No time for thinking: does this observation, nearly two hundred years ago, still hold? On the restless impatience of American society, among both commentators and their public. Men who live in ages of equality have a great deal of curiosity and little leisure; their life is so practical, so confused, so excited, so active, that but [...]
Military mindfulness: STEM soldiers should also cultivate the liberal arts. The modern military needs the humanities to realize its mission. From the editorial: But even in an age of highly sophisticated warfare, our military leaders should not be too narrowly focused on STEM. If we want leaders who communicate clearly, solve problems creatively and appreciate cultural differences [...]
Kudos to our modernity: how science continues to transform our lives for the better, to the point that now is the greatest time in history to be alive. From the editorial: This kind of progress hasn’t happened on its own. It happened because people organized and voted for better prospects; because leaders enacted smart, forward-looking policies; [...]
Civilization's tricky situation: as we enter the autumnal season, the shadow self would be heard, as the gateway to introspection. Here history and imagination are in play. The so-called civilized man has forgotten the trickster. He remembers him only figuratively and metaphorically, when, irritated by his own ineptitude, he speaks of fate playing tricks on him [...]
On Muslims living in Europe: the past not only informs the present, but also expands our sense of the politically and culturally possible. Then I reached the country of Hungary, where the people called Bashghird live. They are descended from the first tribes that came from the lands of the Turks and entered the lands of [...]
Easily lies the head that would wear a crown: why political falsehoods maintain their efficacy There is one essential point wherein a political liar differs from others of the faculty, that he ought to have but a short memory, which is necessary, according to the various occasions he meets with every hour of differing from himself, [...]
Humanities fed the soul in communist Romania: how the study of the humanities kept people alive, and allowed them to find truth when surrounded by falsehood. From the article: When I heard this story, I understood that the stereotype of the fluffy, useless liberal arts was a lie. If the study of literature or history [...]
Reading philosophy and economic theory, Charles Koch turns his business acumen and ambition to the spread of research ideas. From the article and interview: Polanyi’s “The Republic of Science: Its Political and Economic Theory,” published in 1962, is the text that best illustrates what Koch is trying to do with his massive personal fortune — and [...]
The problems a poet would solve. How does a poet respond to life's problems, in politics and otherwise? W.B. Yeats records one lyrical response to Thomas Mann. ‘In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.’ Thomas Mann How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman or on [...]
