What Does It Say About a Society When the Top Cause of Death for Kids Is…Guns? — It’s happened again. That uniquely American tragedy, crime, monstrosity. A school shooting. This one, in Tennessee, killing six people. By now, you’ve heard the story, and about many of the details. But there’s a thing, a fact, that maybe you don’t know. …

What My Little Town Taught Me About Building a Civilization Fit for the Future — It’s amazing, in its own dire way. Open a newspaper, Twitter, check your Facebook, and so forth. What do you see? Dystopia — a tidal wave of it. A few years ago, you might have thought: this is just a phase. It’ll pass. But it’s not. If anything, it’s getting…

Banning Michelangelo? Creating SS-style forces? America’s Fanatics Are Learning How to Turn a Society Authoritarian From the Bottom-Up — By now, you can see it happening in plain sight. What do I mean? Maybe you heard about this…funny…absurd…story. A principal of a Florida school has been forced to resign after a parent complained that sixth-grade students were exposed to pornography. Terrible, right? In what form, you might ask? …

What Happens When You Don’t Build a 21st Century Economy? This Does — By now, you can see: it’s not over. What began with Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse is still intensifying. “Jitters,” as they say, are racing through the financial system. What’s all this really about? Why, suddenly, do we seem to be poised on the edge of a banking crisis…

(Why) Our Economies Are Trapped in an Arms Race They Can’t Win — Take a hard look at our economies. What do you see? Here’s what I see: they’re trapped in an arms race they can’t win. What do I mean by that? Another month — another brutal round of interest rate rises. Don’t worry — this isn’t just going to be about…

The Crisis America Doesn’t Talk About, And Its Warning for the World — There are many ways that America’s a uniquely failed society, from shootings to rising authoritarianism. But of all these ways, one still flies under the radar much more than it should. The way America treats its elderly. It’s unconscionable. A scandal. A failure of grave — and terrible — proportions…

Five Levels of Ruin — And Where Our Civilization Ranks — One of the things that I find interesting these days, in a kind of sardonic way, is this. “Doom” has gone mainstream. You can read articles about it in the august pages of the New York Times. And those articles always have the same slant: “We’re not doomed!! Stop being…

If You Don’t Think the Future of Human Civilization Is at Risk, Think Again — It was just yesterday that I wrote about whether or not we’re “doomed.” As if right on cue, today, the UN released its “final warning” on climate change. And if you think I’m a “doomer,” well, it turns out I’ve got nothing on…the world’s best scientists, who wrote much of…

Are We “Doomed”? Wrong Question. Why Is Everything Falling Apart, Faster and Faster? — If you read newspaper columns — like I do — you might have noticed there’s a new sort floating around. It goes like this. The “Doomers” Are Wrong!! Look at Those Foolish Doomers!! We’re not Doomed — So Why Do These Damned Doomers Keep on Saying We Are. It’s funny…