Don't look away

How Omar El Akkad's "One Day" exposes the hypocrisy that keeps us comfortable

Welcome back to The Ink Book Club. We’ll meet next on Wednesday, June 11, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern for a second week of discussion of Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, and then on Wednesday, June 18, we’ll gather live with the author.

The Book Club is open to all supporting subscribers of The Ink, so join us now to take part!

When a writer makes you feel guilt and shame for not seeing beyond the “relentless parachuting of virtue,” is that a good thing? Also, what does “the parachuting of virtue” refer to?

This is our second week in conversation around Omar El Akkad’s piercing One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. In reading chapters four through six, have you, too, found it to be filled with aha moments, albeit uncomfortable ones? For example, El Akkad points out that Americans reflexively believe they are rebels who champion the underdog, often failing to acknowledge that it’s we who are the “empire.” As he puts it, there’s a “glaring disconnect between cultural self-image and pragmatic reality.”

A review of the book that ran in The Washington Post likens it to an archaeological dig. El Akkad, they suggest, is excavating perceived wisdom and the niceties that reassure us that when the horrific is being done in our names, it’s because it’s “necessary.”

Sit with that, as Omar would say…but meantime savor the weekend. We look forward to seeing you this coming Wednesday, June 11 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern for our next discussion. In the meantime, think on the questions below — or pose your own.

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