This magazine promises very little beyond bright colors and classy serifs. But these it promises absolutely. The attempt is to offer something that is both political and readable, a combination never before successfully achieved. The moment things have gone didactic and tedious, please let the editors know, and they will cease publication immediately. You have either paid money for this publication or bamboozled someone who has, creating a reciprocal obligation that is taken very seriously indeed.

However, even though this magazine tries to be interesting, it nevertheless has principles. It is, for example, firmly against the hurting of human beings by other human beings. That position evidently makes us “of the Left,” though not of the one that puts people in labor camps and enjoys sing-a-longs.

We are not like the Marxists, with their uni-causal explanations and their ominous rhetoric of bloodshed.

We are not like the Anarchists, who cannot organize an anarchist bookfair, let alone a revolution.

We are not like the Democrats, whose chief political conviction appears to be capitulation at all costs.

We are certainly not like the libertarians, who despise every tyrannical act unless it happens to be done by the boss.

We believe things ought to strive to make sense, which puts us in a minority among magazines of political commentary and analysis. Incidentally, we do not care for most of the present-day media, who appear enamored of the trivial and who are insufficiently committed to the popular well-being. Don’t ever let us get like that, whatever you do.

Our chief goal is to produce something you will enjoy holding and gazing at, which will make you excited to be alive and which will increase your sense of connectedness to the sufferings and elations of your fellow human creatures. You will know whether it has succeeded by whether, after reading, you are suddenly overcome with the urge to hug strangers, to tell them you love them and invite them to join you in solving the terrible problems our species faces.

Ideally, you will never again ignore an injustice, sneer at the unfashionable, participate in a conference call, decline an invitation, file a noise complaint, support a war, belittle a naïf, pick up a copy of The New Yorker, forget an atrocity, write a free verse poem, rationalize an indefensible act, use an imprecise descriptor, or fail to tell the truth. Welcome to the luminous and cheery world of Current Affairs!