New Times,
New Thinking.

  1. The Weekend Essay
28 October 2023

On the responsibility of intellectuals

As the conscience of society, writer-thinkers should not be swayed by prevailing political opinion in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

By George Scialabba

Illustration by Jedi Noordegraaf / Ikon Images

I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.

—WH Auden, “September 1, 1939”

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