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Two Cheers for the Midterm Elections
Not a bad night if you’re a lefty, surprisingly. Here’s why: 1. Despite Cuomo’s masterful machinations, the Working Families Party (WFP) easily cleared the gubernatorial line vote (for Cuomo) of...
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On Social Murder
“When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such injury that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his...
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One Person’s Safe Space Is Another Person’s Trigger
The other day I engaged in a Facebook exchange with a good friend about the merits or demerits of this Judith Shulevitz op-ed at The Times. I argued it got things right. I added in my original FB post,...
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When Capitalism Kills off Competition: An American Anti-Fairy Tale
So I keep on hearing two claims from free market fundamentalist types: (a) The United States is the land of opportunity, small business, competition, and entrepreneurship and (b) To the extent the...
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The Child is Father of the Man
Maybe it’s because everyone I know is popping out Mini-Mes, but I’ve been dwelling lately on the use of the child as metaphor. On the one hand, when someone says or does something that is crass,...
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Left v. Right
The fundamental difference between a left-wing political economy and a right-wing political economy is not the difference between big government and small government. There are plenty of left-wing...
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Socialism is (Almost) Everything
So I’ve now stumbled on a dozen journalists, across the spectrum, who are confident they know what “socialism” means. All of them insist it’s about state ownership of the means of production....
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Stoicism as Politics
One of the biggest mistakes—however innocent or willful—on the right has been the single-minded application of otherwise decent personal habits of mind like stoical determination or grit to public...
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Freedom, Equality, and Individualism
There is a Kurt Vonnegut story, “Harrison Bergeron,” that presents a dystopian future of government-mandated equality. Everyone is compelled to avail themselves of precisely the same advantage in all...
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