12/10/14 12:33am
Our unforgivingly competitive and pre-professional environment teaches us to place getting ahead before genuine human connection. But too many people get caught up in the flow of “every man for himself,” and too many students bristle at sharing notes for fear that someone else might get a chance to excel.
12/08/14 11:57pm
Shawn Kelley is a LPS sophomore. His email is skelley@sas.upenn.edu. Jonathan Iwry is a 2014 College graduate. His email is jon.iwry@gmail.com
11/30/14 11:49pm
That’s the beauty of free speech: Every now and then, people might actually prompt us to rethink, revise or even reinforce our ideas.
11/24/14 11:20pm
We should be relying on universities to teach us not what to think, but how to think.
11/18/14 9:21pm
Jonathan Iwry is a 2014 College graduate from Potomac, Md. His email address is jon.iwry@gmail.com.
11/16/14 11:20pm
I should be able to identify as a Zionist without being called a fascist. I should also be able to criticize particular policies by the Israeli government without being anti-Zionism. As the debate stands, it’s all or nothing. It’s inaccurate and unfair to those of us who are looking for a middle ground. To put it simply, it’s unreasonable.
11/09/14 10:27pm
Conservative behavior might have yielded an advantage in more primitive times, but today, it lends itself too easily to xenophobia, negotiation through brute force and the persecution of religious minorities.
11/02/14 10:39pm
I don’t believe in taking this life for granted. Obsessing over what happens after death is often a disguise for obsessing over death itself, and fearing the inevitable casts a bitter and unnecessary shadow over the time we still have. Others might feel that their time on earth is spoiled by its lack of permanence; I think that makes it all the more precious.
10/19/14 10:57pm
Unfortunately, the cult of the natural has overstepped its bounds. These people are no different from the fanatically religious; they cling mindlessly to dogma, guided by simplistic maxims like “nature good, technology bad.” And their lack of insight is putting everyone at risk.
10/15/14 11:01pm
Jonathan Iwry is a 2014 College graduate from Potomac, Md. His email address is jon.iwry@gmail.com.
10/12/14 11:30pm
That said, the personal nature of religious belief doesn’t excuse it from the hot seat of free expression and intellectual discourse. To witch-hunt people who criticize religion is to say that an opinion is more valuable than the freedom to express one’s discontent — and no idea should ever be put before a human being.
10/06/14 11:53pm
Calling Palestinian deaths “murder” discourages objective scrutiny. To a layperson without serious knowledge of the conflict, it presents the situation in over-simplistic, one-sided and emotionally exploitative terms.For one thing, the accusation of murder yields little insight and discourages scrutiny by those who want to understand the conflict. How many deaths, for example, were accidental, or provoked by local insurgents? How many deliberately attacked Israeli soldiers? On important details such as these, the exhibit was characteristically silent.
10/05/14 10:16pm
Jonathan Iwry is a 2014 College graduate from Potomac, Md. His email address is jon.iwry@gmail.com.
09/30/14 10:54pm
Of course language is supposed to change — it should always be evolving with the ideas of its speakers. But being eager to create new uses of language doesn’t necessarily excuse us from stomping on old ones. When we scramble, garble or generally maim language with reckless abandon, we risk burying important concepts alive.
09/25/14 1:25am
To study history is to take ownership of the human race, sharing in its triumphs and bearing witness to its sins and follies. We join a legacy of transient beings striving to craft a fleeting world for the better. Only by linking ourselves to them across the ages do we keep that legacy intact.
09/14/14 11:38pm
To ignore such issues and debate how safe we are is like crossing the street without looking both ways while pondering the danger of shark attacks. It’s tempting to assess our condition solely in terms of radical threats — terror has a way of stealing our attention — but whoever does so is looking through a faulty lens. National security and national integrity must go hand in hand.
09/07/14 6:01pm
We can’t go around pointing fingers and echoing vague yet provocative ideologies just because our fellow activists espouse those views. We must ask ourselves at each juncture, “Am I really informed enough to make these assertions?”
07/30/14 10:26pm
The outstandingly creative are frustrated with the ordinary; that’s what drives them to do extraordinary things.
07/25/14 12:24pm
The occupiers might have been brash and impetuous, but among students for whom majoring in econ almost inevitably equates to becoming libertarian and the Market is worshipped as an excuse for moral passivity, I can’t help but miss them.
07/04/14 8:11pm
The real issue is not that Americans shy away from serious ideological debate, but that they are unwilling to take accountability for their ideas and, therefore, for the democratic process as a whole.
