A recent report coming out of the Pew Research Center on U.S. politics and policy issues lays bare a startling dataset which paints a challenging-- and incredibly polarizing-- picture of how Americans view the landscape of higher education in 2017. The Pew report surveyed Americans registered to the two major political party affiliations on their … Continue reading Republicans and Higher Education
One of my favorite writers, the Depression-era labor theorist and literary organizer Mike Gold, called upon the young writers of his day to stand boldly against passivity, to dare to speak and make their voices known, to audaciously demand an audience and to demand that audience's attention. Gold writes "the best and newest thing a young … Continue reading Go Left, Young Writers!
It's a now-normal 21st-century anxiety, but it wasn't always like this. Perhaps it was my wide-eyed, dangerously-sincere reading of Don DeLillo's novel Mao II as a high school senior that did me in, but I've always harbored an uneasy fascination with cult of personality figures. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, even Steve Jobs, Jon Gruden, Elon Musk. It's a … Continue reading Greed Is Not Good
Former Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin, best known as the "Foreclosure King" for his actions after the 2008 financial crisis, will be named US Treasury Secretary for the Trump Administration I was truly stunned when Donald Trump won the electoral college and the US election a few weeks ago. No one expected it. As an ardent … Continue reading US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
Today was a tremendously difficult day for me. I'm still in a state of utter disbelief. I in no way want to be dismissive of anyone's opinions in this post, but I'd like to comment on our new president-elect's reliance on "uneducated" voters this election season. I don't wish to equate intelligence directly with a college … Continue reading Aristotle, Political Platforms and the “Good”
In rhetoric, we recognize and pay particular attention to what are called "fulcrum words," an analytical term for words, phrases and broader topics that an argument's direction "hinges" on. Fulcrum words and how they're employed rhetorically by agents and actors in a given conversation turn the tides of onlooking opinion; fulcrum words shift the balance … Continue reading Fulcrum Words
Jacob Richter 