The Rise and Rise of Television Torture :: Interpret This

Scully and Mulder from the X-Files did not go around torturing people. And neither were they (at least not very often) tortured themselves.

But this prevalence of torture that you see in otherwise very comparable shows is not limited to Fringe. It is everywhere in American entertainment now.

Everywhere you see it it promotes the lie that torture works.

Source: The Rise and Rise of Television Torture :: Interpret This

Why Americans All Believe They Are ‘Middle Class’ – The Atlantic

A taxonomy of how we talk about class and wealth in the United States today

Peering behind the once iconic picket fence surrounding a house, we see what “middle class” used to mean. The mortgage was close to paid off; the car loan settled. This feat was accomplished on a single income that came with health care plus pension and enough for domestic vacations and college. … Being in the middle class once guaranteed choices and life without fear that the unexpected would prove catastrophic.

Source: Why Americans All Believe They Are ‘Middle Class’ – The Atlantic

The Unexotic Underclass | The MIT Entrepreneurship Review

This is America in 2013: 40 years ago we put a man on the moon; today a young lady in New York can use anti-problem technology if she wishes to line up a date this Friday choosing only from men who are taller than 6 feet, graduated from an Ivy, live within 10 blocks of Gramercy, and play tennis left-handed…

…And yet, veterans who’ve returned from Afghanistan and Iraq have to wait roughly 270 days (up to 600 in New York and California) to receive the help — medical, moral, financial – which they urgently need, to which they are honorably entitled, after having fought our battles overseas.

You should care because the unexotic underclass can help address one of the biggest inefficiencies plaguing the startup scene right now: the flood of (ostensibly) smart, ambitious young people desperate to be entrepreneurs; and the embarrassingly idea-starved landscape where too many smart people are chasing too many dumb ideas, because they have none of their own (or, because they suspect no one will invest in what they really want to do). The unexotic underclass has big problems, maybe not the Big Problems – capital B, capital P – that get ‘discussed’ at Davos. But they have problems nonetheless, and where there are problems, there are markets.

We have clear notions of what the ruling class resembles – its wealth, its connections, its interests. … We have clear ideas of what the exotic underclass looks like because everyone is clamoring to help them. … On the other hand, the unexotic underclass, has the misfortune of being insufficiently interesting.

Those who are entrepreneurially-minded but young and idea-poor need serious direction from those who are rich in capital and connections. … We need someone bold (and older than us) to stand up for Big Problems which are tough and dirty. But what we especially need is someone to stand up for big problems – little b, little p –which are tough and dirty and too easy to overlook.

Source: The Unexotic Underclass | The MIT Entrepreneurship Review, by C.Z. Nnaemeka

The Civil War and World War II: The Worst Guides in the War on Terrorism – The Atlantic

President Obama’s defenders keep citing sui generis conflicts to justify his actions in radically different circumstances.

If we sacrifice as much liberty to fight the War on Terrorism as we did to fight the Civil War or World War II, conflicts as close to all consuming as America has ever known, Osama bin Laden will truly have won.

Source: The Civil War and World War II: The Worst Guides in the War on Terrorism – The Atlantic