Practicing a civic perspective

How citizens engage in questions of political life every day and why it matters

Questions of Civic Proportions: What can we do to fight all the baloney?

My Fellow Citizens, Gullibility kills. That’s the last line of Carl Sagan’s essay, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection [http://www.openculture.com/2016/04/carl-sagan-presents-his-baloney-detection-kit-8-tools-for-skeptical-thinking.html] .” When it comes to baloney, we’re at Code Red. The list of today’s baloney is long but includes a

Quotes to Think By: Timothy Snyder's Lessons from the Twentieth Century

Quotes to Think By: Timothy Snyder’sOn Tyranny Understanding the politics of the everyday and the choices we make Timothy Snyder’s small book has a big mission. Each chapter of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century [https://bookshop.org/a/5090/9780804190114]delivers advice for recognizing and

Questions of Civic Proportions: Where will your mind wander?

My Fellow Citizens, I haven’t read Ryan Holiday’s recent book, but I’ve started to suspect that this is the right time for it. The title is “Stillness is the Key.” Ryan Holiday is the reason why I keep Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations within reach at my desk.

Quotes to Think By: Octavia Butler's Rules for Predicting the Future

Quotes to Think By: Octavia Butler’s Rules for Predicting the Future History, perspective and our ability to solve new problems Hidden in a discussion about the future, an award-winning science-fiction author offered a guide for using history to guide our decision-making. Among Octavia Butler’s strategies for predicting the