Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
On Plato, Donald Trump, and the Ship of State
Plato’s most famous work and the foundational text of political philosophy is the Republic. Written in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and other real-life Athenians, the book opens wi...
Last Week This Week: 7-17-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
E.O. Wilson on Biology as Politics, Culture, and Human Nature
One of the most illustrious living scientists, E.O. Wilson, is still active and writing great books well into his ninth decade. In this article I will review two of his most recent works, The Social C...
Each Soldier a Thread
The violence that reached our shores left me at a loss—every attempt to conceptualize these tragedies failed to capture the emotions moving me. I tried to make sense of San Bernardino and Orl...
The Dangerous Rise and Impending Collapse of Homo Sapiens
“If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flou...
Last Week This Week: 6-26-16 (Brexit and Michael Herr)
Since the last time we conducted a wrapup, the following has occurred: NATO finished the largest joint exercises in over a decade, England voted to leave the EU, personal hero to all WBTers (a...
In Laurent Bécue-Renard’s Of Men and War War Is Not Tragic But Embarrassing
In The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell argued that every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. There is truth to this. Some soldiers do go to war expecting an excit...
Republican Senator’s Ill-Conceived Plan to Block Vegetarian Options in the Military
Across the United States and most of the developed world, there is a growing awareness of the problems caused by overconsumption of meat, and an attendant growth in vegetarians and vegans. One of t...
Scrabble Can Build or Break Friendship
My Sunday morning began with a Wall Street Journal article about Scrabble. The story, which featured scrappy young Nigerian players, underdog victories, and applications driving the most rigorous s...
Last Week This Week 6-5-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
The Burn Pit Registry
It started with a cough none of us could get rid of. Sure I smoked. Lots of us smoked but the non-smokers had it too, even the fitness nuts that worked out all day. We all had that cough. Whatever ...
Last Week This Week 5-29-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
Last Week This Week 5-22-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
The Bloodiest American War Many Americans Have Never Heard Of
The title, which I selected myself, is a trick. Most citizens of the United States of America know their war history. There's even a popular television brand dedicated to educating US citi...
Last Week This Week 5-15-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
Last Week This Week 5-8-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
David Rieff’s In Praise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies
In At The Mind’s Limits, a series of essays reflecting on his time spent in the Nazi concentration camps, Jean Améry predicted that in one hundred years the murder of millions, carried...
Last Week This Week 5-1-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
Last Week This Week 4-24-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
How to Mock a Dictator (and Get Away With It)
The German government, a coalition of Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats, has decided to allow prosecution of one of its citizens, a comedia...
Last Week This Week 4-17-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
Not Quite Ready to Die in the Anthropocene
(Originally published at The Hooded Utilitarian) The recent Paris Climate Conference has been called the last best chance for the leaders of the world, nations and multinational corporations, to ag...
Last Week This Week 4-10-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical ef...
Rise of the Robots – Downfall of Humans?
What purpose does our economy serve—why do we seek greater profit? What does profit do for an individual, an institution, or a civilization? Does capitalism work in the way we imagine—a...
Week in Review 4-3-16
Wrath /ræθ/ noun 1 : strong vengeful anger or indignation (chiefly used for humorous or rhetorical effect)...
Wrath-Bearing Tree Review 3/27/16
"But I have always held that, if he who bases his hopes on human nature is a fool, he who gives up in the face of circumstances is a coward. And henceforth, the only honorable course will...
The Enduring Legacy of Alexander Hamilton
It has come to my attention that there exists an award-winning Broadway musical based on the life of Alexander Hamilton. Additionally, I recall an announcement a few months ago by the Secretary of ...
The Unusually Literal World of Bowe Bergdahl
Military hyperbole is at the heart of Serial’s second season. Sarah Koenig has gambled that she can take a simple premise—man walks off a base in Afghanistan, is captured by the Taliban...
Proposal for Primary Reform: Demote Iowa and New Hampshire
Many Americans have been noticing, with more frequency, the inconvenient truth that our democratic system, by design, is actually not very democratic. The design was planned originally by the Found...
Bernie Sanders Wins in Iowa!
Photo Credit: J. David Ake, AP. Senator Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane. Regardless of what the official results might say, Bernie Sanders won the night in Iowa. The margin reported by most media ou...
A Response to A Defense of Moderate, American Socialism
This essay is a short response to the great recent analysis on Socialism in America by my colleague on this website, Adrian Bonenberger. I was looking for ways I could critique his points...
Wrath of UCMJ: Against Crushing Bowe Bergdahl
Americans have become jaded by injustice. Wealthy and elitist citizens like Robert Durst and John du Pont bully, rape, and kill their way through life like Godzillas, law enforcement seemingly powe...
Bryan Hurt: The Next Ambassador to France
In a literary culture full of “McPoems” and hand-wringing over the homogenization of literature because of a supposed surplus of MFA programs, Bryan Hurt breaks the mold. He’s as educated as any cr...
Star Wars: The Force Awakens–It Will Be Watched
By Adrian Bonenberger I wrote a long essay about Lindsay Graham’s candidacy a few months ago, when Craig Whitlock broke the story about Graham’s sleazy and disingenuous military service (I c...
Matthew Hefti’s A Hard and Heavy Thing
It’s not a suicide note; it’s a love song. Amazon • Barnes & Noble
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It’s Still Not Enough: Comments on the Paris Climate Accord
The long-awaited Paris Climate Accord has been finished and is widely reported to be the most successful and ambitious international climate agreement ever. The most important and cited number from...
Facile and Frequent: Our Ignorant Social Media Debates
By Matthew J. Hefti I can’t count the number of variations I’ve seen on this meme on social media. It has reached the point where I feel compelled to write about it, which means the ignorance it en...
Republican Reactionaries and the Road to Fascism
The Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote the following lines in his great work On Liberty: “A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements o...
It’s All So Familiar; It’s All So Heartbreaking
Today, November 24th, 2015, Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Laquan McDonald in Chicago, Illinois. We all should be charged for the same thing. I won’t argue wi...
Are We Still Charlie Hebdo?: The Growing Dissonance between Extremism and Free Speech
I started preparing this essay a month or two ago to collect my thoughts about the after effects of the Charlie Hebdo attacks and how the limits of free speech are being tested as extremism and int...
Killing is Easy
Killing is the easiest thing in the world, easier than sex. Easier than raising a family or bringing a child into the world, or building a house. Easier than painting or writing or music. Killing i...
Do Nazis Dream of WWII Dystopian Future Pasts?
The tired, simplistic, bargain-basement Cold War narrative of WWII sucks and it’s time we got over it. According to my eighth grade history teacher, the USA won WWII by beating the Nazis and...
Letter to US #2: It’s Up to You
Dear NRA Members, 2nd Amendment lovers, Fraternal Order of Police members, legislators, judges, voters, prosecutors, federal agents, state agents, municipal agents, county sheriffs, veterans...
Why Black Literature Matters
“The Thankful Poor”, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1894 Last month in The Atlantic, Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Al Aswany wrote an excellent essay on How Literature Inspires Empathy. He g...
Letters to Us: #1. May All Those Who Labor Find Rest
2015.09.06, Labor Day
Dear America,
You inspire me into a coma.
...
The Racist Arguments For, Against Gun Control
Gun violence is deeply entrenched in America. Chances are, if you’ve spent any time outside the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the last 30 years, you’ve been touched by gun violence personally—som...
Reinhold Messner as Nietzschean Übermensch
One month ago, on July 24, 2015, the sixth and final Messner Mountain Museum opened to the public on the top of a mountain in northern Italy, a couple hours from where I live. This newest museum is...
Thoughts on the Zombie Apocalypse
A piece about who finds zombie narratives compelling and why.
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