This from 20th Century American jurist Learned Hand: That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where nonconformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, …
Category: Sustainability
What Powers Do Billionaires Legitimately Have Over Us?
As we all know, there are greedy and selfish people in this world of ours, and these are certainly not virtuous traits. Yet, trying to be fair, people have the right to live by their own wits. If you’re Ebeneezer …
What Powers Do Billionaires Legitimately Have Over Us? Read More »
Decent (and Younger) People Are Leaving the United States
From a reader: Filmmaker James Cameron says his family has permanently moved to New Zealand because it’s “sane” and “actually believes in science” compared to the US. “They already had a 98% [Covid] vaccination rate. This is why I love …
Decent (and Younger) People Are Leaving the United States Read More »
Taxing the Rich
IMO, we need a tax on extreme wealth, rather than income. We’re taking about people with hundreds of billions of dollars in net worth. Taking, say, 5% per annum of that wealth and using it to feed and clothe the …
Improving the Planet’s Health
When I was a young boy, my grandfather, who was one of the most politically conservative people I’ve ever known, told me to “make this world a better place than it was when you got here.” Now, that seems like …
Tagged with: Improving the Planet's Health
Celebrating Our Differences and Recognizing Our Common Humanity
Until Trump came along, it appeared that we were making fairly decent progress along these lines.
Insensitive People Surround Us
Re: the meme here, a reader responds, I am not afraid for myself, but I fear for others. See the difference? Exactly. I’m not afraid of the Gestapo because I’m not a Jew.
Tagged with: Insensitive People Surround Us
On Obediance
At left are the words of Erich Fromm, whom I would have called an early psychologist rather than a philosopher, but I suppose the boundaries are loose. In the main, most Americans, me included, are rule-followers, which is why we …
Tagged with: are rule-followers, At left are the words of Erich Fromm, but I suppose the boundaries are loose. In the main, me included, most Americans, that's precisely what we do. Having said that, the uprising of a fascist autocracy in the United States is not going to be acceptable for the vast majority of Americans. May this always be the case., which is why we stop at red lights. If our scientists tell us to have our children vaccinated against smallpox or polio, whom I would have called an early psychologist rather than a philosopher
Noam Chomsky on Responsibility of Intellectuals
This sounds good on the surface, but the problem is that average Americans aren’t exposed to the thoughts of intellectuals, and even if they were, they a) couldn’t care less about them, or b) would reject them as “leftist propaganda,” …
Tagged with: Noam Chomsky on Responsibility of Intellectuals
“Poverty is the Mother of Crime” – Marcus Aurelius
It’s almost inconceivable that there was a time in history that the most powerful person on the planet, in this case the emperor of ancient Rome, was a supremely good person. Nowadays the precise opposite is trending: vicious criminal dictators.
Tagged with: "Poverty is the Mother of Crime" - Marcus Aurelius
