Editor's Letter
When I was just a tad younger, and full of the conviction that comes with a little knowledge, I regarded compromise with contempt. Morality,it seemed to my righteous 25-year-old self, was black and white. People were good, or they were crooks and sellouts
When I was just a tad younger, and full of the conviction that comes with a little knowledge, I regarded compromise with contempt. Morality, it seemed to my righteous 25-year-old self, was black and white. People were good, or they were crooks and sellouts. Ideas were right, or they were damned lies. I am reminded of that era of personal certainty fairly often these days, as I tiptoe through the smoking, crater-filled war zone of talk radio, cable TV, and the more partisan print outposts. Republicans, at the moment, are in disarray, because they cannot find a presidential candidate who suits their Platonic—or Reaganesque—conservative ideal (see Page 12). Democratic gay activists are spurning a workplace anti-discrimination law because it fails to cover men trapped in women’s bodies (see Page 17). Congress, meanwhile, finds it necessary to rub Turkey’s face in its 1915 slaughter of Armenians, even though that curiously belated spasm of finger wagging has alienated one of our few allies in the Muslim world. It’s the principle that counts—to hell with the consequences!
I’ve forgotten exactly when, but it occurred to me somewhere along the road of middle age that I need not be chronically outraged. Some of the people I scorned, I came to see, were just doing their best in difficult circumstances; life was gray, not black and white. To my chagrin, I saw that I, too, was sometimes driven by self-interest, not ideals; that I was capable of betrayals, pettiness, and mistakes of stunning stupidity. It was humbling to step down from the pedestal of purity—but, at the same time, wonderfully liberating. It’s exhausting, as well as juvenile, to hold the world to standards you can’t meet yourself. - William Falk
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
5 bitingly funny cartoons about Bashar al-Assad in Moscow
Cartoons Artists take on unwelcome guests, home comforts, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The best books about money and business
The Week Recommends Featuring works by Michael Morris, Alan Edwards, Andrew Leigh and others.
By The Week UK Published
-
A motorbike ride in the mountains of Vietnam
The Week Recommends The landscapes of Hà Giang are incredibly varied but breathtaking
By The Week UK Published
-
Editor's letter
feature
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Editor's letter: Are college athletes employees?
feature The National Labor Relations Board's decision deeming scholarship players “employees” of Northwestern University has many worrying that college sports itself will soon be history.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Editor's letter
feature
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Editor's letter: When a bot takes your job
feature Now that computers can write news stories, drive cars, and play chess, we’re all in trouble.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Editor's letter: Electronic cocoons
feature Smartphones have their upside, but city streets are now full of people walking with their heads down.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Editor's letter: The real cause of income inequality
feature When management and stockholders pocket all the profits, the middle class falls further behind.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Editor's letter: The real reason you’re so forgetful
feature When you consider how much junk we’ve stored in our brains, it’s no surprise we can’t remember our PINs.
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Editor's letter: Ostentatious politicians
feature The McDonnells’ indictment for corruption speaks volumes about the company elected officials now keep.
By The Week Staff Last updated