The zeitgeist of the week, if we are to countenance viral memes, is this: “The Rich Get Richer, The Lazy Live for Free, and the Middle Class Pays for it All!” It’s catchy—no doubt in part because it isn’t overtly partisan. It’s also a modern take on an old and familiar refrain and therefore seems to strike a chord with the millions who glibly pass it along as a sort of common-sense observation that most people can identify with. But how true is it, really? Percy Bysshe Shelley (whose wife Mary famously penned Frankenstein) is credited with first coining the aphorism “the rich get richer, the ..read more

They call him Da Liu: Big Liu. A looser translation might be “the big kahuna,” the one who needs no introduction. Many American viewers of Netflix’s new interstellar drama, 3 Body Problem, are unfamiliar with the trilogy of books it’s based on (collectively titled Remembrance of Earth’s Past) and their author, Liu Cixin. But in his native country, he is a literary sensation, the kingpin of Chinese science fiction. Science fiction, in turn, is no escapist diversion in China. It is an imaginative exercise pursued in deadly earnest, an expression of national aspirations to technological supremacy ..read more

Last month I was at a book launch in Washington, DC. This was an event for Republicans—sparsely attended. Older gentlemen and ladies who may have been notable once were obviously struggling with anonymity, looking for people they themselves might know without looking too eager to everyone else. Of course, there were almost no young people except the waiting staff. I knew maybe five people there and wondered what they were doing there; and vice versa. This was a cultural event, so that adds to the embarrassment in the most transactional city in America. What else to do but network halfheartedly ..read more

Every new regime not born from revolutionary violence must win the support of an elite to survive. Mere theories of sound social arrangements do not suffice. A powerful cohort must be invested in the regime’s success, ready to uphold its ideals. Lacking allies to enforce its vision, a regime’s framework may ironically undermine the principles it is designed to uphold. An entrenched opposing elite can turn the discretion inherent in all political settlements against the objectives of their proponents. In American history, for instance, consider how a Federalist elite, entrenched in the federal ..read more

I was in broad sympathy with Professor McGinnis’s recent Law & Liberty review of Ingrid Robeyns’s book, Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, though I am somewhat less sanguine than he about the benefits of wealth (beyond a certain level). I would put it like this: while increased wealth above a certain level is not guaranteed to increase happiness, or what is now routinely called human flourishing, attempts to limit wealth to that level are almost guaranteed to result in increased human unhappiness. I was struck, however, by the following sentence in the review: While the left ..read more

In Book I of his Discourses on Livy, Machiavelli dedicates chapters 7 and 8 to the theme of accusations, calumnies, and their impact on free republics. As with much of his writing, he praises the Roman Republic for how it dealt with these matters and condemns contemporary Florence. Specifically, he considers that accusations are an important venting mechanism to be used against a citizen who is alleged to have wronged the republic in some way. If such a mechanism does not exist, Machiavelli argues, then factions will form in the republic and lead to the potential intervention of a foreign powe ..read more

In land acknowledgments, there is to be found a fatuous mix of nerve and naiveté. The former comes to light in the public pronouncement that some present-day site was once the ancestral homeland of another people and that those currently occupying it and making the pronouncement have absolutely no intention of giving it back. Imagine finding a lost dog, keeping it, and solemnly proclaiming that this dog traditionally belonged to the Thompsons who live down the street. If the people issuing such statements were not so thoroughly neutered, one might say upon hearing a land acknowledgment: that t ..read more

The best scenes in Masters of the Air, a nine-part series on Apple TV, arrive at 25,000 feet, as squadrons of B-17 Flying Fortresses cruise in formation to bomb Germany during World War II. Oxygen masks strapped on, the crews man their posts and brace for flak and Luftwaffe fighter planes. The ball turret gunner squeezes into his glass globe in the underbelly, the waist gunners swing their weapons to the ready, the navigator hunches over crinkling charts, the bombardier readies his Norden bombsight. On the flight deck, the pilot and co-pilot grimly watch as flak shells burst and pop. The gray ..read more

You find yourself in a bar, deeply engaged in a discussion with a friend over a public policy issue. You hold your position with confidence, convinced beyond doubt that there’s no room for debate. Every article you have read, every news segment you have watched, and every conversation you have had in the past month regarding this issue has reinforced your stance. In your mind, you are right, and your friend is mistaken. The evidence, as you see it, is undeniable. Why, then, does she fail to acknowledge what seems to be so clear? However, it dawns on you that she’s not alone in her perspective ..read more

Liberalism has faced strong intellectual headwinds since 2008. The collapse of the financial system did not just rock consumer confidence but the political system on which it was founded. Ever since, we have witnessed rising concern about the state of liberalism in America, creating a genuine fear of backsliding. Could a political order again emerge that sees inequality between peoples as natural and ongoing? Will political movements fearful of globalisation and its fruits gain the upper hand? Will identity-focused politics overwhelm liberal ideals and values about intrinsic human worth? It is ..read more