I am a PhD candidate at American University in Washington, DC. I am interested in state formation and governance in low income countries. My dissertation examines the influence of foreign aid on incumbent advantage in African presidential elections.Keeping a Civil Tongue
I am not one for literary criticism, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself immersed in this article in the Atlantic. B. R. Myers argues that careless use of language leads to sloppy thinking and reflects a deeper cultural malaise. Our inability to clearly express ourselves impedes our ability to judge everything from the quality of films to deeper moral questions. I believe all of this has been said before, but never in a way that was comprehensible to me or made me care.
As a university student surrounded by postmodernists and relativists, reading this felt like taking a cold shower after a night of more-than-modest drinking. This short article is really worth a read.
