"And if there’s a prophet you wish we had profiled, or if you know of someone who is still with us who will be a prophet of tomorrow, please share your thoughts in the comments."
Thomas Sowell, our greatest living intellectual, while the nonagenarian is still living. He's just up the road at Stanford, not a hard interview.
George Orwell was not trying to be a prophet, but does anything describe our current times better than 1984?
Fantastic series. May I humbly suggest profiling the prophetic KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov? In 1984, he warned us about ideological subversion and outlined everything we are witnessing now: demoralization, destabilization, crisis, and normalization.
Please keep up the fantastic work! One thing I find extremely useful is your penchant for putting links to other works in all your articles. This is fantastic and allows the reader to go deeper into a subject quite easily. Bravo!!
The Free Press is the best thing I have ever subscribed to. Intelligence, wit, perspective - A+ for all. I get positively giddy when I see TGIF in my inbox. The Prophet Series was amazing (and a little spooky). Some people’s minds are such beautiful mysteries. I lean moderate/conservative but truly feel you present all sides. Thank you for what you do. Your work is so important.
Love the series. Definitely would like you to continue.
The person who resonates with me on a daily basis is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Was he a prophet? Maybe too early to tell. His book Morality is a masterpiece in any event.
My only real criticism is that this series was too short! I was hoping to read about, say, Leo Strauss, Christopher Lasch, Camille Paglia, Cormac McCarthy, James Stockdale, Robert Nozick, and Jared Diamond.
But in this day and age, I’ll take what I can get. What you published was wonderful. Thank you!
I think that Nicholas Taleb has been such a great distiller of wisdom far outside of his financial origins to merit a profile in this series. His coining of antifragility and ideas about finding value and meaning by putting your soul in the game have informed much of my own thinking.
I have been talking about the various prophets from this series with my family and friends. Thank you so much for this series. I have bought the Hoffer book because of it. Thank you.
I love your special subjects series. They have introduced me to ideas that are either new to me or that challenge long held opinions and beliefs. I believe you have introduced a new kind of editorial presents opinion without necessarily picking a side. This seems to me to be a valuable contribution because it forces the reader to think hard about why one believes the way he or she believes instead of spoon feeding dogma.
I sincerely hope your readership appreciates the special gift that is the Free Press and that you ultimately become the voice that the majority of legacy media have forfeited in the name of biased, anti-news, clickbait.
Great series! Perhaps you could continue it but publish monthly or quarterly instead of weekly.
In addition to the many good suggestions put forth by FP readers in this comment section, I would add “Generations” by Neil Howe and William Straus. Published in 1992, its generational theory of societal change is quite interesting and seems to be playing out as hypothesized.
"And if there’s a prophet you wish we had profiled, or if you know of someone who is still with us who will be a prophet of tomorrow, please share your thoughts in the comments."
Thomas Sowell, our greatest living intellectual, while the nonagenarian is still living. He's just up the road at Stanford, not a hard interview.
George Orwell was not trying to be a prophet, but does anything describe our current times better than 1984?
Sowell would be a great addition…
Yes - here is another vote for the great Thomas Sowell.
Fantastic series. May I humbly suggest profiling the prophetic KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov? In 1984, he warned us about ideological subversion and outlined everything we are witnessing now: demoralization, destabilization, crisis, and normalization.
I honor him through my substack about subverting subversion and compiled his most prescient quotes in this post: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/yuri-bezmenov-top-quotes-why-i-write-subversion
We have a piece coming out about him. Stand by!
Can’t wait, comrade!
Please keep up the fantastic work! One thing I find extremely useful is your penchant for putting links to other works in all your articles. This is fantastic and allows the reader to go deeper into a subject quite easily. Bravo!!
C.S. Lewis and The Abolition of Man.
Monty Python.
I second The Abolition of Man!
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Free Press is the best thing I have ever subscribed to. Intelligence, wit, perspective - A+ for all. I get positively giddy when I see TGIF in my inbox. The Prophet Series was amazing (and a little spooky). Some people’s minds are such beautiful mysteries. I lean moderate/conservative but truly feel you present all sides. Thank you for what you do. Your work is so important.
Love the series. Definitely would like you to continue.
The person who resonates with me on a daily basis is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Was he a prophet? Maybe too early to tell. His book Morality is a masterpiece in any event.
My only real criticism is that this series was too short! I was hoping to read about, say, Leo Strauss, Christopher Lasch, Camille Paglia, Cormac McCarthy, James Stockdale, Robert Nozick, and Jared Diamond.
But in this day and age, I’ll take what I can get. What you published was wonderful. Thank you!
Agreed! I would love to see them continue the series with an article on Leo Strauss.
I think that Nicholas Taleb has been such a great distiller of wisdom far outside of his financial origins to merit a profile in this series. His coining of antifragility and ideas about finding value and meaning by putting your soul in the game have informed much of my own thinking.
I would love to see this series continue. Very informative
It was a most enjoyable series. Thank you so much for picking up Saturday morning.
Simone Weil, The Need for Roots
Czesław Miłosz, The Captive Mind
Albert Camus, The Plague
Some excellent suggestions. I would place "The Captive Mind" at the top. Excellent summary here: https://www.commentary.org/articles/paul-kecskemeti/the-captive-mind-by-czeslaw-milosz/
I have been talking about the various prophets from this series with my family and friends. Thank you so much for this series. I have bought the Hoffer book because of it. Thank you.
I love your special subjects series. They have introduced me to ideas that are either new to me or that challenge long held opinions and beliefs. I believe you have introduced a new kind of editorial presents opinion without necessarily picking a side. This seems to me to be a valuable contribution because it forces the reader to think hard about why one believes the way he or she believes instead of spoon feeding dogma.
I sincerely hope your readership appreciates the special gift that is the Free Press and that you ultimately become the voice that the majority of legacy media have forfeited in the name of biased, anti-news, clickbait.
Thank you…g.
Great series! Perhaps you could continue it but publish monthly or quarterly instead of weekly.
In addition to the many good suggestions put forth by FP readers in this comment section, I would add “Generations” by Neil Howe and William Straus. Published in 1992, its generational theory of societal change is quite interesting and seems to be playing out as hypothesized.
Could the essays (slightly expended?) be compiled into a book? With your foreword and epilogue? I would purchase several copies.