Tangent

The middle class is shrinking. As the Internet has wildly expanded our options, it has, paradoxically, shrunk our horizons: as thinkers like Astra Taylor, author of The People’s Platform, warn, a generic set of crowd-pleasing blockbusters dominates more than ever.

In The News: A User’s Manual, Alain de Botton argues that more sensitive portrayals of criminals would lead to greater empathy. But news media doesn’t completely refrain from humanizing criminals—it just depends on their skin colour.

Before World War I, many believed that the end of war was as a “mathematical certainty.” Today, we laugh ruefully at such sentiments. But if peace is not a guarantee, there's a good reason for pacifism to lower its sights.

Disneyland was founded on nostalgia for an idyll that never existed—but when it comes to designing human happiness, maybe imagining the golden past makes for a better future.

The idea of “cowardice,” as both a military category and a moral concept, holds less water as our society becomes more considerate of the psychological factors—like anxiety—that compound our behaviour. But without a notion of cowardice, do we deserve our notions of bravery?

It seems impossible to contract post-traumatic stress disorder from trauma you did not experience. But the presence of PTSD in soldiers’ family members means we haven't fully understood the nature of PTSD.

Empress Dowager Cixi—the mother of modern China, according to a new biography by Jung Chang—poisoned her son. Was she just doing her job?

The Canadian government will soon offer financial incentives for those who snitch on underground business owners. But as Sudhir Venkatesh’s new book makes clear, under-the-table organizations and workers can be the lifeblood of their communities.

Immigration Canada is far from perfect. And when it comes to LGBT refugees escaping persecution in their home countries, it has a particularly long way to go. But, as Andy Lamey writes in his new book, there's hope.