Sam Bagg
Sam Bagg
Recent Stories
Newly beyond the gates of Yale …
Four former columnists who graduated in May write about their lives these days, and share perspectives they have gained since leaving Yale.
Bagg: Learn humility from Yale
The French have a proverb: To know all is to forgive all. It may seem extreme to claim that greater understanding will always lead to forgiveness, but I think there’s a lot of truth to that notion. The better we are able to adopt the perspectives of others, the more we will be able to identify with them, and the less likely we will be to blame or judge them.
Bagg: The only peace
Imagine you live in the Gaza strip. Your grandparents fled from their homes in 1948, and they have taught you all your life that this was a grave injustice — the only injustice. You live in downtrodden Gaza City with your extended family in a one-room apartment, getting food and water only when Israeli politics allow. One day, your crazy uncle shoots rockets into Israel, and Israel decides to respond. The IDF blankets your neighborhood with signs telling you to leave. Go to the UN building down the street, they say; you’ll be safe there. From the UN building, you watch your home and all of your belongings burn to the ground. The next morning at the market, you hear the sound of Israeli planes overhead and run back to the UN building — only to find today, it is the one being firebombed…
Bagg: Pornography is everywhere
American parents worry constantly about the implications of their children watching R-rated, or even PG-13–rated, movies. They won’t let their kids view countless films, made mostly for good, clean entertainment, because of a sexually suggestive scene here and there, or maybe — God forbid — the occasional shot of breasts.
Bagg: Happiness at Yale
Are you happy? Most Yalies say they are. It’s what we do. We value happiness highly here, so depression, in the Yale mind, is failure. Unhappiness is unacceptable.
Bagg: Feminism needed at Yale
What is feminism, and why does it matter?
Bagg: Together, starting today
Today, at perhaps the most important national ceremony in years, Barack Obama has picked as the nation’s spiritual guide a homophobic, anti-abortion evangelical who doesn’t believe in evolution. As a pro-gay, pro-choice atheist who believes that doubting evolution is akin to doubting we have hands, I should be outraged. Or should I?
Bagg: Christmas for everyone!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. In the next few weeks, families will travel long distances, give each other gifts they bought in the airport and remember why they moved across the country in the first place.
Bagg: Rethink recruitment
What did we learn from Ned Fulmer? Was he right? Are Yale athletes mediocre, on and off the field? Absolutely not, and Yale athletes were right to be insulted at the suggestion. But was the extent of the response warranted? Several people camped outside of his room for a day, and for months, jeers and expletives followed him wherever he went.
Bagg: Result didn’t tell the full story
What does it all mean? A month and a half ago, McCain was ahead in the polls. Sarah Palin was electrifying conservative audiences, and the Mac was on top of his foreign policy game. What happened? Did Obama suddenly prove himself worthy? Did Sarah Palin make some unforgivable gaffe she hadn’t made already? No. The markets took a nosedive, and Obama immediately jumped ahead into a lead he never lost.