this is cool. - 8/15/22

hi,

my roommate and i have decided to put up flags as decoration throughout our little apartment in the DMV area. one says vote, one says protect our parks, one is the american-flag-made-lgbtq, and the final one is the climate stripes. 

it feels strange to put up these kinds of decorations -- will people walking past our window be spurred to vote by a flag they see in our apartment? will we be reminded to vote in the 2022 midterms because of it? it looks cool, but the commodification of activism is a paradox that i hope there is a solution to. writers far better than me have probably discussed this; i'm just lazy.

and now, for the first cool thing of the week:

How Bolivia’s ruthless tin baron saved thousands of Jewish refugees, by Dan Collyns in The Guardian

i'm fascinated by people who, despite being ruthless in all aspects of their life, have a humanitarian side. Moritz Hochschild appears to be the definition of that.

perhaps he was trying to save faith -- after being savage in the tin industry, he wanted to make sure he could still get into heaven. who knows where he is now.

- zev

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