Columns, pieces and posts
The broader subject here is getting through times of national trauma, and I’m thinking mostly of parents and young people. I have my mind on three truths. They are about personal as opposed to political behavior. • You are the gatekeeper. Our society can’t live without wise heads who set and maintain standards. In the […]
During recent national traumas we’ve heard the side argument over “thoughts and prayers.” Something terrible happens, someone sends thoughts and prayers, someone else snaps, “We don’t need your prayers, we need action.” They denounce the phrase only because they don’t understand it, and give unwitting offense. (I always hope it is unwitting.) Prayer is action. […]
Most of us see autumn as the real new year, involving a return to life and a reignition of things. A good time to step aside the fray and consider what propels you. We’re in a history-rich time, not a thin one, and restating your premises can be reorienting. Some of what drives this column […]
I spent time this week talking to people about how to think about the burst of U.S. diplomatic activity surrounding the Ukraine war. I wasn’t sure how to view it but began with certain predicates. Movement to end war is generally good, new initiatives can be constructive, new focus can encourage things in the right […]
Wistful August tapers down. Headlines feel far away but stalk us by phone. The writer Philip Howard calls the news cycle “both terrifying and tedious.” He’s right. So I’ve decided it’s a good time for an homage to the HBO series “The Gilded Age.” We begin with what’s wrong with it, just to show we’re […]
This summer the knowledge settled in about where we are with artificial intelligence. Almost everyone is rattled by the speed of its development. The story is no longer “AI in coming decades will take a lot of jobs” or “AI will take jobs sooner than we think.” It is “AI is here and a quiet […]
There have been reports all over of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in workplaces—restaurants, construction sites, farms. In a June ICE raid at an Omaha, Neb., meatpacking plant, more than 100 employees suspected of using false IDs were taken away. The owner of the plant told the New York Times that some of them had […]
I have been thinking about the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., last year. A strange aspect of that day, at least for me and as seen through screens, was the disquieting matter-of-factness with which so many in the crowd accepted the fact of the shooting, and the sight of so […]
We just witnessed a bit of political history. The Jeffrey Epstein story is big, and though it will be quieted eventually, it won’t go away, it will stay as a fissure and may widen over time. The Trumpiest part of President Trump’s base showed him—and showed itself—that it can buck him, push back in unison. […]
Isolationism is essentially emotional. You’re angry at the cost in blood and treasure of your country’s international forays and adventures and want to withdraw from the world. Emotionalism can hold sway and dominate politics for a time, even an era, but you can’t build anything on it. It doesn’t last because emotions change because facts […]