Columns
Live in London
The opening ceremony always seemed to me an especially out of place element of the Olympics. On the eve of a fortnight of ferocious athletic competition, viewers are treated to three hours of the most elaborate performance art most will see for the next four years. Outside of the amount of preparation required, the sight of a giant Voldemort being assailed by an army of Mary Poppinses doesn’t seem to share much in common with a marathon or a discus throw.
Falling Under His Spell: Remembering Joe Walsh
He’d stare out into the distance beyond the outfield for forty-five minutes, an hour, maybe more.
The Good, Yours and Mine
What worries me is that I think Harvard students have convinced ourselves that we have such a theory, one that exculpates us from sacrifice while leaving us convinced that we are doing the right thing. We call it “meritocracy.”
The Young Obama
On Wednesday, President Obama did one of the most courageous things I have ever seen a president do; on the eve of a hotly contested election to be decided by a few swing states, he declared his personal support for gay marriage.
Departing Thoughts
What prevalent mentalities on education lack is an emphasis on its moral, ethical, and humanistic dimension.
“Are You Suicidal?”
Part of the underlying problem with the availability of UMHS services is that mental healthcare is often dismissed as not as important as other kinds of healthcare, just as mental illness is stigmatized and dismissed.
The Internet Blow Up
Tastemaker is a series in which we reserve the right to opine. This week, the Internet Blow Up. #Whatshouldwecallme didn't stand a chance. In a year defined by what Flyby will refer to as the "Internet Blow Up," any slightly amusing online trend instantly became fodder for every blog and/or facebook status update. What once made us laugh now gives us the urge to report as spam, or at least vomit a little in our mouths and then all over our keyboards.
Struggling Varsity Teams Should Get More Assistance
Much has been written about what the athletic department and Friends of Harvard Basketball did to ignite Harvard’s previously moribund basketball program. But where is the similar movement for other struggling programs across the river?
The Tantrum Over Engineering
If faculty members were truly worried about students bearing an overly heavy course load, they would have made a fuss about it during the five years that engineering sciences itself has been a concentration.
A Caricature in the Crosshairs
Iran is a complicated place, a frequently repressive Islamic Republic that uniquely combines religious nationalist modernity and a theocratic form of democracy.
Hatred, Women, and the Arab Spring
Just as scholarship requires generalization, the “monolith” argument is a polemical tool that can be used in any context as a defensive ploy.
Nothing Succeeds Like Success
Not a lot about politics is fair, but one thing that is, is that in well-functioning democracies like France (or really any country with a less rigid system than the United States’), policies that succeed in producing widely shared prosperity are rewarded at the ballot box.
When Good Men Do Nothing
To continue trading human rights in exchange for the false hope of limited reforms is to abandon the people of Cuba. Per Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Bowling Beyond Harvard
I asked Murray what members of my graduating class could do, the 22 year-olds who will leave the Harvard bubble in May, but he answered with a gloomy outlook. “Not much,” he said. “A great deal of social capital…is generated by the exigencies of family.”
Be Aggressive!
Feminism at Harvard is too cautious, too fearful of disagreement to erase gender inequality at the school.
Our Blessing, Our Curse
One of the great innovations of the modern world is not only how many different types of things we have, but also how useful those things have become.
Karthinking About Partying
This week—with my last column ever—I’d like to Karthink about my morally hazardous justification for the benefit of my similarly hesitant peers: Partying all May will make you live longer.
The Productivity of Social Space
As we listened to him explain British crown loyalty, students played pool, bought each other drinks, and admired one man who had decided to wear a brassiere on his head.
A Matter of Perspective
Although being a global citizen implies extensive travel and some familiarity with foreign languages and conspicuous aspects of cultures such as food and drink, the concept should really be defined by one’s ability to engage with and adopt different perspectives meaningfully when viewing the world.
Race on the Stage
Although theatre is universally meaningful, this skewed makeup of the performing corps makes it seem less so.
Civility in the Service of Brutality
We must learn to see through the pleas for humanity when they are used quite shamelessly to cover up inhumanity, and to discern with clarity when the word civility becomes a ploy to distract us from the incivility we are not meant to notice.
Serious About Syria
This last year in Syria demonstrates that although the international world’s bark is louder, its bite is still weak.
Reading, 'Rithmetic, and Religion
Due to its role in fostering pluralism, informed political decisions, and tolerance, a comparative religion course does far more to preserve the fundamental tenets of the United States than undermine them.
How You Say “Broke” in T-Bills
In a situation like the current one, running a balanced budget would be positively irresponsible, a huge wasted opportunity.
The Clock Strikes Midnight
From Spain to France and the United Kingdom, protests blaming the government for economic plight have swelled. The protesters and workers of Europe are right to be frustrated, but they are frustrated for all of the wrong reasons.