According to this article, many people who decry wokeism have trouble defining the term. When challenged in this regard, I borrow from what etiquette maven Emily Post said about manners, in an effort to calm an anxious lady who had …
Category: Sustainability
Massive Scam
The reader who sent me this answers his own question “bottled water.” Excellent response. Staying hydrated is a very strong idea, but ruining the planet with microplastic is horrendous. How hard is it to re-use containers? The other thing that …
Tagged with: microplastic
A Rarity: Improving American Education
I just met a senior executive at HopSkipDrive, an organization with an Uber-like business model, but one that focuses on providing a safe, reliable alternative school transportation solution. My new friend says that the typical schoolchild might be in foster …
Tagged with: American education
Word Choice
A reader asks: I really wish I could come up with a better adverb than “really” to emphasize or to express enthusiasm, which I really use way too often. But I really can’t think of one that does it better. I …
Tagged with: Word Choice
Is Our Existence a Problem?
This from 20th Century German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist Erich Fromm. A smart guy, to be sure, but to his point here, I’m with Socrates, who said famously, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” …
Foreign Aid
Apparently, some people are unaware that U.S. foreign aid is focused on maintaining freedom and stability around the world.
Tagged with: U.S. foreign aid
Woke
A reader by the name of Paul Maunder sent me this, and answers the question: “Thanks for the compliment.” Indeed, all decent people consider it a compliment to be thought of as “woke,” i.e., having a sensitive awareness of the …
Tagged with: "Woke"
Noam Chomsky on Hope
Here’s a piece of wisdom from Noam Chomsky. As Arthur C. Clarke put it shortly before his death, “I try to be optimistic, because both optimism and pessimism are self-fulfilling prophecies.”
Germany Has Its Own Distinguishing Charactistics
While Germany has a far-right party, the AfD, Alternative für Deutschland, which received 10.4% of the vote in 2021, there really is no equivalent to the low-brow MAGA movement in the United States. Perhaps that’s because the average German is …
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Achieving Utopia
As we read the words at left, a kind of incredulity comes over us. This couldn’t really happen, could it? All this turns around the state of world capitalism. As long as our socio-economic system is based on greed, and …
