MOOS Core + Additional Resources Blog

  • What It Means to Choose Freedom -- A superb lecture that explains how the current crisis facing the Jewish people is deeply intertwined with the larger effort to preserve democratic freedoms. --
  • The Age of Amorality -- A look at one of the most difficult questions facing liberal democracies -- the need to use illiberal means to defend those democracies. --
  • The Prophets: Marshall McLuhan -- For a time when new communication technologies are reshaping everything we thought we knew, a look back at the insights of Marshall McLuhan, the man who struggled with an earlier information revolution. --
  • Equity, Equitist, Equitism -- An insightful new effort to clarify the conflict between the equity of the social justice movement and the egalitarianism of liberal democracy. --
  • 'Not just for invading Galilee': Hezbollah's monstrous tunnel network -- A description of Hezbollah's much more formidable military capabilities in southern Lebanon (and a preview of what could be a much more devastating war). --
  • Britain, Islamism and the Forgotten Lessons of Appeasement -- Look at how violence and the threat of violence is affecting British parliamentary debate in ways that raise the specter of a successful January 6-style insurrection. --
  • This is not a good way to fight racism in America -- A quite thoughtful essay on Google's new Gemini AI engine, its initial pro-diversity bias, and the dangers of thinking that there is a quick and easy solution to racism. --
  • Security- what is it? -- Security is one of the fundamental human needs that has to be met for peacebuilding to be successful. This essay explores the concept. --
  • The Climate Fix Book Club, Chapter 9 & Full Book -- Links to a thoughtful series of articles (and an online book) that try to get beyond climate hysteria and focus on what, exactly, the science is telling us about how to most effectively address the problem. --
  • Memo to the 'Experts': Stop Comparing Israel's War in Gaza to Anything. It Has No Precedent -- A comparison of the war in Gaza with other "similar" military campaigns and an argument that this war is, in many important respects, unprecedented in human history. --
  • How to Disagree Better -- From the Atlantic, links to three articles outlining ways in which we can discuss controversial issues more constructively. --
  • Ricardo Hausmann on How Economies Grow -- Positive-sum conflicts (in which the "pie" is constantly expanding) are much less divisive. This essay examines the economic growth that creates such situations. --
  • When I Was a Hostage -- From the Syrian civil war, a first-person account of what it's like to be captured and held hostage by Islamic terrorists. --
  • The Cure for What Ails Our Democracy -- From David Brooks, an insightful look at the virtues of pluralism and the dangers of monism -- the belief that one possesses the one true answer and that anyone who disagrees is evil. --
  • What Americans don’t get about Israelis Fighting for their Lives -- From Israel, an attempt to correct some of the misperceptions that Americans have about the war. --
  • Metaphors make the world -- A thought-provoking exploration of the role that metaphors play in helping us make sense of the world in which we live. --
  • The Strongest Case Against Donald Trump -- An observation that, on both the left and the right, President Trump seems remarkably adept at bringing out the darker side of our political personalities. --
  • The four kinds of truth America needs to pursue reconciliation -- An older article offering still valuable insights for those trying to figure out how it might be possible to reconcile the United States' deeply divided society. --
  • How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t -- A worrying article about how Supreme Court inaction could conceivably lead Democrats to refuse to certify a Trump victory on January 6. --
  • On Putin's Reign Of Terror -- For a time when increasing numbers of people are starting to view Putin's Russia in more favorable ways, the short history of his increasingly brutal brand of authoritarianism. --
  • The Fraudulent Case Against ‘Violent Settlers’ -- A look at the larger context surrounding stories of Israeli settler violence on the West Bank and ongoing efforts to defend against Palestinian terrorism. --
  • The Americans Who Need Chaos -- An essay on political nihilism and the tendency of so many people to focus their attention on demonstrating to one another that their society is corrupt, dysfunctional, and worthless. --
  • Bill Froehlich Talks about the Ohio State Divided Community Project -- A summary of a conversation Bill Froehlich about the work of the Divided Community Project which works to help deeply divided communities come together to prevent, and respond to civic strife. --
  • America's soft power isn't the problem -- A reminder that, in a world of increasingly aggressive and ruthless geopolitical actors, freedom, peace, and security depends upon much neglected hard power (as well as soft power). --
  • The Over-the-Top Epidemic -- An examination of the tendency of so many people in so many different contexts to act in extreme ways. --

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