America’s Culture of Collectivism
This essay was originally submitted to the Pi Sigma Alpha 2013 essay contest for the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. It received first prize on the question of whether American culture tends to emphasize being an individual as more important than being a citizen. It was published online in the Georgia Political Review … Read more
Rousseau and the Counter-Enlightenment: An Introduction
The history of philosophy contains few errors as specious as the assumption that because an individual (or a group of them) existed during a particular period of time, they are representative of the dominant trends of that time. This is no less true (and perhaps even more true) for an era as rooted at the … Read more
Are Sports a Rational Pleasure?
College football season in the South is one of the most unique – and most passionate – of American traditions. It ignites a competitive spirit in both the athletes and the fans, as all good sports ought to do, to such an extent that Saturday afternoons in the fall are reserved for practically nothing else … Read more
2011
By Slade Mendenhall and Brian Underwood An endeavor to measure the shifts and turns of a nation’s ideology can only be compared to an attempt at sensing the turning of the Earth beneath one’s feet. It is at once ubiquitous and elusive, all-encompassing and indistinguishable. Yet, there are, on occasion, times at which one is … Read more
The Robinson Crusoe Fallacy
It is no secret amongst those close to me that I find sociology to be one of the most detestable subjects currently taught in academia. The entire field is rife with instances in which society (or a subgroup within society) is treated as a self-sustaining entity with its own will, or with instances in which … Read more
