January 14, 2018

From The New York Times:

[The] liberal democratic moral order stands for the idea that souls are formed in freedom and not in servility, in expansiveness, not in stagnation. It stands for the idea that our covenantal institutions — like family, faith, tradition and community — orient us toward higher loves and common dreams that we then pursue in the great gymnasium of liberty.

From The New York Times:

Yes, liberalism sometimes sits in tension with faith, tradition, family and community, which Deneen rightly cherishes. But liberalism is not their murderer.

From The Economist:

If you insist on a strong relationship and a healthy bank balance before tying the knot, and on piling up even more wealth before starting a family, your chances of having the number of children you want become slimmer. In most rich countries, the more highly qualified the woman, the more likely she is to remain childless. Many childless people are perfectly happy. But others endure expensive medical treatment and great disappointment.

From Harper's:

Regions of Italy that were exposed to Silvio Berlusconi’s entertainment-TV broadcasting remained likelier to vote for populist politicians for two decades; the study’s authors concluded that Berlusconi’s programming exposed older voters to biased evening news and made younger voters grow up to be stupider and less politically engaged.

From The Guardian (James Graham on People Fixing the World):

I was introduced to this podcast by one of the actors in the play I’m rehearsing. I can’t listen to music when I’m jogging because I hate it so much it began to kill my enjoyment of all my favourite songs – so I listen to podcasts. These are great: bite-sized broadcasts that look at the inventive ways people are trying to tackle serious problems. One is about a charity in London called Steel Warriors, where they melted down confiscated knives to build a community gym made out of steel. In a climate of totally depressing political discourse, occasionally I need to listen to something unapologetically uplifting while I’m running around south London wheezing.