Stephen Marche via The New York Times:

‘As a geopolitical actor, the United States has become a kind of lumbering zombie—a beast that can be startled into reflexive actions but lacks higher functions… The rupture of the world order is going much better than expected….’”

Rose Horowitch via The Atlantic:

‘Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history….’