The Gift Logic

We tend to think of generosity as a virtue for the privileged, assuming that gifts are a kind of life décor, not something which could live viably at the core.

But what if we’re missing out by resigning gifts to the periphery? What if we have sidestepped gift as the truest and most life-giving law there is?

Comment is taking this question seriously because the air feels stagnant and so much in our political culture and relational reality is near a snapping point. The winter issue explores: Is a gift economy possible, and what is it, really? How might more real-world experiences of the gift logic shift our ideals of what kind of leadership is needed to serve the commons effectively in our time? What is the texture of formation that has given shape to those who become willing to die so that others might live?