The Frank Forum

Both of my grandfathers fought in the Second World War, entering combat in 1944 and staying in Europe throughout the duration of the War in Europe and its aftermath. Both resided from small towns in lakes area, rural Minnesota. My maternal grandfather fought in the 94th Infantry Division, and my paternal grandfather fought in the 10th Armored Division. Both belonged to General George S. Patton's Third Army, the same Third Army that exists to this day and my unit was under nearly six and a half decades later. One grandfather told many stories of the War, but his eyes closed about nine months before mine opened, so those stories have traveled through my father. And the grandfather I did know well never told stories of the War to his family, except to his two grandsons (myself included) who fought in the Global War on Terror era. There are many stories I could tell that have traveled through my father to me about Ernest M. Olson , Combat Command B (CCB), 10th Armored Division .  This...

The 2024 Oxford Word of the Year is “brain rot.” It is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.” Although this term is meant as a humorous commentary on excessive technology use and hints at its potential harms, the definition itself is incorrect—or at best, incomplete. Brain rot is not just “supposed,” it’s real, and it’s harmful, especially for minors whose brains are still developing.  Several studies have shown that certain kinds of technology use negatively affect the brain, particularly in minors. One study found that frequent use of mobile devices “may displace their opportunities for learning emotion-regulation strategies over time,” meaning that kids do not develop healthy ways to deal with stress and adversity. Another fou...

  The human soul is inimitable; Artificial Intelligence, while wildly impressive, will always fall short. We individual beings are idiosyncratic in a way that is incomputable to machines.  Many, however, fail to appreciate this indisputable fact and look at humans, not as God's inexplicable creations, but as product-maximizing homo-economici : faceless units whose value is measured by their outputs.   Schools, in particular, are overly output-driven. In an article for First Things , S. A. Dance writes that education is "a spiritual pursuit." The spirit is not quantifiable, but rather, something that is cultivated through leisure. Leisure, Dance recognizes, has become something of a pejorative. Today, leisureliness is seen as indolence.  Dance and others, however, see leisure as a meditative and reflective practice. A school's goal, he writes, ought to be to "refine our capacities to think rationally, contemplate reality, appreciate beauty, and feel gratitude....

  Breaking old habits is hard.   I say that because most of us city-dwellers are in the nasty habit of insulating ourselves from our neighbors and communities. As I wrote for National Review a few months ago, "When we walk down the street, we turn off our peripheral vision and focus only on the destination, never the journey." We have become overly-utilitarian, socially-averse and stuck in rigid routines.  I always feel the need to admit: I, too, have insulated myself. I could be far more involved in my community. I could learn more of my neighbor's names. I need to do better. We all do.  Some, recognizing that a life of atomization and loneliness is fundamentally unhealthy, have taken the plunge into community engagement.  In Front Porch Republic , Dennis Uhlman writes about a chili cook-off that he spearheaded in his new South Carolina neighborhood. From the article: By late afternoon, to my surprise, a steady stream of neighbors started to show up. ...