Most of us know family members or friends who are depressed or saddened by the problems America faces today. Add to this scenario the usual holiday blues, and we have a mental health disaster in the making. We can help fight against it by spreading goodwill in whatever way we can. Not everyone has a [...]
Ad hoc arrangements like “pandemic pods” have proven to be important for many children and their families this school year. Policies that push back against bullying public school systems and teacher unions are important, but for educational choice to truly become a feature of America’s K-12 educational landscape—and not a novelty—requires not only political encouragement, [...]
As the world’s cruise ships are sold for scrap, it is time to abandon the erroneous economic model, the “cruise ship economy,” that brought so much harm to the nation and the world. It is time to chart a new course. It is time to confront the dangers of the enormous storms looming on the [...]
During this “age of the mask,” are we on the verge of becoming a people who ritualistically carry masks with us wherever we go? Will it perhaps become generally understood that the wise person always keeps two masks with him at all times? Now that we have seemingly settled into the “age of the mask,” [...]
Science does not give us all the answers. When it comes to forming policy, there are no technocratic answers. The Great Barrington Declaration is a sensible statement by a group of scientists daring to stand against the “consensus” of experts. It is based not merely on science but on prudent thought based on a broader [...]
Life entails taking risks. The failure to see that seems to be behind the readiness of so many adults in our society to accept what seem to me to be criminal limitations on our economic and social freedoms in the name of security. If there is anything I do not wish to write about anymore, [...]
In moving to the precise term "facial covering," instead of "mask," it becomes clearer that the effect is to blot out the human face and ultimately blot out God from our sight. On a recent visit to Charleston, South Carolina, I had an experience that led to a disturbing realization. Since then, I have been [...]
The idea that a second lockdown, more severe than the first and on a national basis, would not cause more damage than it prevents is sheer fantasy. COVID poses health risks to a particular portion of the population. Lockdowns pose a risk to everybody—both economically and physically. Many people have talked about the death of [...]
Thomas Hobbes’ morbid outlook holds that there are no goods higher than material success and life. People are reduced to the mediocrity of their whims and desires. The COVID-19 disaster represents the triumph of the Leviathan nightmare. People used to face challenges and risks to obtain higher goals in life. They understood that there were [...]
In the Western world today many people, especially among the elites, are quite willing to forfeit community life, while others are actively working to destroy it. We are witnessing—perhaps even unthinkingly participating in—the suicide of our culture. When I read the news headline, it suddenly all seemed clear. The story reported that new positive COVID [...]
As the coronavirus lockdowns stretch into months, the apparent success of the remote-work experiment is fraying at the edges. Lack of personal contact has worsened the situation of an already polarized and fragmented society, and the idea that everything can be made virtual has been proven a myth. As the lockdowns swept the nation, governments [...]
If lockdowns worked, we would expect Sweden, which did not impose one, to top the mortality table, and for the pandemic curve to have risen exponentially, as predicted by the notorious Imperial College model. This predicted that without a lockdown Sweden would have 44,000 dead by now. But Sweden’s actual figure is not nearly that [...]
The major pro of the shift to online classes during the coronavirus pandemic was our being together, even though we were isolated at our homes away from campus. But the proposal being entertained by some in higher ed to begin the fall semester online has one very glaring con: Starting classes online cold from day [...]
The fear of the coronavirus allows our governing bodies to keep us in isolation and the consequences of our permitting this act are more pernicious than we can imagine. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground” has never appeared less fictional. And why are you so firmly, so triumphantly, convinced that only the normal and the positive—in [...]