Pig learns from Zebra that transhumanism is a pipe dream:Secondhand Smokette insists this cartoon is really about me. I disagree!This picture of me on my Blackberry while in Estonia, is irrelevant to her baseless . . . . Continue Reading »
I’ve just finished a draft of a dissertation chapter that dredges up one of Richard Rorty’s few, all-too-few references to Philip Rieff. Rorty liked Rieff’s remark that “Freud democratized genius by giving everyone a creative unconscious.” Harold Bloom, no antagonist . . . . Continue Reading »
Physicians are being pushed steadily into an untenable position. On one hand, they are professionally obligated to render optimal care to each patient based on individual need. On the other hand, they are increasingly being looked to by bureaucrats and bioethicists as serving another role—for . . . . Continue Reading »
In the first of what will be a three-part series of articles, Daniel Patrick Moloney at Public Discourse examines the thinking common to both major political parties: that an important way to reduce poverty is to reduce the number of poor children. This viewpoint was most recently articulated by . . . . Continue Reading »
First Things board member Hadley Arkes writing at The Catholic Thing : In our own time, “tolerance” and “multiculturalism” begin by receding from the casting of judgments. The New Tolerance disclaims any monopoly on truth, moral or religious, and in fact it disclaims any ground . . . . Continue Reading »
There’s something irresistible about plant names. I don’t mean formal botanical nomenclature, though that can tell its own fascinating stories, but the folk terms, the little nicknames, that get given to plants because someone happened to look down and notice a confection of foliage . . . . Continue Reading »
Mr. Poulos, in reference to my recently posted “Draft Manifesto 2.0,” set me to reconsidering the last pages of Leo Strauss’s Thoughts on Machiavelli. Whether he suspected how many hours this invitation would cost me, I do not know, but, now that the ordeal is (temporarily) over, I . . . . Continue Reading »
Over at the Asia Times “Spengler” Forum, a reader posts this gem from today’s Daily Telegraph: The EU’s working age population will peak next year before tipping into decline for half a centuryThis will cause a relentless rise in pension and health costs that risk . . . . Continue Reading »
In keeping with our discussion today of the power of technology—and adding in Yuval Levin’s insight that society has replaced “promoting virtue” with “preventing suffering” as its overriding purpose—you end up with this story: A man is accused of using the . . . . Continue Reading »
This video vividly explains how computer technology’s geometric growth is profoundly changing the world—with results that may be beyond or ability to control. Secondhand Smoke notwithstanding to the contrary, by opening this particular Pandora’s box, we may have finally found the . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
