Catastrophe, Technology, Limits, and Localism
Charles C. Mann's The Wizard and the Prophet, published earlier this year, is a fabulous book. Not a perfect book; sometimes, in order to...
Social Isolation as the Fruit of Liberalism
Loneliness is on the rise. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young people. Our social media networks may number in...
A Flexible Disposition
In 2018, to discuss America’s future is to discuss uncertainty. It is true, of course, that talking about the future—a predictive game dependent on...
Summoning Jeremiah
The Call to Prophecy
When we think of the great biblical prophets, we might be tempted to think of people concerned mainly with wholly religious...
Liberalism: A Joke, Literally
It’s a bit rich to pile on a “free-thinker” like Kanye West, who implores us to “lead with love,” when the best critics and...
Social Justice vs. Social Charity
The Pernicious Nature of Charity
There is a pernicious force that operates in all societies, but especially in ours and especially in these sad days....
A Digital Relation to the Universe
Matt's essay concludes our discussion of "Localist Social Media." You can view all the essays in this symposium here.
When I first submitted my attempt...
The Bar Jester Goes Off (While Putatively Responding to Matt Stewart)
We also need technological monks.
Sparking Little Platoons
When I became a Washington, D.C. newsroom intern, Twitter usage was mandatory (primarily so that we could help run the magazine’s Twitter account). I...
Marginalia
I was a bit surprised that Matt directed his critique at Twitter rather than at other forms of social media. At least Twitter isn’t...