The Town Square
Can Social Technologists Solve the Atomization Problem?
To address rising atomization and alienation, we must account for radical inadequacy and experiment with more totalizing communities.
A Land Value Tax Fosters Stronger Communities
Not only is a land value tax economically efficient, it offers a development pattern and taxation philosophy that nurtures vibrant communities.
On Their Home, Not Mine
A “third culture kid,” now an adult, reflects on the unrelenting yearning she has for home and the struggle we face to live in the present.
Why D&D Is a Popular Form of Communal Therapy
Dungeons and Dragons, the popular tabletop role-playing game challenges players to improve their moral character, emotional intelligence, and social skills.
‘God Is a Question’: An Atheist’s Invitation to Intellectual Humility
William Irwin seeks to quell bad faith arguments and encourage greater acceptance of the uncertainty so endemic to life’s big questions.
Tribes and Tribulations
Suspending Politics to Save Democracy
Just political systems secure the means of living satisfying private lives while political saturation crowds out key aspects of a good life.
Flourishing
How Deconstructing Anxiety Makes Transcendence Possible
With the understanding that fear is the fundamental problem in being human, we have our starting point. To pursue this quest, we must fully deconstruct anxiety, reveal its origins and mechanism, and find its resolution.
‘The School of Life’ Preaches Pessimism over Romanticism
‘The School of Life’ is on a crusade to avail us of our emotional ignorance. Philosopher Alain De Botton seeks to remedy the shortcomings of contemporary education systems and the institutions that have failed to instruct us in how to approach the big questions in life.
Haste Makes Waste
Haste becomes waste is intimately tied to the fact that many people have forgotten to inhabit their body, too eager to get somewhere else.
Happiness Precedes Success and Achievement
Our cultural institutions have the story backwards. Focus on well-being instead of achievement, and success will follow.
‘Follow Your Passion’ Is Actually Good Advice (Sort of)
Here are five recent research findings worth considering when weighing the wisdom of “follow your passion” or pursuing a calling in life.
Religious Impulses
Unlearning Some Western Mindsets
An over-reliance on our Western Mindset creates several obstacles to human flourishing—informing agriculture, education, work, and parenting.
Wilderness Lost
Sages and Stoics
Comfort with Solitude Comes Before the Ability to Think
Freedom entails the capacity to think and to judge in private, where solitude empowers the individual to contemplate their actions and develop their conscience, to escape the cacophony of the crowd. Solitude precedes moral thinking.
Momento Mori
The Mythos of Pandemic
Without a shared mythos or communal rituals, we face not only the physical threat of coronavirus but also an epidemic of hopelessness.
Communication and Connection
Tradition and Progress
A Progressive’s Take on Ron Chernow’s ‘Grant’
Individuals don’t make history but there are the “best of us” people, like Grant, who withstand the crushing pressures of their times.
Jung and Freud Feud: Is it Sex or the Collective Unconscious?
Once resembling the relationship between a devoted father and an admiring son, Freud and Jung split over the question of culture’s origins.
‘The History of White People’ and Their Mixed Legacies
Nell Irvin Painter’s book identifies some of the roots of the inequality we see today, which are based on the antiquated “science” of race theory. We can use the social construct of race to address social injustices, but what do we do with the mixed legacies of race theorists?
How the Toothbrush Mirrors Societal Progress: An Oral History
Just as simple technologies have been abandoned for more beneficial advancements, so should we jettison institutions, laws, philosophies, and cultures which no longer incubate human flourishing.
What the Covered Bridge Reveals About Our Struggle Against Nature
All important technologies must be granted the option of becoming passé. In fact, the goal behind any technology should be for it to serve well and to die young.