“We can only hope that Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s approach to politics will be rediscovered. Books like American Burke should function as essential guides in this most necessary search.”
Featured Interview
NATO & the Global Enduring Disorder
This project examines the coordination failures surrounding international approaches to climate change, tax havens, cryptocurrency, the crises in Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan, and more—seeking to move past merely problematizing failures—to proposing solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.Erich Prince’s Latest Column
Latest from the Arts
Latest Book Review
Tag: select
Paging Mr. Moynihan
The Problems with Porn
“And whether or not one believes that sex is sacred, it is hard to deny that the porn industry has commodified sex in ways that rid it of all that made it human.”
Boredom: a Double-Edged Sword, for Individuals and Society
“Compared to these other negative emotional states, boredom might seem like a trivial complaint. However, boredom can cause real problems if not directed towards healthy and constructive behaviors.”
How to Be a Non-Racist
“Non-racism, thus understood, implies colorblindness, not in the sense of literally not seeing skin color, but in the sense of treating it as insignificant.”
When Identity Politics Meets the Punk Scene
“But to me, an observer with intimate knowledge of punk’s radical history, much of today’s woke rhetoric feels like a throwback.”
“The American People”—a Phrase Worth Discarding
“…there are perhaps a few other aspects of the phrase that ought to make it first on the chopping block when considering which expressions really out to be expunged immediately from our national discourse.”
Don’t Blame Free Speech for Extremism
“Free speech does not enable extremism. Quite the contrary: It is the primary means to challenge wrongheaded attitudes, ideologies, and belief systems.”
Power Over Principles: the Dual Dangers of Trumpism and Anti-Racism
Donald Trump rode the politics of power and emotion to the White House. If his opponents continue to respond in kind, he might have killed the politics of principle in the process.
“Holding the Powerful Accountable”—Empty Words?
“The holding the powerful accountable phrase resonates as it does—and, presumably, is chosen by the news media’s back-patters—because it is, indeed, precisely what a news media should be doing.”
White Jesus and the “Other” Jesus: When Activists Come for Gods
“A civilization that worships at such altars is one that no longer believes in itself, that considers itself irredeemably guilty, sinful or evil…”
Why Cancel Culture Won’t Last
“This is the thing about moral panics—while threatening, they can be illuminating.”
How We Can Finally Put the Reparations Question Behind Us
“With that in mind, what I want to do below is to advance a proposal that, I think, lets everyone concerned out of this conundrum gracefully.”
When Censorship Is Outsourced to the Private Sector
“Our commitment to the rights of others to express themselves, even if they hold heinous beliefs, is something uniquely American, and it is perhaps the finest piece of our cultural heritage.”
The Fuzzy Logic Behind the Movement
“But this discrepancy makes perfect sense if we consider the tone of racial discourse in the United States for half a second.”
What Cormac McCarthy Saw When He Saw Evil
“When asked to describe Chigurh, the few people lucky enough to have encountered him and survived claimed he that ‘looked like anybody.'”
