Culture
Elliott Callahan
Unlike other animals, who only know they are going to die when only death is manifestly imminent, we must find a way to cope with our mortality. This is of the highest priority to the perpetuity of our species, because if we couldn’t cope, we might well spend our entire (short) lives in a state of mortal fear. Human consciousness evolved quickly, as evidenced by the poor fit between crania and hips, but so did our coping mechanism. It arose from pre-existing instincts for superstition and it stuck. It began to manipulate sentience in order to perpetuate its own existence, and it came to hold dominion over the rationality it evolved to facilitate.
Politics
Kevin Hilke
“The challenge for all of us,” as Obama said yesterday, “is to identify good ideas.” And so Vandiver’s demand, the demand to roundly understand, must become our own. Having something shown to you in the Missourian sense is a process not of credulous reception but of active and incessant evaluation. For the product of the pragmatic Missourian’s deep skepticism, his demand to know not only the what but also the why of the what, is precisely the elimination of unworkable ideas in favor of workable ones. His search for proof is a continual querying and reconfirming of both the proof itself and the integrity of the criteria from which the proof derives meaning and legitimacy. We must help Obama find or create his whys and whats, and to articulate useful, socially productive, and popularly understandable relationships among them. Being shown is not a passive process. Proof, telling or irrelevant, genuine or counterfeit, is not found but made, and our new president has only two hands.
Culture
Eric Freeman
College football programs need to do a better job of hiring minority head coaches, but that can’t happen as often as we’d like until there are more opportunities for minorities at the lower levels of the coaching ranks.
Politics
Kai Stinchcombe
Suppose the former Mayor Daley had declared that his brother was the only valid candidate for a congressional seat in Chicago, and anyone else who ran for the seat would be shot. Suppose two candidates were shot and taken off the ballot and one, the Mayor’s brother, survived the election and won. Or suppose the mayor bribed a judge, who ordered ballots to be printed with only his brother’s name on them. Even if the brother engaged in no misconduct, and every vote cast for him was legal, is the House required to accept his election? Or can they call a do-over?
Culture Politics
Kevin Hilke
If any American conservative publication of broad appeal can claim to be a home for conservative intellectuals today, it is not The National Review. It might be The American Conservative.
