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Why is the American justice system so impervious to change? And what can be done to fix it?

These are the motivating questions here.

The answers are not partisan—when homicide spiked in 2020, and then violence rose more broadly, one side of the political aisle doubled down on tropes and wild generalizations. The other side completely ignored it.

And the answers do not exist in doing more of the same: our system is in a stable equilibrium with 700,000 sworn police officers and two million people incarcerated and more violence each day than peer nations.

To find better answers, we have to think broadly about society unconstrained by thoughts of police and prisons as the only recourse.

You will find a little bit of news in this newsletter—but only as context as the why questions are more important. You will find a spirit of gentle provocation but no memes. And there’s a bit of the scientific method but centered on humility. Henri Poincare, the 19th century French philosopher, noted that the scientific method does not allow for proof, about anything. For, if a hypothesis cannot be rejected in favor on one alternative, there are an infinite number of other alternative hypotheses to test against. The process is timeless, without an end. So then, the objective is not proof, but discovery.

Joan Didion said, “I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means.” Essays are just a medium to have a conversation with yourself. The most satisfying art is full of surprises. And wonder. And grace.

I hope you find some here and I hope will find this newsletter interesting.

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