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Inequality destroys the sense of shared citizenship, and with it self-government.

George Packer • Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal

Sam saw some merits in a certain kind of libertarianism. But he listened to actual libertarians argue why, for instance, they shouldn’t need to pay taxes. And he thought, Yeah, of course no one likes to pay taxes, but that’s not exactly a philosophy. “They blurred the line between libertarianism as a philosophy and selfishness as a philosophy,” he

Michael Lewis • Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

A brilliant 2015 essay by the economist Steven Horwitz argued that free play prepares children for the “art of association” that Alexis de Tocqueville said was the key to the vibrancy of American democracy; he also argued that its loss posed “a serious threat to liberal societies.” A generation prevented from learning these social skills, Horwitz w... See more

Jonathan Haidt • Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid

“There is something very odd about a society where the most talented people get all tracked toward the same elite colleges, where they end up studying the same small number of subjects and going into the same small number of careers… It’s very limiting for our society as well as for those students.”

David Perell • Peter Thiel’s Religion

Alienation has become a plague: Many Americans no longer believe in America. That’s largely because, I argue here, they no longer have the freedom to take responsibility in their daily choices. Persistent failures feed the frustration and seed a culture of distrust. Instead of focusing on how to make things work, Americans obsess about what might g

Philip K. Howard • Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society

The cashier at the Union Square Barnes and Nobles told me that the essays books were on the 4th floor, but I didn't imagine how sparse the selection would be. I found 2 cases, 10 shelves total, something like 60 linear feat of essay book spines. I wondered if the 4th floor was a microcosm, and so I acted on my urge to count shelves to know precisel

With so many resources devoted to the business of elite academics and so many people scrambling for the limited space at the top of the ladder, it is worth asking what exactly it is you get in the end—what it is we all get, because the elite students of today, as their institutions never tire of reminding them, are the leaders of tomorrow.

William Deresiewicz • The American Scholar: The Disadvantages of an Elite Education - William Deresiewicz

to participate in the great decisions of government. There was, Lippmann brooded, no “intrinsic moral and intellectual virtue to majority rule.” Lippmann’s disenchantment with democracy anticipated the mood of today’s elites. From the top, the public, and the swings of public opinion, appeared irrational and uninformed. The human material out of wh

Martin Gurri • Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium

Are Universities Going the Way of CDs and Cable TV?

Michael D. Smith theatlantic.com