There is a comforting fairy tale that people tell themselves about food regulation. Europe is the anxious parent cutting grapes into quarters, America is the cool uncle tossing the kid a steak knife and saying, “Build character.” Both sides insist they are protecting the child. Both sides are partly right. And when it comes to beef, the argument is not really about beef. It is about what you do with … Read the rest
There are people who leave religion because they hate it, and people who leave because they loved something in it and could no longer pretend. I understand the second group better. Not because they are smarter, but because they are usually gentler. They are not trying to win arguments. They are trying to stop lying to themselves.
Most believers I have met are not hungry for control. They are tired, … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
In the 21st century, people eager to don the mantel of idealism are inclined toward harsh judgments of the past. Often they are right, for who among us would shout, “Bring back slavery!!” Or “Cancel Human Rights!”? It’s even getting harder all the time to talk someone into advocating for the return of capital punishment.
As for me, I would be uncomfortable in a place … Read the rest
I have a simple, possibly impolite thesis: the “nation” is a beautiful story we tell to coordinate strangers, and loud nationalism is what people reach for when the story stops paying their bills. Nations are not ancient tribes waking from deep time; they are recent inventions—clever ones—that industrial print, schools, and armies stitched together so we would feel kinship with people we will never meet. That is not an insult; … Read the rest
Rationality, if you think about it, is the least celebrated form of heroism. It has no anthem, no flag, no stadium. Yet it has saved more lives than courage ever did. Commander Spock, that calm half-human mirror to our chaos, is the perfect metaphor: the eyebrow that rises when others shout, the voice that says “calculate” when everyone else says “pray.” Logic, done properly, is erotic — not in the … Read the rest
