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What we're reading.

The Fires This Time

Winkfield Twyman, in his Winkfield's Substack, discusses the devastating wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Malibu. He highlights the universal human vulnerability to natural disasters, and urges readers to focus on shared human experiences rather than divisive labels.

Every now and then, one reads about white privilege. They say white privilege is a thing. I am a color indifferent kind of guy, you know. And yet I wonder how those of dogma and slogan words will understand this human calamity.

How Art Lost Its Way: An unserious culture lacks the ability to sustain high art.

William Deresiewicz, in Persuasion, laments the passing of Arlene Croce, reflecting on the golden age of American dance and its vibrant criticism that once thrived in New York. His piece celebrates the ephemeral beauty of dance while critiquing the decline of serious arts criticism, suggesting a loss of cultural depth and engagement amid social isolation and fragmentation.

Now people stay in, with their laptops and apps, especially people with the kind of disposable income that the arts rely on. The very fabric of the city is being shredded to accommodate the shift, as all-inclusive new developments—with gyms, coffee shops, roof deck socializing—offer lifestyles that are fully self-contained. Your condo, like your consciousness, exists as a node in a network, not a point in contiguous space, and you never need to know that you live in a city at all. This is the death of the urban idea.

Against Guilty History: Settler-colonial should be a description, not an insult.

David Frum, in The Atlantic, challenges the vilification of 'settler-colonialism' as a term, arguing for a more nuanced understanding of Canada's history with Indigenous peoples. He critiques the oversimplified narratives that threaten to overshadow the complex realities and shared humanity of Canada's past and present.

History should always be told in full. But we don’t correct past wrongs committed in a liberal democracy by defaming the ideal itself.

Ivies in Crisis

Liza Libes, writing for Minding the Campus, examines the crisis facing Ivy League schools as applications decline, attributing this shift to factors like anti-Semitism, the influence of radical ideologies, and the absurdity of the admissions process. She suggests that this might lead students to seek alternatives that value merit and genuine intellectual inquiry over prestige.

The questionable reactions to October 7th from the higher education world—from the notorious December 2023 congressional hearing that resulted in the resignation of two university presidents to the violent campus protests—have led many Jewish students to abandon their hopes of the Ivy League and shift their sights elsewhere. The heavily televised “Tentifada” fever unveiled the reality of university bureaucracy systems and the anti-Semitism that pervades the ranks of university professors and administrators.

Opinions expressed in selected articles do not necessarily reflect those of the Prohuman Foundation. We value diverse perspectives that enrich our understanding of topics close to our mission: to promote the foundational truth that we are all unique individuals, united by our shared humanity.