What this guy said has probably always been true, but the age of Trump has brought it into crystal clarity. Human society has always had its intellectuals, but for every one of them, there have been thousands of people who …
Category: Sustainability
Plato on Injustice
IMO, what Plato said here is true in some cases, but certainly not all. Lots of people, me included, make a big deal out of standing up against injustice, even though we’re extremely unlikely to be personally victimized by it. …
Are We Really Wasting Our Lives Squabbling about This?
We all know that many corners of the globe are afire on account of religious differences. Israel and Palestine are two entirely different religions, so it makes sense that one’s trying to exterminate the other. But how far apart are …
Are We Really Wasting Our Lives Squabbling about This? Read More »
Letting the Market Decide
Almost all respondents on social media were enthusiastic about banning the garb at left. Two points: 1) I’m thrilled to live in a country that protects its people’s freedom of expression. As an older American, I’m not crazy about massive …
Missouri and the Ten Commandments
There are several reasons that this is a bad idea for schoolchildren, or anyone, really. It imposes a religion, as prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. It acts against the clearly expressed wishes of the Founding Fathers, whom Americans respect, if …
We Ruin Things
To the reader who sent me this meme, I ask, with all due respect: Are you serious? When we re-elected Trump, we chose to receive a masterclass in ruining things — in the most clearly absurd conceivable manner. This is …
Defining “Woke”
I like what the lawyer said here, though I would argue that the concept goes even further: • All of Earth’s people need to be treated fairly and equally. We have people worth hundreds of billions of dollars, living on …
Tagged with: 1.5 billion people can't a clean glass of water to drink, all of Earth's people need to treated fairly and equally, Big Oil should be prohibited from using our atmosphere as their own private sewer, corporations should not be able to buy favorable lawmaking, Defining "Woke", public education should be supported, science should form the underpinning of all government policy, the death penalty is not a part of a civilized society, the United States has no more right to wage an aggressive war against Venezuela than Russia has a right to invade Ukraine
It’s True that Philosophy Never Gets Outdated, But . . .
The problem facing traditional Western philosophy is that science has usurped so much of its turf over the past 100-or-so years, and this can only accelerate from here. Why is the universe here? How did it begin? What are its …
It’s True that Philosophy Never Gets Outdated, But . . . Read More »
Tagged with: cosmologists and particle physicists, How does the mind work?, there are still tens of millions of Americans who believe that Donald Trump is a good honest person, Western philosophy, What are the ultimate building blocks of the universe?, What is consciousness, Why is the universe here?
Is the Earth Trying to Get Rid of Us?
This line from Kurt Vonnegut calls to mind what George Carlin said about the Earth’s expelling the human race. On two different occasions he used the following similes as to what the planet is doing: Shaking us off, like a …
Disturb the World Around You
The website A Word a Day features “A Thought for Today,” normally from a notable author born on this date. Here’s one from writer Ann Patchett (pictured), born 2 Dec 1963: The question is whether or not you choose to …
