It is hard to not think of ancient Rome when walking the streets of Washington, DC. Rome’s legacy is carved in marble and granite and casts long shadows on the banks of the Potomac. The common quip that the United States is a ‘republic not a democracy’ suggests in
The events that unfolded in a small LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs last fall could have been ripped from the script of any gritty action movie. A decorated war vet long since returned home to civilian life is out for a night of wholesome revelry with wife, daughter, and family
When the dust settled at the end of the 2022 midterms, and the GOP’s red wave failed to materialize, Republicans consoled themselves with the fact that they had indeed won the House Of Representatives. Sure 222-212 was a fairly small majority, but it was indisputably a majority! Perhaps without
Degrowth. The word itself is shocking. For anyone accustomed to the assumptions of positive economic growth in public policy and the fear and hardship associated with economic contractions—recessions—degrowth evokes self-destructive policy, if not a return to primitivism. Yet degrowth deserves a hearing. I hope to show that degrowth
The problem with democracies is that they are sclerotic, indecisive, and dithering; by contrast, states ruled by strong and capable dictators are capable of rapid policy change–or so it is argued. As one prominent critic puts it, democracies “are inherently reactionary and absolutist” compared with dictatorships, which “accept the
Few words have become more loaded in the vocabulary of American international relations than ‘regime change’. As documents regarding the origins of the Iraq war became public, it became clear that it was this—the removal of the government of Iraq—that was the ultimate goal of the war, and
The rosy blush of its laughing heir, the Enlightenment, seems also to be irretrievably fading, and the idea of duty in one’s calling prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious beliefs. Where the fulfilment of the calling cannot directly be related to the highest spiritual
In the 19th century, some of the world—the “global north”—began to grow rich. It began at a jog but, by the end of the century, it had become a sprint. As scientific, technical, and productive capabilities expanded beyond anyone’s wildest imaginings, some contemporaries did begin to imagine
Sportswashing has received significant attention recently, particularly due to the rise of the Saudi Arabia sponsored LIV Golf and the imminent Men’s football World Cup to be held in Qatar. The chief football writer at The Independent, Miguel Delaney, has conducted an admirable crusade raising awareness of sportswashing, and
Protecting children from danger: it’s one of the most virtuous aims we can think of. Children are seen as innocent, adorable, and helpless. Want to raise the stakes in your screenplay? Put a child in danger, maybe add in a runaway baby carriage sequence. Want to establish what a
Perhaps the most salient feature of American individualism that has asserted itself in political culture has been a particular affinity for describing systemic problems in terms of individual decisions. In cases where more sweeping explanations are sought, cultural degeneration provides a handy scapegoat. The flexibility of these explanations knows no
Economic sanction regimes, of which we can see applied to nations the world over, have been applied to countries for decades—in some instances, even centuries—for various reasons. Some, like those rationalized to embargo Magara, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and previously Vietnam, were utilized in order to attempt pressure