By Benjamin Hand
On August 4th of this year, the world lost one of its great philosophers. G.A Cohen, referred to by friend and foe alike as Jerry, was one of the world’s leading voices on analytical Marxism, distributive justice, and political philosophy. Perhaps no one in our time has thought so enduringly about rescuing Marx’s [...]
By Mark Warren
The voids in America’s Senate and spirit left by Senator Edward Kennedy’s death are much larger than a single seat or vote. But because of the efforts of Massachusetts legislators, the seat, at least, will be filled for the next few months by former Democratic Party Chair Paul G. Kirk, Jr. Following a [...]
“[If he really] thinks that humanity is destroying the planet, [why doesn’t he] just go kill himself and help the planet by dying?”
-Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh responding to New York Times science writer Andrew Revkin.
“So we have Marxists that are designing and working on net neutrality–are believers in net neutrality” to “control content.”
-Glenn [...]
By Benjamin Hand
At the present, both the United States and the larger industrialized world find themselves in unstable financial times. In many parts of our country, the unemployment rate has climbed above ten percent, and many family’s individual budgets have never been so bleak. However, these concerns overshadow the larger danger of our global financial [...]
By Tyler Brandon
I was feeling fairly optimistic about my trip to Beijing. At least until the plane suddenly landed with a loud thud. Weren’t we still flying amidst the clouds, thousands of feet in the air? I quickly scolded myself for my naïveté. Those “clouds” were thick billows of disgusting white haze. [...]
By Idriss Fofana
There are few worse insults in American politics than being deemed a “socialist.” Indeed, McCain’s supporters used it during the election campaign to paint Barack Obama as a dangerous radical leftist. And yet, in the American political lexicon, there exists a superlative to this term: a “European socialist.” For years, Europe has entertained [...]
By Dylan Matthews
Let’s face it: the Senate sucks. And not just this Senate in particular—there is an intrinsic, institutional suckiness that pervades the upper house of Congress. It’s uneven in its democratic representation of constituents. Wyoming and California have 0.175 percent and 12.1 percent of the U.S. population respectively, but each gets an equal 2 [...]
By Anna Yeung
The Great Equalizer
“It’s always a kick to see trust fund babies deal with sharing a room half the size of my single,” a friend once noted.
I first noticed the breadth of Harvard’s financial aid initiative through the housing lottery. Legacies end up bunking with first-generation college students, and globetrotting internationals with students from [...]
By Madeleine Schwartz
“One second,” Rose Styron tells me. “I just have to call Carlos Fuentes.” Telephone conversations with the world’s most famous writers are nothing new for Styron, a fellow at the IOP this spring. As a founding member of Amnesty International USA, the human rights activist and poet has spent the past forty years [...]