Sometimes we feel good about other people’s failures. Too often, that’s the feeling the Germans called Schadenfreude—not something to be proud of. But sometimes the human instinct to relish in the failure of others can be used to instruct. That’s the implication of a Washington Post “Wonkblog” from last week entitled “Why it feels so
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In the Western world, it’s widely assumed that making works of art easily available and visible to the public improves people’s lives in tangible ways. Having lived in half-a-dozen major American cities and one English city, I’ve seen public art everywhere. Much of it is funded in whole or part by the taxpayers. But what,
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With all of the racial tension lately, is diversity really the answer to our racial problems? This seems to be the solution that the San Francisco Police Department favors at a time when it is under scrutiny for racist text messages among its officers. As Paul Elias reports for the Associated Press, “San Francisco’s police
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Is America ripe for a dictatorial coup? It’s a question more and more pundits are asking. (We’ve also chimed in.) Why? First, it’s a presidential election year. And everyone gets a little crazy crazier during election season. But it’s more than that. Ross Douthat, writing in the New York Times over the weekend, observed that
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It is a truism that children need adults to help them grow up. It is, however, less known but equally true that adults need children to help them grow into the fullness of maturity. Whereas children need to be taught about life in all its multifarious manifestations, satisfying their natural sense of wonder and their
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“It’s a sickness,” said a friend of mine who until recently was an elected official in our city. “It sets in after you’re elected the first time, or maybe even when you’re running for office.” That sickness is “thinking you’re smarter than everyone else.” My friend made this statement after reading in our local paper
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