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September 3, 2019|civility, Constitution, Faction, James Madison, polarization, social media

Civic Friendship in America: A Madisonian Retrospective

by Colleen Sheehan|

George Washington speaks at the Constitutional Convention (Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com).
Technology seems to have recreated the problem of the small republic, such that the large republic is now susceptible to the disease of faction.

January 21, 2019|James Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Marshall McLuhan, Matthew Crawford, Social Credit, social media, Stand Out of Our Light

The Birth, and Digital Death, of the Electric Dream

by James Poulos|

Those shaped by the televisual imagination, like author James Williams, were staggeringly naïve and optimistic at the time of social media’s advent.

October 30, 2018|Platforms, social media, Soft Regulation

Softly Regulating Social Media Platforms

by Mike Rappaport|

Image: Lenka Horavova/Shutterstock.com.
Even if it is consistent with classical liberal principles to regulate those platforms, is it a good idea?

October 17, 2018|Freedom, Henry Kissinger, J.G. Ballard, Jurassic Park, Jürgen Habermas, social media, Technology

Life Finds A Way: Jurassic Park‘s Warning at 25

by James Poulos|

Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park (1993). Image: Universal Pictures.
Jurassic Park's question remains: is technology subject to our control anymore?

September 14, 2018|Democracy, John Kennedy, Joseph Biden, rational ignorance, Richard Nixon, Russians, social media

Social Media Suggests a Deeper Threat to Democracy Than Russia: Us

by John O. McGinnis|

Pathdoc/Shutterstock.com
Social media reveals little about democracy that a serious student did not already know, but the inanity is so relentless now that it is hard to ignore.

June 12, 2018|Binx Bolling, Byung-Chul Han, Liberalism, Martin Heidegger, Modernity, narcissism, social media, Technology

Assessing Our Frayed Society with Byung-Chul Han

by Scott Beauchamp|

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han in Barcelona, Spain, February 7, 2018 (Massimiliano Minocri/El Pais).
Prolific Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han offers unexpected insights into technological modernity.

November 10, 2017|Carl Jung, Digital Technology, iGen, Iron John, Jean M. Twenge, social media

The iGeneration Is Casting No Shadow

by Mark Judge|

There is a entire new generation in America that is not adapting to life. Addicted to phones, iPads, and other screens, young Americans are impaired when it comes to wrestling with their darker selves or going out into the world—both of which are necessary and humbling stages of the natural maturation of a human being. The result has been the kinds of mental and spiritual problems that we see manifest among the young: eating disorders, depression, social awkwardness. On college campuses students have meltdowns over visiting speakers, shriek hysterically over minor school policies they don’t like, and retreat into “safe spaces.”

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January 2, 2015|friendship, social media, Technology, television

Social Media Complement Social Life

by John O. McGinnis|

In an era of technological acceleration, gauging the effect of new technology on our lives is ever more important. Thus, I welcome Justin Buckley Dyer’s skeptical take on the influence of social media on social life, even if I am largely skeptical of his skepticism and even in greater disagreement with his views on technological progress in general.

Dyer suggests that social media will distract people from making the real connections with others essential to human flourishing. My first reason for doubt is the lack of data. Do people have fewer real friendships because they have more “friends” on Facebook? To be sure, Dyer is not at fault for not supplying a quantitative analysis. Even though our computational age is more amenable than ever to empiricism, we do not have the data to answer that question. Moreover, to answer it, we would have to quantify true friendship—a process that Dyer might well think would defeat the entire enterprise.

But even in the absence of complete information, we can see that social media can be a complement to rather than a substitute for conventional friendship.

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September 2, 2014|Facebook, Joel Kotkin, Silicon Valley, social media, The New Class Conflict

Rescuing American Prosperity: A Conversation with Joel Kotkin

by Joel Kotkin|

This latest podcast is with Joel Kotkin, America’s Demographer-in-Chief, on his recently released book, The New Class Conflict. Kotkin and I discuss his grave warning of an American future that no longer contains the promises of democratic capitalism. Two groups, in Kotkin’s telling, have converged and share a vision of America that is unconcerned with economic growth, shared prosperity, and the need to rein in state power. The book’s opening argues that this class of tech entrepreneurs and the "Clerisy" pose a fundamental challenge to America's self-understanding as a nation of economic mobility: In the coming decades, the greatest existential threat…

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July 29, 2013|Claes Ryn, Robert Nisbet, social media, The Quest for Community, Waze

Social Networks and the Quest for Community

by Greg Weiner|

Robert A. Nisbet

A friend recently introduced me to the GPS app Waze, which promises—warning: I will likely botch the lingo—a crowdsourcing solution to traffic: “Nothing can beat real people working together. Imagine 30 million drivers out on the roads, working together towards a common goal: to outsmart traffic. . . .”  Waze users report traffic incidents and driving conditions in exchange for points. I can’t tell what these points are actually good for—probably something that exceeds my understanding—so the reports seem close to altruistic activity. The app is addicting, invaluable and troubling. It leaves one with the impression of participating in a community that in fact does not exist, of committing acts of altruism that actually require no sacrifice and of making connections that are in reality hollow. Dr. Nisbet, please call your office.

To be sure, one ought not extrapolate more of a message from a navigation app than is actually there, and none of this is a knock on Waze as all it promises to be: a better means of navigation. But Waze is indicative of the false sense of community that social networks can induce: one that is either anonymous, impersonal or, at best, arms-length. Such relationships do not involve the same sorts of accommodations and complications that Claes Ryn reminds us sustained, personal, face-to-face interactions require. Social networks instead enable connections on the individual’s terms, at times and places of his or her choosing.

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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