archive

The default social norm

Patrick McKinley Brennan (Villanova): Are Catholics Unreliable from a Democratic Point of View? From Anthropoetics, Matthew Taylor (Kinjo Gakuin): Traipsing into the Forest: Landscapes and Rivalry in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. From The Guardian, here is a pamphlet on Citizen Ethics in a Time of Crisis, with contributions from Michael Sandel, Mary Midgley, and more. The Google Alphabet: The search engine’s suggestions turn the Web into the Home Shopping Network. British actor Bill Nighy performs in support of the Tobin tax, also known as the “Robin Hood Tax”. From 3:AM, Darran Anderson on the Minotaur & the Maze: A Cultural History of Night #1; and a review of On Roads: A Hidden History by Joe Moran. Conscription, Again: "Draft" is still a dirty word these days, but our country is definitely in need of one. A review of IOU: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay by John Lanchester (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). Lo, the poor telephone book! Consider how its prestige has dimmed. Christopher Fairman on the case against banning the word "retard". Why do we humans invest winning with so much more meaning and importance, strive to reach the podium at sometimes terrible cost? The rise of "non-private person": Openness is becoming the default social norm. A review of Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives by Brian Dillon (and more). "Attention must be paid": Lee Harris on understanding Joe Stack, anger, and ideology. A look at how Toyota's troubles are an example of consumer safety power. A review of Nations Have the Right to Kill: Hitler, the Holocaust and War by Richard A. Koenigsberg.