[{"id":310759,"date":"2026-09-01T09:44:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310759"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:44:33","slug":"why-pakistanis-read-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/why-pakistanis-read-less.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Pakistani\u2019s Read Less?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mekaeel Gondal in\u00a0<em>Friday Times:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-310760 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pakistan-s-reading-crisis-pakistani-s-read-less-1787144925-4379-1-360x203.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pakistan-s-reading-crisis-pakistani-s-read-less-1787144925-4379-1-360x203.jpg 360w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pakistan-s-reading-crisis-pakistani-s-read-less-1787144925-4379-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pakistan-s-reading-crisis-pakistani-s-read-less-1787144925-4379-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pakistan-s-reading-crisis-pakistani-s-read-less-1787144925-4379-1.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/>On Pakistan\u2019s independence, the literacy rates were quite disheartening. The very first population census in 1951 showed that only 17.9% of the people could read and write (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/41981591\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Changes in Levels of Educational Attainment in Pakistan: 1951-1961 | JSTOR<\/a>), and by the 1981 Census, this figure had hardly budged to 26.2%\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unesco.org\/education\/edurights\/media\/resources\/file\/Pakistan_Full_Report_online.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">(UNESCO Report on Pakistan Education)<\/a>. With such limited literacy, it\u2019s no surprise that a rich reading culture struggled to take root, after all, only a small segment of the population had the educational grounding needed to regularly dive into books and other writing. In addition, Pakistan&#8217;s education system was primarily shaped to help students earn academic qualifications, leading to jobs in government and public sectors. As a result, the focus shifted heavily towards passing exams and memorizing material rather than fostering a love for reading. Engaging with anything outside the set curriculum was often seen as an afterthought, rather than a vital part of one&#8217;s intellectual and personal growth.<\/p>\n<p>More <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefridaytimes.com\/19-Aug-2026\/pakistan-s-reading-crisis-pakistani-s-read-less\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mekaeel Gondal in\u00a0Friday Times: On Pakistan\u2019s independence, the literacy rates were quite disheartening. The very first population census in 1951 showed that only 17.9% of the people could read and write (Changes in Levels of Educational Attainment in Pakistan: 1951-1961 | JSTOR), and by the 1981 Census, this figure had hardly budged to 26.2%\u00a0(UNESCO Report&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310762,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310759\/revisions\/310762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310755,"date":"2026-09-01T09:33:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310755"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:33:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:33:53","slug":"bland-new-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/bland-new-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Bland new world"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Hutson in\u00a0<em>Nature:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-310756 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d41586-026-02682-3_53170476-360x256.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d41586-026-02682-3_53170476-360x256.webp 360w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d41586-026-02682-3_53170476-1024x727.webp 1024w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d41586-026-02682-3_53170476-768x545.webp 768w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d41586-026-02682-3_53170476-300x213.webp 300w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/d41586-026-02682-3_53170476.webp 1248w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/>Zhivar Sourati often gets d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu while perusing recent research in his field of computer science. \u201cI read papers and I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019ve seen this paper before,\u2019\u201d he says. Everything\u2019s looking kind of the same, shorn of individual quirks, says Sourati, who is a PhD student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.\u00a0Sourati suspects artificial intelligence is to blame. Because people are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/immersive\/d41586-023-03017-2\/index.html\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/immersive\/d41586-023-03017-2\/index.html\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">increasingly relying on large language models<\/a>\u00a0(LLMs), their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-00781-9\" data-track=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-00781-9\" data-track-category=\"body text link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">writing is growing more similar<\/a>, he suggests.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">Now, Sourati and other researchers are putting their anecdotal observations to the test by exploring how generative AI (genAI) \u2014 systems that create text, images and other output \u2014 might be homogenizing both culture and cognition. In a March paper, he and his co-authors noted that this phenomenon is similar to the concept of \u2018McDonaldization\u2019, invoking how characteristics of the fast-food industry, such as efficiency and predictability, have influenced society and led to more uniformity<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-02682-3#ref-CR1\" data-track=\"click\" data-action=\"anchor-link\" data-track-label=\"go to reference\" data-track-category=\"references\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>More <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-026-02682-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Hutson in\u00a0Nature: Zhivar Sourati often gets d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu while perusing recent research in his field of computer science. \u201cI read papers and I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019ve seen this paper before,\u2019\u201d he says. Everything\u2019s looking kind of the same, shorn of individual quirks, says Sourati, who is a PhD student at the University of Southern California&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310758,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310755\/revisions\/310758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310674,"date":"2026-09-01T09:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310674"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:18:25","slug":"why-the-world-does-not-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/why-the-world-does-not-exist.html","title":{"rendered":"Why the World Does Not Exist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why the World Does Not Exist | Markus Gabriel\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TKxTEvoisTc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310675,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310674\/revisions\/310675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310671,"date":"2026-09-01T08:25:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310671"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:28:22","slug":"how-kudzu-was-supposed-to-save-the-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/how-kudzu-was-supposed-to-save-the-south.html","title":{"rendered":"How Kudzu Was Supposed to Save the South"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kari Traylor at <em>JSTOR Daily<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-310672 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kudzu-covering-trees-in-valley_001-329x360.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"329\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kudzu-covering-trees-in-valley_001-329x360.webp 329w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kudzu-covering-trees-in-valley_001-274x300.webp 274w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kudzu-covering-trees-in-valley_001.webp 731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 329px) 100vw, 329px\" \/>Across the American South, few plants are as recognizable as kudzu. Its vines blanket trees and power lines, turning roadside clearings into walls of green. Over time, this landscape has given rise to the story of a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/research.fs.usda.gov\/download\/treesearch\/6184.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vine that ate the South<\/a>,\u201d with kudzu framed as a menacing invader that swallows everything in its path. But kudzu\u2019s presence in the South is more complicated than this myth suggests. Brought to the region to address economic and environmental woes shaped by the ghost of plantation slavery, kudzu was later abandoned as shifting needs rendered the plant unnecessary. Though its purported usefulness was short-lived, kudzu has persisted in both the landscape and the collective memory of the South. <a class=\"jcitation\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/44371185?mag=how-kudzu-was-supposed-to-save-the-south\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kudzu (<em>Pueraria<\/em>\u00a0<em>montana<\/em>)<\/a>\u00a0is a perennial climbing vine native to East Asia, particularly China and Japan. It has broad leaves, organized in groups of three, and large, tuberous roots, which allow the plant to survive and regenerate even after its aboveground growth is removed. Under favorable conditions with plenty of rainfall and mild winters,\u00a0<em>Pueraria montana<\/em>\u00a0can grow as much as sixty feet in a season, with some reports alleging that its vines may extend by roughly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aces.edu\/blog\/topics\/invasive-species\/the-history-and-use-of-kudzu-in-the-southeastern-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">twelve inches in a single day<\/a>\u00a0during periods of rapid growth.<\/p>\n<p>more <a href=\"https:\/\/daily.jstor.org\/how-kudzu-was-supposed-to-save-the-south\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kari Traylor at JSTOR Daily: Across the American South, few plants are as recognizable as kudzu. Its vines blanket trees and power lines, turning roadside clearings into walls of green. Over time, this landscape has given rise to the story of a \u201cvine that ate the South,\u201d with kudzu framed as a menacing invader that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310673,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310671\/revisions\/310673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310748,"date":"2026-09-01T08:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310748"},"modified":"2026-09-01T08:21:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:21:47","slug":"tuesday-poem-515","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/tuesday-poem-515.html","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>The Transcriber<\/h2>\n<p>It happens<br \/>\nas if stirred by some<br \/>\ndeep prompting rising up<br \/>\nout of a common soul,<br \/>\na voice in search of a language<br \/>\nto write its existence<br \/>\nacross the pages<br \/>\nof a passing mind.<\/p>\n<p>The soft morning light<br \/>\npooling beneath hurrying feet,<br \/>\nthe cypress trees<br \/>\nalong the foreshore time frozen<br \/>\nin their wind bent posture,<br \/>\nthe motion of waves<br \/>\nwithering into a slow soak<br \/>\nup the beach &#8211;<br \/>\nall seem to have something<br \/>\nto say.<\/p>\n<p>I have felt a pen press<br \/>\nupon my mind, struggle<br \/>\nto find a space free<br \/>\nfrom the cramp of my self<br \/>\non which to record<br \/>\nthe shape and sounds<br \/>\nof a joy or give form<br \/>\nto a longing freed<br \/>\nfrom the grip of shadow.<\/p>\n<p>I have felt the cry<br \/>\nof things trapped<br \/>\nin the hollows of words<br \/>\nlike empty sea shells held<br \/>\nto the ear and tried faithfully<br \/>\nto transcribe what was said.<br \/>\nIn my solitude I have<br \/>\ncalled out hoping<br \/>\nfor a reply only to hear<br \/>\nthe sound of my own pulse<br \/>\npunctuate a terrible silence<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetrysoup.com\/poems_poets\/poems_by_poet.aspx?ID=154629\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by Paul Willason<\/a> | 2026<br \/>\nfrom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poetrysoup.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PoetrySoup | Global Online Poetry Community &amp; Poetry Website<\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nEnjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Transcriber It happens as if stirred by some deep prompting rising up out of a common soul, a voice in search of a language to write its existence across the pages of a passing mind. The soft morning light pooling beneath hurrying feet, the cypress trees along the foreshore time frozen in their wind&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310748"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310753,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310748\/revisions\/310753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310666,"date":"2026-09-01T07:15:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310666"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T13:24:29","slug":"tarot-renaissance-symbols-modern-visions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/tarot-renaissance-symbols-modern-visions.html","title":{"rendered":"Tarot! Renaissance Symbols, Modern Visions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ariana Moira at <em>Commonweal<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-310667 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781917273312-us-297x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"297\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781917273312-us-297x360.jpg 297w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781917273312-us-248x300.jpg 248w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/9781917273312-us.jpg 413w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">Therein lies tarot\u2019s irresolvable tension: while it has become part of a spiritual practice that encourages self-actualization, tarot mimics the same individualism that produces the need for it in the first place. Without any religious or political obligations, tarot as practiced in the wealthy industrialized West transforms into a cultural product aligned with self-help guides and self-monitoring practices. In the Global South, specifically Latin America, scholar Isabel Ortiz worries that<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">tarot cards are shown to ultimately help characters tell stories of themselves as much stronger than they might feel in the moment, but often at the expense of being able to name or directly face the social forces to which they are vulnerable, that have so starkly exposed their fragility in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\">Even when sincerely practiced, tarot is awash in contradictions.<\/p>\n<p>more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commonwealmagazine.org\/moira-ariana-tarot-morgan-library-museum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ariana Moira at Commonweal: Therein lies tarot\u2019s irresolvable tension: while it has become part of a spiritual practice that encourages self-actualization, tarot mimics the same individualism that produces the need for it in the first place. Without any religious or political obligations, tarot as practiced in the wealthy industrialized West transforms into a cultural product&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310666"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310670,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310666\/revisions\/310670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310454,"date":"2026-09-01T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310454"},"modified":"2026-08-31T03:03:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T07:03:46","slug":"what-does-we-the-people-mean-a-chronicle-of-the-constitutions-expanding-circle-of-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/what-does-we-the-people-mean-a-chronicle-of-the-constitutions-expanding-circle-of-inclusion.html","title":{"rendered":"What Does &#8220;We the People&#8221; Mean? A Chronicle of the Constitution&#8217;s Expanding Circle of Inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by Ken MacVey<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-310628\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-2-1-279x360.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"279\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-2-1-279x360.png 279w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-2-1-232x300.png 232w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-2-1.png 393w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 279px) 100vw, 279px\" \/>The preamble of the US Constitution famously begins with the phrase \u201cWe the People&#8221;. Who, and how many, constituted this self-identified group? How well founded was this invocation of \u00a0\u201cWe the People&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start by looking at the US population as a whole when the Constitution took effect in 1789. The Constitution itself has provided a mechanism to aid in this assessment. The Constitution required that a census of the United States population be taken every ten years. The first census was in 1790. According to this census as reported in the National Archives, the US population in 1790 was 3,929,214, which should also approximate the size of the \u00a0population in 1789. How does this number break down?<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Many Voted to Ratify the Constitution?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 1790 census broke down its count by categories of \u201cfree white males,\u201d \u201cfree white females,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cother free,\u201d and \u201cslaves.\u201d \u00a0( Non-taxpaying indigenous American Indians were excluded from census consideration.) Slaves were counted at 694,000 (rounded) \u2013which would be almost 18% of the US population. Free white females were counted to be \u00a01,541,000 \u00a0which would be \u00a0about 39% of the \u00a0total population.\u00a0 When the Constitution was ratified \u00a0slaves and women were not eligible to vote in any of the 13 states. That means about 57% of the counted population was automatically excluded from voting in the 13 states when the Constitution was ratified. If free white males of the age 16 and under are further deducted, then the percentage excluded rises to 77%.<\/p>\n<p>But most of the remaining adult white males and \u201cother free\u201d were not eligible to vote either. The 13 states had additional restrictions that varied state by state\u2014such as requiring ownership of \u00a0property, being of a certain Christian denomination, being a taxpayer, or being white. The \u201cother free\u201d identified in the 1790 census consisted of 59,000 and presumably included free Blacks. Five states at the time of ratification allowed free Blacks to vote but they still might not have satisfied other requirements, such as being property owners. It is not known precisely how many in the United States were eligible to vote in 1788-90, but some estimate only \u00a06% of the \u00a0total of the 13 states\u2019 populace was eligible.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>As a Demographic Matter in 1789 &#8220;We the People&#8221; Excluded Almost the Entire US Population\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How many actually voted to approve or ratify the Constitution? The Constitutional convention was convened in Philadelphia in 1787 by 55 unelected delegates from 12 of the 13 states (Rhode Island declined to participate). The purpose of the convention was to address the widely criticized political dysfunctionality stemming \u00a0from the then existent Articles of Confederation. The convention was presided over by George Washington. The proceedings were secret and after four months of internal debate a draft of the Constitution was completed in late 1787. The phrase \u201cWe the People\u201d in earlier drafts referred to \u201cWe the People\u201d of each of the 13 states, identifying each state by name. The final phrasing became\u00a0 \u201cWe the People of the United States\u201d \u00a0with no naming of specific states. At the time this phrase was finalized there had been no vote by anyone other than delegates at the convention.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 55 delegates at the\u00a0 constitutional convention, 39 signed off on the proposed Constitution to be submitted to the 13 states for ratification. The delegates unanimously directed that ratifications could not be by the state legislatures but only by separate conventions in each state.\u00a0 These conventions were to be attended by delegates elected by eligible voters. Because underlying records no longer exist, the total number of those in the 13 states who voted\u00a0 in the election of \u00a0state convention delegates is unknown. After reviewing still existing documents, however, historian Charles Beard in 1913 estimated that the total vote was 160,000. He further estimated that no more than 100,000 voted for delegates supporting ratification. This last number of 100,000 \u00a0would represent about 2.5% of the total US population counted in the 1790 census. In any case, no direct popular vote \u00a0on ratification ever occurred. The only vote was by convention delegates.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed Constitution required ratification by a minimum of nine states and was ratified in June 1788 when nine states voted by\u00a0 conventions to ratify. Ultimately all 13 states through their conventions voted to ratify the Constitution. The total delegate vote for all 13 states was 1071 for ratification, 577 against, or a total of 1648 voting one way or the other on ratification. Thus, the total of actual direct votes for ratification of the Constitution was only 1071.<\/p>\n<p>Undoubtedly, the historical accuracy of some of these numbers could be challenged but\u00a0 probably not the \u00a0factual conclusion that follows from them. The \u00a0bottom line is those who actually got to vote directly or indirectly to approve the Constitution represented a minuscule percentage of the total population of the 13\u00a0 states. The phrase \u201cWe the People\u201d as \u00a0a demographic reference point in1789 excluded almost the entire US populace.<\/p>\n<p>As we will see, after a rocky start, the scope of what is \u00a0meant by \u201cthe People or the United States\u201d in the Constitution expanded exponentially in the two centuries following the Constitution\u2019s ratification.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Supreme Court\u2019s Disastrous Pre-Civil War Take on the Constitutional Meaning of\u00a0 \u201cWe the People\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the early years following ratification, the Constitution\u2019s preamble itself received little attention in the courts. In 1820 the Supreme Court relied on it without directly quoting it in <em>McCullough v. Maryland<\/em> when it upheld \u00a0the constitutionality of Congress\u2019 establishment of the Bank of the United States. Chief Justice Marshall noted that the Constitution was ratified by \u201cthe people\u201d &#8212; not state governments &#8212; in rejecting the claim state sovereignty \u00a0trumped the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court did not address who was covered by the expression \u00a0\u201cWe the People\u201d until \u00a0<em>Dred Scott \u00a0v. Sanford<\/em> in 1857. In that decision Chief Justice Taney, based on what he claimed was the understanding at the time of the Constitution\u2019s ratification, concluded Black people, whether enslaved or freed, were excluded from\u00a0 what he called the \u201cpeople of the United States.\u201d \u00a0In other words, some people were not to be considered people for constitutional purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Frederick Douglas in a speech before an anti-slavery \u00a0group \u00a0responded \u00a0to \u00a0the decision by quoting \u00a0the Constitution\u2019s preamble:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8216;We, the people&#8217;\u2014not we, the white people\u2014not we \u00a0the citizens, not we the privileged class, \u00a0not we the high, not we the low,\u00a0 not we of English extraction, not we of French or Scotch extraction, but \u201cwe the people;\u201d not we, the horses, sheep and swine, and wheelbarrows, but we the human inhabitants . . .&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Douglas shifted the focus away from the historical origin of the phrase \u201cWe the People\u201d to the actual text of the preamble and the ideal it portrayed\u2014that government was to serve, not to be served, and that its authority came from those governed. Douglas\u2019 version and vision ultimately were advanced by constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A Century of Constitutional Amendments Expands the Circle of Inclusion and Gives New Meaning to \u201cWe the People\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Controversy over the <em>Dred Scott<\/em> decision helped trigger the Civil War. As the war closed, the 13<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment \u00a0was adopted in 1865 and abolished slavery.\u00a0 Afterwards, the 14<sup>th<\/sup> and 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendments were adopted. The 14<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment was ratified in 1868. It repudiated the <em>Dred Scott<\/em> decision by declaring: \u201cAll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1870, the 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment was ratified, which stated\u00a0 the \u201cright of citizens of the United States to vote \u00a0shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <em>United States v. Wong Kim Ark <\/em>in 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that a child born in California and of Chinese immigrants was under the 14<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment a citizen of the United States. This represented an affirmation of the then existing common law principle that soil, not blood, determined citizenship. This has been called birthright citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Through the 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 14<sup>th<\/sup>, and 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendments the circle of inclusion for citizenship and voting purposes expanded to include former slaves and their descendants, people of color, and children of immigrants. \u201cWe the People\u201d took on a new, expanded meaning that rejected the bigoted and narrow exclusivity of the Dred Scott decision\u2019s interpretation of what was meant by \u00a0\u201cpeople.\u201d Historians have labeled this round of change resulting from the 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 14<sup>th<\/sup>, and 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendments \u00a0the Second Revolution.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the Supreme Court in 1895 \u00a0took a turn in a different direction. In the late nineteenth century the major source of federal government revenues was tariffs.\u00a0 Congress found this primary source financially constraining for the federal government and inequitable in raising the price of goods consumed by most Americans. Congress responded by enacting a \u00a02%\u00a0 tax on income over $4000,\u00a0 an income level then considered to be wealthy. The Supreme Court in<em> Pollock v. Farmers Loan and Trust Co.<\/em> ruled in a 5 to 4 decision that the\u00a0 tax on income was unconstitutional. In a dissent that echoes themes of today\u2019s times, Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The decision involves nothing less than a surrender of\u00a0 the taxing power to the moneyed class. . . .Even the specter of socialism is conjured up to frighten Congress from laying taxes upon the people in proportion to their ability to pay. . . . I hope it may not prove the first step toward the submergence of the liberties of the people in a sordid despotism of wealth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This decision was overturned by the 16<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment adopted in 1913, which holds \u201cCongress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes . . .\u201d\u00a0 Again the circle was expanded\u2014this time to include consideration of the economic interests of\u00a0 the people as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>The circle was further \u00a0expanded through ratification of another constitutional amendment in 1913, the 17<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment. \u00a0Previously US senators were chosen by state legislatures. The 17<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment states:\u00a0 \u201cThe Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof . . .\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The circle \u00a0then expanded dramatically with the Nineteenth Amendment\u2019s ratification in 1920. It declares: \u201cThe right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.\u201d Women at last secured \u00a0the right to vote.<\/p>\n<p>The circle expanded again with the ratification of the 24<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment in 1964, which banned taxes on the right to vote (\u201cpoll taxes\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>The last expansion by constitutional amendment occurred in 1971 with ratification of the 26<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment, which declared: \u201cThe right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State \u00a0on account of age.\u201d This amendment addressed the incongruity posed by the Vietnam War that young Americans \u00a0in the US were old enough to be drafted to fight and die in war, but not old enough to vote. This has \u00a0been seen as an acknowledgment of generational equity. Rarely discussed, the amendment not only lowered the age limit for voting, it also prohibits \u00a0a maximum age limit. At the same time, it does not prohibit <em>lowering<\/em> the age limit.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, for a period of over one hundred years, from the 1860s to the 1970s, there was a relentless expansion on what it means to be a citizen, voter or person in the US and consequently on what the phrase \u201cWe the People\u201d\u00a0 means to most people today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Circle\u2019s Expanse is Challenged\u2014The Supreme Court and Others Take on Voting Rights and Birthright Citizenship<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This expansion is now being challenged in the courts.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the Supreme Court in recent decisions has constrained the scope of \u00a0the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act was designed to enforce the\u00a0 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment. Congress found that a century after the 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment was ratified, registration rates for Black voters in several Southern states remained a fraction of the registration rates for white voters. For instance, the voter registration rate in 1964\/65 for those eligible to vote in Mississippi was 6.7% for Black state citizens and 69.9% for white. The disparity was attributed to the targeted use of literacy tests, poll taxes, and physical intimidation. The Voting Rights Act provided that states with a record of voter racial minority discrimination could be required by Congress to first obtain US Attorney General clearance before changing voting qualifications or setting up vetting procedures for prospective voters. By subsequent \u00a0overwhelming bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congress determined certain Southern states should remain subject to this preclearance requirement based on their record of discrimination.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013 in a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in <em>Shelby v. Holder<\/em> that this preclearance requirement was unconstitutional because, according to the court, the data in support of the preclearance\u00a0 process \u00a0was dated and violated \u201cequal state sovereignty.\u201d\u00a0 Many\u00a0 were shocked by this decision given that Section 2 of the 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment states \u201cCongress shall have the power to enforce the amendment by appropriate legislation.\u201d\u00a0 Worse, the majority opinion by Chief Justice Roberts failed to cite any specific \u00a0constitutional provision that was supposedly violated. According to constitutional law scholar Erwin Chermerinsky, the claimed principle of \u201cequal state sovereignty\u201d cannot be found in the text of the Constitution or reconciled\u00a0 with the 15<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>In 2026, the Supreme Court took the Voting Rights Act up again in <em>Louisiana v. Callais<\/em>, when it addressed Section 2 of the act, which has been used to bar Congressional redistricting that dilutes the voting power of racial minority groups. In a 6 to 3 decision the court ruled that\u00a0 Congressional redistricting in Louisiana must meet the decision\u2019s new higher standard of proving discrimination based on race and not party. As Justice Kagan pointed out in her dissent, joined by Justices Sotomayer and Brown, the court in an earlier case held that gerrymandering \u00a0for partisan political advantage is constitutionally permissible. \u00a0When the <em>Callais<\/em> decision is combined with this prior holding, according to the dissenters, impunity to a Section 2 violation would be virtually assured even if there is undeniable minority voting dilution. The dissent declared \u00a0the<em> Callais<\/em> decision finally completed the conservative majority\u2019s \u00a0\u201cdemolition job\u201d on the Voting Rights Act. Some commentators fear the <em>Callais<\/em> decision could upend\u00a0 minority representation in one third of Congressional districts.<\/p>\n<p>One particularly blatant effort to shrink the scope of what is meant by \u201cWe the People\u201d \u00a0was a Trump \u00a0administration executive order that challenged birthright citizenship for children born in the United States of parents who were unlawfully or temporarily present in the country. In<em> Trump v. Barbara<\/em> this last July, the Supreme Court rejected the administration\u2019s effort to overturn the court\u2019s 1898 decision upholding birthright citizenship. The court found Trump\u2019s \u00a0executive order violated the 14<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment\u2019s provision which declared those born in the US are US citizens. A contrary ruling could have opened the door to potentially jeopardizing \u00a0the citizenship of millions. The decision was a 6 to 3 decision with Justices Barrett, Sotomayer, Kagan, and Brown joining Chief Justice Roberts\u2019 court opinion. The decision, however, was closer than it looks. Justice Kavanaugh concurred only in the judgment and in a separate opinion argued that Congress still has the power to revoke or modify birthright citizenship. Dissenters Thomas, Alioto, and Gorsuch would have upheld the constitutionality and legality of Trump\u2019s executive order altogether. Trump in response to the decision suggested he might seek from Congress legislation on birthright citizenship. He also signed new executive orders that attempt to limit birthright citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a century of constitutional amendments expanding\u00a0 what \u201cWe the People\u201d means, the ghost of the Dred Scott decision has not been fully exorcised and can still haunt. The fight for inclusion goes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Ken MacVey The preamble of the US Constitution famously begins with the phrase \u201cWe the People&#8221;. Who, and how many, constituted this self-identified group? How well founded was this invocation of \u00a0\u201cWe the People&#8221;? Let\u2019s start by looking at the US population as a whole when the Constitution took effect in 1789. The Constitution&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1801,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mondaymagazine","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1801"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310454"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310629,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310454\/revisions\/310629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310508,"date":"2026-09-01T05:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310508"},"modified":"2026-08-31T02:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T06:58:23","slug":"is-reading-really-all-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/is-reading-really-all-that.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Reading Really All That?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by Marianne Janack\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-310510 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/book-image-1-360x240.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/book-image-1-360x240.jpg 360w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/book-image-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/book-image-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/book-image-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/book-image-1-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/book-image-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When I ask people if they actually read all the things that they were assigned to read during their college education, they all tell me that they didn\u2019t. And, in fact, I didn\u2019t either.<\/p>\n<p>I got behind in a Nineteenth Century Russian Literature course (so many giant books!) and resorted to the 1980\u2019s version of AI to prepare for the final exam: Cliffs Notes. When I was taking a Shakespeare class, I decided to listen to several plays rather than read them. I had to go to the music library at my university, where I listened to old-fashioned records. The plays were supposed to be listened to at a speed of 32rpm; I listened to them at 72rpm. Hamlet sounded like one of the Chipmunks, as did Horatio, Romeo, Juliet, Henry IV, Richard III, and Falstaff.<\/p>\n<p>In his book <em>The Call of Stories<\/em>, Robert Coles confesses his own reading shortcuts. Rather than read a book he was assigned in his high school English class, he relied on a plot summary that he\u2019d found. His mother was horrified. The book wasn\u2019t written, she said, to be someone\u2019s quick study. It was meant to teach its readers something about being human.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, there are many such books. Many of us are assigned them in college or high school. And many of us use some kind of \u201cquick study\u201d shortcut to give the appearance of having read those books. We read the summaries, but not the actual book: more efficient, and it gets the job done.\u00a0 Or so we tell ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>I kept a diary of what I read over a 24-hour period: I read labels at the grocery store, directions on an aspirin bottle, street signs, emails, an article about how liberal democracy is doomed because written content is being eclipsed by video content, a recipe for something I was considering making for dinner, and several chapters of a book I was reading with several colleagues: <em>Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I read a lot, and watched no video, but I\u2019m not sure that my reading did much to support my participation in liberal democracy.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The claim that a culture of literacy (as opposed to an oral culture) is essential to the development of the kinds of people who can participate in democracy is often traced back to Walter Ong. Worries about the death of democracy are not new, but the threat now seems to be short video content. There is the widespread worry that people\u2019s attention spans are becoming short as a result of a diet of shortform video entertainment; but there is also the worry that we are moving out of the literate stage of history and into a post-literate age (or back toward an age of orality). What these mean for liberal democracy and the habits of mind (or, in Ong\u2019s terms, \u201cconsciousness\u201d) that are required for that form of social and governmental arrangement is the brave new world we face.<\/p>\n<p>But the statistics about reading are murky. Different surveys have reached different conclusions about how much Americans read now and read in the past.\u00a0 Are we actually reading less?\u00a0 If we count how much time we spend reading and responding to text messages and email messages, or reading reviews of products on Amazon, or directions on the things we buy from them, it becomes less clear that people are reading less.<\/p>\n<p>But, we might say, much of that reading is instrumental, or, in the case of me reading <em>Regime Change<\/em>, gossipy tittle-tattle that doesn\u2019t necessarily seem to be virtuous.\u00a0 But then is reading itself something to be encouraged?<\/p>\n<p>And then there\u2019s audiobooks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s not reading!\u201d one of my friends said when I told her that I\u2019d been listening to a<\/p>\n<p>Booker Prize-winning novel by Ian McEwen.\u00a0 And, of course, she\u2019s right: it\u2019s not a process of passing one\u2019s eyeballs over a written text.\u00a0 But oddly enough, reading text messages is such a process. So if I think that I ought to read more, I could serve that goal by reading more text messages and emails, or the backs of cereal boxes.<\/p>\n<p>Which all raises the question: is reading itself valuable? Or is it <em>what<\/em> we read that\u2019s valuable? Is reading a recipe as good as reading Hegel\u2019s <em>Phenomenology of Spirit<\/em>?\u00a0 Is reading that Hegel tome as good as reading a police procedural or a gossipy account of personal vendettas and political hopes? Is listening to classic novels or books as good as reading them? And is that pastime equivalent to listening to an entertaining comedy?<\/p>\n<p>It seems that the conclusion we ought to draw from this is either that there\u2019s nothing particularly important about reading, or (perhaps more troubling) that we should be thinking about what and why certain kinds of content are worth spending our time on, and certain kinds of content are not\u2014that some content is better than other kinds, and that the medium is irrelevant.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>The Call of Stories<\/em>, Robert Coles reports a conversation he had with his brother about their parents\u2019 \u201cstrange habit\u201d of reading novels to each other and discussing them each evening. They were, Coles\u2019s brother insisted, prejudiced against the radio, which was the medium that Coles and his brother preferred for entertainment. Coles and his brother loved to listen to \u201cThe Shadow\u201d, \u201cFibber McGee and Molly\u201d, \u201cAmos and Andy\u201d and \u201cEasy Aces\u201d on the radio. But they were forced to do this in the cramped family kitchen, sitting in uncomfortable chairs, and to use a smaller radio; their parents commandeered the comfortable living room (where the large Philco radio set lived) to read novels by Tolstoy, Chekov, Dickens, and Eliot.\u00a0 Eventually, however, Coles came to think that the novels taught people important things about being human, and started including them in his courses for medical students.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, we learn things from reading instructions, or novels about Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, or gossip columns. And from Cliffs Notes or plot summaries we learn what a book is about. Perhaps it\u2019s not reading itself that is essential to liberal democracy, but the kind of reading that takes seriously ideas and arguments, or presents us with ways of thinking about ourselves and others that might make us better friends, neighbors, and actors in our own lives.\u00a0 Maybe liberal democracy is overrated\u2014Plato would probably say that it is. But maybe its flourishing depends less on the media we use and more on what that media delivers to us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Marianne Janack\u00a0 When I ask people if they actually read all the things that they were assigned to read during their college education, they all tell me that they didn\u2019t. And, in fact, I didn\u2019t either. I got behind in a Nineteenth Century Russian Literature course (so many giant books!) and resorted to the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1948,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mondaymagazine","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310508"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310626,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310508\/revisions\/310626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310659,"date":"2026-09-01T04:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T08:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310659"},"modified":"2026-08-31T08:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:35:10","slug":"perceptions-533","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/09\/perceptions-533.html","title":{"rendered":"Perceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-310660\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116.heic\" alt=\"\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-310661 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2476\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-scaled.jpeg 2476w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-348x360.jpeg 348w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-990x1024.jpeg 990w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-768x794.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-1486x1536.jpeg 1486w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-1981x2048.jpeg 1981w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_6116-1-290x300.jpeg 290w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2476px) 100vw, 2476px\" \/>Sughra Raza. <em>Smokebush Blues. August 29, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Digital photograph.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sughra Raza. Smokebush Blues. August 29, 2026. Digital photograph. Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mondaymagazine","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310665,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310659\/revisions\/310665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":310655,"date":"2026-08-31T14:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T18:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=310655"},"modified":"2026-08-31T05:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T09:07:31","slug":"weird-is-a-weird-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/weird-is-a-weird-word.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWeird\u201d is a weird word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Colin Gorrie at <em>Dead Language Society<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-310656\" src=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws-1-2-360x278.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws-1-2-360x278.png 360w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws-1-2-1024x791.png 1024w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws-1-2-768x593.png 768w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws-1-2-300x232.png 300w, https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws-1-2.png 1456w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/>Weird\u00a0<\/em>is one of the most commonly used words in the English language. Chances are, the word will pass through your lips (or be tapped out by your fingers) today.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">You\u2019ll use it when you need to describe something out of the ordinary:\u00a0<em>a weird coincidence<\/em>,\u00a0<em>a weird smell in the fridge<\/em>,<em>\u00a0<\/em>or \u2014 heavens forfend! \u2014<em>\u00a0that weird guy at the office<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">We say\u00a0<em>weird\u00a0<\/em>all the time for the little everyday oddities we encounter.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">But\u00a0<em>weird<\/em>\u00a0wasn\u2019t always such a casual word. A thousand years ago, it was one of the heaviest words in the English language: the ancestor of\u00a0<em>weird<\/em>\u00a0was the Old English word\u00a0<em>wyrd<\/em>, which meant \u2018fate\u2019 or \u2018destiny\u2019<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Wyrd\u00a0<\/em>haunts Old English poetry. It shows up in the bleakest and most fateful moments of poems like\u00a0<em>The Wanderer<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Beowulf<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>More <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deadlanguagesociety.com\/p\/weird-is-a-weird-word?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by <a href=\"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/support-3qd\">donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colin Gorrie at Dead Language Society: Weird\u00a0is one of the most commonly used words in the English language. Chances are, the word will pass through your lips (or be tapped out by your fingers) today. You\u2019ll use it when you need to describe something out of the ordinary:\u00a0a weird coincidence,\u00a0a weird smell in the fridge,\u00a0or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310655"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310658,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310655\/revisions\/310658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]