“Rauch takes as his subject how we know what we know in public life, and what the greatest contemporary threats to our shared public knowledge are.”
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Category: The Center
The Political Import of Jonathan Rauch’s “The Constitution of Knowledge”
A Culture War Worth the Fight
“The predictable consequence is that instead of striving together toward the ethereal glow at the top of the highest peak, we are coming apart and stomping each other and ourselves further down into the abyss…”
Why We Should Love Democracy, with a Few Caveats
“But even if we should accept and defend democracy as an ideal, we should not make the mistake of forgetting that anti-democratic—or, at least, non-democratic—procedures and institutions are necessary for sustaining a liberal democratic society like our own.”
The Psychology of Critical Social Justice
“Adherents of the Woke worldview disallow this more complex approach to social issues (psychologically, an ambivalent position) and, instead, succumb to the simplistic and often pleasurable permission to demonize entire categories of people according to immutable traits.”
Can Australians Trust the Americans after Kabul?
“As a result of this debacle, it now seems reasonable to question whether Washington is competent enough to assure Australia’s security.”
Fixing California’s Housing Crisis: An Interview with Nolan Gray
“To understand how land use regulation can help save California from the dystopian future it is currently facing, I spoke with Nolan Gray, an urban planner and outspoken land use policy wonk.”
It’s Time for a Two-State Solution…for America
“If a nation is an ‘imagined community,’ to invoke Benedict Anderson’s metaphor, then how can we live together when the communities we imagine are, at every level, incompatible?”
Politics: Not an End in Itself
“As such, politics has eclipsed its primary purpose—namely, to provide the means by which people can seek out and, in turn, live good lives, lives that have nothing to do with politics.”
City of Thugs
“If, on the other hand, we as a society make excuses for thugs and use pretextual claims of racism to emasculate law enforcement, we will promote the continuation of our rapid race to the bottom.”
Tunisia and Egypt: Two Tests for Biden and Democracy
“The Biden administration has not yet decided whether to call Saied’s power grab a coup.”
How Things End
“As Joshua Foa Dienstag reminds us, the essential tragedy of being human (or being anything, for that matter) stems from the passage of time.”
Letter to the Editor: In Reply to “Buy Out the Settlers”
“Therefore, what possible reason is there to believe that simply bribing a few Jews out of a few homes in the West Bank will result in Hamas and Fatah making peace with Israel?”
The Eviction Ban: A Case Study in Congressional Dysfunction
“Our members of Congress—no matter how extreme their ideological predilections—have a duty to quit using the institution as a performative stage and begin working within it to actually forge policy solutions to our most pressing issues.”
Unleashing the Hounds Upon America
“How did it happen that the Wolves came to wield such power here, infiltrating academia, journalism, and other segments of society that were supposed to be high-minded bastions of truth and light?”
Withdrawal Symptoms
“Dear doves and hawks and other feathered brethren: It is already over.”
