Posted inDeep Dive

Get to know your socialisms

Reading Time: 15 minutes The word “socialism” lives a stunted life in current politics, but it’s important to have a good vocabulary for discussing public policy. In this overview of many “socialisms”, we hash out a few ways to think about all the ideas this one word contains.

Posted inEconomics

What should regulatory burdens look like in the secular world?

Reading Time: 11 minutes It’s a tale as old as Constantine: churches benefit from tax-exempt status. In medieval centuries, the church was often configured as an essential extension of monarchy: critical for upholding the myth of divine royalty, and key for delivering social welfare in societies with few other dedicated institutions. In Britain’s North American colonies, taxation itself became […]

Posted inBooks

A different history of end states in human progress

Reading Time: 16 minutes For the last few months, we’ve been exploring the possibilities of a Humanist Book Club through The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. The idea wasn’t simply to move through the text, but to think about the stories that carry us forward. To try to empower ourselves […]

Posted inWar and Peace

The ethical quagmire of Jenin, for all of us

Reading Time: 6 minutes As I noted in a four-part series on Israel and the West, writing on Middle Eastern conflict is plagued by the immediate search for bias, with which to dismiss any competing intel from “the other side”. Al Jazeera will always report with certain priorities. The Times of Israel will report with others. And as situations […]

Posted inHistory

On culture and farming, and the myths surrounding both

Reading Time: 13 minutes We took an unintended hiatus last week for Humanist Book Club, but hopefully for the better. Comments to date on this series suggest that many folks aren’t reading the book directly, but responding to my summaries and analysis of author commentary. This places an added burden to ensure that I’m articulating key points properly, and […]

Sign In

We've recently sent you an authentication link. Please, check your inbox!

Sign in with a password below, or sign in using your email.

Get a code sent to your email to sign in, or sign in using a password.

Enter the code you received via email to sign in, or sign in using a password.

Subscribe to our newsletters:

OR

By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.