Here’s what stood out this week: reexamining the claims of Howard Zinn, the temptation for knowledge without formation, Gen Z is pathetically intellectually fragile, men are scarily suicidal after breakups, and going to live sports events could remedy depression.
1. When Moral Clarity Becomes Too Simple to Tell the Truth
Patrick Iber, “Did Howard Zinn Tell Too Simple a Story About American History?,” The New Republic
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States is one of the most popular works of history ever written. Instead of recounting the achievements of titans of politics and industry, he celebrated laborers, the leaders of social movements, those who denounced injustice and faced oppression. For many readers, A People’s History is a kind of incantation that dispels that illusion, and that is its enduring contribution. But that is not to say that Zinn’s substitution is without weaknesses of its own. Zinn has a formula: corrupt elites, virtuous activists standing with ordinary people, who, he assumes, have common interests. As a work of scholar-activism, A People’s History is an extraordinary achievement. As historical analysis, it has real flaws. The piece matters because moral seriousness becomes intellectually dangerous when it loses the capacity to recognize complexity, mixed motives, unintended consequences, and competing goods.
2. The Ancient Temptation to Acquire Wisdom Without Formation
Anne Lawrence-Mathers, “Ars Notoria and the Promise of Instant Knowledge,” The Public Domain Review
Mastering the full range of subjects taught in medieval universities normally required many years of hard and expensive study. From the thirteenth century on, however, an anonymous work known as the Ars notoria promised, through diagrams, incantations, and arcane rituals, to rapidly transmit to scholars the total knowledge of anything they might need. Condemned by church authorities, the fifty-six extant manuscripts nevertheless testify to the seductiveness of that offer. The great attraction of the Ars notoria was its promise of quick access to advanced scholarly knowledge. For some users, the rituals were so powerful that they seemed demonic. The text remained one of the most prominent works of ritual magic, and continued to be edited and abbreviated. The piece matters because the desire to bypass formation is much older than artificial intelligence, search engines, or digital shortcuts.
3. A Generation Losing the Moral Discipline of Tolerating Offense
Vladimir Hedrih, “Gen Z Americans are more willing to use blockades and violence to stop public speakers,” PsyPost
Vladimir Hedrih reports on a study that shows that Gen Z Americans are more accepting than older generations of “shoutdowns, blockades, and even violence to suppress public speech,” with ideological differences than they own and find “offensive.” A survey of over 4,000 individuals found that Gen Z Americans tend to be more accepting of shoutdowns, blockades, and violence as methods to suppress speech than their older compatriots. Participants were most accepting of shouting down a speaker and least accepting of using violence. Overall, the youngest participants tended to be more accepting of all three methods of suppressing speech than older generations. The study found no significant difference between Gen Z respondents who attend college and those who do not, suggesting this acceptance is a generational shift rather than a result of higher education socialization. When respondents evaluated tactics used against a speaker making a statement they personally found offensive, acceptance increased among conservatives and moderates, completely erasing the ideological gap. The piece matters because political tolerance is revealed precisely when speech becomes difficult to tolerate, not when everyone already agrees.
4. What Happens When One Relationship Carries the Weight of an Entire Social World
Karina Petrova, “Men face an elevated risk of suicide immediately following a relationship breakdown,” PsyPost
Karina Petrova reports a large study that shows sharply elevated suicide risk among separated and divorced men, especially younger men and men in the immediately following a relationship ending.
Petrova writes, “Following the end of a romantic relationship, men face an elevated risk of suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide, and death by suicide, with the highest risk occurring immediately after the split. These findings come from a massive global review published in Psychological Bulletin, providing a detailed look at how age, culture, and social isolation influence mental health after a breakup.
Around the world, men die by suicide at much higher rates than women. While many variables contribute to this disparity, the end of an intimate partnership is a recognized risk factor. Romantic relationships often provide essential emotional support, security, and a sense of belonging. When these bonds dissolve, people can experience profound psychological distress.” The piece matters because many men have built lives in which one romantic relationship carries emotional responsibilities that friendship, family, community, and other durable institutions once shared.
5. Your Body Knows That Belonging Is Real
Eric W. Dolan, “The biology of fandom: Live sports synchronize spectator heart rates and elevate oxytocin,” PsyPost
Eric W. Dolan reports on a study that suggest that spectators at live sports games experienced changes associated with social bonding, including increased or sustained oxytocin, declining cortisol, and increasingly synchronized patterns of heart-rate change.
According to Dolan, “[A]ttending a live sporting event is linked to changes in hormone levels and physiological alignment among fans. New research published in Translational Psychiatry suggests that watching a college basketball game is associated with shifts in oxytocin, a hormone involved in social bonding, alongside synchronized heart rates across the crowd. These physical changes tend to correspond with feelings of unity, enjoyment, and a desire to return for future games.
Oxytocin is a chemical messenger often referred to as a bonding hormone. It plays a role in social behavior, emotional regulation, and how humans connect with one another. Cortisol is a different hormone that serves as a primary indicator of physiological stress. Heart rate synchrony occurs when the cardiac rhythms of multiple people naturally align in response to shared experiences or emotions.
Medical treatments aiming to boost oxytocin through nasal sprays to help with social difficulties have produced mixed results in clinical settings. This inconsistency motivated scientists to look for everyday activities that might naturally stimulate the body’s own hormone production, known as endogenous oxytocin.” The piece matters because belonging is not just an idea we carry around in our heads. It seems that shared attention and shared emotion appear to impact us physically.
Have a great weekend!
I’m launching book tour for my next book through June of 2027, The Fatherhood Effect, thanks to a donor I can speak any college, fraternity, church, school, or non-profit and the expenses are all covered. Here are the details and more information about the book.
Howard Zinns fist publication on "Peoples History" didnt have footnotes. The progressive historians who wanted to use it as a textbook, formed a commitee got Zinns permission then went and annotated it. Its was "pop" history, not a real acedemic book.