From the Editor

You wouldn’t know it from flipping through the magazine, which has the same old look, but there have been some new goings-on at the HPR. I want to take this opportunity to tell you about some of them.
First, we have recruited a great group of regular bloggers. These 17 students have a diverse array of interests: some of them cover foreign affairs, some of them cover policy, and some of them do straight, horse-race politics. In the short time they have been operating, traffic on and interest in the blog has skyrocketed. The HPRgument is quickly becoming the place to go for political debate on Harvard’s campus.
The HPR has also been busy finishing work on its summer project, the so-called Annual Report of the United States of America (ARUSA). This in-depth look at the U.S. government budget is modeled on the corporate business report, complete with colorful charts and plenty of facts and figures. Our goal is to provide a helpful tool for cutting through the noise in discussions about our budgetary future. ARUSA will be unveiled on the HPR website by the time this magazine reaches your hands.
Why am I telling you about all this? First, obviously, in the hope that you’ll visit our website and our blog. But second, to highlight a point related to our current Covers section theme, higher education. The point is this: The old hierarchical idea which insisted that first you go to school, then you get a diploma, then you go to graduate school, then you get a job, and only then do you really know something, only then can you really say something—that idea is going out the window.
That is to say, there’s no reason a college student with a computer can’t contribute to the exchange of ideas here and now, pre-diploma and pre-employment. At least, that is the big assumption we are making. You could say it is one that student publications have always made, but I think this is really a trend of the Internet age.
Pre-Internet, a student magazine or newspaper was made by students and for students. Participating in such endeavors could have educational value, no doubt, but it would have been silly to think of oneself as having much impact on the world. If you got other students to laugh or to think, that was enough.
But now, with the Internet capable of sending our words around the world in eight-tenths of a second, we can legitimately aspire to a broader impact. Whether we are worthy of it is another issue entirely. You’ll have to be the judge of that yourself.