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Are We All ‘Cat Persons’ Now? How Modern Dating Destroys Intimacy 0
- Culture
- March 6, 2019
In our previous Public Discourse essay on the #MeToo movement and hookup culture, we argued that careful attention to human experience can teach us important and surprising things about the meaning of sex. The same can be said for popular culture. It often tells the truth about sex, in spite of itself. Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat
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The Real Problem with Today’s Discourse 0
- Culture
- March 6, 2019
Ask a dozen people and you will probably get a dozen different answers for what is wrong with public discourse in America today. It’s the Republicans. It’s the Democrats. It’s the Russians, the Social Justice Warriors, the Millennials, the Baby Boomers, social media, lack of education, lack of opportunity, the list goes on. Whatever the
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In Germany, the State Can Seize Your Dog if You’re Late on Taxes 0
- Economics
- March 6, 2019
Bloomberg recently ran an article detailing how difficult high-tax states in the US can make it on wealthier individuals trying to leave. The idea of the state using teams of investigators to determine if one passes the “Teddy Bear Test” is likely to strike many Americans as creepy and slightly authoritarian. The Germans, however, show
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The Unbundling of America’s Political Parties 0
- History
- March 6, 2019
Should movies be seen in theaters, at least in their first runs, or are they just as good when they premiere on the home screen? To put that question in business jargon terms, should movies continue to be bundled to theaters, or should they be unbundled to appear anywhere—even on a tiny-screened smart phone? That’s the big fight in
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How Toxic Masculinity Permeates the Intellectual Takeout Office 0
- Culture
- March 6, 2019
When the #MeToo movement was at its height some months ago, I threw my shoulders back, took a deep breath, and let loose with my own story of the “toxic masculinity” I have experienced while working as the sole female in an entirely male office. Time has passed, and instead of seeing the toxic
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What an Old Sears Roebuck Catalogue Teaches Us About Gun Control 1
- Politics
- March 5, 2019
As I write these words, a reproduction of the 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue, published in 1968 by Chelsea House, sits at my elbow. The fat catalog is a casual reader’s delight and a historian’s treasure trove. Here are medicines like laudanum, herb tea, and castor oil. Here are tools, bobsleds, gasoline stoves, windmills, bicycles, clothing
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