Listen to this chapter on any podcast app, at YouTube, at Substack, or here: Escape from the iron cage of alienation appears to be impossible: You’ll never think of a way out, because it’s thinking that locks you in. Unless you discover a different way to think. Or rather, rediscover. Humans have always practiced multiple ways of … [Read more...] about Escape From the Iron Cage: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 13
Episodes
How to Lose in One Word: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 12
Listen to this chapter on any podcast app, at YouTube, at Substack, or here: As we’ve seen, a glance can be enough for us to decide whether we trust someone. So can a single word. Every politician, or anyone trying to persuade anyone else of anything, faces two make-or-break moments: the moment before they say a word, and the moment they do. We turn to that … [Read more...] about How to Lose in One Word: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 12
It’s the Alienation, Stupid: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 11
Listen to this chapter on any podcast app, at YouTube, at Substack, or here: The fiendish thing about the iron cage is that the harder you try to escape, the harder that gets. The cage, after all, is the way you think. So the more you try to think your way out, the more surely you lock yourself in. A case in point: The Democratic Party … [Read more...] about It’s the Alienation, Stupid: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 11
The Iron Cage: Chapter 10 of The Liberal Backbone
Listen to this chapter on any podcast app, at YouTube, at Substack, or here: The crisis of liberalism is nowhere more serious than on the liberal left. As I write, public approval of the Democratic Party stands, wobbling, at 29 percent in one major poll and 27 percent in another. This may not be surprising to young Americans, who have never … [Read more...] about The Iron Cage: Chapter 10 of The Liberal Backbone
How We Became Aliens: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 9
Listen to this chapter on any podcast app, at YouTube, or at Substack. Last time, I argued that if liberals still believe in an open society — free, equal, and pluralistic — we must defend reason. It’s the shared “meeting space” that makes the open society possible. But we must also understand that reason alone isn’t enough. It’s a classic liberal failing not to … [Read more...] about How We Became Aliens: The Liberal Backbone, Chapter 9