Virginia Postrel
Virginia Postrel
Virginia Inman Postrelis an American political and cultural writer of broadly libertarian, or classical liberal, views...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth14 January 1960
CountryUnited States of America
accounts backstage disclosure dominate finances full medical skeptical voters
In post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America, skeptical voters demand full disclosure of everything from candidates' finances to their medical records, and spin-savvy accounts of backstage machinations dominate political coverage.
central depends drives gather knowledge progress sort surprise
Surprise drives progress because innovation depends on the sort of knowledge no one can gather in a central place.
makers policy science scientists studying worried
Even before Sputnik, scientists and policy makers worried that not enough Americans were studying science.
children freaks less tube
Like the 'test tube babies' born of in vitro fertilization, cloned children need not be identifiable, much less freaks or outcasts.
cuts human including indeed
Habituation is indeed a fact of human psychology. That's one reason we like novelty, including different cuts of jeans.
became life radically ubiquitous urban
Before it became a ubiquitous part of urban life, Starbucks was, in most American cities, a radically new idea.
cannot offer science
Science is about exploring the unknown and cannot offer guarantees.
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The United States government approaches patient choice in medication as Singapore does free speech: its pronouncements sound reasonable and tolerant until you threaten its prerogatives.
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The mere existence of 'Buffy' proves the declinists wrong about one thing: Hollywood commercialism can produce great art. Complex and evolving characters. Playful language. Joy and sorrow, pathos and elation. Episodes that dare to be different - to tell stories in silence or in song. Big themes and terrible choices.
afford art best dying flourish free freedom grand life living opportunity room science supposed
Religion, art, and science flourish best in a free society. True, freedom does not afford much opportunity for grand gestures. It has little room for martyrs. But life is not supposed to be about dying well. It is about living well.
possess response
Glamour is not something you possess but something you perceive, not something you have but something you feel. It is a subjective response to a stimulus.
beginning creative design digital including movies music product sort type weathered
The profusion of fonts is one more product of the digital revolution. Beginning in the mid-'80s and accelerating in the 1990s, type design weathered the sort of radical, technology-driven transformation that other creative industries, including music, publishing, and movies, now face.
far government history industrial internet messy people played policy role subtle tale tried
The history of the Internet is not, as some people have tried to make it, a libertarian just-so story. It is a messy tale in which the government played a significant role. That role was, however, far more subtle than the plans of industrial policy gurus or techno-boosting politicians.
against art artistic behind commercial criticism debate dynamism fashion highly medium society western
Behind the criticism of fashion as an artistic medium is a highly ideological prejudice: against markets, against consumers, against the dynamism of Western commercial society. The debate is not about art but about culture and economics.