A time is marked not so much by ideas that are argued about as by ideas that are taken for granted. The character of an era hangs upon what needs no defense. Power runs with ideas that only the crazy would draw into doubt. The 'taken for granted' is the test of sanity; 'what everyone knows' is the line between us and them. This means that sometimes a society gets stuck. Sometimes these unquestioned ideas interfere, as the cost of questioning becomes too great. In these times, the hardest task for social or political activists is to find a way to get people to wonder again about what we all believe is true. The challenge is to sow doubt.

Americans have been selling this view around the world: that progress comes from perfect protection of intellectual property. Notwithstanding the fact that the…

All around us are the consequences of the most significant technological, and hence cultural, revolution in generations. This revolution has produced the most …

You can't incent a dead person. No matter what we do, Hawthorne will not produce any more works, no matter how much we pay him.

If 'freedom' means, first of all, the responsibility of every individual for the rational determination of his own personal, professional and social existence,…

Freedom is a myth.

American life is a powerful solvent. It seems to neutralize every intellectual element, however tough and alien it may be, and to fuse it in the native good wi…