It’s no secret that we live in crazy times. Yet more is involved than just a bunch of crazy people running wild. If this was just individual mental illness, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM) would help. Unfortunately, however, the DSM fails to address today’s political madness. With that deficiency in mind, let me offer an...
In 1957, the supposedly backward Soviet Union launched a satellite into orbit and the threat of Soviet rockets became real for millions of Americans. Fortunately, the Sputnik moment galvanized a massive American response and we soon caught up and overtook the Soviets. Conceivably, the current collapse of our Afghanistan adventure might be a similar “Sputnik...
An uneasy relationship with the truth seems especially prevalent in America’s most prestigious schools. Ambitious academics quickly realize that upward mobility requires a knack for convincing deceit. Long gone are the days when brilliant scholarship was the ticket to moving up the ladder. The provost who can say with a straight face, “all of our...
These are not easy times for those cherishing political sanity. Barely a day passes without some stupidity drawing the “What can these idiots be thinking?” response. How is one to respond to demands that drag queens be allowed to read to toddlers at public libraries or that boys must be permitted to compete in girls’...
How can we drive a stake through the heart of Critical Race Theory (CRT)? Ultimately, this will require a long march to restore sanity to thousands of elected school boards, and the firing of countless misguided ideologues. But what about the short run? How can we prevent this poison from damaging an entire generation? Forget...
What do super rich people with multi-million dollar summer homes in the Hamptons and similar enclaves think about today’s troubled, often violent politics? Frank answers are seldom forthcoming given that an impolite answer might invite social ostracism and exclusion from A-list parties. But actions often speak louder than words, and a recent article in AVENUE lets the...
Few notice what is taught in school until it is too late. Today’s push for Critical Race Theory (CRT) is extraordinarily ambitious, and it is hard for defenders of traditional education to imagine anything more toxic than this theory that has seemingly burst on the scene. But, as bad as it may seem, CRT is...
Don’t look now, but “lookism” may be the next politically incorrect thing you are guilty of. The latest installment of our nation’s utopian quest, “lookism” is defined as “the discriminatory treatment of people who are considered physically unattractive.” To be sure, beauty is always culturally defined, and hard to quantify precisely, but in today’s America...
Distinctions between the First, Second, and Third Worlds have blurred in contemporary America as government competence stretches in odd and tyrannical directions while leaving the basic functions of government untouched. This misalignment of priorities could well serve to delegitimize the government in the eyes of many of its citizens. The post-WWII political landscape was simple....
If there were a Museum of Terrible Ideas, the permanent collection would surely include today’s elected leaders who believe the best way to represent impoverished neighborhoods is to demand the defunding of police departments and supporting policies to undermine public schools. How can anyone argue that poor people benefit from lax law enforcement or ending...
Policies designed to achieve racial equality have existed for decades, but a profoundly different cure now dominates public discussion—eliminating structural racism (also called “systemic racism”). Given that structural racism is allegedly hard-wired into American society and responsible for a multitude of what were once believed to be self-inflicted pathologies among blacks, i.e., crime, illegitimacy, and academic failure,...
Young people have never been famous for their political acumen. Recall the Children’s Crusade of 1212 when thousands of unarmed youngsters attempted to march to the Holy Land to convert Muslims with persuasion and divine inspiration. Nevertheless, the current generation exhibits a level of political naiveite that would certify the children of the 1212 disaster as rocket...
Politics abound with oddities, but perhaps none is greater than the elite’s disproportionate reaction to the Jan. 6 Capitol mayhem as opposed to their response to the largely black rioting following George Floyd’s death. While the black rioting drew tens of thousands of participants, lasted months, and was indisputably violent with billions in property damage,...
Like nearly all Americans, President Joe Biden believes that a college degree is the ticket to both individual economic advancement and uplifting the poor. To put his money where his mouth is, he has proposed $256 billion in government funding to cover two years of public community college plus cash for living expenses. In an instant, an...
The U.S. military has gone full woke, and proudly so. For years it has opposed citizen efforts to reverse affirmative action while insisting on the eat-your-vegetables slogan of “Diversity is our Greatest Strength.” West Point currently offers workshops on “White Power at West Point” and “Racist Dog Whistles at West Point” to ensure cadets fully recognize America’s foremost...
Crime is back in the news and hardly a day now passes without headlines about shootings at largely peaceful funerals and all the rest. The obvious question is whether this soaring criminality will render big cities like New York City unlivable—a return to when movie audiences cheered Charles Bronson in Death Wish. Today’s crime is deceptively...
For many conservatives today’s political news may resemble the early days of World War II: endless defeats and little to suggest future victories. Make no mistake, the defeats are real, but the situation is not as bleak as it may appear. The left triumphs in the political realm and this makes its victories public. By...
A new creature has appeared on our political landscape—woke capitalism. It is not the usual, perfectly rational, corporate politicking where businesses hire lobbyists or run PR campaigns to help boost their bottom lines. Here clout is mobilized to advance policies that have absolutely nothing to do with either generating profit or enhancing a company’s “good...
The left’s attempts to march toward a totalitarian Utopia free of hate and discrimination are plain to see. This is what drives mandatory anti-bias training, coerced diversity and inclusion, self-flagellation for alleged racism or sexism, speech codes, censorship, and all else defining today’s pox of political correctness. A comparable push exists among conservatives to enact...
Identity politics is now the term du jour and its meaning is clear enough on a superficial level—choosing people according to their physical characteristics and sexual preferences. The left wants more people of color, women, and gays in influential positions, while the right insists that these traits are secondary to competence in a given job....
Last week I wrote about the first stage in my proposed plan to end racial preferences in the U.S. university system by using the ready availability of genetic testing services, such as 23andMe and others, to broaden the definitions of multicultural identity to the point where these distinctions become meaningless. I’ve named it “The Warren...
Racial preferences in higher education continue to linger despite numerous efforts to kill them off. Yes, voters can ban them, research can show their pernicious impact on intended beneficiaries, and judges can narrow their scope. However, they still persist and nothing on the horizon suggests that the end is near. Let me suggest a radically...
Of all the strange bedfellows that politics attracts, one of the oddest is the enduring liaison between the black civil-rights establishment and white liberal academics. One partner—the academic auxiliary—is most dutiful. It is always there: demanding legislation, concocting dubious constitutional interpretations, justifying quotas, or consoling struggling minority students. Criticizing the civil-rights establishment’s agenda invites the...
Interpreting elections is a national spectator sport, offering as many “meanings” as there arc board-certified spin doctors. Nevertheless, all of these disparate revelations, insights, and brilliant interpretations share a common, unthinking vision: elections, despite their divisive, contentious character, exist to facilitate citizen power over government. Whether ineptly or adeptly, honestly or dishonestly, government is supposed...
The public opinion poll has become an ubiquitous feature of modern life. Seventy years ago, there were no professional pollsters. Fifty years ago only a handful—Gallup, Roper—served as takers of the public pulse. Today, thanks to computer and telephone technology, thousands of public opinion seers and sages are for hire. The explosion of practitioners is...
Let us begin with the obvious: sooner or later, everyone dies. Even Bill and Hillary say they know that. No amount of money will head off the inevitable. We cannot “cure” death like we might rebuild our inner cities or clean up the air. At best, we can use modern medicine to cheat death for...
America’s attempts to help the former Soviet Union have proven exceptionally frustrating. Nearly all government officials. Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, realize that something ought to be done. The possibility that continued economic crises will mean a return to a belligerent totalitarian state is both reasonable and justifiably dreaded. Even the most coldhearted lifelong...
How are we-the campus conservatives-to think of ourselves in the sea of political correctness? Perhaps we adopt the attitude of the left, and view ourselves as the real but unacknowledged victims of oppression, casualties in the war for diversity and sensitivity. It is our turn to be denied tenure, refused job interviews, not invited to speak...