# Merion West
> Timeless reading in a fleeting world. Unapologetically human, not AI.
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## Pages
- [About](https://www.merionwest.com/about.md) - History Merion West is an independent publication founded in 2016. Learn more about our mission and membership here. Our work has been featured by publications such as The New York Times, RealClearPolitics, and The Hill, as well as institutions including the Atlantic Council, Harvard University, th…
- [Arts Section](https://www.merionwest.com/arts-section.md) - Welcome to Merion West's collection of contemporary poetry, essays, and poetry criticism. Explore the Section by following the links below: Poetry Essays The Arts Section is edited by Austin Allen James. To make a submission, please visit the submission guidelines.
- [Erich J. Prince](https://www.merionwest.com/bio-erichjprince.md) - Erich J. Prince is the editor-in-chief of the publication. With a background in journalism and media criticism, he has contributed to newspapers such as The Philadelphia Inquirer and The News & Observer, as well as online outlets including Quillette and The Hill. Erich has also spoken at various co…
- [Complimentary Access](https://www.merionwest.com/complimentary.md) - Complimentary Access While we have strived to keep membership costs low, we do not want financial considerations to be a reason why someone cannot read Merion West. If this describes you, please send an email to members@merionwest.com with the subject line "Request for Complimentary Access."
- [Editorial Guidelines](https://www.merionwest.com/editorial-guidelines.md) - Mission Statement This publication was founded in 2016 to bring a new and independent voice to the current media landscape. Merion West is non-partisan and publishes journalism, commentary, and in-depth interviews. As a publication, we serve the interests of the public, rather than any particular p…
- [Essays](https://www.merionwest.com/essays.md) - Older posts
- [imgs](https://www.merionwest.com/imgs.md) - ESSAYSESSAYS.svg38 KBdownload-circle
- [Institutions](https://www.merionwest.com/institutions.md)
- [Join Merion West](https://www.merionwest.com/join.md)
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.merionwest.com/privacy-policy.md)
- [Submission Guidelines - Arts Section](https://www.merionwest.com/submission-guidelines-arts.md) - You can submit poetry and essays through our submission manager Duosuma by Duotrope. Before submitting, please review the guidelines below. You are invited to send up to three poems to the Arts Editor at Merion West in a Microsoft Word document. Please adhere to the guidelines below. Fiction: We lo…
- [Submit](https://www.merionwest.com/submit.md) - Original articles and creative submissions are welcome. Please send completed works or pitches to submit@merionwest.com with the subject line “Submission” to be considered for publication. If submitting poetry or fiction, please do so through Duosuma by Duotrope. Before submitting, please review th…
- [Terms of Service](https://www.merionwest.com/terms-of-service.md)

## Posts
- [What Marshall McLuhan Still Has to Teach Us: A Conversation with Grant Havers](https://www.merionwest.com/what-marshall-mcluhan-still-has-to-teach-us-a-conversation-with-grant-havers.md) - Grant Havers, the author of a recent book on the life and thought of Marshall McLuhan, joins Erich J. Prince to discuss McLuhan’s key insights about media and what they might reveal about today’s age of social media and artificial intelligence.
- [A Return](https://www.merionwest.com/a-return.md) - To hear from, say, a friend you might have loved from whom you have not heard in quite a while and you know something of their drang and sturm so that you were beginning to worry, brings back the first play that you ever saw when the audience clapped for Peter Pan and brought the dying fairy Tinker…
- [Farewell, Beanie](https://www.merionwest.com/farewell-beanie.md) - W. D. Ehrhart, a frequent contributor to this magazine's poetry section, reflects on grief and loss following the death of Beanie, his family’s beloved cat of nearly twenty-two years.
- [Preventing Apocalypse or a Political Power Grab? Speaking with AI Safety Expert David Krueger](https://www.merionwest.com/preventing-apocalypse-or-a-political-power-grab-speaking-with-ai-safety-expert-david-krueger.md) - Absent a change of course on AI safety by governments worldwide, former Cambridge professor and leading AI-safety expert David Krueger believes that human extinction is "more likely than not." He makes the case to our own Henri Mattila, a skeptic of both doomsday scenarios and political overreach.
- [Aging into Acceptance](https://www.merionwest.com/aging-into-acceptance.md) - Channeling Tolstoy's 1886 novella, Robin Greene, who has now turned seventy-one, reflects on aging, mortality, and meaning.
- [In Defense of Zoos](https://www.merionwest.com/in-defense-of-zoos.md) - Erich J. Prince argues that critics of zoos too often mistake today’s conservation-minded institutions for the barren cages of the past, overlooking the species modern zoos and aquariums have helped save from extinction and their role in fostering a love of animals.
- [Chimes at Midnight](https://www.merionwest.com/chimes-at-midnight.md) - W. D. Ehrhart
- [The Dead Hand of Austria-Hungary](https://www.merionwest.com/the-dead-hand-of-austria-hungary.md) - Simon Maass traces the enduring influence of Austria-Hungary on modern intellectual life, arguing that the empire’s admirers have often drawn precisely the wrong lessons from its history.
- [A Message from a Lifelong Dog Lover: Pit Bulls Are Dangerous](https://www.merionwest.com/a-message-from-a-lifelong-dog-lover.md) - Karen M. Prince, who grew up in a family that frequently rescued dogs, argues that compassion for unwanted animals should not blind us to the dangers posed by pit bulls, a breed responsible for far too many severe and fatal attacks, particularly against children.
- [The Cambridge Five: Stalin’s Men at the Heart of Britain](https://www.merionwest.com/the-cambridge-five-stalins-men-at-the-heart-of-britain.md) - Allen M. Hornblum, author of The Invisible Harry Gold, reviews Antonia Senior’s new book on the Cambridge Five, examining how a group of privileged Cambridge graduates came to betray their country—and why the British government was so slow to hold them accountable.
- [Even in the Matrix, You Still Have to Pay Your Debts](https://www.merionwest.com/even-in-the-matrix-you-still-have-to-pay-your-debts.md) - What would happen to morality and politics if Descartes’s skeptical scenarios turned out to be true? Philosopher Jimmy Alfonso Licon argues that the answer depends: Some would unsettle our claims about property, legitimacy, and history, while others would leave much of ordinary life intact.
- [“Only in America”: Civic Memory at 250](https://www.merionwest.com/only-in-america-civic-memory-at-250.md) - Bruno Manno reflects on Fourth of July celebrations at his grandparents’ Italian tavern in Cleveland in the 1960s—and on the need for a renewed, reflective patriotism as America marks its 250th birthday. To combat growing disengagement among the citizenry, he proposes a new civic compact.
- [We Need to Talk About Spelling](https://www.merionwest.com/we-need-to-talk-about-spelling.md) - Step inside the mind of a linguist as Danny Bate considers what words like “ticketed” reveal about English spelling and how the language’s written form is becoming, in subtle and accidental ways, a little more Chinese-like.
- [The Unexpected Harte](https://www.merionwest.com/the-unexpected-harte.md) - JS Apsley
- [Lady Lazarus Worries Me](https://www.merionwest.com/lady-lazarus-worries-me.md) - after Sylvia Plath Her poem’s zigzagging lines. Its shout buried in soap and fury. The admission of having tried it twice before, though it didn’t stick should have warned us. God, I wish someone had read it closer. Had known. Had said, Girl, get your head out of the oven. Please. Drema Drudge is a…
- [The Many Lives of Thomas More](https://www.merionwest.com/the-many-lives-of-thomas-more.md) - Scholars Andrew Hadfield and Joanne Paul examine the many competing interpretations of Thomas More, a historical figure of remarkable complexity and enduring interest, nearly five centuries after his death.
- [Discovered Cries](https://www.merionwest.com/discovered-cries.md) - I thought my favorite sound was classical guitar: thin rosewood shaping pitches warm, round, bright. But yesterday a seagull called, quite loud, its high staccato song, forlorn, a tragic promise, hungry but resigned. My body opened, lightness spread through me, through chest, limbs, face, with musc…
- [Träumerei](https://www.merionwest.com/traumerei.md)
- [Confronting the Honesty Crisis](https://www.merionwest.com/confronting-the-honesty-crisis.md) - Christian Miller, a Wake Forest professor and director of the inter-university Honesty Project, urges us to rediscover the virtue of honesty at a time when it is increasingly imperiled by artificial intelligence, online infidelity, and other temptations to deceive.
- [The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (1874) by Edgar Degas](https://www.merionwest.com/the-rehearsal-of-the-ballet-onstage-1874-by-edgar-degas.md) - The young girls are like linen hanging out to dry, breeze-buffeted and slightly see-through. They pose, wait with awkwardly clasped hands, rehearse their steps. Upstage, just off-center, a ginger-haired ballerina pulls her hair away from the nape of her neck, perhaps caught mid-yawn or breathless f…
- [Showstopper](https://www.merionwest.com/showstopper.md) - There I was torn chiffon & tarnished silk, the spotlight froze it all– dust settling from the warm light, eyes of serpents or fox or both, mouths agape & the announcer’s stuttering words. one hand over my breast, the other holding the remains of my gown; I still feel ashamed. heat rising across my…
- [Mood Swings](https://www.merionwest.com/mood-swings.md) - A tear (drop) through my eye lands on the machinery of my cheek And sparks shoot off of my crackling face The mask distorts in unnatural twitch A pole in my brain spins and spits ribbons of storm as a giant flying carousel rises from the top of my head (the kind at the fair, with swings on chains)…
- [Unicorn Summer](https://www.merionwest.com/unicorn-summer.md) - Johanna Elattar
- [The Best Laid Plans](https://www.merionwest.com/the-best-laid-plans.md) - Robert Jakucs
- [Godsend](https://www.merionwest.com/godsend.md) - Davor Mondom
- [The Social Wealth Men Without College Degrees Need](https://www.merionwest.com/the-social-wealth-men-without-college-degrees-need.md) - Bruno V. Manno argues that men without college degrees need more than job training or credentials. They need “social wealth”: relationships, mentors, institutions, and pathways that help them build stable, connected lives rather than be left behind.
- [Pericles the Eccentric](https://www.merionwest.com/pericles-the-eccentric.md) - Pericles is remembered as Athens’ great democratic statesman and orator. But as Cambridge University classicist Paul Cartledge argues, his private life—especially his relationship with Aspasia—also reveals him as one of antiquity’s most distinctive, even eccentric, figures.
- [It Was Not Trump Who Started the Iran War](https://www.merionwest.com/it-was-not-trump-who-started-the-iran-war.md) - Trump’s critics accuse him of abandoning his peace platform by striking Iran. Walter Block and Frank Tipler argue instead that the United States is finally answering decades of Iranian aggression—and that force may be necessary to restore peace
- [In the Digital Age, the Need to Remain Human Is Stronger Than Ever](https://www.merionwest.com/in-the-digital-age-the-need-to-remain-human-is-stronger-than-ever.md) - Patricia Martin joins Jonathan Church to discuss her new book that brings Jung’s ideas about the self and the persona into the age of social media and AI. Although concerned about technology’s toll on personal identity, she argues that AI may yet have a liberating power.
- [Sepulchress](https://www.merionwest.com/sepulchress.md) - Digging beneath the dirt of my body is the only way I know to escape it: its fatal birdcage, its sung prison of bones. And as I labor You tell me of all the women who failed to listen, how now they are enshrouded in salt pillars & sunken in bogs & dissolved in lime. Unwilling I learn of the river,…
- [The Bubble](https://www.merionwest.com/the-bubble.md) - Philip Dean Walker
- [Roberta's Little Creatures](https://www.merionwest.com/robertas-little-creatures.md) - An ekphrastic of Roberta Hahn Edward's 2025 watercolor of a "Little Creature" She started when still quite young, creating little husks of life on watercolor paper, bringing them into being, wringing them from pores in the sheet, bright and strange little monsters, never mean or dirty crippled by N…
- [The Oldest New Idea](https://www.merionwest.com/the-oldest-new-idea.md) - What, if anything, do Catholicism and critical theory have in common? Both hold that texts cannot be read without an authoritative interpretive framework. But where the former grounds that authority in the divine, the latter are left wandering in the wilderness, writes Stuart Doyle.
- [Repression in Tanzania Demands the World’s Attention](https://www.merionwest.com/repression-in-demands-the-worlds-attention.md) - Under President Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania’s longstanding reputation for relative stability is over, writes teacher Tony Njoroge. Journalists are being arrested, opposition leaders disappeared, and protesters shot. This urgently demands the world’s attention.
- [Severed Hearts / Murdered Brains](https://www.merionwest.com/severed-hearts-murdered-brains.md)
- [Constitutional Distortion and America's National Debt](https://www.merionwest.com/constitutional-distortion-and-ameri-national-debt.md) - As America’s debt nears $39 trillion, policymakers debate spending while ignoring a deeper question: Is much of modern federal spending constitutionally authorized? William J. Watkins, Jr. argues expansive readings of the General Welfare and Commerce Clauses helped create today’s crisis.
- [an ode to Maybe](https://www.merionwest.com/an-ode-to-maybe-2.md) - a Close Family Friend has an adage: never trade a definitive Yes for a Maybe He never said a continuation for what I should do when the potential Maybe represents Everything I Want not that I want to leave Everything and Everyone I know for an Unknown but that the flip side of that Coin feels worth…
- [COLLECTION V](https://www.merionwest.com/collection-v.md) - Dear Member, We are pleased to present to you the latest issue of our magazine. Merion West's fifth Collection is available for your reading enjoyment by following the link below: ▷ Read COLLECTION V Sincerely, Henri & Erich
- [Ecdysis](https://www.merionwest.com/ecdysis.md)
- [COLLECTION V](https://www.merionwest.com/latest-collection.md) - Published April 20, 2026
- [Is There a Problem with Our Generic Drugs?](https://www.merionwest.com/is-there-a-problem-with-our-generic-drugs.md) - Everyone knows that drug costs are high, but can they also be too low? In a seeming paradox, concerned observers are saying yes. Despite growing evidence that patients face undue risk, changing the status quo remains difficult for politicians and healthcare leaders alike.
- [The Right’s Caricature of the Neocons](https://www.merionwest.com/is-neoconservatism-furth.md) - Have neocons received their fair shake? Neoconservatism is increasingly dismissed by critics on the Right as insufficiently conservative, if not outright evil. However, many of these critiques rest on a fundamental misunderstanding of the movement and its intellectual history, writes Simon Maass.
- [Still Life](https://www.merionwest.com/still-life.md)
- [Her Plastic Heart](https://www.merionwest.com/her-plastic-heart.md)
- [Disintegration](https://www.merionwest.com/disintegration.md)
- [Thank You, Governor Murphy](https://www.merionwest.com/thank-you-governor-murphy.md) - Education professor Karen M. Prince draws attention to another urgent quality of life issue: the danger posed to pedestrians by reckless E-bike use. She praises officeholders in both New Jersey and Florida for their efforts on this issue—a policy matter that so far has been notably bipartisan.
- [Here’s to the Cardinal Puff](https://www.merionwest.com/heres-to-the-cardinal-puff.md) - My wife and I put out seeds to feed the little critters in our courtyard: wrens and juncos, mourning doves, squirrels, chipmunks, now and then a rabbit. This morning a cardinal. That reminded me of Cardinal Puff, a drinking game we used to play on Okinawa back in 1968; I’ve no idea why that came to…
- [The Islamic Republic Cannot Be “Defanged”](https://www.merionwest.com/the-islamic-republic-cannot-be-defanged.md) - The debate over how to “defang” the Islamic Republic of Iran presupposes that the regime’s conduct can be separated from its character. Pierre Rehov contends that the regime’s very nature precludes any effort to compel it toward a more moderate course.
- [Dinner](https://www.merionwest.com/dinner.md)
- [On the Death of Ali Khamenei](https://www.merionwest.com/on-the-death-of-ali-khamenei.md) - Muzainy Shahiefisally, a member of the Iranian diaspora, reflects on the death of Ali Khamenei at the hands of Israeli bombs and the brutal legacy of repression the late Supreme Leader leaves behind. But could this mark a new beginning for the Iranian people?
- [Desire in Ten Parts](https://www.merionwest.com/the-forty-ninth-year-2.md)
- [Josh Hammer on the Civil War Inside the GOP](https://www.merionwest.com/josh-hammer-on-the-civil-war-inside-the-gop.md) - Last month, our publisher, Henri Mattila, was joined by Newsweek's senior editor-at-large, Josh Hammer. During the conversation, the lawyer-turned-pundit shares his characteristically pointed views on a range of topics, especially on the escalating feud over the future of the Republican Party.
- [Landscape](https://www.merionwest.com/landscape.md)
- [Why We Have Banned Social Media for Our Child](https://www.merionwest.com/why-we-have-banned-social-media-for-our-child.md) - As debates swirl in legislatures around the world about restricting children's social media use, senior editor Jonathan Church offers his own experience raising a daughter while limiting screens.
- [There Is No Universal "We"](https://www.merionwest.com/there-is-no-universal-we.md) - In an age shaped by humanitarian universalism, what are the philosophical roots of the modern Western “We”? Are they as inevitable—or defensible—as we assume? Benedict Beckeld examines the theological and philosophical foundations of this notion and asks whether they should be reconsidered.
- [Ben Sasse’s Dignity in the Face of Death](https://www.merionwest.com/ben-sasses-dignity-in-the-face-of-death.md) - In December, former Senator Ben Sasse announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the months since, the courage and dignity with which he has faced his diagnosis have been deeply inspiring. In this essay, Erich J. Prince shares what he has learned from the father of three.
- [Allegiance or Accident? The Supreme Court and Birthright Citizenship](https://www.merionwest.com/allegiance-or-accident-the-supreme-court-and-birthright-citizenship.md) - Legal scholar William J. Watkins, Jr. examines the constitutional history of birthright citizenship and offers his prediction for how the Supreme Court may rule on the challenge to Executive Order 14160.
- [Scattering, Over and Over Now](https://www.merionwest.com/scattering-over-and-over-now.md)
- [What Tennessee Williams Saw Before the Assisted Dying Trend](https://www.merionwest.com/what-tennessee-williams-saw-before-the-assisted-dying-trend.md) - University of Rochester lecturer Robert Rich turns to Tennessee Williams’s final play to challenge a culture that regards the elderly as burdens—a view now finding expression in public policy.
- [A New Era in Science? An Interview with NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya](https://www.merionwest.com/a-new-era-in-science-interview-with-nih-director-dr-jay-bhattacharya.md) - Once sidelined by the scientific establishment, the former Stanford professor now leads the world’s largest funding body for biomedical research. This month, Dheeraj Baji spoke with Dr. Bhattacharya about his philosophical beliefs and his ambition to spark a new scientific revolution.
- [The Poetry of Ma Dai](https://www.merionwest.com/wandering-in-the-wild.md)
- [Gowpen & Undertow](https://www.merionwest.com/gowpen.md)
- [Do We Need a New Deal for the Twenty-First Century?](https://www.merionwest.com/do-we-new-deal-for-the-21st-century.md) - Your eyes are not deceiving you: Life has gotten very expensive for most Americans. In an interview with Jonathan Church, law professor A. Mechele Dickerson looks to the mid-twentieth century for possible lessons on how to improve the lot of the middle class.
- [Collection IV](https://www.merionwest.com/collection-iv-published.md) - Dear Reader, We are pleased to present to you the latest issue of our magazine. Merion West's fourth Collection is available for your reading enjoyment by following the link below: ▷ Read COLLECTION IV Sincerely, Henri & Erich
- [Paper Birds at the Crosswalk](https://www.merionwest.com/paper-birds-at-the-crosswalk.md)
- [Equilibrio Instabile](https://www.merionwest.com/equilibrio-instabile.md)
- [COLLECTION IV](https://www.merionwest.com/collection-iv.md) - Published February 3, 2026
- [Observance](https://www.merionwest.com/observance.md)
- [Swimming](https://www.merionwest.com/swimming.md)
- [Leadore](https://www.merionwest.com/leadore.md)
- [The Word Made Flesh](https://www.merionwest.com/the-word-made-flesh.md)
- [With Every Classmate I’ve Lost,  I Feel like I’ve Failed a Test](https://www.merionwest.com/with-every-classmate-ive-lost-i-feel-like-ive-failed-a-test.md)
- [Inflection Point](https://www.merionwest.com/inflection-point.md)
- [Nigeria Needs to Heal Itself, but the United States Can Help](https://www.merionwest.com/nigeria-needs-to-heal-itself-but-the-united-states-can-help.md) - Tom McDonough, who has spent considerable time in Nigeria, contends that the country's problems go beyond the headlines regarding the persecution of Christians. Rather than American bombs, Nigeria needs American guidance on political reform.
- [Here To There](https://www.merionwest.com/here-to-there.md)
- [A Conversation with Salvator Rosa](https://www.merionwest.com/a-conversation-with-salvator-rosa.md)
- [Please Stop the Profanity](https://www.merionwest.com/please-stop-the-profanity.md) - Education professor Karen M. Prince expresses her disenchantment with the pervasiveness of profanity in contemporary life. Sadly, even the presence of children is typically not enough to discourage swearing. She asks us to consider holding our tongues when tempted to let the expletives fly.
- [A Life Made Unlivable: Prejudice Takes on a New Meaning in Africa](https://www.merionwest.com/a-life-made-unlivable-prejudice-in-africa.md) - The West has long abandoned draconian measures to enforce morality, guided by the belief that every individual—sinner and saint alike—has dignity. In this personal story, Tony Njoroge reminds us of the consequences of twisting moral concern into hatred, a cost still borne in parts of Africa.
- [The Poet as Thief](https://www.merionwest.com/the-poet-as-thief.md) - “Donc le poète est vraiment voleur de feu.” — Arthur Rimbaud Was Prometheus a poet? Rimbaud says he was, stealing fire from the gods: technology, knowledge, human arts and sciences. He paid a terrible price for his audacity. Whatever was he thinking? Look what we have done with what he gave us. Oka…
- [The Age of Self-Capital: Work, Identity, and Artificial Intelligence](https://www.merionwest.com/the-age-of-self-capital-work-identity-and-artificial-intelligence.md) - As AI reshapes labor markets, the most valuable forms of work are no longer tasks but traits. Al Binns examines how AI accelerates a system in which personality and identity are increasingly monetized. The question is not whether work will disappear but what kind of human life will remain.
- [Wilfred McClay: The Civilizational Role of the Bible in the American Founding](https://www.merionwest.com/wilfred-mcclay-the-civilizational-role.md) - As controversy swirls within the conservative movement regarding the role of Judaism and Jewish Americans in the history of the country, Wilfred McClay and Stuart Halpern's book makes clear that the Old Testament was one of the guiding lights of the early United States.
- [Three States Triptych](https://www.merionwest.com/three-states-triptych.md)
- [The 7th Burial Mound](https://www.merionwest.com/the-7th-burial-mound.md)
- [Teaching Students to Think for Themselves Is Never Apolitical](https://www.merionwest.com/teaching-students-to-think-for-themselves-is-never-apolitical.md) - Journalism professor Robert Jensen considers how educators should handle contentious politics in the classroom, from the Iraq War to more recent American actions in Venezuela. He argues that honest disclosure of one's interpretive framework is essential to teaching students to think critically.
- [How the High School Diploma Can Restore Its Credibility](https://www.merionwest.com/how-the-high-school-diploma-can-restore-its-credibility.md) - Despite soaring education costs, literacy among young people is declining. Education expert Bruno V. Manno explains how diplomas became detached from actual skills while offering a practical blueprint—informed by encouraging stories from across the country—for reversing the decline.
- [The Forty-Ninth Year](https://www.merionwest.com/the-forty-ninth-year.md)
- [Unraveling](https://www.merionwest.com/unraveling.md)
- [Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)](https://www.merionwest.com/mi-vida-loca-my-crazy-life.md)
- [Live from the Hadal Zone](https://www.merionwest.com/live-from-the-hadal-zone.md)
- [Ten Notable Articles from 2025](https://www.merionwest.com/ten-notable-articles-from-2025.md) - As is tradition at our magazine, senior editor Jonathan Church offers his selections of the ten articles published in 2025 that most deserve to be reread and reconsidered.
- [Are We Ready to Be Governed by Artificial Intelligence?](https://www.merionwest.com/are-we-ready-to-be-governed-by-arti.md) - Experts Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders explore how Artificial Intelligence is already shaping the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, showing that we are already, at least in part, governed by AI—with more likely to come.
- [Reflecting on Tragedy: From Brown University to Bondi Beach](https://www.merionwest.com/reflecting-on-tragedy-from-brown-university-to-bondi-beach.md) - Senior editor Jonathan Church, writing in the wake of horrific shootings in Rhode Island and Australia, reflects on the death of his own mother, wringing meaning from tragedy, and what it is to live in a grief-laden world.
- [Grace](https://www.merionwest.com/grace.md)
- [Reflection: My Interview of Ayaan Hirsi Ali](https://www.merionwest.com/reflection-my-interview-of-ayaan-hirsi-ali.md) - Then-contributing editor Vahaken Mouradian’s May, 2021 interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali has taken on increasing urgency amid the growing number of reports of rape in Europe by migrants, especially as two Afghan asylum seekers were sentenced this week for the assault on a 15-year-old English girl.
- [Animal Instinct](https://www.merionwest.com/animal-instinct.md) - Today a Cooper’s Hawk perched itself outside our bedroom window on a low branch of a small tree not twenty feet away. The courtyard of our condo complex. Frequented by all sorts of wildlife: sparrows and wrens, mourning doves, juncos, hummingbirds, now and then a cardinal, chipmunks, rabbits, lots…
- [Fresh Off the Press: Collection III](https://www.merionwest.com/ready-to-read-collection-iii.md) - Dear Member, On this frosty Philadelphia afternoon, we are pleased to present to you the latest issue of our magazine. Merion West's third collection is available for your reading enjoyment–by a fireplace, perhaps–by following the link below: ▷ Read COLLECTION III Sincerely, Henri & Erich
- [COLLECTION III](https://www.merionwest.com/collection-iii.md) - Published December 8, 2025
- [Can "Deliberative Polling" Solve Polarization?](https://www.merionwest.com/can-deliberative-polling-so-polarization.md) - As Washington emerges from a historic shutdown, Stanford’s James Fishkin outlines how Deliberative Polling offers a path toward rebuilding trust across the partisan divide. His decades of work suggest that genuine deliberation can still depolarize American politics.
- [Why Charles Murray Is Taking Religion Seriously](https://www.merionwest.com/charles-murray-is-taki.md) - One of America’s best-known political scientists has been turning his attention to religion. In this interview, Charles Murray discusses his new book and the slow, unexpected path that took him from reluctantly attending Quaker meetings to defending the veracity of many religious claims.
- [Wonder Me](https://www.merionwest.com/wonder-me.md)
- [Orchard Season](https://www.merionwest.com/orchard-season.md)
- [Pray Silence (The Mind of the Meeting)](https://www.merionwest.com/pray-silence-the-mind-of-the-meeting.md)
- [Three Elegies for the Everyday](https://www.merionwest.com/three-elegies-for-the-everyday.md)
- [Public Servant in Name Only: Rob Bresnahan Hardly Alone](https://www.merionwest.com/public-servant-in-name-only-rob-bresnahan-hardly-alone.md) - A young congressman elected on promises of integrity has quickly become one of Washington’s most prolific stock traders, writes editor-in-chief Erich J. Prince. Is it any wonder why so many Americans feel nothing ever really changes at the Capitol?
- [Why We Should Return to Ivan Turgenev’s "Fathers and Sons"](https://www.merionwest.com/we-to-ivan-turgenevs-fathers-and-sons.md) - In this essay, Sadhika Pant helps us to see why Turgenev’s fourth novel remains the most enduring portrait of Russia’s 19th-century ideological storm. More than a mere history, the novel continues to resonate as an antidote to the revolutionary spirits of today.
- [FLATLAND](https://www.merionwest.com/flatlands.md)
- [In the Valles Caldera](https://www.merionwest.com/in-the-valles-caldera.md)
- [If Being Virtuous Feels Easy, It Could Be Junk](https://www.merionwest.com/if-being-virtuous-feels-easy-it-might-be-junk.md) - Although no one likes to admit to doing it, virtue signaling is a practice that is a natural part of being a human. Yet, in this essay, philosopher Jimmy Alfonso Licon advises caution by comparing the practice to the culinary equivalent of junk food–tempting but counterproductive.
- [Bubble of Loneliness](https://www.merionwest.com/bubble-of-loneliness.md)
- [Agnosticism Is Not Reasonable](https://www.merionwest.com/agnosticism-is-not-reasonable.md) - Refusal to make a choice is a choice of its own. Although often presented as the intellectually humble third option between belief and atheism, Stuart Doyle argues that agnosticism presents a false middle path that is neither coherent nor practical.
- [Ancient Cooperation](https://www.merionwest.com/ancient-cooperation.md)
- [Easter Plum](https://www.merionwest.com/easter-plum.md)
- [Pistachios](https://www.merionwest.com/pistachios.md)
- [The Conservatism of Russian-Speaking Jews](https://www.merionwest.com/the-conservatism-of-russian-speaking-jews.md) - Simon Maass, a German writer of Soviet Jewish descent, contends that Jews who left the Soviet Union often hold distinctly conservative views—and are steadily shaping politics in their new homes.
- [Ars Poetica: or, Benzaitan’s Rules for Poems (That She Told Me In A Dream)](https://www.merionwest.com/ars-poetica-or-benzaitans-rules-for-poems-that-she-told-me-in-a-dream.md)
- [The Oldest Hatred, the West’s Latest Test](https://www.merionwest.com/the-oldest-hatred-the-wests-latest-test.md) - Following the October 2nd terrorist attack in Manchester, England, Gerfried Ambrosch examines the ideological convergence between the Western left and Islamist movements—and calls for renewed resolve in confronting anti-Semitism in all of its forms.
- [Why We Need Better College Rankings](https://www.merionwest.com/why-we-need-better-college-rankings.md) - As the saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. In this interview, Washington Monthly’s editor argues we should stop equating a college’s worth with its U.S. News & World Report ranking and instead use a ranking system that holds schools accountable for real-world outcomes.
- [Is the Current Era of Free Speech Over?](https://www.merionwest.com/is-the-current-era-of-free-speech-over.md) - Considering the rest of the developed world, it is a miracle that the First Amendment continues to reign in the United States. Tracing the precarious history of free speech in the country, legal scholar Eric Heinze writes that shifting bipartisan attitudes are placing it under threat.
- [Ready to Read: Collection II](https://www.merionwest.com/ready-to-read-collection-ii.md) - Dear Member, Fresh off the digital press, Merion West's second issue has been published and is available by clicking below: ▷ Read COLLECTION II Sincerely, Henri & Erich
- [COLLECTION II](https://www.merionwest.com/collection-ii.md) - Published October 3, 2025
- [Dream Person](https://www.merionwest.com/dream-person.md)
- [The Morning News](https://www.merionwest.com/the-morning-news.md)
- [Heat of a Bayou](https://www.merionwest.com/heat-of-a-bayou.md)
- [Interview: The Man Who Dared to Imagine If God Were an Investor](https://www.merionwest.com/interview-the-man-who-dared-to-imagine-if-god-were-an-investor.md) - At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, a pair of believers envisioned an investing firm whose goal was not limited to maximizing returns, but to make the world better. Founded before ESG came into vogue on Wall Street, the company manages billions today and shows no signs of slowing down.
- [Caste Remains the True Test of Inclusion in Corporate India](https://www.merionwest.com/caste-remains-the-true-test-of-inclusion-in-corporate-india.md) - Across boardrooms from Bangalore to Delhi and inside Western corporations staffed by an increasing number of Indian employees, caste continues to influence who advances and who does not. Ignoring this reality, writes Indian scholar Disha, makes all other efforts at fostering inclusivity ring hollow.
- [The State Sovereignty Question Again Rears Its Head](https://www.merionwest.com/the-state-sovereignty-question-again-rears-its-head.md) - Tom McDonough argues that Governor JB Pritzker’s recent appeal to “state sovereignty” misreads the Constitution. Revisiting the works of Orestes Brownson, McDonough warns that treating the Constitution as a tool of convenience risks reviving old errors about sovereignty and federal authority.
- [Dämmerschlaf, or, Twilight Sleep](https://www.merionwest.com/dammerschlaf-or-twilight-sleep.md)
- [What You Could Not Spare](https://www.merionwest.com/what-you-could-not-spare.md)
- [Let's Teach Young People Hope—Not Doom](https://www.merionwest.com/lets-teach-young-people-hope-not-doom.md) - Education expert Bruno Manno argues that when educators present social and ecological problems as intractable, this can foster hopelessness in students. This school year, he urges, we should teach students that problems can be solved, not merely bemoaned.
- [The Perennial Allure of Political Violence](https://www.merionwest.com/the-perennial-allure-of-political-violence.md) - Writing from across the Atlantic, Gerfried Ambrosch condemns both the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the disturbing celebrations that followed, ending with a forceful defense of free expression.
- [Why Today’s Atheism Requires a Leap of Faith](https://www.merionwest.com/why-todays-atheism-requires-a-leap-of-faith.md) - Who commands intellectual authority between believers and secularists? Rather than dismissing faith as irrational, Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies invite readers to consider whether atheism itself withstands logical scrutiny.
- [Alan Dershowitz: On His Magnum Opus, The Preventive State](https://www.merionwest.com/alan-dershowitz-on-his-magnum-opus-the-preventive-state.md) - In this, his 57th book, the legendary law professor presents a framework he's been working on since his 20s that grapples with the trade-off between infringing liberty and preventing harm.
- [Emergency Room](https://www.merionwest.com/emergency-room.md)
- [We Ought Not Tolerate Reckless Driving](https://www.merionwest.com/we-ought-not-tolerate-reckless-driving.md) - Our editor-in-chief argues that reckless driving must be treated as the urgent social ill that it is. Driving is dangerous enough already, and those who wantonly flout traffic safety need to be consistently held accountable.
- [From Austerity to Arms: Europe’s Recurring Escape from Deflationary Paralysis](https://www.merionwest.com/from-austerity-to-arms-europes-recurring-escape-from-deflationary-paralysis.md) - Europe’s turn from austerity to rearmament recalls an older pattern: economic stagnation broken by military spending. This essay traces the parallels—and the risks—for the European Union’s future.
- [Not Quite Touching Sestos](https://www.merionwest.com/not-quite-touching-sestos.md)
- [Why We Should Reacquaint Ourselves with William Blake](https://www.merionwest.com/why-we-shoulreacquaint-ourselves-with-william-blake.md) - Mark Vernon, the author of a recent book on William Blake, urges us to rediscover the wisdom contained in the writings and artwork of the great British polymath.
- [Published: First Merion West Collection](https://www.merionwest.com/published-first-merion-west-collection.md)
- [A Silencing](https://www.merionwest.com/a-silencing.md)
- [The Machiavellian Keir Starmer](https://www.merionwest.com/the-machiavellian-keir-starmer.md) - British writer Seamus Flaherty, channeling Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund's new book, dissects the Machiavellian approach British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has brought to his political career and now premiership.
- [Crepe Myrtles](https://www.merionwest.com/crepe-myrtles.md)
- [Revisiting "The Classical Liberal Case for Israel"](https://www.merionwest.com/revisiting-the-classical-liberal-case-for-israel.md) - Walter E. Block and Alan G. Futerman's book, which was published in 2021, has taken on ever greater import since the October 7th attacks. In this essay, historian Paul Gottfried questions some of the book's assumptions and its use of history.
- [Deny Your Surface Self](https://www.merionwest.com/deny-your-surface-self.md)
- [Who Pays for "Free" Speech?](https://www.merionwest.com/who-pays-for-free-speech.md) - Law professor Eric Heinze reminds us that for all the rhetoric about free speech, demonstrations and protests often impose on the public costs of millions of dollars.
- [Văcărești](https://www.merionwest.com/vacaresti.md)
- [I Wake Up Daily Which Cannot Continue Forever.](https://www.merionwest.com/i-wake-up-daily-which-cannot-continue-forever.md)
- [Engineering Morality in the Age of Driverless Cars](https://www.merionwest.com/should-your-tesla-kill-you-or-other-people.md) - Once the realm of ivory tower thought experiments, the trolley problem is increasingly relevant in the real world as algorithms replace the human behind the wheel, argues philosopher Jimmy Alfonso Licon.
- [A Prison Love Story](https://www.merionwest.com/a-prison-love-story.md) - An unconventional love story, but a love story just the same.
- [How to Write a Poem](https://www.merionwest.com/how-to-write-a-poem.md)
- [While We Were in Motion](https://www.merionwest.com/while-we-were-in-motion.md)
- [Year of the Plague: Jake Gardner and the Ghosts of 2020](https://www.merionwest.com/year-of-the-plague-jake-gardner-and-the-ghosts-of-2020.md) - Returning to a night in Omaha that rattled the nation, Matthew Chabin presents another side of an old friend in the middle of the tragedy. An intimate meditation on the fragility of friendship in a black-and-white age, Chabin calls for understanding over condemning one's enemies, including his own.
- [Exit Terra](https://www.merionwest.com/exit-terra.md)
- [Porschegasbord](https://www.merionwest.com/porschegasbord.md)
- [Visions of Hell: What One Man Sees in October 7th](https://www.merionwest.com/how-one-man-understands-october-7th.md) - How does a French filmmaker best ivory-tower experts and global intelligence agencies? In this interview spanning both geopolitics and moral reckoning, Pierre Rehov shares the insights—and warnings—that led him to anticipate Israel’s surprise strikes on Iran in June.
- [In Search of Dreams](https://www.merionwest.com/in-search-of-dreams.md)
- [At the Cardiologist’s](https://www.merionwest.com/at-the-cardiologists.md)
- [Mystifying Answers to Magic 8 Ball Questions Regarding Recent Political Events](https://www.merionwest.com/mystifying-answers-to-magic-8-ball-questions-regarding-recent-political-events.md)
- [The Clash and the Quest](https://www.merionwest.com/the-clash-and-the-quest.md) - In this essay, Alexander Zubatov traces how the stories that fill the boundless canvas of Western canon are, in essence, reflections of two contrasting Homeric archetypes. Venturing beyond the literary, the motifs offer the frames through which one can interpret existence itself.
- [Bad Angel's Home](https://www.merionwest.com/bad-angels-home.md)
- [Solaria](https://www.merionwest.com/solaria.md)
- [An Alternate Ending](https://www.merionwest.com/an-alternate-ending.md)
- [Gilgandra, 1963](https://www.merionwest.com/gilgandra-1963.md)
- [Words Unheard](https://www.merionwest.com/words-unheard.md)
- [Senator Lankford's Timely Reminder of the American Ethos](https://www.merionwest.com/coming-soon-a-conversation-with-senator-james-lankford.md) - In an interview with our editor-in-chief, the senator advocates for the uniquely American ideal of individual agency amid increasingly many citizens looking to Washington, D.C. for answers. Additionally, he shares lessons from the Capitol and thoughts on the President's first 100 days.
- [When Therapy Fails Artists](https://www.merionwest.com/when-therapy-fails-artists.md) - As a challenge to conventional advice about rest and recovery, poet Nada Faris explains the importance of working amid suffering for those who derive meaning and inspiration from their craft. Shakespeare, Woolf, and Orwell did some of their best work in times of despair, after all.
- [Summer in the Mountains](https://www.merionwest.com/summer-in-the.md)
- [The Enduring Question at the Heart of Gone with the Wind](https://www.merionwest.com/the-enduring-question-at-the-heart-of-gone-with-the-wind.md) - Sadhika Pant revisits the 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, a book recently targeted for cancellation by certain activists. Pant suggests that Scarlett O’Hara and Ashley Wilkes represent two dueling approaches to living, and this dichotomy invites nothing short of civilizational questions.
- [Haberdasher](https://www.merionwest.com/haberdasher.md)
- [What an Exiled 19th-Century Economist's Letters Tell Us about the Tariff Debate](https://www.merionwest.com/what-an-exiled-19th-century-economists-letters-tells-us-about-the-tariff-debate.md) - Perhaps there truly is nothing new under the sun. Robert Rich revisits the writings of Friedrich List, whose pragmatic views on economics were eclipsed by classical orthodoxy but, amid today’s debate over free trade and American exceptionalism, prove surprisingly resonant.
- [Four Questions to Ask Before Using Artificial Intelligence](https://www.merionwest.com/four-questions-to-ask-before-using-artificial-intelligence.md) - Professor Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, an expert on artificial intelligence, provides a four-point framework for thinking about whether or not to employ new AI technologies in day-to-day life.
- [Mother-in-Law](https://www.merionwest.com/mother-in-law.md)
- [The Supreme Court Takes a Welcome Stand against Reverse Discrimination](https://www.merionwest.com/the-supreme-court-takes-a-welcome-stand-against-reverse-discrimination.md) - Jonathan Church, a long-standing critic of the excesses of the critical social justice movement, examines how a recent ruling dismantles the legal double standard that required some Americans to meet a higher burden of proof in discrimination cases.
- [Stealing Baby Jesus](https://www.merionwest.com/stealing-baby-jesus.md) - The headline in today’s Inquirer shocked me to my very soul: “Baby Jesus Stolen from the Shrine of St. John Neumann,” Northern Liberties neighborhood, Fifth Street & Girard. In broad daylight, too. Okay, it was only a plaster figurine, not expensive, though very much beloved— according to the shrin…
- [The Movement James Burnham Began](https://www.merionwest.com/the-movement-james-burnham-began.md) - David Byrne, the author of a recent biography of the mid-century conservative intellectual James Burnham, traces the thinker's influence on Goldwater, on Reagan, on Musk.
- [Ice Skating on Lake Estancia](https://www.merionwest.com/ice-skating-on-lake-estancia.md)
- [Shahuhude (Foolish)](https://www.merionwest.com/shahuhude-foolish.md)
- [Rousseau, the Letter Writer](https://www.merionwest.com/rousseau-the-letter-writer.md) - A new book by Christopher Kelly and Eve Grace explores the letters of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, including many previously left unpublished. These letters provide insight into the mind of the French thinker, a man whose ideas influenced revolutions and political thinking the world over.
- [The Teacher Retires](https://www.merionwest.com/the-teacher-retires.md)
- [A Manifesto Against Manifestos](https://www.merionwest.com/a-manifesto-against-manifestos.md) - Johnny Payne questions the idea of manifestos in poetry, preferring his own mantra: “Write poetry first with the ear, second with the eye, third with the mind.”
- [The Sound of Silence](https://www.merionwest.com/the-sound-of-silence.md)
- [Like a Rock](https://www.merionwest.com/like-a-rock.md)
- [Cheers](https://www.merionwest.com/cheers.md) - "God could be shaking a cocktail for me and I’d still/have a complaint."
- [The Unfair Safety Net for Success](https://www.merionwest.com/the-unfair-safety-net-for-success.md) - Rinzen Widjaja, a writer in Australia, wonders if for the children of the wealthiest Americans, it is almost too hard to fail.
- [The Endless Vitality of "Ode to the West Wind"](https://www.merionwest.com/the-endless-vitality-of-ode-to-the-west-wind.md) - Merion West arts editor Johnny Payne reflects on why Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” endures over the centuries as one of the finest works written in English.
- [At Woodlawn](https://www.merionwest.com/at-woodlawn.md)
- [As I Think about Pope Francis](https://www.merionwest.com/as-i-think-about-pope-francis.md) - Joe Weil, a poet, professor, and Catholic, reflects on the death of Pope Francis, what he loved about the man, and what he hopes the late Pope sees differently on the other side of this world.
- [Why America?](https://www.merionwest.com/why-america.md) - Originally published in late 2020—a year when many called for a national "moral reckoning"—this personal essay by Alexander Zubatov draws on his family's journey from the Soviet Union to New York in the 1970s to illuminate why America, to him, remains exceptional.
- [Three Haiku](https://www.merionwest.com/three-haiku.md) - The curved universe reflected in this puddle Let us break our stride
- [The Discarded](https://www.merionwest.com/the-discarded.md)
- [Sponsored · An Apology from Trump’s America](https://www.merionwest.com/where-free-speech-turns-fractious-tony-d-senatores-bold-new-book.md) - Discover Tony D. Senatore’s provocative new dialogue on free speech and moral courage.
- [Villanelle for Stronghold Table and Daydream](https://www.merionwest.com/villanelle-for-stronghold-table-and-daydream.md) - “Prairie dogs call through the murmuring grass,/mimicking history—its rhythmic drum beats—/and resurrecting Wodziwob’s sacred chants.”
- [Why I’m Running for Governor of California](https://www.merionwest.com/why-im-running-for-governor-of-california.md) - I want to save California and America from the dangers of artificial intelligence.
- [Indigo Goodbyes](https://www.merionwest.com/indigo-goodbyes.md) - “in a vale of blue orchid gowns/sewn with bachelor buttons/in lavender blue fields”
- [Undoing Civilization: The Degeneracy of America’s Political Elites](https://www.merionwest.com/undoing-civilization-the-degeneracy-of-americas-political-elites.md) - “With Vice President Vance as President Trump’s heir apparent, it is difficult to envision a restoration of principled conservatism any time soon. Meanwhile, the country’s political class is plagued by general senescence and by kakistocracy among the younger politicians (think Congresswoman Alexandr
- [Fieldnotes: Annie Christain’s “The Vanguards of Holography” and Caroline Harper New’s “A History of Half-Birds”](https://www.merionwest.com/fieldnotes-on-the-love-songs-of-whales-annie-christains-the-vanguards-of-holography-and-caroline-harper-news-a-history-of-half-birds.md) - “There is a sense of preparation through formal and informal erudition, meant to complicate what it means to write adequately about natural and human worlds, with fewer donnéees and more of a sense of a non-human cosmos, one of manatees and marsupials, in which each creature’s essence is not given t
- [The Non-Binary Runner Phenomenon](https://www.merionwest.com/the-non-binary-runner-phenomenon.md) - “However, for me, as a lifelong runner who has logged 10,000 miles on American roads in the past 10 years and who has competed in dozens of races from the 5K to the marathon since 2004, I disagree with Fedorowski. Adding a non-binary category to road racing is misguided and counterproductive.”
- [Has the “Journal of Controversial Ideas” Become Irrelevant?](https://www.merionwest.com/has-the-journal-of-controversial-ideas-become-irrelevant.md) - “It has published on a range of topics that perhaps seemed controversial to someone at some time (specifically, academics in the early 2020s) but certainly not to the broader culture in 2025.”

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