David Masciotra

Deleting the Individual: Big Data and Presidential Campaigns

digit city March 19, 2013

The following is an excerpt from David Masciotra’s new book, Against Traffic: Essays on Politics and Identity. For sale exclusively at Amazon.
Looking back over the 2012 Presidential Election, it is easy to see how team membership, echo chamber media,…

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The Culture of Guns? What About the Culture of Narcissism?

250px-Narcissus-Caravaggio_(1594-96) December 22, 2012

It is predictably American for Americans to obsess over an object used to perpetuate a crime, rather than examine the perpetrator and consider the people surrounding the perpetrator. The massacre in Newtown, Connecticut has understandably disturbed millions of people, and…

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The Dangerous Alliance of Big Government and Big Business

big govt. big business October 5, 2012

The most important political conversation Americans need to have is about how the old conversations no longer matter. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party—called the one-and-a-half party system by former Republican Senate staffer Mike Lofgren—largely serve the same interests.…

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Caped Crusaders and the Flight From Society

Lsh70s July 11, 2012

The American appetite for cinematic adaptations of children’s stories about grown men who dress as rodents to save the world from grown men dressed as reptiles is bottomless. The Avengers is already the sixth highest grossing film in North American history, and…

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iHero: Steve Jobs, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Modern Heroism

steve-jobs-death December 2, 2011

The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was a civil rights legend and American hero. Born deep in the Jim Crow south during the 1920s, he grew from the humble, but durable roots of poverty, family, and Christianity to become a leader of…

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A Big Lunch: Cheeseburgers, Oysters, and Decentralization on a Road Trip Through Indiana

cheeseburger August 2, 2011

The stones strapped to the back of the city dweller, along with the thick tension of the silence of the state, explains why most city conversations fall on the opposite side of friendly.

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Sitting Inside a Mountain

st. raymond's June 20, 2011

Breaking free from the voices, soundtrack, machinery, and plastic of consumption and advertising gives an individual the opportunity to consider questions and ideas that the world outside St. Raymond’s continually beats into the ground.

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