Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Mental health

  • American Crises: Mental Health and Political Polarization

    by Preston Stovall ___ U.S. citizens are facing a crisis in political polarization and mental health today. Over the last decade, rates of self-harm and depression have skyrocketed among young Americans. This impact is not evenly distributed across the population, however, as it is centered on heavy users of social media (“heavy use” varies from…

  • Sharing

    By Kevin Currie-Knight ___ What follows is the first part of three essays on the trends of increasing political and cultural polarization as well as our diminishing willingness to tolerate opposing ideas. In a sense, these are an outgrowth of previous thoughts I’ve had about toleration and its conditions. What is toleration? What does it…

  • Our Sporting Heroines (and Heroes)

    by Miroslav Imbrisevic ____ Watching the Tokyo Olympics made me think about what we want from our sporting heroines (and heroes). What can we expect from them, and can we make demands on them? Texas Deputy Attorney General Aaron Reitz called the Olympic champion Simone Biles a “national embarrassment” after she withdrew from competing for…

  • COVID-19 and the Question of Competing Values

    by Daniel A. Kaufman ___ **Note: This essay goes up in the midst of another wave of Covid-19 in the US. In some places, it is a first wave and in others, a second.  Regardless it rightly disturbs us, and I think many will be tempted to dismiss what I say below, as if it…

  • Don’t Check Your Privilege — Some Thoughts on “White Despair”

    by Lillie Sauer On my way to the recycling bin the other day, newspaper in hand, I spotted the headline of the front page ― “Whites in Ozarks dying at higher rates.” (1)  Reading further and seeing phrases such as “despair epidemic” and “excess deaths” I couldn’t help but scoff. It’s not that I don’t…