Newsletter from Jay Wilcox - June 2022: On Zelenskyy

In calculus, an equation is parametric if it functions at a deeper level than just x and y. In a parametric equation, both the x and y coordinates are determined at any given moment by a third, sometimes hidden, variable--a variable that may trace erratic patterns, wild, swooping trajectories. Mathematical mood swings.

A person's nature has hidden parameters, too. No brain moves linearly. Think of how we decide what to buy or boycott. Think of our reasoning for voting the way we do--this calculus of compromise, not necessarily with others but with ourselves. Graphs of parametrics can seem like cognitive dissonance put to paper. They double back on themselves and break promises. They commit hard to unintuitive directions, guided by their inmost variables.

I spent my childhood trying to figure out why grownups did the things they did. I still sometimes believe that if I just had enough information, I could work backward for solutions.

Toward the end of last year, a headline seemed to chastise Kamala Harris for something she said about Israel. I expected her remarks to have been inflammatory or at least thoughtless--but what I found, upon deeper reading, was merely that she didn't sufficiently challenge a student's criticism of Israel's violence toward Palistinians. "We still have healthy debates in our country, about what is the right path," Harris said. "And nobody's voice should be suppressed on that." In the geopolitical calculus of the United States, such a seemingly benign statement is incorrect. The normal, human instinct to condemn violence and empathize with victims defies our parameters.

When he was new in office, Trump answered the phone when Taiwan called--because that's what you do, right? You answer the phone when it's ringing?

It's honestly so easy to feel cynical. To marvel in rage at things that feel bigger than you--the adults in the room who simply refuse to make sense, leaders who gain nothing by breaking promises and yet break those promises anyway. Why have our elected officials done nothing about student debt? Why do our elected officials vote against providing relief to the baby-formula shortage? Maybe cruelty's where the money is, but I almost hope there's some other hidden factor at work. Human cruelty and greed feel more like constants than variables, and I'd like to think whatever's guiding our path can still be changed.

This piece is about Zelensky. In an era of asterisks and calculation, we notice what we can understand--those rare individuals who Do What Makes Sense, significant figures in a sea of zeroes. Who is the leader of the free world, if not this man? The term derivative, in calculus, refers to a tangent touching a curve at exactly one point. Along the arc of history, a figure like Zelensky becomes an illuminating derivative, a line borne out of this moment and pointing perfectly toward what might still be.

No leader will ever deserve unconditional approval. I'm writing this not so much as an endorsement but as a testament, a reminder that the world can still surprise us by making sense. I write as an answer to my inner actuary. No cynic ever has enough information--and any possible world attaches itself to this exact point.

I hope you've been well.

Infinite Regards,

Jay