Some editorial poesy, with apologies to the American poet Allen Ginsberg, who died on April 5, at the age of 70: “We see the best minds of our generation destroyed by the madness of living in a society without moral guardrails; Starving for the food that will last but not knowing it; Hysterical with too much entertainment; trafficking in angels…
Mahatma Gandhi must be rolling over in his grave. Gujarat—the state where the holy Hindu, preacher of nonviolence, and founder of modern India was born—has become the seat of a vile and vicious form of religious violence. And throughout the country, which is officially a secular state that guarantees freedom of religion, extremists among the Hindus — who make up…
Legalized gambling has enjoyed explosive growth in this country in the past decade, with Americans now spending more money on it than on all other forms of entertainment combined. Though not quite so common as fast food, shopping malls and cable television, Americans now take games of chance for granted—whether it be riverboat gambling, Indian-reservation casinos, offtrack betting or the…
What does it mean when “the voice of a generation” puts a shotgun under his chin and pulls the trigger? The suicide of Kurt Cobain, 27-year-old leader of the rock group Nirvana, made international headlines because Cobain’s music—exciting, creative howls of rage, sarcasm, defiance and confusion—was said to be one big anthem for “Generation X,” the generation born in the…
It is hard to escape the sense of moral twilight extending out from our nation’s capital, a dimming of the day in which our leaders can no longer see clearly enough to distinguish service from license, morals from money, ethics from expediency. Consider the remarkable fact that, in the course of a single week, the two most powerful men in…
Reaction to the Kansas Board of Education’s decision to discourage teaching of “macro-evolution” is a depressing reminder of how little our national debate has evolved since the days of the Scopes “monkey trial.” Predictably, the media have painted religious believers as pigheaded zealots who want to block out anything that might conflict with their airtight worldview. And it’s true that…
We are not surprised that the Senate’s debate over Surgeon General-designate Joycelyn Elders ignored the malicious and ill-formed public remarks she has made about Catholics while serving as director of Arkansas’ Department of Health. Still, it is dispiriting to be shown once again that anti-Catholic bigotry presents no barrier to one’s being considered for high public office in this land.…
There is an important new manifesto floating out in cyberspace and on newsstands. Provocatively titled “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” it’s by Bill Joy, pioneering software developer and visionary of the “e-economy.” It’s the cover essay in the current issue of Wired magazine (April 2000). In addition to being widely circulated on the Internet the manifesto was recently the…
Just when death-penalty foes are finally having some success changing public attitudes, along comes Luciano Benetton, designer–clothes maker and the world’s 111th wealthiest man, who’s going to raise “consciousness” on the issue. Benneton’s $20–million “We, on Death Row” advertising campaign is the kind of help we don’t need. With its edgy photos depicting killers on death row as noble savages…
Sometimes a book’s importance depends more on who is reading it and talking about it than what it actually says. That explains the widespread celebration of Yale University law professor Stephen Carter’s new book, The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion (Basic Books, 1993). Carter’s book got its best plug from President Clinton, who hosted…