News & Blog

Although countless commentators analyze the crises of our age, I am haunted by a more fundamental question: What conditions have made possible the election of manifestly unfit political leaders across the democratic world? How is it that we—a society with unprecedented access to education, information, and scientific knowledge—find ourselves living under increasingly barbaric conditions? We can sequence genomes, split atoms, and photograph distant galaxies, yet we cannot prevent the rise of demagogues, the spread of brazen lies, or the descent into political tribalism that treats opponents as enemies to be destroyed rather than citizens to be persuaded. The discrepancy is staggering. We know more about the universe than any previous generation, yet we seem to understand less about how to...