Top 5: Life on hold

...until after the election?

The top 5 articles for your week:

1. “Got a Major Life Decision to Make? Why Not Hold Off Until After the Election” (Vanity Fair)

   Because - do you feel this way? Has our election become so uncertain that it’s affecting major life decisions? We are curious if this is a wide-spread feeling or something that’s more specific to a certain type of person or group.

2. “The Surprising Value of a Wandering Mind” (The Atlantic)

   Because arguments against the “attention economy” are building: “intellectual meandering is key to real learning and, further, that the ability to take such detours is a skill that many of us must consciously nurture. ‘In 21st-century America,’ Cappello explains, ‘there is so much that holds or demands our attention without requiring our attention or altering our attention.’”

3. “Where loneliness can lead” (Aeon Magazine)

   Because Hannah Arendt warned that loneliness can make a person more susceptible to totalitarianism. Think about the “loneliness epidemic” and the rise in authoritarian tendencies in Americans. Perhaps not a coincidence?

4. “The American ‘way of life’ is unsustainable for so many. Is it time to build radical forms of community?” (America Magazine)

   Because there is a ton to unpack in this essay from Emma O. Green. “I think the widespread sense of mutual suspicion and total isolation in our country is the most urgent, big-picture story of religion and politics right now. In my reporting, I see two major kinds of reactions to this kind of cultural frustration. One is an attempt to repair America. And the other is an attempt to build something new.”

   “The Growing Threat of American Political Violence” (New Yorker)

   Because this article explores an important question: who is a domestic terrorist? Right now, there are more than a thousand investigations into violent extremism under way in all fifty states. With the threat of election violence, this is a big question to answer for government agencies.

Image is of a voter in Houston this past week. Image credit: Go Nakamura/Reuters.