In early August, James Damore, a software engineer at the Silicon Valley giant Google, was fired by Google chief executive, Sundar Pichai, for violating Google?s code of conduct, specifically his perpetuation of ?harmful gender stereotypes? in the workplace. Although 80% of Google?s tech employees are male, Google prides itself in its commitment to diversity, inclusion and openness, yet demands ideological conformity within its company. The irony of the Damore case is therefore striking.

We are living in a complicated, rather frightening age. Columnist David Brooks calls it ?an age of anxiety.? Changing demographic and technological disruption have produced a society where ?people live with bewildering freedom, without institutions to trust, unattached to compelling religions and sources of meaning, uncertain about their own lives.? For many this anxiety is producing a fear of the future and many will do anything to escape this fear, which is generating an ?age of fanaticism.? This combination of anxiety and fanaticism is occurring at a time when the United States seems hopelessly divided.

The civil war in Syria is entering a new phase, one fraught with significant implications for the Middle East, for Israel and for the United States. In the words of columnist Charles Krauthammer, ?The great Muslim civil war, centered in Syria, is approaching its post-Islamic State phase. It?s the end of the beginning. The parties are maneuvering to shape what comes next.? ISIS is disappearing as an independent, organized state within the Middle East. Its threat as a terrorist organization remains viable, but the caliphate declared by Baghdadi is dead!

The case of 11-month old Charlie Gard of the United Kingdom has been heart-wrenching. It also raises a number of profound ethical questions. Charlie was born with a pair of genetic mutations that depleted his body of mitochondria, the minute structures that produce energy molecules that the body?s cells need to live. As a result, he has suffered ? according to the hospital ? ?catastrophic and irreversible brain damage.? He cannot breathe, he essentially cannot move, and he cannot hear. He has been kept alive by life support systems. His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, have pinned their hopes on an experimental treatment called nucleoside therapy.

North Korea recently launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, a vivid demonstration of its potential nuclear reach. The missile traveled only 580 miles, but in doing so it traveled 1,700 miles into space and re-entered the atmosphere before crashing into the Sea of Japan. If you flatten this out, such a missile could reach Alaska. This frightening reality means that North Korea is on the verge of reaching a capability to attack the homeland of the United States with nuclear missiles.

The 50th anniversary of the famous Six-Day War of 1967 is upon us. With it are coming the normal cries and accusations against Israel for its ?occupation? of Palestinian land. For much of the world, Israel remains a nation unforgiven for its occupation and its refusal to seriously negotiate with the Palestinians. The BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement against Israel is popular on American college campuses, if nowhere else. . . Let?s do a quick review of what actually happened 50 years ago and in the subsequent decades:

President Trump delivered the Commencement address at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia this year. This is the institution founded by Jerry Falwell, founder also of the Moral Majority and other organizations in the late 20th century. Falwell epitomized the attempt by evangelicals to influence the direction of Republican Party politics in 1980s and 1990s. In many ways, he also symbolized what became known as the ?Religious Right? in those decades. His son, Jerry Falwell, Jr., is now Liberty University?s president. In introducing President Trump a few weeks ago, the young Falwell called him ?our dream president.?

As I have argued in previous editions of Issues in Perspective, one of the major debates occurring within the American political culture and which is also an aspect of international affairs is globalism vs. economic nationalism. The appeal of economic nationalism over globalism explains the electoral victory of Donald Trump and, to some extent, the Brexit phenomenon. But as with so many things, there is a need for balance and clear thinking in this debate.

Republicans responded to the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama with a visceral disdain and hatred for these two presidents. American evangelicals joined enthusiastically in such responses. Now Democrats are responding in almost identical ways to Donald Trump. As hardened as American conservatives were toward Clinton and Obama, now the American left is equally as hardened toward Trump.

The Syrian Civil War is now in its 7th year and shows no signs of ending soon. In my opinion, this war has exposed the depths of human depravity like no other recent conflict. Allow me to defend this proposition.