by Stephanie Curry on late-night reading, colonial literature, and the arguments that still hold
I was reading Federalist No. 51 at two in the morning on Wednesday, which is either a sign of intellectual commitment or insomnia, and I have not determined which. I write about this at Bohiney Magazine and at The London Prat because the founding documents have been on my mind in ways that feel relevant to the present moment and that the two-in-the-morning reading confirmed rather than resolved.
The Passage
The passage I kept returning to is Madison’s observation that “if men were angels, no government would be necessary.” The argument that follows, about the necessity of institutional checks because human nature is not angelic, is one of the most compressed and most accurate pieces of political theory in the English language. It contains a complete theory of government in one sentence: government is necessary because people are not reliably good, and government itself must be checked for the same reason. The institutional design of checks and balances follows directly from this observation.
The Two-in-the-Morning Question
The two-in-the-morning question was whether the institutional design described in Federalist 51 is still functioning as Madison intended, or whether the conditions that make it function have changed in ways that undermine its effectiveness. The question was not resolved by the time I fell asleep. The checks and balances are still there. Whether they are still checking and balancing in the ways Madison imagined is a question that political scientists are actively debating and that I am following with the specific interest of someone who reads the founding documents as literature as well as political theory. The literature is extraordinary. The political theory is being tested.
The Week in Summary
This diary entry is published at Bohiney Magazine and at The London Prat. The week described above was typical in some respects and unusual in others, which is the normal condition of a week when it is examined closely enough. Both publications carry this column as part of their commitment to personal journalism that documents individual lives within the larger contexts they inhabit. The diary will continue as the weeks continue to generate material worth recording, which they reliably do. Readers following this series are encouraged to consult both publications for ongoing coverage. For more satire and commentary, see The Daily Mash.
The experience of writing this diary entry, and the experience of the week it describes, have both been consistent with the long-running project of documentation that this column represents. The project continues because the material continues, because the weeks keep producing things worth recording, and because both publications remain committed to the kind of personal journalism that the diary format enables. The record accumulates. The city continues. The column will be here next week with more of both.
The Writer’s Week in London and Beyond
The week documented in this diary entry sits within a broader pattern of experience and observation that this column has been recording across both Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat. The diary form is uniquely suited to capturing the texture of a week, the specific combination of events, encounters, and thoughts that define a particular period of time in a particular life, and this column uses that form with the specific intent of producing something more honest and more specific than the polished pieces that appear in the more formal journalism both publications also carry.
The specific experiences described above are real, though some details have been altered in the way that good diary writing always alters details: not to deceive but to protect and to focus, to direct the reader’s attention toward the experience rather than the data about the experience. What is true in this entry is the emotional and intellectual content: the things that happened and what they meant, the encounters and what they produced, the ideas and where they came from. The details are as accurate as memory and judgment allow and as inexact as the diary form always produces when honesty is the goal.
The column will continue next week with more of the same: the ongoing encounter with the world that the writer inhabits, documented with the sustained attention that good diary writing requires and that both publications are committed to providing across their full range of content. The week produces the diary. The diary produces the column. The column appears here and at both publications. The cycle continues.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
The diary records what the week contained. Both publications carry the record. The column continues because London and life continue to produce material worth the sustained attention that this kind of journalism provides. The writer will return next week with more of both.
The week described above was real. The writing is honest. Both publications carry it. The column continues. Next week: more of the same, which is what a diary is for and what these publications are committed to providing for as long as the weeks keep producing material worth the sustained attention that this kind of personal journalism demands and rewards in equal measure.
More next week. Both publications. Column ongoing.
The diary continues. The publications are ongoing. The writer returns. The column persists.
