Welcome
I’m Eduardo. I’m very happy to meet you here.
I’ve called my Substack “Being There” after a book written by Russian novelist Jerzy Kozinski that was made into a movie by Hal Ashby. It starred a great Peter Sellers as a gardener destined for bigger things. It is a fabulous send-up of the ruling class that captures well how its understanding of the world is self-serving, shaped by its aspirations, appetites, hopes and fears. We all share these biases. They can take us in weird directions.
What I aspire to with my essays, though, is not just to ponder motivated thinking. I want to share thoughts about how our thinking has steered so many Americans to embrace a worldview so unremittingly hostile to others. How did we come to this dangerous, self-defeating moment, when democracy is at risk, rampant racism runs amok and conflict is around every corner? Many of these questions have a global dimension, which I hope to fully embrace. What must we do to overcome this time of monsters and build a more harmonious, equitable equilibrium?
I hope you will come away from my writing with some nuggets of understanding about this unusual juncture we are going through. I’m hoping we can, together, think through some paths toward a less belligerent world.
Who I am
I’ve been writing for a very long time. These days I write a column for The Guardian, a fabulous, feisty newspaper that has given me enormous freedom to lay out my thoughts and frustrations. Before that I worked briefly as columnist and editorial board member at the Washington Post, an episode that came to an end when Jeff Bezos decided to repurpose the paper to please Trump in the service of his more lucrative businesses.
I have worked for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Opinion and—my first journalistic home—the now-deceased Mexican newswire Notimex. But I guess my more formative experience came from two decades as reporter, editorial board member and columnist at the New York Times.
I hope my writing here can break new ground. I come to Substack to share thoughts about the evolution of our society, economy and political system, free of institutional constraints.
What you get
-A few hopefully wonderful essays a week with my thoughts about our time of monsters. What brought us here? How is it that we are so lightly turning our back on liberal democracy? Where do we go from here?
-Some possibly interesting videos. I am still playing with the idea of using AI to render my columns in video, as well as to produce some other stuff. (I have a couple of early AI animations featuring the Cheeto and Stephen Miller. I might experiment more in that direction.)
-My unremitting attention. I promise to read and consider every comment. I hope to engage with you seriously on the subjects of our shared interest and concern.
-This is all available now for free. At some point in the future I’m going to try to make some money off of this endeavor. Maybe I can even make a living from this writing! I am thinking through what extra content I could provide to those of you that choose to help me finance these efforts.
I hope to hear from you!
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