When Hamas militants led a deadly cross-border raid into Israel on 7 October 2023, Hamas leaders were convinced that this event would trigger a wider Middle East war that would result in the end of Israel. The exact opposite has occurred. The Hamas terrorist attack triggered a war with Israel that has devastated Gaza, and it set off additional shock waves that have reshaped the Middle East: Powerful alliances were upended. Long-established “red lines” were crossed. A decades-old dictatorship at the heart of the region was swept away. The Middle East has been radically transformed.

President Trump had made immigration a major aspect of his presidential campaign and now a policy goal of his presidency. Few would disagree with his commitment to end illegal immigration. Few would doubt that dealing with illegal immigrants already in the country must be addressed. But, solving these challenges must be balanced with the reality of a serious worker shortage in the US. In this Perspective, I hope to review the issue of the worker shortage facing the US along with the volatile issue of immigration.

More recent cultural shifts around gender identification and the push for transgender rights represent a profound change in society that has led to battles over medical procedures for minors and public school policy. For example, former President Biden proclaimed that Easter Sunday 2024 was also the 2024 Transgender Day of Visibility. He declared to the transgender community: “You are America, and my entire Administration and I have your back.” That this “Day” also occurred on Easter Sunday provoked outrage and anger—understandably. Arguably quite political in nature, Biden’s proclamation backfired and further eroded the legitimacy of the transgender revolution.

In 1958, political theorist, Isaiah Berlin, delivered a lecture entitled “Two Concepts of Liberty,” which established two strands of thought on the concept of freedom.

Jordan Peterson is a cultural phenomenon. He has been called both “the world’s most famous public intellectual” and “the stupid man’s smart person.” His most famous book is 12 Rules for Life, which is an unusual mix of existential philosophy and common sense pronouncements. The Economist reports that an entire Peterson industry has flourished around him: There is a Jordan Peterson newsletter (“Mondays of Meaning”), a “Peterson Academy ($500 a year gets you lectures on a variety of “manly” topics) and a “self-authorizing program.”

Assisted dying, the current phrase for active euthanasia, has until recently been a debate between the progressive idea of personal autonomy and the Christian idea of public morality. But, today there is less talk about the sanctity of life and the moral injury of suicide and more of a focus on notions of “safeguarding” and “informed consent.” In other words, Christian ethics rooted in the infinite value of human life is rarely a part of the debate. Let’s explore this issue in light of 21st century morality.

Over 30 years ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan published his famous essay, “Defining Deviancy Down.” Bret Stephens summarizes his thesis: “Every society, the senator-scholar from New York argued, could afford to penalize only a certain amount of behavior it deemed ‘deviant.’ As the stock of such behavior increased—whether in the form of out-of-wedlock births, or mentally ill people living outdoors, or violence in urban streets—society would most easily adapt not by cracking down, but instead by normalizing what used to be considered unacceptable, immoral or outrageous.”

In the 1930s, the United States pursued a policy of protectionism and isolationism. “No coincidence, World War II soon followed.” Germany’s and Japan’s neighbors were too weak to deter and defeat those fascist dictatorships on their own. They desperately needed American help, and they did not receive it until it was nearly too late. Max Boot argues that “After 1945 in the United States, the greatest generation sought to rectify that mistake by constructing a new world order based on free-trade pacts and security alliances. That approach was staggeringly successful: Democracy and prosperity spread around the world. […]”

Over the last several decades, Americans, it has been argued, are more tribal in their behavior and social groupings than ever. We live in silos of our own choice, watch cable news channels or listen to podcasts that simply reinforce our tribal identities. We are not open to new ideas and are threatened by those who are not in our silos. In this cultural development, the individual is not as important. Our group identity defines us and we are not open to those outside our groupings. How did this develop within American civilization? What are its origins?

Theoretical cosmologist, Paul M. Sutter recently wrote, “I’m a cosmologist, the kind of scientist who studies the origin, history and evolution of the universe. I have spent my career researching one special part of the universe called cosmic voids: the vast expanses of nothing that stretch between the galaxies. Most of our universe is void—somewhere around 80 percent of the volume of the cosmos is made of nothing at all. By strict accounting of cosmic abundances, our planet and the life we find here amount to essentially zero.