Last Saturday hundreds of thousands of high schoolers gathered across the country in a “March for Our Lives” rally. Organized and financed by anti-gun nuts and other left-wing outfits, and ornamented with Hollywood celebrities like George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey, the spectacle was filled with the emotional exhibitionism and juvenile policy recommendations.

On Facebook on March 14, the day of the student walkout over guns, I posted the following: I think the student walkout is a great idea. I would just like to see it extended. Walk out for the rest of the year. I said it partly in jest and partly because I meant it. My friend economist Jack Tatom replied and there was a back and forth.

Hierarchical structures such as states dominate our understanding of history. But even as rulers asserted their power from the towers of palaces, real power often resided in the town squares below, within constantly shifting networks of people. The age of the world wide web has illuminated the power of networks but, Niall Ferguson argues, this is an age-old phenomenon. The event is on March 23, 2018 from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm.

Hoover Institution fellow Paul Gregory discusses his Defining Ideas article "My War With Russian Trolls."