Alan Dershowitz's Perfect World

"Paint a picture of your ideal world," Debra Trione asked 50 "of the most powerful and influential leaders in America." A Perfect World (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $16.95, paper) presents the results. It includes pictures and comment by several Harvardians, among them correspondent James Fallows '70; chemist Dudley Herschbach, Ph.D. '58, Jf '59; economist Alice M. Rivlin, Ph.D. '58; economist Lester Thurow, Ph.D. '65; and Frankfurter professor of law Alan Dershowitz. "I guess if I had one wish for the world today—and this is going to make my mother very unhappy—it is that we become less religious," writes Dershowitz. Here are his painting and his vision of a perfect world:



b-dershowitz
From the book

I don't know how to draw it, but I'm thinking here of a world in which people maintain their differences but lower the walls and the barriers, a world in which people care about one another and live for this world, and not for some hereafter. A world in which people do good things because that's the right thing to do, not because God says to do it. What this is supposed to represent is different kinds of people all being equal, being tied together at the bottom, free to be different at the top, and being limited by the circle of the planet, in life here on Earth and not in some hereafter.

       

You might also like

More Housing in Allston

Toward another apartment complex on Harvard-owned land

General Counsel Diane Lopez to Retire

Stepping down after 30 years of University service

Navigating Changing Careers

Harvard researchers seek to empower individuals to steer their own careers.

Most popular

William Monroe Trotter

Brief life of a black radical: 1872-1934

Romare Bearden

Brief life of a textured artist: 1911-1988

A Real-World Response Paper

In Agyementi, Ghana, Sangu Delle ’10 brings clean water to a village.

More to explore

Illustration of a box containing a laid-off fossil fuel worker's office belongings

Preparing for the Energy Transition

Expect massive job losses in industries associated with fossil fuels. The time to get ready is now.

Apollonia Poilâne standing in front of rows of fresh-baked loaves at her family's flagship bakery

Her Bread and Butter

A third-generation French baker on legacy loaves and the "magic" of baking

Illustration that plays on the grade A+ and the term Ai

AI in the Academy

Generative AI can enhance teaching and learning but augurs a shift to oral forms of student assessment.