Göbekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?” Smithsonian Magazine, November 2008. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665.

Ferreira, M. Jamie. “Faith and the Kierkegaardian Leap.” In The Cambridge Companion to Kierkegaard, edited by Alastair Hannay and Gordon Daniel Marino, 207–34. Cambridge University Press, 1997. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521471516.009.

Gandhi Memorial Center. “Gandhi’s Inspiration from the Prophet Muhammad.” The Gandhi Message. March 22, 2023. https://www.gandhimemorialcenter.org/the-gandhi-message/2023/3/22/gandhis-inspiration-from-the-prophet-muhammad.

Hamilton, David E. “The Red Scare and Civil Liberties.” Bill of Rights Institute. Accessed July 14, 2025. https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-red-scare-and-civil-liberties.

Hamman, Adalbert G. “Prayer.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed June 12, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/topic/prayer.

Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Twelve, 2007.

Jain, Manya. “Final Days at Birla House: Gandhi’s Peace Mission Through Fasting and Prayer.” Enroute Indian History, August 16, 2024. https://enrouteindianhistory.com/final-days-at-birla-house-gandhis-peace-mission-through-fasting-and-prayer.

James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Penguin Random House, 1982.

Religion’s Relationship to Happiness, Civic Engagement and Health Around the World. Pew Research Center, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/01/Wellbeing-report-1-25-19-FULL-REPORT-FOR-WEB.pdf.

———. The Age Gap in Religion Around the World. Pew Research Center, 2018. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/06/ReligiousCommitment-FULL-WEB.pdf.

VanderWeele, Tyler J. “Religious Communities and Human Flourishing.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 26, no. 5 (October 2017): 476–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417721526.

“Talking to (him) that day, and (him) and the other Talibs, it seemed obvious enough that what lay at the foundation of the Taliban’s rule was fear, but not fear of the Taliban themselves, at least not in the beginning. No; it was fear of the past. Fear that the past would return, that it would come back in all its disaggregated fury. That the past would become the future. The beards, the burqas, the whips, the stones; anything, anything you want. Anything but the past” — Dexter Filkins, The Forever War

Memories of War

To understand war, it must be felt. Missiles slamming into dilapidated buildings. Cracks from snipers hidden amongst the wreckage of elementary school classrooms. Spines intact beside dirt roads stretching endlessly into the clouds. Wailing.

Analyses written in third person for the Times that are filled with statistics, while accurate in the abstract, could not do less to convey the truth on the cratered floor of war. Few journalists understand the centrality of capturing tragedy better than Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Journalist Dexter Filkins. In his 2008 collection of memoirs, exploring his time in Afghanistan and Iraq, Filkins omits all political and historical context in favor of scenes, bound together without regard for chronology. As if the chaos of war itself has scrambled the conventional timeline, the visceral memories break and burst at the seams of the readers’ Western mundanity. “Your days may die, but your dreams explode,” Filkins writes when back stateside, “Not with any specific recollections; they were more the by-products of the raw materials I carried back. Rarely anything I ever actually saw.”

Filkins recounts his many adventures living in compounds and journeying out in Humvees alongside Bravo Team Marines. In one scene, the author conjures the streets of Falluja during an American counterinsurgency operation. “My face! My face!” yells Jake Knospler, only a kid from Pennsylvania. His jaw had been blown off by an insurgent grenade. Soldiers collapsing by Filkins’ side. Bullets whizzing past his ears.

America’s decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq was supposedly driven by a belief in abstract principles. Democracy. Liberty. What Bush failed to recognize, or at the very least visualize, is that the implementation of abstractions requires physical actions. The same blood is spilt regardless of why bullets have been shot. Bullets do not care for morals. Referencing the lack of Arabic fluency amongst American soldiers, Filkins observes that “for many Iraqis the typical 19 year old army corporal from South Dakota was not a youthful innocent carrying Americas good will, he was a terrifying combination of firepower and ignorance.” From the perspective of an Iraqi, who had dozens of their family members killed by American arms, it is difficult to believe those same men brought liberation.

No capital expenditure on infrastructure can justify foreign occupation. In most cases, true liberation must come from within. Americans, together with their NATO allies, may have freed Iraqis from Saddam’s brutal regime, notorious for barbarous torture. But their invasion replaced one form of hell with another. The emergence of sectarian terrorist groups was not inevitable. Contrary to far-right opinion, Islam does not condone Al-Qaeda’s violence. The origin and staying power of fundamentalist organizations are tied directly to American policy. Filkins illustrates the inferno and chaos that settle upon the Iraqi desert and in the urban center of Baghdad, once a wonder of the Ancient world. Car bombs and kidnappings dominate the lives of the average citizen, while foreigners and government officials recede into armored layers, away from the violence, away from the world.

Again?

As I write, American and Israeli missiles hit cities across Iran, destroying military capabilities at the expense of civilian lives. Just beneath the voices of officials justifying war in the Middle East with a nuclear program, I hear echoes of President Bush speaking to the nation. Iraqi weapons of mass destruction threatened the free world. It was our responsibility to wipe them out.

There were no nuclear weapons in Iraq in 2003. There aren’t any in Iran in 2026. We are waging a war, killing thousands after having repeatedly rejected Iranian proposals for a renewed nuclear agreement. Strikes were not inevitable. America chose to put its own service members in harm’s way. America chose to upend the global economy. America chose to enter into another entanglement in a region that many top officials do not understand. It is not too late to prevent another ground invasion where thousands of Americans could lose their lives. Iran is not yet Iraq. The Forever War illustrates why we should ensure it doesn’t become another.

Iranians are not yearning for empty slogans, personality cults, or even lofty notions of democracy. What they desire most is a well-managed, accountable government that can restore economic dignity and allow them to live a zendegi-e normal—a “normal life” free from the suffocating grip of a state that polices what they wear, what they watch, how they love, whom they worship, and even what they eat and drink. — Karim Sadjadpour

Introduction

Forty-seven years have passed since Ayatollah Khomenei, returning from fifteen years in exile, disembarked from his Air France flight from Paris. “Our final victory will come when all foreigners are out of the country…I beg God to cut off the hands of all evil foreigners and all their helpers,” the founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic would preach to gathered crowds.1 Four decades later, the greatest threat to his theocratic project is not a CIA-supported coup but his own suffering compatriots. In a nation whose politics and broader sense of self have been defined by justified paranoia oriented towards the West, Iranians themselves now appear set to topple Khamenei’s repressive regime.

As the once formidable theocratic government in Iran crumbles, the nation appears to be on the cusp of political upheaval. Militarily incapacitated by Israeli and American missiles, geopolitically isolated by the collapse of regional allies, and under pressure domestically from a wave of protests emerging across major urban centers, the Islamic Republic is struggling to sustain itself.2 From the ashes of a Mullah-ruled Iran, may just emerge a nation willing to collaborate with the West to stabilize the Middle East.

Protests

Economic difficulties have massacred the clerics’ remaining legitimacy. Annual inflation exceeding 40% alongside the catastrophic devaluation of the Iranian Rial has put pressure on citizens already suffering from crippling Western sanctions. For years, youth unemployment, currently sitting around 24.3%, has been rising, as disillusioned young people turn to illicit means to sustain themselves.3 Their demonstrations on university campuses and in city centers have catalyzed large segments of the public—even many from the low-income conservative base and the urban middle class have taken up slogans.

Protesters have moved beyond economic grievances and seized the opportunity to express broader anti-government sentiment. “For years now, we have slowly but surely made significant changes to our lifestyles because of this corrupt government. This was the last nail in the coffin. We wanted this regime gone, and now there’s no way this regime will continue,” says a shopkeeper in Tehran.4 Power shortages have become endemic. The cost of living has outpaced wage growth for years. Food scarcity and drought have become the norm. A government diverting funds to its military to prepare for external threats has weakened its domestic defenses: welfare programs.5 Now, confronted with unrest, the clerics have replaced subsidies with bullets. According to Amnesty International, at least 28 protesters and bystanders have been killed.6 The real death toll is most likely much higher. Iranians and the world hold their breath: what’s next for the nation of 92 million?

Forward?

The Islamic Republic marks only a blip in the 2,500-year history of Persian civilization, a history with only brief periods of parliamentary democracy. The likelihood that Iran’s theocracy will fall and be replaced by a liberal-democratic system is at best very unlikely. Iran has never had a democratically elected head of state. An inclination towards a strongman is natural when surrounded by incessant instability. The opposition figure, whose name echoes in Iranian streets and adorns picket signs, promises to prolong that autocratic legacy. Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last American-backed Shah, has been rallying the masses from the safety of his D.C. residence. On his Instagram (@pahlavicomms), the crown prince calls on members of the armed forces to take up arms against the government to “protect [their] and [their] families’ future.”7

If, in place of the Shah, the IRGC, the regime’s revolutionary military force, attempts to consolidate its power, Iran may transition to the Pakistani model. Karim Sadjadpour, writer for Foreign Affairs magazine and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, argues that IRGC generals could replace Islamism with a brand of UltraNationalism, while remaining domestically repressive and hostile to the West.8 This new brand of leaders would use nationalism to pacify the populace while retaining a complete control over civil society.

Alternatively, the regime could outlast the protests and instead pursue a reformist agenda, shedding revolutionary ideology in favor of pragmatism. China offers a successful model for such a pivot. Focusing on economic development, lifting millions out of poverty, and modernizing the country would help restore clerical legitimacy. An Islamic Republic focused on the economy could renew ties with the U.S. and reopen itself to the wider world. However, the expansion of civil rights alongside economic growth is improbable.

At best, Iranians could hope for a Turkish model. Empowering elected institutions like the Majlis and repurposing local councils established nationwide could herald a new era of democracy.9 Populist forces promising material advancement for the masses would most likely thrive, and the transformation would fall short of engineering a liberal society capable of supporting elections. The dream of Iranian pluralism remains alien.

A few miles from the Shah-apparent, another D.C. resident has also made statements regarding the ongoing unrest. “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too,” said Donald Trump on Friday.10 Whether foreign intervention will be necessary—or welcome—is yet to be seen.

Conclusion

Weakened by war with Israel, the ayatollah Ali Khamenei would not be the first Middle Eastern despot to fall. But his regime’s implosion would mark the end of a dreadful chapter in Middle Eastern history. What remains of the Islamic Republic’s axis of resistance would crumble, heralding a new era of peace…or massive bloodletting. Protesters, fed up with unabating hunger and censorship, risk their lives today to fight for a better tomorrow for themselves and the rest of the world.

Bibliography

Amnesty International. “Iran: Deaths and injuries rise amid authorities’ renewed cycle of protest bloodshed.” January 8, 2026. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2026/01/iran-deaths-injuries-authorities-protest-bloodshed/.

Apple Jr., R. W. “Khomeini Arrives in Teheran, Urges Ouster of Foreigners; Millions Rally to Greet Him.” The New York Times. February 1, 1979. https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/01/archives/khomeini-arrives-in-teheran-urges-ouster-of-foreigners-millions.html. Accessed January 10, 2026.

CNBC. “New Trump warning as Iran cuts internet with protests across country.” January 10, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/10/new-trump-warning-as-iran-cuts-internet-with-protests-across-country.html.

Encyclopaedia Britannica. “2026 Iranian Protests.” Last modified January 10, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/event/2026-Iranian-Protests.

Instagram. “این پیامی مستقیم خطاب به نیروهای مسلح و امنیتی ایران است.” Post. Accessed January 10, 2026.

International Labour Organization. ILOSTAT. “Iran (Islamic Republic of) — Country Profile.” Accessed January 10, 2026. https://ilostat.ilo.org/data/country-profiles/irn/.

Parent, Deepa. “Two people confirmed dead as Iran protests turn into ‘battlefield’.” The Guardian. January 1, 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/01/two-people-dead-iran-economic-crisis-protests-battlefield.

Sadjadpour, Karim. “The Autumn of the Ayatollahs: What Kind of Change Is Coming to Iran?” Foreign Affairs 104, no. 6 (November/December 2025). Published October 14, 2025. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/autumn-ayatollahs.

“My role is not to posess, it is to conserve.” — Leonard A. Lauder

The Connoisseur: Leonard A. Lauder

It has been just under a month since the hammer fell in Sotheby’s Breuer headquarters, marking the sale of Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1914-16) for $234 million.1 The piece belonging to Leonard A. Lauder, a cosmetics tycoon and former chief executive of Estee Lauder, broke the record for the most expensive work of modern art ever sold. Alongside the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, (pictured) one of the Viennese artist’s full-length portrait commissions depicting the daughter of his most influential patron, 24 additional works by Matisse, Munch, and others were put up for sale. The auction came six months after the collector’s death in June.

While Lauder is best known for his work transforming his mother’s company into the multinational behemoth it is today, his real passion lay not in selling lipstick but in collecting Picassos and other masterpieces. Centered in New York City, Lauder’s collection traces the evolution of modern art, from Monet’s Impressionist landscapes to abstract expressionist works by Agnes Martin. However, rather than seeking to acquire them solely for ownership, Lauder made it his mission to develop his collection for the sake of curation and, most importantly, preservation.

During his time as the chairman of the Whitney Museum’s board of trustees, Lauder personally worked on the acquisition of over a thousand individual works out of a collection of just over twenty thousand.2 He put a special emphasis on caring for American artists and supporting their work. His commitment to the art industry began when he was only a child. Born and raised in NYC, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the myriad of other world-class institutions the city has on offer, Lauder was made keenly aware of the value of having the world’s crown jewels on public display. He later demonstrated his gratitude with donations worth hundreds of millions of dollars and by gifting his entire Cubist collection, valued at over a billion dollars, to the MET upon his death. It is his devotion to serving the public through art that made him who he was: one of the foremost collectors, connoisseurs, and devoted philanthropists of his generation.

The Serious Collector

I had the opportunity to visit Lauder’s Cubist collection at the MET earlier this month. The collection, now housed in the museum’s Modern and Contemporary Art department, includes over eighty paintings and spans multiple galleries. Moving from Léger’s perplexing still lifes and landscapes to Delaunay’s “La Tour Simultanée” and Braque’s “Mandolin and Fruit dish,” I considered and explored the role of the collector. Here were dozens of museum-grade paintings, cumulatively worth the equivalent of a mid-sized corporation that had belonged to one man alone. Rather than being kept in museum spaces where the public could appreciate their undeniable beauty, they were hung in living rooms, except when on loan.

And yet, the public owes Lauder for his incessant search. Without his commitment to searching for the best, or in his own words, the works that merit an “oh my god” exclamation, they may not have remained in their pristine conditions or have been conserved for posterity.3 The collector is ultimately the guardian of the pieces he chooses to acquire. In the words of Amor Towles in his short story, The Didomenico Fragment, “the essential role of the serious collector [is] the preservation of cultural heritage.”4 Thus, the true collector must be a knowledgeable curator, attuned to the complexities of art history, to be a capable steward of the treasures within their care.

But we must not neglect the personal utility of collecting. At its core, for those in the industry who collect out of genuine interest rather than greed, the process is one of self-discovery and expression. For connoisseurs like Lauder, each acquisition is made out of love for the artist and the distinct perspective that manifests in their creations.5 By spending hours every day lounging beside what they deem to be masterpieces, strokes of genius, collectors nourishe their souls. Ownership is a means of protecting the perspective, the unique means of seeing and understanding the world, present in each work, from fate’s injustices.

Conclusion

While marvelling at the exorbitant prices of the pieces from Lauder’s collection sold at auction may be understood by many as a testament to his success as a collector, his donation to the MET is far more representative of what he stood for. Lauder understood, as Robert Lehman before him, that collecting and an appreciation for the arts must be joined by philanthropy. For while “the serious collector dedicates his life to the hunt for works of beauty, especially those that have been forgotten or forsaken,…[after his passing]…he donates the paintings to a museum where…[they] will hang in a carefully controlled environment so that…[they] can be appreciated by lovers of art for generations to come!”6

Image Credit: New York Times

“...the ability to make connections across disciplines—arts and sciences, humanities and technology—is a key to innovation, imagination, and genius.”

— Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Leonardo

There are few, if any, who rival Leonardo da Vinci in curiosity—or historical celebrity. The Italian painter, architect, inventor, engineer, sculptor, and intellectual is perhaps the greatest thinker humankind has, and possibly will, ever produce. There have been other illustrious painters, more accomplished engineers, and sculptors who surpass Leo in skill. And yet, if I were to ask anyone in Times Square, Istanbul, or anywhere else to name a painting, 9 out of 10 times they would respond with The Mona Lisa. Not Rembrandt’s NightWatch or Klimt’s The Kiss. Not even Picasso’s Guernica, the Spaniard’s tour de force. “That woman by Leonardo da Vinci,” they would say, “the one in Paris.”

Why, then, centuries after his death, are we still collectively obsessed with the Renaissance man? What distinguishes da Vinci and renders his work irresistible to the millions of tourists who take a pilgrimage to the Louvre? Simply put, it is his insatiable appetite for knowledge. His obsession with uncovering the divine workings and language of our enigmatic world. Leonardo was propelled by pure, childlike wonder. It is that awe, that inescapable sense of reverence in da Vinci’s strokes that sets him apart.

Leonardo’s genius is nowhere more evident than in his notebooks, where da Vinci drew elaborate, anatomically accurate diagrams and scribbled questions. Analyzing his notebooks is the closest we will ever get to understanding his mind. What quickly becomes clear to the reader is da Vinci’s commitment to interdisciplinary thinking. Plans for a flying machine are drawn and described alongside exquisitely rendered human exoskeletal systems. Questions about a woodpecker’s tongue, adjacent to sketches for an upcoming painting. His imagination thrived in the connections between the objects of his curiosity, rather than in hyperfixation on a single field of interest.

In Leonardo’s paintings, his interdisciplinary thinking is front and center. For instance, his use of proportions and perfect curls is inspired by his study of mathematics and physics. Even the plays he would put on for the Sforza court in Milan were built on contraptions he devised using his engineering skills. Da Vinci’s scientific knowledge was at the foundation of his artistic creation, and his artistic creativity in turn inspired his scientific inquiry. Da Vinci’s rejection of specialization was his greatest strength. The same will be true for the leaders of the next generation.

The Liberal Arts & AI

In the past century, to the delight of some and the dismay of many, training in the liberal arts has become a hallmark of American higher education. The widespread adoption of the ancient Greek approach has presented some obvious questions: A first-year Economics major at Columbia, on his way to Literature Humanities, may question why he should bother reading “books that enable us to ask questions about literature and how it works,” when he plans to land a job on Wall Street upon graduation. Wouldn’t cramming his schedule with advanced courses on the working of the market seem like a better use of his time? Why, then, do top universities with thousands of notable alumni go to great lengths to ensure pre-meds take history and archeologists take calculus?

The answer lies in the value of interdisciplinary thinking and flexible problem-solving. In the age of artificial intelligence, where technology can crunch numbers and generate code faster and of higher quality than the average white-collar employee, specialization has lost its allure. Instead, we must channel our inner Leonardos and embrace creativity. Fundamentally, LLMs are plausibility engines, designed to spit out the most probable response to a query. The one thing these chatbots cannot do, by definition, is iterate beyond the data they have been fed. As students globally use artificial intelligence to write their essays and brainstorm, a generation that is incapable of critical thinking is entering the workforce.

We are hurtling towards a world where AI outages could spell disaster for productivity. Automation will infiltrate every facet of our society, providing subpar replacements for human output. But because Chat-GPT or Grok will never be able to innovate, the last human frontier will remain originality. To optimize for this new reality, we will need to adjust our academic incentive structures to provide students with the necessary background to be as original as possible. In human employees, ingenuity is becoming significantly more valuable than efficiency.

American Universities

And yet, around the world, top universities outside the US still insist on pigeonholing students into a particular course of study. In England, renowned for its academic institutions, universities such as Oxford and Cambridge often require students to specialize within their fields. Some argue that intense concentration on a narrow field for three years produces more desirable, highly skilled employees. And that may well be the case in STEM, where specialized knowledge is essential. However, for the vast majority of students seeking higher-level education, especially at elite institutions, it is vital that they cast a wider intellectual net.

In the United States, our universities have not become the envy of the world for hiring the best academics. They enjoy universal prestige for creating an intellectual environment conducive to creativity. Great American ideas that reshape industries do not originate from staying within a field. Instead, they are formulated by the joint effort of those working in disparate areas willing to synthesize different ways of thinking. Innovation is a product of the cross-field inspirations that Leonardo relied on. Steve Jobs, in particular, is a great example. Courses he took on calligraphy at Reed inspired his beautiful engineering approach to product design. Elegant exteriors combined with robust electric interiors have defined the Apple brand. Jobs found success at the intersection of art and engineering. However, without having had the exposure to those university-level courses, he may never have been able to design the iPhone.

Conclusion

It is a tragedy that tens of thousands of the brightest minds reject the arts and humanities, choosing instead to focus all their attention on a single, specialized STEM-oriented skill set. We do not need more computer scientists or investment bankers. What we need is minds primed by a liberal arts education to make connections and push the boundaries of what is possible.

Image Credit: New York Times

“Tolerance is conjugated like an irregular verb: I am outraged, you are sensitive, he is dogmatic.” - Irene Vallejo, Papyrus

Introduction

Democracy and liberty have long been the defining characteristics of America. Predating independence, the American continent welcomed immigrants seeking to create an idealized society—a society built to escape 17th-century European poverty and rigid hierarchy. Puritans, Quakers, and others aspired to develop a land free from religious persecution, fortified by democratic institutions, and promising renewed prosperity.

Four hundred years on, coming off of political assassinations, kidnappings, and insurrections, we risk losing sight of these core principles. We are moving farther and farther away from being a land free of ideological persecution, a haven for liberal democracy, and a land full of economic opportunity, as we come to resemble the Britain the pilgrims first fled. The American dream is in peril.

Trump, Inequality & the Allure of Socialism

Income inequality is worse than it was during the Gilded Age. At over 30%, the one-percenters control more of the nation’s wealth than ever before.1 While tech executives and other elites purchase luxury yachts, throw extravagant weddings, and receive billions in bonuses, the masses struggle to afford eggs. GDP has never been higher; our industries have never been stronger. And yet, purchasing power has remained unchanged over the last 60 years.2 Americans, young people struggling to get by, are sick and tired of scrolling through their social media feeds, watching the elites frivolously spend dollars, when they are unable to purchase a home, feed their children, and afford healthcare.

It is no surprise that Donald Trump won in 2016. And won again in 2024. Americans are searching for a savior—a leader who acknowledges their plight and who will work to improve their condition. Someone who will champion their cause and who will hold the elites accountable. Put simply, Americans came to realize that the establishment had failed, and Trump, in accessible rhetoric, made it clear that he would: Take. It. Down.

And what has Trump done to fulfill his oath? Eight months into his second term, Trump has repeatedly taken steps to cater to the wealthy while gutting social services. Instead of fighting inflation, he has levied inflationary tariffs. Rather than push for greater accountability from corporations, he has come after regulators. He is using the presidency to enrich himself while destroying the programs and institutions that millions rely on for their survival. Trump is not a populist; he is the epitome of the corrupt elite he claims he is resisting.

Zohran Mamdani’s meteoric rise to the top is a sign of the times. The generational political talent’s success in the Democratic mayoral primary in NYC is a testament to the widespread discontent among, especially young, voters. The establishment had failed them, and now the man, who had promised to watch out for them, the one they had put their faith in, had failed them, too. Seeking a way out and a path towards prosperity, Americans are turning to a form of Mamdani socialism and politics: identifying real-world issues while embracing idealistic yet unrealistic solutions. Over 60% of Democrats now say they have a favorable view of socialism. Only 54% of Americans overall say they view capitalism positively.3 Struggling with economic woes and increasingly widespread chronic solitude, helplessness, and depression, citizens naturally look to their government for care. And as memories of the Cold War and the abject failure of the Soviet bloc economies fade in our collective memory, Americans no longer associate socialism with evil. Socialism has become politically viable.

Conclusion

As Americans come to discover Trump’s genuine priorities, the political blowback will be hard to contain. Trump’s failure to live up to his promise of putting average Americans, his voters, first, will only exacerbate existing tensions. Violence and extremism thrive in chaos, and the US cannot handle much more of either. Mainstream democrats and anti-Trump Republicans ought to restore faith in the American dream and prove to voters that capitalism can work in their favor. They have to renew the energy that first sent English emigres across the Atlantic and later put us on the moon. In the coming era of AI-induced upheaval, unifying the nation will be of utmost importance. It is up to us all to renew our commitment to collective prosperity.

“They remembered a million useless things, a quarrel with a work-mate, a hunt for a lost bicycle pump, the expression on a long-dead sister's face, the swirls of dust on a windy morning seventy years ago: but all the relevant facts were outside the range of their vision. They were like the ant, which can see small objects but not large ones. And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.” - George Orwell, 1984

In the aftermath of WWI, American foreign policy has been responsible for toppling dictatorial regimes, conducting humanitarian military interventions, and establishing organizations to facilitate global collaboration. One hundred seven years on, that legacy hangs in the balance. A century of bipartisan liberal internationalism—spanning 31 presidencies—is over: in 2025, multilateralism is no longer a U.S. priority.

President Trump is undermining the calculated efforts of his predecessors by cutting foreign aid, imposing (recently deemed illegal) tariffs, and abandoning longtime allies in favor of relationships with like-minded autocrats. In the process, he is supplying Xi with the circumstances he needs to assemble a coalition determined to defeat American hegemony. Despite the president’s vindictive rhetoric and promises to punish the other, American citizens and our way of life are in jeopardy. In awful irony, his most faithful supporters, those responsible for his historic return, are particularly vulnerable.

Very few moments from the last six months better epitomize Trump’s approach to foreign policy than his meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky in February. The Oval Office fiasco, complete with middle school bickering, would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. A sitting American president berating the executive of an allied nation under siege—on national television— without any real backlash from Republicans is a testament to the success Trumpian ideology has had in completing its takeover of the right.

Beyond indifference from members of his own party, it is the sycophantic praise the president receives—reminiscent of what is found in totalitarian regimes—that is most concerning. Representative Andy Ogles’ post on X, made in response to a video of the February exchange, reads, “This is what it looks like to stand up for America.”1 Lindsey Graham, a one-time loyal supporter of Ukraine, echoed similar sentiments, holding Zelensky responsible for the breach of protocol. Unwilling to risk their cushy positions, Republicans on Capitol Hill are falling in line, abandoning their conservative principles and belief in the American-led global order. What Trump says, or more aptly, what Trump demands, becomes the law of the land through executive action, bypassing congressional debate and input, and is rubber-stamped by the judicial branch. His approach instead relies on handshake “business” deals made without expertise or any specialized knowledge. The “adults”—experts on American public policy and diplomacy—are nowhere to be found.

The effects of Trump’s autocratic approach to governance are already being felt within the US. The war being waged on higher education, the deployment of the national guard on home soil,2 inhumane ICE deportations,3 and cuts to FEMA4 all undermine the principles—freedom, inclusion, solidarity—upon which our nation is built.

But domestic policy is only half the story. The unconstitutional scrapping of USAID contracts is estimated to result in 5.7 million more Africans falling below the poverty line and millions of additional cases of HIV.5 In the short term, cuts will increase displacement, exacerbating the existing immigration crisis as families seek opportunities elsewhere. In the long run, less American Aid means less influence in countries that have been reliant on U.S. funding for decades, at a time when China is investing billions as part of its Belt & Road Initiative and Russian mercenaries are trekking through Western Africa. The US was already losing the war for hearts and minds of the global south; Trump has eliminated the few footholds we had, weakening our coalition and empowering Moscow and Beijing.

Tariffs imposed on allies and enemies alike are pushing nations away and into Xi’s arms. Just this week, following the imposition of a 50% tariff on Indian goods, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly embraced, both physically and metaphorically, by Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of a larger economic summit in Tianjin for the first time in seven years.6 In recent months, various trading partners have likewise made private and public pivots toward China. In his second term, the absence of experts is manifesting itself in a collapse of the status quo. Beyond higher prices at the grocery store, price hikes that have outsized impacts on the average American, tariffs are threatening our security beyond diplomatic quarrels. The offshoring of innovation and cuts in grants, amid a technological arms race, give our adversaries time and an edge in any potential conflicts.

The 47th president has also repeatedly undermined Article 5 of the NATO alliance. The organization was established as a bulwark to counter growing Soviet aggression, precisely because we understood the value of European security for American and global prosperity.7 Now, at a time when the threat to Eastern European sovereignty from Russia is at its highest since the Cold War, Trump is verbally assaulting allied leaders, while simultaneously hosting summits and rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin. A stronger Western coalition and a weaker Russia are assets for the U.S., well worth the trillions spent on defense.

China is more than happy and ready to fill the vacuum left behind by an isolationist America. We should not let them.

Footnotes:

When the average American pictures the dangers associated with Artificial Intelligence, scenes from the 1984 film, Terminator, may come to mind: autonomous robot assassins threatening our lives. Leaders in the AI space, focused on the development of large language models, picture others: the potential for the creation of bioweapons, explosives, and other life-threatening devices, at scale.1 But other risks are equally alarming.

In recent months, dozens of stories have been published by major news outlets concerning delusional and psychotic episodes induced by conversations with AI chatbots.2 Not limited to the product of a single company or demographic, LLM delirium is emerging as an acute risk to public health and security. Owing to their alluring sycophancy and humanlike personality, AI chatbots have become imperfect cures for chronic solitude.

Yet, there is another existential threat looming in the shadows: covert manipulation by LLMs and their “superintelligent” successors.

AI Manipulation

If we begin to see AI as a general-purpose consultant and rely upon the technology to make life-altering decisions, LLMs may remake society-wide behavioral patterns. Simply put, systems producing similar responses for related queries could steer users in a shared direction. For instance, it is not hard to imagine the influence AI could soon have on travel if millions of Americans ask ChatGPT to arrange their flights, accommodations, and activities: AI could drive traffic to some vendors while leaving others without sufficient business. The tourism industry may soon be at the mercy of Silicon Valley, exceeding the control the internet already wields, “choosing” the hotspots and must-sees.

If adoption continues at the current rate, as users seek to benefit from AI’s often touted “expertise,” the technology could begin to influence when or where we buy a house, get married, work, or even if and when to have a child. The critical thinking required to evaluate possible courses of action, developed in our early years, suffers when assignments meant to develop teenage minds are conveniently completed by text terminals. We may eventually reach a point of no return, where the masses, accustomed to outsourced thinking, cannot make decisions without their LLM of choice.

With Godlike capabilities for manipulation, executives at the helm of AI behemoths will have the opportunity to have a hand in what that influence looks like, molding the world to conform to their vision for the future. Companies could begin paying AI companies for discreet advertising, carefully placed nudges with the capacity to pick the winners and pump profits. Authoritarian leaders may enter into confidential agreements with companies to support regimes and spread propaganda through LLMs.

The threat posed by the subconscious influence of AI is greater than the one posed by political or other forms of manipulative “propaganda” spread intentionally by rational human actors. The implications for our political system are immense: voters in liberal democracies could begin to find themselves asking Grok for advice on who to vote for and acting upon Grok’s response, allowing the LLM to crown a winner without even “approaching” a ballot box.

Within a few generations, even industry elites could be at the mercy of their creations; incapable of controlling AI’s desires and covert manipulation, we may awake to find the entirety of the human species at the mercy of artificial intelligence—without the mental acuity necessary to break free from our self-imposed bondage. Difficult to mitigate, the dangers are innate in the hallucination-prone, black-box technology itself.

Conclusion

Despite what Silicon Valley CEOs may have you believe, we don’t need an impossible leap in AI capabilities or the often hyped Artificial General Intelligence for the technology to upend our lives. Or even for the scenario described above to become our reality. Having had years to develop their minds, adults over 30 will likely not bear the brunt of the AI industry’s insistence on limited oversight and regulation; young people and future generations, growing up in a world with widespread LLM usage, will. These models will not just democratize information; they will be responsible for how we think, what we think, and when we think, driving our individual and collective actions. As weekly user counts jump from the hundreds of millions to the billions, societal transformation is imminent.

“Even when the texts are clichés, poor translations, or make little sense, having them stamped on the body makes people feel unique, special, beautiful, and full of life. I believe the tattoo is a remnant of magical thinking, a leftover trace of ancestral faith in the aura of words.”

– Irene Vallejo, Papyrus

On my recent visit to the Topkapı Palace, for centuries, the center of the Ottoman Empire and home of the ruling dynasty, I found myself amid a throng of eager tourists filing through the imperial gates. The sweltering sun, contributing to what pundits later reported to be Istanbul’s warmest week, did little to subdue the crowds. After purchasing a discounted ticket and passing through what, in practice, were decorative metal detectors, I entered the first of four courtyards. Finding myself strolling beneath cypress trees with branches that seemed to point out sites of significance, I ducked into a gallery displaying articles of clothing and the detritus of great sultans.

Tucked away among the dozens of preserved cloaks and kaftans were shirts fitted with calligraphic inscriptions. The Talismanic shirts, I later found out, were garments covered with protective prayers and Quranic verses. The thin fabric was meant to act as a layer of supernatural defence, warding off misfortune, illness, and other forms of spiritual evil.

Safavid, Mughal, and West African rulers wore similar shirts, with designs reflecting local tastes and traditions.1 The shirts were carefully crafted by expert artisans to be worn below suits of armor. And yet, despite being made for war, their colors are unapologetically lively, woven into patterns fit for a high-end brand’s summer collection.

These shirts and their modern motifs, worn by men ruling over millions of square miles and subjects, reflect the role of the Ottoman court as a center for artistic innovation and Islamic spirituality. They serve as a reminder of the power of words and their ability to serve as a refuge from worldly chaos, providing a sense of control in a world governed by fate and chance.

If you are visiting Istanbul, I would not pass up the opportunity to visit these revealing Ottoman-Turkish historical artifacts.

Image Gallery:

Image Credit: NYT.

“A good way to marginalize the most dangerous political movements is to prove the success of your own. If liberals do not want Americans to turn to the false promise of strongmen, they need to offer the fruits of effective government. Redistribution is important. But it is not enough.” — Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson

Scrolling through headlines and social media, it is clear we are in the midst of a political realignment: a devolution into a world where politicians no longer abide by established American norms, responsible for decades of relative prosperity.

In the last few months, American citizens have witnessed the erosion of their constitutional rights and the perversion of their founding principles. And while one party has fallen in line, unable to mount a resistance, the other has largely failed to intervene. Lacking an effective leader and direction, the popularity of the Democratic Party has plummeted. If American liberals hope to control the White House or have any real influence in governance, a successful repositioning is of utmost importance. Donald Trump did not rise to power thanks to his political acumen and sound policy; his rise was precipitated by years of failures on the American left: a failure to serve the average citizen. And while thoughtful policy proposals may not have put Trump in the White House, they are what is required to dislodge his harmful ideology from the American political system.

Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson offers a perspective with which to revolutionize a party that has failed to metamorphose. Rather than generate new methods for addressing 21st-century challenges, liberals have relied upon drawn-out court cases and legal barriers—key to their 20th-century success—to push for their agenda. When paired with American conservatism, intent on “attacking government,” we are left with politicians and institutions that are unable to govern. Or more aptly: Build.

Even while surrounded by the nearly unimaginable material wealth and widespread luxuries unthinkable to the early 20th-century American, the US has failed to invent and build more of what people need. Klein puts it well: “We have a startling abundance of the goods that fill a house and a shortage of what’s needed to build a good life.”

To counter the populist right, Democrats—and Republicans—should focus on building more homes, investing in green energy (including nuclear), and providing funding for high-risk scientific research. The government needs to improve its collaboration with the private sector to bring to life technologies that would otherwise not be invented, and deploy those that are already around. Rather than leave the distribution of the fruits of American innovation to the Chinese, the US should take a proactive approach to manufacturing and delivery. To combat the climate crisis, maintain our leadership in Artificial Intelligence — a technology unlike any other — and enhance the quality of American lives beyond mere material luxuries, we must rethink our approach to government. The America of the past, built upon antiquated, ineffective legalism, is insufficient. We need an America that invents, that builds, and that, above all else, champions abundance over scarcity.

Following a 30-minute ride aboard the Marmaray rail line, along the coast and beneath the Bosphorus, I disembark, clutching my camera. I walk past the turnstiles and an amateur guitarist playing Sezen Aksu, and ride the escalator up into the midday sun. A group of Italian tourists greets me at the exit; they admire the Galata Tower across the channel, murmuring, as I hurry across the street. I hail a cab, one of many looking for tourists at this hour, and settle into the backseat. The smell of cigarette smoke fills my nostrils as we navigate through traffic. At the end of a narrow alleyway beside a family of coiled cats, the tip of a navy minaret reaches up into the sky. I pay my fare—10x what it would have been only 2 years ago—and enter through the gates of what is now the Kariye Mosque, an embodiment of Istanbul’s complex history.

Thanks to my Turkish citizenship, I do not need a ticket to enter—one of only a few places where the passport waives otherwise necessary entry requirements. A security guard, sipping Turkish tea on a stool beside the doorway, waves me by and into the mosque.

History: Past & Present

Despite the existence of conflicting accounts, some drawing generously from legend, the Chora Church was most likely founded by the Eastern Roman General Crispus in the 7th century as a monastery on the outskirts of Constantinople.1 Its name, Chora, means “country,” referring to its location outside the original city walls.

Following years of service and a series of minor repairs, Theodore Metochites, an influential statesman and scholar, sponsored major renovations in the early 14th century. Elaborate mosaics and frescoes were commissioned as part of the overhaul to adorn the walls and ceiling, all depicting biblical narratives and characters typical of the period.

Pictured below is a depiction of the Last Judgment, painted on the ceiling of the church paracelsion, a side mortuary chapel found in early Byzantine churches. Despite the presence of prominent blemishes, the fresco remains an outstanding example of early Byzantine ecclesiastical art. Serving powerful patrons, the Church held an exalted place in the hearts of the imperial family up until the Christian empire’s collapse in 1453.2

Following the Ottoman conquest of the city by Mehmed the Conqueror in the 15th century, the site, along with the rest of the city, entered a new era under Muslim control. Initially, the Chora Church, unscathed by the Ottoman Siege, was left to the Greek community’s Patriarchate and remained a place of Christian worship.3 Nevertheless, in 1511, following in the footsteps of the Hagia Sophia, the Chora church was converted into a mosque.

The site’s new muslim custodians constructed a minaret and mihrab4 to suit Islamic worship. Rather than destroying the artwork, during the conversion process, the Ottomans opted instead to cover the mosaics and frescoes, allowing for their preservation. A combination of thin layers of removable plaster and wooden curtains was used to hide the figural depictions during prayer. Shortly after the modifications, the mosque became a hub for the local Muslim community, which had previously lacked sufficient space to pray.

Politically, the conversion symbolized the Ottoman effort to incorporate Byzantine heritage into the empire's cultural fabric following their conquest of a powerful Christian capital. Acutely aware of the Church’s historical and artistic value, the Ottomans not only chose not to eliminate the remnants of their predecessors but also ensured that the structure formed part of the empire’s cultural inheritance for generations to come. It is the Ottoman principle of religious tolerance that made my visit to the Kariye Mosque and appreciation of its figural adornments possible, centuries after their creation.

Conclusion

The Kariye Mosque's fusion of Christian and Muslim architectural elements embodies Istanbul's role as a bridge between East and West; a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985, the Mosque is well worth a visit.

Now, having finished my own, I look out over the Bosphorus and watch the ferries glide by as the recording of the adhan begins to play from crackly loudspeakers mounted on the Kariye minaret. Through endless wars, conversions, and natural disasters, prayer atop this hill has endured in one of its many forms for centuries. Looking to the future, I hope that worship here will continue for centuries hereafter.

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“A great painter does not content himself by affecting us with his masterpieces; ultimately, he succeeds in changing the landscape of our minds.” — My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk

It’s been almost two months since I disembarked from my journey through Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red, the Nobel Prize-winning book set in 16th-century Constantinople. In addition to the dazzling renderings of the imperial treasury, bustling bazaars, and workshops where artisans illustrate illuminated manuscripts, Pamuk’s reflections on art’s relationship with the human spirit have not left my mind. The Turkish author brings to life the world of Islamic miniaturism and the struggles undertaken by kaftan-clad men who labored endlessly over illustrations of timeless tales through a careful synthesis of fact and fiction.

Pamuk approaches artistic expression with an acutely Sufi-Islamic sensibility that is worth examining, regardless of religious affiliation. Pamuk asserts, through his fictional miniaturists that “...painting is the act of seeking out Allah’s memories and seeing the world as He sees the world.” (79) Rather then trying to paint items as they are present in the world around us, illustration is used as a means of revealing the essence of what is to be depicted; the essence visible in full only to the divine. They would “[attempt] to depict the world that God perceives, not the world that they [saw].” The miniatures that adorn the Metropolitan Museum’s gallery walls are not meant to be a window into a moment in time; instead, they are intended to exist outside the very conception of time in a world hidden from our own.

However, the pursuit of otherworldly portrayals is not intended to replace our appreciation for the mortal world. After all, “Allah created this worldly realm the way an intelligent seven-year-old boy would want to see it; what’s more, Allah created this earthly realm so that, above all, it might be seen.” Art is meant to serve as a means of celebrating beauty, especially when we feel we are peering through a portal that may, in fact, be divine.

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken,” – Oscar Wilde

Running at the Music Box Theater from March until June 15th, The Picture of Dorian Gray, starring Sarah Snook, may very well be the Broadway spectacle of the year. Adapted by Kip Williams from Oscar Wilde’s 1890 original for a 21st-century audience, Actor from hit TV Series Succession, Sarah Snook, plays all twenty-six roles in a 2-hour extravaganza.

At the center of Wilde’s masterpiece is the dazzling twenty-year-old Dorian Gray, living amongst Victorian London’s rich and powerful. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed gentlemen begins his journey with the creation of a portrait by artist Basil Hallward, a man captivated by Dorian’s youth and beauty. Unbeknownst to the artist himself, the portrait possesses magical qualities. Dorian soon discovers that the physical manifestation of age and hedonistic pursuits would only appear upon the Dorian in the portrait, leaving himself unscathed. Having come to this realization, Dorian progressively descends into a life of sensual pleasure with little regard for Victorian or Christian morals. Dorian turns to Lord Henry, a corrupt man speaking in favor of spineless debauchery, for advice, slowly becoming mad in the process. By the end of the 18-year period Wilde illustrates, Dorian stabs the now hideous portrait, killing himself in the process.

Wilde’s involvement in the Aesthetic Movement is the foundation of the philosophical dilemmas the novel and Williams’s adaptation explore. At its core, Aestheticism was a movement and school of thought centered on the doctrine that art exists solely for the sake of beauty and not for any political or didactic purposes. Wilde’s own pleasure-seeking lifestyle is said to have influenced part of Dorian’s character. In his own words, “I can resist everything except temptation.” While championing the value of beauty through Dorian’s obsession with appearance, Wilde’s work is simultaneously a critic of living a life devoid of moral consideration, epitomized in Dorian’s self-destruction. Another dichotomy driving the work is the contrast between Dorian’s beautiful appearance and twisted, corrupt soul. While one may appear to be and sound devoid of moral transgression, especially in the Judeo-Christian sense, it is not guaranteed that their life is not infested with sin. A close reading urges the audience to consider their values and uphold moral purity, even when given the chance to avoid social judgment. God, of course, is always watching, Christians would be quick to point out.

Williams does an excellent job bringing this Victorian-era novel alive with a talented camera crew and outstanding acting. It is never easy to pull off a one-man show without taking away from a play’s substance. Here, Snook’s solo performance, playing primarily male characters no less, only adds to the production. Screens, slang, and digital filters supplement Wilde’s original while enticing the younger generation. In publishing this review, it is my hope that we return to the philosophical dilemmas present in Wilde’s work in a world where the morality of our actions is no longer considered. In the absence of ethics, what separates humanity, our flesh and blood, from artificial intelligence that poses an existential threat to our creativity, authenticity, and morality?

Beginning in the 19th century, African Americans began looking to the Ancient Egyptian civilization for inspiration and as evidence for rich African cultural identity. The movement began an effort to reclaim an identity stripped from the community through years of oppression in the West. Pictured below is Fred Wilson’s Grey Area (Brown version), where the artist places racial complexion front and center through a series of busts of Nefertiti, an Egyptian queen of the 18th dynasty.

The queen consort appears repeatedly throughout the exhibition, “royalty [of course] connotes power and cultural value after all.” Most astonishingly, curators display a disco ball made in Nefertiti's likeness from Beyonce’s private collection, highlighting a continued appetite from African American pop stars for work inspired by Ancient Egyptians. Pictured below is Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller’s Ethiopian Awakening. The plaster sculpture personifies the term “Ethiopia,” used to refer to the African continent in the early nineteenth century. The sculpture represents the global African diaspora adorned with a pharaonic nemes headdress. Art historians regard Ethiopian Awakening, a symbol of self-knowledge, as the first Afrocentric work of art.

Does the racial classification of Ancient Egyptians as "Black" or "Caucasian" hold significance? Even with uncertainty from the global community, the legacy has promoted a tremendous African cultural identity. Culture holds the power to unify a population. This capability is exemplified most vividly in the role of Ancient Egypt and its pivotal role in uniting the African diaspora to confront injustice.

“[Boethius] would have been remarkable in any age, in the age in which he lived, he is utterly amazing.” – Bertrand Russell

To hinge one’s contentment upon what is not theirs would, on all counts, be ludicrous. To demand that one must control the most prominent kingdom and fall in love with the fairest maiden before reaching a state of delight would be irrational. Instead, we must seek our satisfaction from within our hearts and souls. Only there can we discover what is truly ours and be truly happy.

Such were the musings of the Italian statesman and early Christian: Boethius (475 AD – 525 AD). Born to a wealthy family in the storied city of Rome under the reign of the Gothic King Theodoric, Boethius entered the political scene. He received great praise from those in power and was given the high office of consul. Alongside his work for the government, Boethius worked on translations and written works, particularly in the field of philosophy. It is primarily thanks to Boethius that we have access to Plato and Aristotle in the modern age, for without his translations from Greek to Latin, the works of the great philosophers would have been lost to time. The polymath’s wife, renowned for her beauty and virtue, bore two sons who would follow in their father’s footsteps and be handed the office of consul with little expertise. For the Romans, everything was going according to plan — until it wasn’t.

In the spring of 523 AD, Boethius was falsely accused of plotting against the increasingly paranoid Theodoric and was shipped off to Ravenna to await execution. Without warning or time to wish his children and wife well, Boethius’s life of prosperity slipped out from underneath his feet. It was in his Ravennian prison cell, in the two months he awaited his brutal execution through strangulation, that he wrote his most treasured work: The Consolation of Philosophy. Within the book, written in a combination of prose and poetry, Boethius is visited by a woman dressed in a torn gown, and clasping a scepter and books. The woman, tall and proud, introduces herself as Philosophy. The man, awaiting certain death, and the woman, possessing wisdom that mortal men could never hope to internalize, discuss the nature of the human condition.

Lady Philosophy’s message consists of the secret to mortal enjoyment. Happiness, the Lady illustrates, must not be built upon fragile foundations. The wheel of Fortune, or the wishes of the goddess Fortuna, are never stagnant. Boethius writes, “I know the many disguises of that monster, Fortune, and the extent to which she seduces with friendship the very people she is striving to cheat, until she overwhelms them with unbearable grief at the suddenness of her desertion.” Our ambition, our desires, can only be extinguished from within, not by anything “bad luck” can eliminate. In a nod to the Stoics of the past, Boethius believed happiness to be a state of mind, of otherworldly properties. Even love, a part of our lives not typically considered worldly or on par with Golden goblets, Boethius argues, is not to be the basis for our contentment, for Fortuna could take it away at a whim just as she would any other treasure.

Boethius’s Christian faith shines through his desire to seek happiness in God or goodness, two that would become one later in his writing. The God described by Lady Philosophy is most likely a form of goodness, written about by Plato: a form of pure virtue. Only by retreating into ourselves, into our “inner citadel,” can we discover this virtue. By indulging in the qualities Fortuna can never take away, most notably our reason, and pondering the immensity of the universe, our delight is freed from her clutches. “Happiness cannot consist in things governed by chance.” As Exonians, much of our situation lies beyond our control. Although our grades, social perception, and athletic performance appear to depend on our efforts, they are largely influenced by external factors. We must tap into our inner strength and face life with resilience and courage, or risk falling into unnecessary despair.

Beyond physical artifacts, Aristophanes’ plays present an opportunity for contemporary readers to investigate the various religious and ceremonial positions held by young virgin women and pre-adolescent girls in Classical Athens. The comic play Lysistrata, produced by the Athenian playwright in 411 BC, illustrates the roles held by promising daughters of the nobility. A chorus of old women reads the following: “As soon as I was seven, I served as an arrhephoros. Then I was an aletris at ten years of age, for the goddess in charge. Next, wearing the saffron-colored robe, I was a “bear” at the Brauronia. As a beautiful young girl, I was a kanephoros wearing a necklace of dried figs.” Virgin girls held a prominent role in religious traditions, working their way through a sequence of four noteworthy positions: arrephoros, aletris, participant of Brauronia, and kanephoros. I will focus primarily on the essential roles of arrephoros, a participant of Brauronia, and kanephoros. Many Classical Athenian traditions and ceremonies could not have been conducted without young girls and unmarried women performing these roles. Women may have been brought into religious ceremonies through these positions to perform feminine house chores, including weaving, as a show of devotion/faithfulness to divine feminine patrons. Goddesses honored by young women include Athena and Artemis, who have ties to female virginity, transitions, and rites of passage. 

Honoring Athena through yearly ceremonial tradition would not have been possible without the girls’ skill with a loom and reenactment of the myth of Athen’s origin. The first position held by girls around the age of seven was the office of arrephoroi. The King-Archon, the chief magistrate responsible for various noble families, would choose four girls to perform in the Arrephoroi festival. During the festival, a reenactment of Athen’s mythical foundation, the girls carried boxes under the Acropolis, an area containing sacred objects. Outside of the primary festival, the four girls worked alongside the priestess of Athena Polias to weave Athena’s Panatheanaic robe. In Birds, a play produced by Aristophanes in 414 BCE, the playwright draws attention to the significance of the religious activity: “A prosperous construct, this city. Now, what god do you suppose will be the citadel guardian? For whom shall we prepare the peplos?” The “peplos” Aristophanes refers to is Athena’s Panatheanaic robe woven by the preadolescent girls with help from their mentor. Aristophanes uses the gifting of the garb as a metaphor for honoring the city’s guardian. 

Without the participation of unmarried virgins at Brauronia, a religious festival held in honor of Artemis, the Athenians would not have received “salvation.” Every four years, a group of girls between five and ten would be selected to travel to Baruron. Among other activities, the girls would create garments dedicated to Artemis. The following is an inscription from the 4th century BCE found alongside a deposit of dedications: “There is an embroidered sea purple tunic in a box: Thyaene and Malthace dedicated it. An embroidered sea purple tunic in a box: Eukoline dedicated it.” These garments and offerings could not have been created without the aid of unmarried women and their training in the creation of tunics and other attire; training men would not have received. The practice’s significance to Athenian belief is emphasized in the following proposal from the late 4th / early 3rd century BCE, arguing that the festival “dedicated to the goddess [is necessary] for the salvation of the Athenian people.” Divine interventions would have been sought both on the individual level–for protection from illness, increased fertility,  and assistance in childbirth–and at the communal level, to ensure the physical perpetuation of the city-state across generations.  

Young virgin women would not have been appointed to a position of religious significance and dealt with respectfully during ceremonies if they weren’t necessary. The respect they were shown is exemplified through the last responsibility in the sequence of religious obligations performed by young maidens:  the office of kanephoroi or “basket bearer.” This honorable position, reserved for girls of nobility with exceptional promise, would have held a prominent role in various religious festivals and processions. One of the few remaining descriptions of kanephoros is present in one of Aristophanes’ comedies. In Acharnians (425 BCE), the father of comedy describes the private festival for Dionysus put on by an Athenian citizen and Spartans to celebrate a private truce: “Speak words of good omen, speak words of good omen! Let the kanephoros go ahead, a little in front. Xanthias, hold the phallus pole erect! Daughter, put down the basket, so that we may begin.” The virgin daughter or Kore, leads the religious procession, carrying barley, filets, and the sacrificial knife in her basket. Without the ceremonial items, performing the given ritual would have been impossible. In the patriarchal world of Classical Athens, the father’s respectful request for the daughter to “go ahead a little” and “put down the basket” would have been rare outside of religious ceremonies. Thus, if virgin girls were not deemed to be truly necessary, they may have been replaced by honorable men–unless Aristophanes’ references are for comedic effect.Virgin girls and preadolescents were crucial to the “salvation” of the Athenian populace. Classical Athenian religious tradition drew upon the skills females would have possessed alongside their role in ensuring the physical perpetuation of Athens. Feminine fertility would have been of utmost importance in a culture where lineage carried enormous weight. As a result, an exploration of classical Athens through religious ceremony offers a possibly unique perspective on the power feminine figures would have held in society. The craft of fabric-making and clothing held immense significance; without the expertise of women, the men of Athens would have been left unclothed and, in their eyes, without the gods’ blessings. Additionally, the nature of our primary sources is worth examining. Our principal source for the role of preadolescents and nubile girls in Athenian tradition is Aristophanes’ comedies. In ancient Greek comedy, concepts of virginity and purity likely held meanings that extended beyond traditional physical definitions. Since our sources are comedies written for entertainment, we’re left to wonder: How representative are comedies of the real-world female experience? Is the prominent role the daughter held and the father’s respect in Acharnians written in for comedic effect? To an audience of Classical Athenian men, young women and girls, played by men, receiving praise for their “central” role in tradition may have well been first-rate entertainment–the very idea may have elicited laughter. It underscores how comedy, as a unique space, allowed for the exploration of gender dynamics and cultural realities that might have been otherwise difficult to address. Despite possible discrepancies between the authentic Classical Athenian female experience in ceremonies and Aristophanes’ comedies, his work remains an essential source for the lives of Classical Athenian girls.

In Sappho’s poetry, female characters repeatedly express emotional complexity. In the available fragments, Sappho holds women who could experience and express deep longing, love, and desire in especially high regard. In fragment 31, Sappho portrays her own passionate, emotional response when watching a woman she loves with a man. She describes a figurative fire seizing her, a metaphor for being overtaken by uncontrollable rage and envy. Sappho may be making a generalization, acknowledging the pain and suffering love can provoke within women. In fragment 1, Sappho sings of her passionate plea to Aphrodite for assistance in longing. She proclaims, “everything my heart longs to have fulfilled, fulfill,” hyperbolizing her desire. Sappho’s depiction of emotional complexity may be an attempt to relate to women in her audience, a demographic overlooked in Archaic Lesbos. 

Alcaeus’ writings, on the other hand, contradict Sappho’s view of ideal womanhood. In fragment 10, Alcaeus criticizes Helen for giving in to her passion and running off to Troy. Alcaeus reprimands her greatest irresponsibility: neglecting her maternal obligations, “leaving her child at home…,” and instead choosing to satisfy her desire. He later ties the “slaughter” and the violence of the Iliad to Helen’s recklessness ignited by her intense emotions and irrationality. His perspective is rooted in the belief that women, specifically wives, were property, expected to remain loyal to their husbands and perform domestic duties with little freedom or autonomy. 

Beauty is a characteristic Sappho repeatedly attributes to feminine identity. In many of the fragments available, Sappho sings of beauty, most notably when speaking of her relations with young women. In fragment 22b, Sappho describes one of her many relationships: “I urge you [to sing] of Gongolya, Abanthis, [quickly] picking up your lyre, while desire for her once again flutters about you, who are beautiful.”Sappho highlights Abanthis’ beauty, which may illustrate her view that physical beauty is integral to female identity.  In fragment 16, Sappho compares the beauty of military strength with the beauty of one’s lover: “Some say an army of horsemen…is the most beautiful thing on the black earth. I say it is whatever one loves.” While Sappho accentuates the hypothetical lover’s beauty, just as in fragment 22b, in fragment 16, she generalizes one’s beloved. Her abstraction emphasizes the significance of physical beauty to women of the upper class.  Sappho’s lyrics offer one of the only windows into the female experience of antiquity. Owing to a lack of resources, it is uncertain whether Sappho’s work accurately portrays the beliefs of most Archaic Greek women. Few women shared Sappho’s upper-class status and high level of education. Therefore, her views may differ from or even contradict the beliefs of other women of the period. It is also uncertain whether the beauty and emotional complexity Sappho speaks of can be restricted to women. The Poetess may have equally valued emotional complexity and beauty in men. We’re left wondering: Is Sappho exploring an Archaic form of love felt within relationships of all genders? Are Sappho’s descriptions unique to homosexual love? Are emotional complexity and beauty attributes of the ideal lover of any gender? Additionally, all fragments available were part of longer pieces; any conclusions drawn by scholars may say more about the scholar than Sappho herself. Despite these uncertainties, Sappho’s poetry remains an essential upper-class female perspective on Archaic Greek femininity in Lesbos.

A new political era has begun in the world’s largest democracy. In a surprise turn of events the Bharatiya Janata Party lost its governing majority during the parliamentary elections that took place across 43 days this spring. A hobbled Modi now has to rely on allies to push through economic and social reforms, a welcome change for the millions of Indians who are apart of minority groups. His domestic and international appeal among his loyal followers, however, remains substantial. Modi, a self-proclaimed Hindu divinity, has spent his decade in power tightening his grasp on Indians globally. His charisma and appeal to Hindu nationalism have made him a symbol of Indian power and growing influence. His popularity is best felt among hardworking immigrants who hope to see their nation shine. The power to be obtained from international campaigning is considerable; with over 34 million Indians living overseas, they form the largest diaspora globally. Modi and his party harness the power of communities and organizations established by international offshoots of his campaign to secure votes and advance his global agenda. Earlier this year, a group in England founded by Friends of the BJP held an event in support of the Hindu nationalist regime, drawing notable attendance and featuring an address from a conservative MP. The political address highlighted support for his constituents and celebrated Modi’s government and achievements. Modi, along with his opponents from Congress and other parties, are certain to leverage the influence of Indians living abroad to cling to power and bolster their image. 

Even after Indians who have chosen to be naturalized in their adopted nation and forcibly renounce their citizenship, their influence over their friends and family back home remains. Residents look to their immigrant counterparts for approval and inspiration on all matters. Their desire to improve the image of India abroad also plays an important role in their political loyalty. The prime minister’s work to sell India as a manufacturing powerhouse and capital of innovation to the world has partly paid off at the ballot box. A study conducted by Carnegie Endowment found support for the BJP to surpass support for the opposition among expatriates. Aware of his global popularity, Modi has held rallies worldwide to cultivate his global image. 

Modi’s success, however, raises a profound ethical dilemma: Should citizens living abroad be involved in local politics?

For most immigrants, the day-to-day politics in their country of origin has little to no impact on their lives. Housing, education, and other areas of living take precedence over Indian politics for the vast majority of the 18 million Indian immigrants who retain their citizenship. Consequently, traveling to their place of birth to vote, as one must in India, is senseless for most. A harsher judgment may ask: Why should immigrants have a say in local parliamentary elections? Some may argue it is an immigrant’s responsibility to vote for a better future to prevent others from having to move abroad. However, immigrants may lack the first-hand experience necessary to make informed decisions for residents. Immigrants may also face a potential conflict of interest in local politics, a factor that cannot be overlooked. While India’s laws surrounding dual citizenship aim to prevent any conflict, they may not address all concerns. Donations, rallies, and influence are all avenues for non-citizens to get involved and have an outsized impact on local politics. As the BJP, hobbled by losses, enters a third term in power analyzing the effects of immigration and the BJP’s vision for the diaspora is essential to understanding Modi’s foreign policy. India’s diaspora is a compelling testament to the enduring impact immigrants continue to have following their departure.

Variance in political parties and ideologies within the democratic systems of nations has given citizens ample choice in their governance. Within free nations, it would seem intuitive to encourage the creation of groups across the political spectrum. But are there ideologies that threaten the very foundation of democracy and the civil liberties their citizens enjoy? When asked to name dangerous belief systems, one’s mind could naturally float toward far-right nationalism and fascism. Others might be adamantly opposed to socialism and the fundamentals of the welfare state. While these political constructions conflict at the core of their beliefs, charismatic political figures pertaining to all have fought for power under a common banner: populism. Barry Straus, the author of Populism Through the Ages: A Challenge for Democracy and professor at Cornell University, says, “While democracy respects the rule of law, adheres to constitutional limits, and seeks a balance between classes and groups, populism is ambiguous. It promotes the people while denouncing the elite and cares less for law than results. And it is all the rage today.” The rise of populism could lead to an erosion of democratic institutions globally, highlighting the crucial need to prevent populist movements from taking power. India and Brazil are prime examples of how populism, a political approach capable of mobilizing diverse ideological movements, can manifest in various forms contingent upon the specific national context.

In India, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, exemplifies how extreme nationalism can propel a populist movement to power. The BJP has gone about dismantling the inclusive and progressive policies that had defined post-independence India. He had initially come to power by casting Congress, an Indian political party that had dominated Indian politics before the BJP’s rise, as elites out of touch with the nation’s pulse. Modi painted Congress’ beliefs of secularism, socialism, and focus on diversity as Western or English and a threat to Indian culture. Preaching to a population whose religious and ethnic pride had been suppressed for centuries by Mughal and British colonial rule, the Hindu majority felt the accusations of Western idealism hit close to home. He was able to convince northern voters that the nation should be controlled by its religious and ethnic majority, degrading minorities, including the 172 million Muslims, to second-class citizens. His movement has been successful in instilling fear of imaginary Muslim elites amongst the Hindu majority. Modi’s belief in the power of Hindu homogeneity alienates not only the sizeable Muslim population but the educated southern Indians as well, who have continued their support of Congress in the nation’s elections. Many of those in the South were appalled to see the prime minister unveil his campaign at the opening ceremony of a Hindu temple built upon the ruins of the 16th-century Babri mosque. The mosque had been destroyed in 1992 by Hindu mobs, a reminder of the nation’s complicated religious dynamics. 

Modi’s popularity has allowed his government to silence not only minorities but also opposition parties with the support of government bodies. The Indian government has utilized “tax terrorism,” unjust corruption charges, and other means to silence oppositional campaigns, thus stripping citizens of their rights to democracy. Unsurprisingly, his party’s economic success, paired with Islamaphobic rhetoric, is predicted to win the authoritarian populist a majority in India’s parliament or Lok Sabha in the nation’s ongoing elections. The BJP and Narendra Modi have been successful in using religion to take control of the country and undermine its democratic institutions. 

Brazil’s former radical right-populist political leader, Jair Bolsonaro, took advantage of the nation’s unfortunate economic circumstances in the late 2000s and the subsequent recession around 2013 to ascend to the presidency. The home of the Amazon has a long and tumultuous history with populism dating back to the 1940s. However, after finally emerging from military dictatorship in the mid-20th century, Brazilians voted for a left-wing government with an overwhelming majority. The left created far-reaching welfare programs and embraced the nation’s minorities. However, once the recession took hold of the Brazillian economy around 2013, the center-left Workers Party’s redistribution policies, poverty alleviation programs, and civil rights policies fueled contempt in those not benefiting from the government’s exuberant spending. The drop worldwide in petroleum prices, one of the biggest drivers of the Brazilian economy, and a steep drop in exports to China, a key trading partner, had a profound impact on public sentiment. Economic uncertainty, paired with corruption scandals involving Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the leader of the Workers Party, and the spread of organized criminal activity, laid the foundation for the rise of Bolsonaro. A former captain in the Brazilian military and the head of the Social Liberal Party, he successfully appealed to the masses through his rejection of everything the ruling left had stood for. In the past, Bolsonaro has openly praised former president Donald Trump’s foreign policy, been against progressive policies towards the LGBTQ community, and said men and women do not deserve to be paid equally. Once in power, Bolsonaro went about dismantling the nation’s democratic institutions. He worked to curtail freedom of expression through the use of “anti-terrorism laws” and asked students to report professors who they believed were spreading “ideological belief.” In addition, his administration requested prison sentences for at least 16 critics and blocked critics on numerous of the government’s social media accounts. During his time in office, he also repeatedly spoke fondly of Brazil’s time under military dictatorship and filled his government with 6,000 active-duty and retired military personnel. In a rally in January of 2021, he said, “It’s the armed forces that decide whether people live in a democracy or a dictatorship.” 

Prior to the 2022 presidential elections, Bolosonaro conducted campaigns to intimidate the Supreme Court in an attempt to prevent the vote. The Supreme Court had been overseeing investigations into his conduct, an annoyance that proved to be the end of his political ambitions after the court’s decision last year to bar him from running for office until 2030. At rallies across the nation, Bolosonaro claimed the electoral system was fraudulent and that the results of past elections had been corrupt. The former president said there “could not be elections that create doubts among voters.” The Socialist Republic Party and Jair Bolonaro successfully used the country’s precarious state to take control and undermine its democratic institutions. 

In both India and Brazil, leaders have exploited nationalism and fascism to appeal to citizens’ concerns and point to a group they label as “other” as the culprit, all while systematically eroding their citizens’ democratic rights. Operating under the guise of acting in the ordinary person’s best interest, populists implement policies that benefit the elite while impoverishing the masses. The widening gap between the rich and poor, coupled with heightening international tensions and technological innovations, threatens to reverse the progress made in spreading democracy globally. The civil liberties citizens enjoy under the fledgling democracies established during the turn of the century are at risk of being torn away under authoritarian populist leadership. Through an exploration of nations such as India and Brazil, which have had their democracies heavily weakened by populism, citizens can better understand the true nature of populist movements and prevent their ascension to power.

The war in Kosovo that began in 1997 loomed large in Halilaj’s upbringing, where drawing served as an outlet for the fear he felt and the trauma he endured. His time in a refugee camp in Albania is especially salient. While there, the camp psychologist, Giacomo Poli, “gifted [him] white papers, A4 and simple pens.” Reflecting on his experience, Halilaj says the ability to express himself artistically saved his life. He described his experience of being homosexual within Kosovo-Albanian culture as closely aligned with the struggle of the Kosovan State to be recognized.

The installation features graffiti art, including birds atop ledges symbolizing freedom and dreams of a better future. The main attraction, however, is a massive spider wrapping its arms around the New York City skyline. What I found to be most unique is the inclusion of sculptures representing global icons like Lionel Messi and their juxtaposition with the brutal realities of war exemplified through the NATO symbol seen in the first image. The veneer of naivete present within the sketches hides generational trauma. The use of art to bring attention to historical and contemporary conflicts brings new understanding, especially when displayed at an institution like The Met. Abetare, named after the book Halilaj used to learn the alphabet, is certainly a must-see.