The owner of an elist I take part in posted an article from the New York Times questioning the restrictive role of ethical review panels in controlling academic research. She thought it might spark a lively discussion, but so far, it seems only to have struck a match in my flammable mind.
On the Gregorian calendar, today is the yahrtzeit (the anniversary) of the passing in 1976 of Rene Cassin, a French human rights activist and an author of the UN’s masterpiece, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That noble document contains a single line articulating the right to culture:
What does it take to heal social trauma? Like a lot of Jews of her generation, my maternal grandmother (may she rest in peace) was so repelled by all things German that she refused even to ride in a Volkswagen. She’d emigrated to this country long before World War II, but when that war was …
More and more, the things I care about seem to turn on a single question: can we human beings choose our actions, or are we in some very real sense controlled by other forces (whether our own brain chemicals or the commands of those in authority)? The oft-cited behavorial studies of Stanley Milgram in the …
Words are my treasure and my pleasure, so it is surprising to find myself newly amazed at the power which can be packed into a single word. Case in point: “Apartheid.” Supporters of Israel’s current policies are up in arms over Jimmy Carter’s new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. They find it too critical of …
If only there were a futures market in the arrogance of foundation presidents, I would have broken the bank this week. On Sunday, the New York Times ran an article about the changes major foundations are making to keep up with Bill Gates’ mega-philanthropy. In it, the Rockefeller Foundation’s new president dismisses all that came …
The vacation trip I’m on was planned to coincide with my birthday on the 16th, but I’m not going to tell you which one it is. I guess vanity is the typical reason for withholding one’s age, but in truth, it’s vanity that usually makes me volunteer my age. That’s been my most effective way …
“The unexamined life is not worth living,” said Socrates 1500 years ago, and I’m inclined to agree. Paul Gauguin’s enigmatic 1897 painting “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” has always seemed to me to embody the essence of the quest for meaning that gives value to our own lives—that …
We Americans have strange ideas about social class. In study after study, the vast majority (often more than 80 percent) self-identify as “middle class,” suggesting that for some people identity is aspiration and for some illusion. When social scientists study class distinctions based on measurable factors such as income, it turns out unsurprisingly that 1/3 …
When I was an unhappy girl, I tried complaining to my mother (may she rest in peace). I only tried a few times, enough to realize her answer would invariably be the same. “Happy, schmappy!” she’d shrug, “Who’s happy?” If you’re listening, Mom, I’ve got an answer.