How the politics of meaning failed us

For the blighted segment of the population now sowing "senseless violence" with such gut-twisting regularity, the personal politics of meaning has become a cruel parody

Dallas Police Chief David Brown pauses at a prayer vigil.
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

We live in trouble times. And we don't know what to do about it.

Whatever the smaller lessons to come, this is the big lesson of the Dallas attacks, in which a lone black gunman killed five police officers after a peaceful protest in the wake of fatal police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Sign up
Explore More
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
James Poulos

James Poulos is a contributing editor at National Affairs and the author of The Art of Being Free, out January 17 from St. Martin's Press. He has written on freedom and the politics of the future for publications ranging from The Federalist to Foreign Policy and from Good to Vice. He fronts the band Night Years in Los Angeles, where he lives with his son.