A Magazine About Ideas

Why isn't there a Consumer Reports for ideas? That very popular magazine does us a service by reporting on the performance and quality of all manner of consumer goods. I bet many of you have used Consumer Reports magazine or one of the annual Buying Guides to help you make a purchase or two.

Why isn't there a similar magazine devoted to ideas? Yes, I realize that many magazines are devoted to ideas, usually approached from a liberal (Mother Jones) or conservative (National Review) perspective. Other magazines evaluate ideas about religion and science from a skeptical or critical perspective.

I'm talking about a magazine that tests political ideas, social policy ideas, popular beliefs, popular attitudes, and even traditions. The "tests" in question could include conventional policy analysis, thought experiments, creative exercises (What if marriage were a five year renewable contract?), and assessments of ideas, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that may qualify as social pollution.

Social pollution - an idea, belief, attitude, or behavior that is unscientific, illogical, and/or that tends to undermine widely-held human values like self determination and health.

How many of our beliefs, ideas, and behaviors would look bad when subjected to the "social pollution" test? Note that I do not expect an idea to die out because it scores poorly! We hold on to ideas for emotional reasons and because of intertia - it takes too much effort to change.

I think my magazine, call it Is That a Good Idea?, could include debates, interviews, policy analysis, speculative articles (What would really happen if we legalized marijuana use by adults? What if we lowered the age of consent for sex to 13?), and profiles of bad people and ideas.

People who come up with really bad ideas could be ridiculed in a section called "The Padded Cell" and ideas that desperately need to go away could be detailed in "The Circular File."

So, who wants to help me get this thing started?

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