The Case for Democratic Socialism
Essay - “Capitalism has done much to develop the economic machinery of the modern world to the point where all of this is possible. But it is long since time to move past the capitalist phase of our history and institute something better.” (12/7/2024)
Essay - “Capitalism has done much to develop the economic machinery of the modern world to the point where all of this is possible. But it is long since time to move past the capitalist phase of our history and institute something better.” (12/7/2024)On the Trump Coalition
Essay - “The economic situation during the Biden administration eroded and degraded the average American’s ability to participate in the life of the nation as an economically self-sufficient citizen.” (12/6/2024)
Essay - “The economic situation during the Biden administration eroded and degraded the average American’s ability to participate in the life of the nation as an economically self-sufficient citizen.” (12/6/2024)Itching for the Infinite
Essay - “Further examples abound, but suffice to say, at least as far as these prominent modern thinkers were concerned, epicureanism for the masses does seem to denote something quite real.” (12/3/2024)
Essay - “Further examples abound, but suffice to say, at least as far as these prominent modern thinkers were concerned, epicureanism for the masses does seem to denote something quite real.” (12/3/2024)What Europeans Don’t Understand about Trump Essay - “Those Europeans who shake their heads in disbelief at President-elect Trump and his success would do well to consider things, including themselves, from an American and, even more so, a global point of view.” (12/1/2024)
Essay - “Those Europeans who shake their heads in disbelief at President-elect Trump and his success would do well to consider things, including themselves, from an American and, even more so, a global point of view.” (12/1/2024)Appreciating America’s Distinctly British Heritage
Essay - “The United States’ British roots also have value because they provide a link to a history older than any homegrown alternative the United States possesses.” (11/29/2024)
Essay - “The United States’ British roots also have value because they provide a link to a history older than any homegrown alternative the United States possesses.” (11/29/2024)At Home in the War
Essay - “At the end of the summer, I got a bit too close to a Russian artillery round, a mistake that earned me a week in Kharkiv Regional Hospital. When the doctors cleared me, I walked home.” (11/27/2024)
Essay - “At the end of the summer, I got a bit too close to a Russian artillery round, a mistake that earned me a week in Kharkiv Regional Hospital. When the doctors cleared me, I walked home.” (11/27/2024)These People All Know Each Other
Essay - “Charles Krauthammer used to pride himself on not going to cocktail parties, instead preferring to be at home with his wife quietly reading, writing, doing whatever. And he was probably better for it.” (11/16/2024)
Essay - “Charles Krauthammer used to pride himself on not going to cocktail parties, instead preferring to be at home with his wife quietly reading, writing, doing whatever. And he was probably better for it.” (11/16/2024)Winds of the Great Shame
Essay - “And as she lay on her death bed, as she must have felt a cancerous tumor slowly taking her life, she would also have looked around her and seen the stern and damaged but also joyous legacy she would leave behind.” (11/13/2024)
Essay - “And as she lay on her death bed, as she must have felt a cancerous tumor slowly taking her life, she would also have looked around her and seen the stern and damaged but also joyous legacy she would leave behind.” (11/13/2024)Why Most Americans Didn’t Buy the Harris Campaign
Essay - “Hard as they tried to suck us through the black hole leading to their alternative-facts universe, inundating us in a steady stream of misinformation even as they, again ironically, accused us of peddling misinformation, we resisted.” (11/8/2024)
Essay - “Hard as they tried to suck us through the black hole leading to their alternative-facts universe, inundating us in a steady stream of misinformation even as they, again ironically, accused us of peddling misinformation, we resisted.” (11/8/2024)The Dueling Cases for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Essay - A Merion West contributing writer and editor respectively make the case for each candidate for President of the United States. (10/23/2024)
Essay - A Merion West contributing writer and editor respectively make the case for each candidate for President of the United States. (10/23/2024)The Discontents of Capitalism
Essay - “Why, in fact, do we feel compelled to ask if capitalism is failing? Why do we wonder if capitalism is moral? Why do 57% of respondents in an Edelman Trust Barometer survey believe that ‘capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world?'” (10/21/2024)
Essay - “Why, in fact, do we feel compelled to ask if capitalism is failing? Why do we wonder if capitalism is moral? Why do 57% of respondents in an Edelman Trust Barometer survey believe that ‘capitalism as it exists today does more harm than good in the world?'” (10/21/2024)Blues Run the Game
Essay - “Jackson C. Frank didn’t find what he was looking for in his own life, it doesn’t seem, though it may have become increasingly out of his control. He would be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which hardly partnered well with his pre-existing depression.” (10/19/2024)
Essay - “Jackson C. Frank didn’t find what he was looking for in his own life, it doesn’t seem, though it may have become increasingly out of his control. He would be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which hardly partnered well with his pre-existing depression.” (10/19/2024)Why We Should Still Read Charles Bukowski Essay - “The author of this essay is the proud owner of 25 books, poetry collections, and short story anthologies written by the man widely recognized as the godfather of the literary movement known as ‘dirty realism.'” (10/11/2024)
Essay - “The author of this essay is the proud owner of 25 books, poetry collections, and short story anthologies written by the man widely recognized as the godfather of the literary movement known as ‘dirty realism.'” (10/11/2024)Richard Dawkins Wins in the End Essay - “Admirably, Dawkins continually made it clear that his objective was to promote a clear understanding of the world as discovered through the scientific method, and if scientific facts caused offense with anyone, then so be it.” (10/10/2024)
Essay - “Admirably, Dawkins continually made it clear that his objective was to promote a clear understanding of the world as discovered through the scientific method, and if scientific facts caused offense with anyone, then so be it.” (10/10/2024)The Origins of a Partisan Essay - “Citizens wore red and white, the colors of the Pahonia, the traditional flag of Belarus, a symbol made illegal in 1995 shortly after President Aliaksandr Lukashenka came to power.” (10/6/2024)
Essay - “Citizens wore red and white, the colors of the Pahonia, the traditional flag of Belarus, a symbol made illegal in 1995 shortly after President Aliaksandr Lukashenka came to power.” (10/6/2024)Why Postmodernism Still Matters Essay - “Finally, postmodernism influenced numerous intellectual variants that today are popular public philosophies, and we need to understand the intellectual foundations of such systems of thought if we want to evaluate them properly.” (10/5/2024)
Essay - “Finally, postmodernism influenced numerous intellectual variants that today are popular public philosophies, and we need to understand the intellectual foundations of such systems of thought if we want to evaluate them properly.” (10/5/2024)You Can (and Perhaps Should) Repeat Yourself Essay - “And, relatedly, one also begins to wonder if there are certain ways of phrasing the key points that have already been formulated, capture them perfectly, and, thus, cannot really be improved upon.” (10/1/2024)
Essay - “And, relatedly, one also begins to wonder if there are certain ways of phrasing the key points that have already been formulated, capture them perfectly, and, thus, cannot really be improved upon.” (10/1/2024)Reading Samuel Moyn’s “Liberalism Against Itself” in an Election Year
Essay - “It becomes apparent that, while not a Marxist himself, Moyn regrets Marxism’s arguable descent into irrelevance, if only because its extended dialogue with liberalism enriched the latter while spotlighting liberal failings and hypocrisies.” (9/30/2024)
Essay - “It becomes apparent that, while not a Marxist himself, Moyn regrets Marxism’s arguable descent into irrelevance, if only because its extended dialogue with liberalism enriched the latter while spotlighting liberal failings and hypocrisies.” (9/30/2024)The Paradox of Capitalism Essay - “For example, how many retirees can relate to Jack Nicholson’s professional exile in About Schmidt, a film about a man trying to find purpose after a career as an actuary, when the title character returns to the office one day in a pathetic last-ditch effort to show he is still relevant?” (9/27/2024)
Essay - “For example, how many retirees can relate to Jack Nicholson’s professional exile in About Schmidt, a film about a man trying to find purpose after a career as an actuary, when the title character returns to the office one day in a pathetic last-ditch effort to show he is still relevant?” (9/27/2024)Darryl Cooper: Revisionist History and Misplaced Empathy Essay - “Perhaps it is because of my own bias toward [Darryl Cooper as a friend, but the responsibility for such imprecise talk is something I place on [Tucker] Carlson, not on his interview subject.” (9/26/2024)
Essay - “Perhaps it is because of my own bias toward [Darryl Cooper as a friend, but the responsibility for such imprecise talk is something I place on [Tucker] Carlson, not on his interview subject.” (9/26/2024)Bruce Springsteen Turns 75 Essay - “It is just Springsteen and his sparse vocals seeming to sing out into the empty expanse of the American West and its sprawling landscapes where hope—at least until the final track—is nowhere to be found. One can feel it was recorded in winter.” (9/23/2024)
Essay - “It is just Springsteen and his sparse vocals seeming to sing out into the empty expanse of the American West and its sprawling landscapes where hope—at least until the final track—is nowhere to be found. One can feel it was recorded in winter.” (9/23/2024)Mythos Americanos: Who Took the Grit out of Integrity?
Essay - “Trying to nail down the source of the intensity of my response, I kept coming back to a sense of a deep, existential nostalgia for what I could only think of as integrity.” (9/17/2024)
Essay - “Trying to nail down the source of the intensity of my response, I kept coming back to a sense of a deep, existential nostalgia for what I could only think of as integrity.” (9/17/2024)Why Transhumanism Is Unrealistic and Immoral Essay - “Utopians often produce evil because their movement’s aspirations become paramount—that is, more important than avoiding acts ‘traditionally perceived as immoral.’ If enough people follow Istvan on the transhuman roller coaster, people could eventually get hurt.” (9/3/2024)
Essay - “Utopians often produce evil because their movement’s aspirations become paramount—that is, more important than avoiding acts ‘traditionally perceived as immoral.’ If enough people follow Istvan on the transhuman roller coaster, people could eventually get hurt.” (9/3/2024)Portrait of a Stubborn Ukrainian
Essay - “He was flanked by fields of dead sunflowers that could not be harvested because of the renewed Russian offensive.” (8/29/2024)
Essay - “He was flanked by fields of dead sunflowers that could not be harvested because of the renewed Russian offensive.” (8/29/2024)The Hidden Obstacles of Parenting from Prison Essay - “But enhancing the experience of children with incarcerated parents does not require a wholesale restructuring of prisons. Most parents in prison desperately want more contact with their kids, hoping to break the destructive cycles they have been caught in.” (8/23/2024)
Essay - “But enhancing the experience of children with incarcerated parents does not require a wholesale restructuring of prisons. Most parents in prison desperately want more contact with their kids, hoping to break the destructive cycles they have been caught in.” (8/23/2024)Optimism vs. Reality in Longevity Science: Analyzing Zoltan Istvan’s Senescence Inference Essay - “Although [Zoltan] Istvan’s general pessimism is understandable, the Senescence Inference takes the pessimism too far for a number of reasons.” (8/11/2024)
Essay - “Although [Zoltan] Istvan’s general pessimism is understandable, the Senescence Inference takes the pessimism too far for a number of reasons.” (8/11/2024)When We’re Overly Optimistic about the Pace of Life Extension Research 
Essay - “Sadly, biological humans are likely to be mortal for centuries more unless a dramatic increase in both resources and life extension scientists is marshaled.” (8/1/2024)
Essay - “Sadly, biological humans are likely to be mortal for centuries more unless a dramatic increase in both resources and life extension scientists is marshaled.” (8/1/2024)The Danger in NATO’s Slow Attrition Strategy in Ukraine Essay - “Aside from the hazard of China or Iran adding to the number of ongoing wars, the currently slow attrition strategy is only working against President Putin because he is trapped.” (7/26/2024)
Essay - “Aside from the hazard of China or Iran adding to the number of ongoing wars, the currently slow attrition strategy is only working against President Putin because he is trapped.” (7/26/2024)Our Fractured Togetherness: The Political Realism of Lynn Nottage Essay - “Given the depth and severity of the divisions displayed in Sweat, we are led to wonder if healing is even possible. But as a ‘doctor of American democracy,’ [Lynn] Nottage not only offers troubling diagnoses of our diseases but also prescribes remedies.” (7/25/2024)
Essay - “Given the depth and severity of the divisions displayed in Sweat, we are led to wonder if healing is even possible. But as a ‘doctor of American democracy,’ [Lynn] Nottage not only offers troubling diagnoses of our diseases but also prescribes remedies.” (7/25/2024)On the Idea of National Decline
Essay - “It is, I believe, more than anything else, the undeniable reality of technological progress that lulls us into accepting the more general—and plainly false—proposition that things will just keep on improving in every respect.” (7/23/2024)
Essay - “It is, I believe, more than anything else, the undeniable reality of technological progress that lulls us into accepting the more general—and plainly false—proposition that things will just keep on improving in every respect.” (7/23/2024)The Triumph of Eros Over Thanatos: The Imperishable Beauty of “Holding the Man”
Essay - “In short, I am in love with the story of Tim and John. It has enchanted and devastated me for years now, which is why I will use their first names.“ (7/19/2024)
Essay - “In short, I am in love with the story of Tim and John. It has enchanted and devastated me for years now, which is why I will use their first names.“ (7/19/2024)The Taliban Dilemma: How to Engage with Those Whose Values We Oppose Essay - “In this instance, should those who believe in the rights of women sit down with those who do not, potentially risking legitimizing groups like the Taliban, in the hope that through dialogue they can influence them?” (7/18/2024)
Essay - “In this instance, should those who believe in the rights of women sit down with those who do not, potentially risking legitimizing groups like the Taliban, in the hope that through dialogue they can influence them?” (7/18/2024)This is England? Thoughts on Nigel Farage and Keir Starmer
Essay - “Prime Minister Starmer’s father wanted his children to lead ‘useful lives’ and Starmer undoubtedly succeeded in that—two, three, four times over. Yet it is unclear, as yet, just how useful he will be as Labour Prime Minister.” (7/16/2024)
Essay - “Prime Minister Starmer’s father wanted his children to lead ‘useful lives’ and Starmer undoubtedly succeeded in that—two, three, four times over. Yet it is unclear, as yet, just how useful he will be as Labour Prime Minister.” (7/16/2024)The French Election and Europe’s Post-Historical Collapse
Essay - “While I was always a philosopher, I was originally a fairly apolitical one, and it was my first year in France that awoke the political part of my being, for I saw all around me where socialism, oikophobia, and multiculturalism were leading.” (7/10/2024)
Essay - “While I was always a philosopher, I was originally a fairly apolitical one, and it was my first year in France that awoke the political part of my being, for I saw all around me where socialism, oikophobia, and multiculturalism were leading.” (7/10/2024)The Power of Chicken Soup for the Anti-Woke Soul: Nellie Bowles’s “Morning After the Revolution”
Essay - “While it might be intellectually fascinating to dig into the Marxist or postmodern roots of wokeness, Bowles’s book is a welcome reminder that sometimes things are simply crazy on their face. And maybe all that is required to defeat the crazy is to point it out.” (7/8/2024)
Essay - “While it might be intellectually fascinating to dig into the Marxist or postmodern roots of wokeness, Bowles’s book is a welcome reminder that sometimes things are simply crazy on their face. And maybe all that is required to defeat the crazy is to point it out.” (7/8/2024)