A society that condones the systemic mistreatment of others is closer to savagery than civilization.
What Brian Greene says here is correct, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
As my colleague Wally Rippel points out, very few Americans, especially young ones, cannot even name (let alone admire) a single living scientist.
Most of us try to become better people as we move through our lives. We admit our mistakes and try to learn from them.
The United States is in the process of a great cleansing, as a former president is forcibly removed from political life. If we had to point to his main flaw as a human being, it just might be what Tolstoy noted here.
Trump believes that good people are actually suckers and losers. He lives by no rules, other than achieving what’s good for him in each moment in time.
This country now has the opportunity to learn a powerful lesson: that in the end, sociopaths do not prosper.
A considerable amount of evidence points to the “evolutionary cul de sac” theory in anthropology, the concept that humankind has progressed to a point that its own destruction is imminent.
We have big brains, but we’re a horribly tribal and selfish species.
A reader presented the meme at left. My response:
Based on some of your other posts, you seem like a decent guy. I implore you to rethink this before it’s too late.
At left we see a concept that’s not altogether weird. Trees (made by God?) stand as therapy for a planet that’s in the process of baking itself.
Our unquenchable thirst to chop down what’s left of the world’s trees derives from a combination of the logging industry’s need to meet the demand for building products and the clearing of the rainforests to make room for more cows, soon to be beef.
If we can increase the use of fast-growing hemp vs. slow-growing trees, and replace part of our consumption of steak and hamburger with plant-based meat, now virtually indistinguishable in terms of taste and texture from slaughtered cows, we can turn this around fairly soon.
Let it be.
Fortunately, there is very little ambiguity in our laws, and thus the photo at the left was probably taken outside the United States.
Currently, the most important laws on our books are those that prohibit sedition and treason, and they are all crystal clear.
As suggested here, many of us face challenges. Some are personal, like substance abuse. Others are societal, like ignorance and hate.
Fortunately, the 9 AM Sunday sermon helps us keep a bright outlook.
If you think that there is any conceivable event that could cause Trump to give up on this line, even his indictment, trial, conviction, and incarceration, you are sorely mistaken.
The only saving grace is the fact that his base of gullible morons who believe this bullshit grows a bit smaller with each passing day.
Questioning existing scientific beliefs, forming new hypotheses, conducting experiments, analyzing the results, writing papers, subjecting them to peer review, and, if everything suggests that the findings are correct, publishing the new theory broadly….all of this is the way scientists do science.
Important note: This has nothing whatsoever to do with having auto mechanics, bus drivers, and real estate agents Google a certain scientific topic and come to their own conclusions.
