The DC Salon

Liberties Journal hosts a monthly conversation in this iteration of which dozens gather to together ask and answer the question IS THERE A MORAL AESTHETIC?

Liberties Journal hosts a monthly conversation in this iteration of which dozens gather to together ask and answer the question Does Success Help?

Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question Is There Honor Without Revenge?

Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question "Can We Change How We love?"

Chris McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and thirty of their closest friends assemble on New Years eve to together ask and answer the question "Can People Change?"

Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends ask and answer the question "Can We Choose Our Beliefs?".

Christopher McCaffery, Celeste Marcus, and fifty of their closest friends discuss what propaganda is and whether it is easily identifiable.

Host Chuong Nguyen talks to Celeste Marcus about her most recent essay, After Rape: A Guide For The Tormented. They consider questions like, "Why is rape so difficult to talk about?" "How long does it take to feel okay afterwards?" "Why do so many rapists not think of what they did as rape?"

Recording of a salon held on October 19th with Arash Azizi about socialism, liberalism, and the Israeli Palestinian conference. EVENT UPDATE: This salon is being reframed in light of the current crisis in the Middle East: Arash Azizi, a specialist on Iran, and Celeste Marcus, a liberal Zionist, will discuss how Arash’s socialism and my liberalism inform our views of the current paroxysms. Both of our ideologies are universalist, and that universalism is in tension with our respective tribalisms. This is sure to be a spirited, respectful, and interesting conversation. Arash Azizi, author of The Shadow Commander: Soleimani, the US, and Iran’s Global Amibtions, and What Iranians Want: Women, Life Freedom, joins Celeste Marcus to discuss how the humanism that undergirds his socialism is complimentary of, if not identical with, the liberalism to which Liberties is dedicated. Liberalism is a political and philosophical theory dedicated to the protection of individual rights. It is itself secular, though an ideal liberal society is pluralistic and protects the rights of individuals to practice and observe as they please so long as their practices do not infringe on the rights of others. Because of liberalism’s pluralism, it depends on minorities to use the liberal system in order to advocate on their own behalf. Therefore, liberals are often dependent on non-liberals (since statistically a large percentage of leaders of minority groups will not identify as liberals) to do the advocacy work which allows a liberal society to function healthily. Arash Azizi is an example of a writer and advocate who uses the language and philosophy of socialism to advocate for the individual rights that liberalism too holds dear. This will be a discussion about how his socialism is and is not consistent with Liberties‘ liberalism. Recommended reading: “Liberalism of Fear” by Judith Shklar is the text that best informs Celeste Marcus’ liberalism “Marxism and Democracy” by Michael Harrington will furnish an understand of Arash Azizi’s socialism. See also: “What Karl Marx Really Thought About Liberalism.”

Justin E H Smith joins Celeste Marcus to discuss the thought and style of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Justin E. H. Smith joins Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus to discuss the gamification of reality, and the pernicious compulsion to control and describe more and more of human existence via algorithms and technology.

Leon Wieseltier and Celeste Marcus discuss  La Ruche, Soutine, the romantic, fleeting world of the School of Paris, and its brutal destruction during WWII.