Rescuing Religion from Atheism
Essay - “It seems, then, that religious practice is beneficial but unpalatable to many highly analytical people because they deem religious doctrines unpersuasive. The question therefore arises how one can make it palatable to them.” 4/21/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/34810932694_e8580cf8e7_b-960x720.jpg)
By the Known Rules of Ancient Liberty: A Review of Masha Karp’s “George Orwell and Russia”
Essay - “Lest I should have appeared overly critical, allow me to restate that even in this, her analysis is exceptional and that overall, George Orwell and Russia is a uniquely penetrating study of Eric Blair’s life and legacy.” 4/19/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/thumb-1-960x540.jpg)
Reckoning with Medicine’s Unseemly Past
Essay - “How does such an advanced nation and forward-looking profession embrace ‘medicalized mass murder’ and a philosophy calling for the ‘annihilation of life unworthy of living’? How did those who pledged to follow ‘the Hippocratic tradition of healers,’ they ask, ‘become killers’?” 4/16/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/human-tissues-from-cruel-medical-experiments-in-g-2-22557-1523466185-0_dblbig-960x638.jpg)
Lessons from Machiavelli and Guicciardini for an Unstable World
Essay - “The world is in flux. November’s elections in the United States will speed up the pace of change. There is a danger that politicians across the West are positioning themselves to govern a world that will no longer exist by the time they come to power.” 4/13/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/guicciardini-machiavelli-1020-960x501.jpg)
People over Place: Reviewing “The Culture Transplant” by Garett Jones
Essay - “Any serious government would, therefore, develop and implement immigration policy with the utmost care. Instead, our governments are experimenting with unprecedented peacetime increases in immigration that further expand ethnic and cultural diversity.” 4/8/2024
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Review: “A Web of Our Own Making: The Nature of Digital Formation” by Antón Barba-Kay
Essay - “Barba-Kay’s central claim is that digital technology is categorically different from prior technologies. It is not just a matter of degree but, rather, a matter of kind.” 4/1/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/Wikimedia_Foundation_Servers-8055_14-960x640.jpg)
The Jewish People Are Both Middle Eastern and European
Essay - “Given that the Middle East used to be far more ‘Western’ and even ‘European’ than it is now, there is no cultural disconnect between ‘Western’ and ‘Middle Eastern’ Jews. Jews can be both at once.” 3/30/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/3625-960x479.jpg)
In Defense of TikTok
Essay - “Like most members of Generation X, I had never used TikTok, but when the political push to ban it intensified in 2023, I pulled out an old smartphone and installed TikTok to see what the fuss was all about.” 3/29/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/Tiktok-in-mobile-phone-130909-pixahive-960x630.jpg)
Not All Self-Immolations Are Made Equal
Essay - “Aaron Bushnell was not a hero or a martyr akin to the self-immolators of anti-imperial conflicts past; he was likely a mentally ill, terminally online man in his mid-20s who was in a lot of pain that he transposed onto a conflict halfway around the world that in no way personally affected him.” 3/24/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/self-immolation-aaron-bushnell-960x640.jpg)
Mass Immigration and the American Nation
Essay - “The monthly encounters under President Biden have been like nothing else seen in American history. There are estimates that, in 2023, there were more illegal alien encounters per month than babies born to American mothers.” 3/22/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/migrants-battle-texas-national-guard-78744157_41dda9-960x540.jpg)
Grappling with Liberalism
Essay - “Modern liberalism, equally, cannot go on as it is at the moment, veering toward destruction, becoming ever more decrepit and ineffectual, incapable of meeting the challenges—domestic, geopolitical, planetary—of the 21st century.” 3/21/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/Berlin_Wall_1979_02-960x761.jpg)
What an International Environmentalist Movement Misunderstands
Essay - “Scientific progress has the potential to be more salutory than legal regulation. To return to Odin’s advice in the Hávamál once more, the power of the human mind is mankind’s most reliable ally.” 3/8/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/Forest_paths_Floyen_Bergen_Norway_julesvernex2-960x640.jpg)
Why I Don’t Rely on Hope
Essay - “People have told me that this approach is a kind of hope in itself, that I have found hope in the way I abandoned hope. At that point, the words we choose do not matter much. What does matter is getting out of bed in the morning and finding work worth doing.” 3/4/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/photo-4875.jpgd_-960x720.jpeg)
What Thucydides Can Teach Us About Today’s Multi-Matrixed World
Essay - “The History of the Peloponnesian War teaches that victory in such a war comes at enormous cost to both sides, so much so it can blur the distinction between victor and loser: everyone loses. This is the same lesson the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza impart.” 3/2/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/President_Volodymyr_Zelenskyy_took_part_in_the_festivities_marking_the_9th_anniversary_of_the_National_Guard_of_Ukraine._52773022625-960x640.jpg)
The Politicians Who Almost Never Were
Essay - “Although these no doubt play a role, even a cursory glance at recent election results (not to mention those of the past) makes clear that variables beyond the control of the candidate are often determinative, as well as that the best man does not necessarily win.” 2/19/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/imgonline-com-ua-twotoone-XGKB6nFP0NTzOV5-scaled-e1708628090617-960x645.jpeg)
Social Justice Segregationism: Is Separate More Equal After All?
Essay - “These claims put forward by critical social justice-oriented scholars and educationists all lead to the same conclusion: educational justice for black and OC students begins with schools or classrooms segregated by race and ethnicity.” 2/15/2024
![](https://cdn.merionwest.com/app/uploads/pexels-photo-256491-960x540.jpeg)