Is it fair to hold parents accountable for the deeds of their children, or does such a notion undermine the principles of personal responsibility? These questions, I fear, may not have easy answers, but they demand our utmost contemplation and discourse.

In a much-shared Politico feature from January, the reporter Michael Kruse profiled a 58-year-old New Hampshire voter named Ted Johnson, who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, then for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Johnson explained his pivot only with vague, destructive allegories. “Our system needs to be broken,” Johnson said.

Whether dealing with monkeys, rats, or human  beings,  it  is hardly controversial to state that most organisms seek information concerning what activities are rewarded, and then seek to do (or at  least  pretend  to do) those things,  often  to the virtual exclusion of activities  not  rewarded.  The extent  to which  this occurs of course will depend on the perceived attractiveness of the rewards offered, but neither operant nor expectancy theorists would quarrel with the essence of this notion.

Socrates sat in his study, his gaze fixed on the flickering flame of a nearby candle, pondering the weighty questions swirling in his mind. "Is anti-intellectualism a danger to America?"