Law of the arts: The better your work, the smaller your audience. Law of hindsight: No words will awaken the young to the brevity of their journey. First law of belief: When you find the truth, you want to get yourself an outfit. Second law of belief: The greater the ignorance, the greater the … [Read more...]
The Inner Reaches of Outer Space
It had been a dark and bitter year. The war languished in Vietnam, students rioted around the globe, the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia, North Korea seized the USS Pueblo, a B-52 crashed carrying four hydrogen bombs, Chicago police battered demonstrators at the Democratic convention, Robert Kennedy … [Read more...]
The Nature of Nostalgia
“The Atlantic Ocean was really somethin’ in those days. Yes, you should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days.” ―Burt Lancaster as Lou, an aging ex-underworld figure sitting at a beachfront bar in Atlantic City. After forty years, I rendezvous in a restaurant with a … [Read more...]
The Bomb
Leo Szilard had a dream. As a boy in Budapest, reading H.G. Wells’ novel about a nuclear war that destroys most of Europe’s cities, he concluded that the world should be governed by a group of gifted scientists. He envisioned the development of atomic energy as both a limitless power source and a … [Read more...]
Political Half Truth
The current political dilemma lies less in the problems themselves than in the people who appraise them. As with all living organisms, the ills in social systems are complex, interwoven, and multilayered. Just as a psychiatrist might prescribe drugs for one patient and therapy for another, one … [Read more...]
A State of Mind
The surrender of Japan and the assassination of President Kennedy, bracket an era variously known as Pax Americana, Good Times, the Best Years, Happy Days—the American High. It was a time of solid families, effective schools, and reliable careers, a time when government and institutions … [Read more...]