Peggy Noonan has a thought-provoking column in today's Wall Street Journal: "America's Real War on Women" (login may be required). Her material subject is the discriminatory language used in public life about women. Her formal subject is the devolution of discourse in American public life.
Whether one agrees with her on the material issue and her suggestion about the role of relatively new media like the internet, she seems dead-on with respect to the formal issue: public discourse on many fronts has deteriorated and is deteriorating in the United States. It is difficult to cultivate virtue individually and in society when reasonable discourse with others is a handicap.
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