A simple 2×2 matrix can explain why the House of Representatives has found it harder and harder to get anything done.
Authors: Carolyn Silverman, Ronald Brownstein | Source: Bloomberg (December 17, 2025) | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
One of the great mysteries about the rise of populism, in both the United States and Europe, is why it has benefited the political right so much more than the left. For years, American progressives have been trying to get people worked up over rising rates of economic inequality, with the expectation that this anger could fuel greater support for the Democratic Party. Yet the … [ Read more ]
Author: Joseph Heath | Source: The Atlantic (December 15, 2025) | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
Why asset bubbles are a part of the human condition that regulation can’t cure.
Author: Virginia Postrel | Source: The Atlantic (December2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Culture, Economics | Economy, Excerpts, Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
A series of vampire novels illuminates the complexities of female adolescent desire.
Author: Caitlin Flanagan | Source: The Atlantic (December2008) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Literature | Arts, Psychology | Behavior
Just over a decade ago, in their paper “Hypotheses on Status Competition,” William C. Wohlforth and David C. Kang, professors of government at Dartmouth and the University of Southern California, wrote that “social status is one of the most important motivators of human behavior” and yet “over the past 35 years, no more … [ Read more ]
Author: Thomas B. Edsall | Source: The New York Times (December 9, 2020) | Subjects: Excerpts, Life & Society, Motivation, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
Over and over, people would overestimate the degree of control they had over events — smart people, people who excelled at many things, people who should have known better… The more they overestimated their own skill relative to luck, the less they learned from what the environment was trying to tell them, and the worse their decisions became… The illusion of control is what prevented … [ Read more ]
Authors: Maria Konnikova, Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) (December 8, 2020) | Subjects: Excerpts, Life & Society, Math & Science, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
The savanna theory of happiness is the idea that life satisfaction is not only determined by what’s happening in the present but also influenced by the ways our ancestors may have reacted to the event. Evolutionary psychology argues that, just like any other organ, the human brain has been designed for and adapted to the conditions of an ancestral environment. Therefore, the researchers argue, our … [ Read more ]
Author: Sarah Sloat | Source: Inverse (December 6, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Happiness, Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
Humans suck. We are impossible to please.
We have so many conflicting needs and desires, it’s a marvel that we can
even wipe the correct ass.
I’ve long written about how humans evolved to be constantly dissatisfied in some way. I’ve written about how, in life, it’s impossible to escape suffering. In fact, in one of the most popular sections of my … [ Read more ]
Author: Mark Manson | Subjects: Happiness, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
Our political divisions aren’t red versus blue, but fixed versus fluid.
Author: Ezra Klein | Source: Vox (December 18, 2018) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
A lot of good, honorable Republicans used to believe there was a safe middle ground. […] Now it’s clear that middle ground doesn’t exist. That’s because Donald Trump never stops asking. First, he asked the party to swallow the idea of a narcissistic sexual harasser and a routine liar as its party leader. Then he asked the party to accept his comprehensive ignorance and his … [ Read more ]
Author: David Brooks | Source: The New York Times (December 7, 2017) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
“To bother to engage with problematic culture, and problematic people within that culture, is an act of love,” wrote the poet Elizabeth Alexander in contemplating power and possibility. Krista Tippett calls such engagement generous listening. And yet so much of our communication today is defined by a rather ungenerous unwillingness to listen coupled with a compulsion to speak.
The most perennially insightful and helpful remedy for … [ Read more ]
Authors: David Bohm, Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) (December 5, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Communication, Culture, Excerpts, Life & Society
[Tim] Ferriss distinguishes between two kinds of secrets — those we keep because we fear fleeting mortification, like accounts of embarrassing things we’ve done in sub-optimal moments, and dark secrets that paralyze us with deep shame, “the shadows we keep covered for fear of unraveling our lives.”
[…]
“It’s easy to blow things out of proportion, to get lost in the story you tell yourself, and to … [ Read more ]
Authors: Maria Popova, Tim Ferriss | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) (December 8, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Health & Medicine, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
To understand why Trump’s Carrier stunt succeeded, it’s worth turning to a 1964 political science classic, Murray Edelman’s The Symbolic Uses of Politics. The takeaway lesson is that in politics, clear symbolic actions are often more important than results (which are often ambiguous or unclear).
[…]
Edelman’s foundational point is that most people don’t pay close attention to the details of policy, and the news media does … [ Read more ]
Author: Lee Drutman | Source: Vox (December 19, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
In my cover story in the December issue of the magazine, on how the United States should prepare for the possibility of a more truculent and repressive China, I mention the concept of the “Thucydides Trap.” The article describes the implications:
This concept was popularized by the Harvard political scientist [and my one-time professor as an undergraduate] Graham Allison. Its premise is that through the 2,500
Author: James Fallows | Source: The Atlantic (December 17, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy, Trump
The secret to happiness in almost any relationship is knowing what not to say.
[…]
The pool of knowledge is limited; it’s the pool of ignorance, speculation and misunderstanding that is infinite.
[…]
But one thing that happens when we acquire too much “knowledge” is that, like Othello, we sometimes fail to distinguish it from what can never be known, which may not be untrue. Another is that we’re … [ Read more ]
Author: Pico Iyer | Source: The New York Times (December 31, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Intelligence | Knowledge, Wisdom
To many white Trump voters, the problem wasn’t her economic stance, but the larger vision—a multi-ethnic social democracy—that it was a part of.
Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic (December 5, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy
Lines can bring fairness and order to what might otherwise be a free-for-all. There’s even a science, called queuing theory, that examines the optimal ways to make lines move equitably and efficiently. But they don’t always work that way; sometimes, they can operate to institutionalize unfairness and inequality. That’s why Arlie Russell Hochschild uses lines as a metaphor for the challenges facing contemporary American society … [ Read more ]
Author: Nitin Nohria | Source: The Atlantic (December 2, 2017) | Subjects: Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior, Sociology | Anthropology
The Obamas are the rare First Family to leave the White House stronger than when they arrived—never victims, even when hatefully victimized. Is it too late for the rest of us to learn how?
Author: Kim McLarin | Source: The Morning News (December 14, 2016) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Race Relations
The same part of the brain that allows us to step into the shoes of others also helps us restrain ourselves.
Author: Ed Yong | Source: The Atlantic (December 6, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
Freedom is fragile, and when demagogues speak, and others start following them, it is wise to pay attention.
[…]
The political party system, and parliamentary government more generally, were regarded as corrupt and oligarchic. Such an environment was fertile ground for a “mob mentality,” in which outsiders — Jews, Roma, Slavs, gays, “cosmopolitan intellectuals” — could be scapegoated and a savior could be craved: “The mob always … [ Read more ]
Author: Jeffrey C. Isaac | Source: The Washington Post (December 17, 2016) | Subjects: Excerpts, Politics & Public Policy