You may feel little sympathy for people in the top bracket of earnings, but don’t let that stop you reading. Like it or not, their views and actions matter to everyone
Ayn Rand’s dystopian fable about government meddling in free-market arrangements remains hugely influential, including with Elon Musk. Donald Trump, too, is an Ayn Rand fan. Why is she so popular?
Celebrating International Yoga Day on the beach in Miami Beach, Fla., in 2022.
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A scholar of yoga and meditation explains how yoga is part of humanity’s global heritage and what can be learned from its long and complex global history.
The 2008 statue of Adam Smith by Scotland’s leading monumental sculptor Alexander Stoddart, outside St Giles cathedral in Edinburgh.
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The Scottish economist dedicated his life’s work to understanding the consequences – moral, social and political – of capitalism. Both neoliberals and leftwingers claim his legacy.
Members of the Forward Marching Band perform at a HONK! Festival in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Oct. 7, 2017.
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Organizers across the US are finding innovative grassroots strategies for helping people thrive. Many of these ventures emphasize working together as part of communities and collective systems.
Ontario Federation of Labour rallies in May called for improving workers’ rights and repairing deep inequalities that have been highlighted and deepened by the pandemic.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston
In this time of unrest, insecurity and fear, unions and their new, more diverse leadership offer a path to improving workers’ rights and repairing deep social and economic inequalities.
In reprioritizing public health, the U.S. limited its ability to respond quickly and effectively to the pandemic.
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While neoliberalism has allowed U.S. markets to grow, the resultant stunted public health system left Americans to figure out how to protect themselves from COVID-19 and its fallout on their own.
The Democratic Alliance has been accused of inflaming racial tensions in Phoenix. Local residents belonging to a protection group stand watch in July 2021 at the height of the violence.
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The Democratic Alliance posters were not a bolt from the blue. They were consistent with messages the party’s current leadership has been sending out for some time.
A British literature scholar explains how philosopher John Locke’s theory of selfhood will not help the pandemic recovery, if individuals fail to see themselves as interconnected.
Pedestrians walk past a waste bin for disposable face masks in Aarhus Center, Denmark.
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Are we all in this together? Or looking after numero uno? Messages about isolation need to appeal to Australia’s individualistic culture - and they don’t have to come from the top.
People practice social distancing by standing apart during a news conference in Washington D.C.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
As the coronavirus spreads far and wide, a political philosopher argues that it is a time to understand that the idea of individual happiness does not work without thinking of the larger good.
From eating less meat to foregoing flying, individual obligations make up our understanding of how to fight climate change, letting polluters off the hook and stifling real change.
In some societies, kids are taught that they’re in control of their own happiness – which makes them more indulgent.
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Children in countries like South Korea and Russia are more obedient, while American kids tend to be more self-indulgent.
Self-help leaders can convince us that we have the responsibility to improve our lives. But this can ignore the realities of social inequities. Tony Robbins, motivational speaker, personal finance instructor and self-help author on ‘Wall Street Week’ in 2016.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Self-help books can help us get through difficult times by telling us we have the agency to take control. But this method can also ignore structural inequities and negatively influence public policy.
In a divided United States, how can we describe who is on each side?
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There’s a new way to reveal America’s political divide. One researcher finds the differences between groups that are normally crudely described as ‘right-left’ can be better explained by word clouds.
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State