How We Chose Violence
The term violence has achieved an amusing new cultural cachet in the age of Twitter. “He woke up and chose violence” prepares us to hear a funny insult, see a…
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John Wood, Jr.
11 posts
John Wood, Jr. is a writer and commentator whose work has focused on creating understanding between polarized groups around contentious social and political issues. A former nominee for congress in the 43rd district of California, he is a national ambassador for Braver Angels.
Free Speech, Civil Rights and the Moral Imperative of Persuasion
The guarantee of freedom of expression in the First Amendment to United States Constitution has never abridged a publisher’s right to determine what content he prints in his newspaper. Just…
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The Pivotal Irony of American Racism
Is the problem of American racism structural or personal? Is racism a significant problem in the United States? Are the problems of the black community in particular a reflection of…
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The Party Switch ‘Myth’
There are many odd features of the narrative based epistemology that governs party politics. One of them is the need for stories connecting the opposing party’s guilt and corruption, in…
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Jonathan Haidt, Ezra Klein and the Nature of Wicked Problems
Can we solve the problem of inequality without compromising our commitment to free speech and the wellbeing of the individual? Can we advance the project of heterodoxy and civil discourse…
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The Prophecies of Kavanaugh
On Thursday, September 27, 2018, at ten o’clock in the morning Eastern Standard Time, the United States of America—and much of the world—readied itself to watch the most anticipated confirmation…
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Race, Culture and the Dynamics of Prejudice
Racism is looked upon as the defining sin of the West. Tribal warfare has stained human history and the conflicts between clans and nations have catalyzed the shifting boundaries of…
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Virtue Ethics for the Modern Age
Scott Adams, creator of the popular comic strip Dilbert, trained hypnotist and erudite public commentator, posed what may seem like an odd question on his blog last year: “why do…
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Liberal Individualism and the Challenge of Narrative
There is a philosophical self-image at the heart of the western world’s conception of itself. That image is the classically liberal vision of the self—the individual—as the essential unit of…
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The Philosophy of Nonviolence: The Lost Legacy of Martin Luther King
The 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. has come and gone. MLK Day is behind us. Yet there is no reason for us to stop talking…
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Sam Harris, Ezra Klein, and the Politicization of Science
The year long feud between cognitive neuroscientist Sam Harris and Editor-at-Large of Vox Ezra Klein is one that has pitted advocates for a group identity based approach to politics against…
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