Sublime

to participate in the great decisions of government. There was, Lippmann brooded, no “intrinsic moral and intellectual virtue to majority rule.” Lippmann’s disenchantment with democracy anticipated the mood of today’s elites. From the top, the public, and the swings of public opinion, appeared irrational and uninformed. The human material out of wh

Driven by social media outrage and an economy of attention, public debate is shifting from reasonable discussion and respectful argument to a cacophony of condemnation and online abuse.

Les deux dernières décennies sont celles d’un paradoxe. D’un côté, on a vu se multiplier ces moments de débat dans l’espace public. Mais de l’autre, rien n’assure, compte tenu de leur fonctionnement, que des idées puissent vraiment être exprimées dans des conditions qui correspondent à celles d’une délibération démocratique. Comme le rappelait Jürg

Liberal TV commentators tend to practice the same pattern. First they will recite a quote or show a film clip from a conservative, repeat the conservative claim out loud, and only then cite the facts contradicting the claim. Activists do the same. An Occupy Wall Street sign read, “Obama is not a brown-skinned anti-war socialist who gives away free

Elite universities, in turn, seemed to deliver a double message to the students: “You are the future leaders of the world” and “You are being erased and marginalized.”