Can It Happen Here? Authoritarianism in America – A collection of essays pertaining to the topic of authoritarianism in the Age of Trump. Edited together by Cass R. Sunstein, formerly the Obama Administration’s regulatory czar, the collection includes thinkers from across the political spectrum. There is no straight answer to the book’s title question, and not all of the essays even try to attempt answer it. What is starkly clear after reading this book is that forms of authoritarianism have existed in this country before, are existing now, and will exist in the future. The degree of authoritarianism is a constant battle, for now being waged within judicial system and the vast government bureaucracy. The most shocking essay here is by Jonathan Haidt and Karen Stenner. Together they show, through a series of graphs and tables compiling behavioral surveys and the recent election results in the USA, the UK and France, that there is statistical evidence for a large authoritarian receptive group within our modern populations. Basically, ~35% of people tend to have these authoritarian dispositions and this number does not go away. It has been sitting under all of our liberal democracies for as long as the data is available. This population is not always a threat to democracy, but pending the types of stimuli (geopolitics, domestic social issues, economic variables) the group can be activated. Trump’s approval rating is completely stable at around ~40%, and the reason for this can also be explained by Haidt’s and Stenner’s analysis. Even if issues and leaders that activate the authoritarian response in that third of our population continue to maximize a negative response, it is still possible to win back democratic majorities; but the threat that this irrational group poses to liberal democracy will be ever-present.

Spider-Man: Homecoming – Probably the funniest Marvel film I’ve seen. Thor: Ragnarok is it’s closest competition. A lot of the fun comes from the fact that Peter Parker is a 15-year old, a notion that is fully baked into the plot. For example, at one point near the end Peter is giving chase to the Vulture, played by a scene chomping Michael Keaton. Peter ‘borrows’ a sports car to catch up and he’s driving really poorly, wrecking the car along the way. We’ve spent the majority of the film watching him train with his powers in his new suit, developing fighting proficiency and learning to problem solve on the fly, and then we get these funny little reminders that, “oh yeah”, he’s a kid and he doesn’t even have a driver’s license! This is also a good New York movie and the best recent blockbuster about puberty.

Dust in the Wind – The third and final installment in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s coming of age trilogy, this 1986 film deals most overtly with the opening urban/rural divide that resulted from Taiwan’s rapid industrialization. Train rides, tunnels and stations across the island feature heavily in the film, as its two young protagonists, Ah-yuan and Ah-yun, move to Taipei to earn money for their respective families in their rural village. The uncertainty and lack of direction in their new urban environment confuse and alienate their relationship, one that could otherwise blossom into a romance. Matters are complicated even further when Ah-yuan is called up for his conscription. Hou seems intent on showing the limits of agency afforded to these youths and their distant families. Fittingly, the final shot of the film lingers over the green valley of the village, as grey clouds blow above in the wind.