Myths and legends, court Calvinball, cities on fire

Weekend reads for August 23, 2025

Happy Saturday, Ink readers! As we do each weekend for our supporting subscribers, we’ve collected below some of the best writing we’ve come across as we’ve read and researched this week. Among the links you’ll find in today’s edition of Weekend Reads:

• How mythical pasts shape present-day conflicts

• Why abusive parenting became a model for governance

• Can the rule of law survive if it’s reduced to a single rule?

• What happened to liberal dissent?

• Did fire shape the 1970s and American cities?

• How far would someone be willing to travel for the promise of a new life

• And, as always, music — from voices together in community

You won’t want to miss any of it. Thank you so much to our supporting subscribers for making this newsletter possible. If you haven’t yet joined our community, why not become part of this and help us build the future of independent media today?

---

In The Ink this week

---

And now, your Weekend Reads

The uses of legend

The rules Putin sets down for interpreting the past cannot be accepted. It is nothing more than fantasy following force. This is the most important point. If we grant that tyrants are right to start wars because of fictions of brothers and babies, because of stories that are not even wrong, then every single corner of the world is subject to invasion and the entire international legal order is void. [Thinking about…]