Guest Thinkers — December 21, 2010

Saturday Papers

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

President Salih announced at a meeting of Yemeni journalists that the government was dropping charges against ‘Abd al-Karim al-Khaywani.

Not everyone it seems is happy with the delay in Parliamentary elections, Muhammad ‘Amr Zayn al-Saqqaf calls the agreement the assassination of democracy in Yemen. Meanwhile, Islah is blaming, as usual, the government for nearly every problem that Yemen is facing.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The Past

Islam has become less rational since its medieval Golden Age. What went wrong?

Once a cosmopolitan faith, Islam valued intellectualism and modernity. It was derailed by various geopolitical and religious forces.

The Past

The worst Nobel Peace Prizes ever awarded

Nobel Prizes cannot be revoked.

Thinking

Speech is violence? Not if we want a liberal, intellectual society

The most unpleasant aspect of intellectual liberalism is that when speech causes emotional or mental pain, the offended parties are morally entitled to nothing.

The Present

Participatory democracy is presumed to be the gold standard. Here’s why it isn’t.

Political activism may get people invested in politics, and affect urgently needed change, but it comes at the expense of tolerance and healthy democratic norms.

Strange Maps

From Ho Chi Minh Street to Boris Nemtsov Plaza: a history of the undiplomatic street name change

Street names can cause diplomatic offence – and sometimes, that’s exactly why they’re there.

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