The modern right faces many problems, but the worst of these is within: it’s not certain what it believes, and thus what its purpose is. The result is that modern rightists are forced to memorize issues, work with gut feeling, and when asked why they believe certain things, have no explanation. Although the right tends [...]
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Gainsaying the Tea Party
The Tea Party may end up being the most interesting political movement of our time. I say this because I agree with its critics: it has no idea where it’s going or what it wants, but it’s slowly coming together to recognize what it is. Like Sarah Palin, it’s popular with a specific group, with [...]
Our shopping mall nation of broken spirits
Modern marketplace thinking destroys our sense of community and solidarity, leaving us alone against predators who will do anything for our money. We’re now fiercely individual competitors selling each other memes, tricks, and gimmicks to get ahead of a teeming crowd who might have otherwise been friends and neighbors. With the severe economic downturn comes [...]
Moral judgment blinds us
Among the many ways to look at the world, one of the most popular is moral judgment. Moral judgments are the shoulds, oughts and shouldn’t’ves of the world. When a situation happens, we decide according to some ideal what “should” have happened, and penalize people for what did. But that’s neurotic, since they did do [...]
Begging For Socialism
In a shameful move by a shamefully & poorly managed US auto company, GM is now asking the government to completely take over the company so it doesn’t have to run itself – nor confront the unions it plans to phase out: GM is living on $15.4 billion in government loans and faces a June [...]
Equality of criticism for bad science
Marina Hyde over at Science Blogs was bemoaning our tolerance for celebrities spewing pseudoscience, when I pointed out the difficult position she’s in: If you want to be intolerant of celebrities speaking scientific nonsense, you have to be intolerant of them speaking all scientific nonsense. This includes the non-sensical idea that intelligence and abilities are [...]
What is “freedom”?
The term “freedom” baffles philosophers but not artists. It baffles philosophers because freedom is a negative term. You need something unfree to be free from; that’s never made clear when people talk about fighting for freedom. When they said they wanted freedom from Britain, that made sense, but claiming that we’re fighting in Germany or [...]
Bad science: nurture advocacy
In the nature versus nurture debate, bad science proliferates. This is because the nature side argues that an individual’s abilities are determined mostly by biology; the nurture side argues that an individual’s abilities are determined mostly by access to social resources. Obviously, nurture will be infinitely more popular to a crowd. We’d all like to [...]
Dying empires need slave castes
An excellent point from an unusual source: Those who form the majority population of a territory will rule that territory, no matter how powerful a ruling elite may be. They will determine its culture and society. A majority-European population will create a society that reflects European values and norms. A majority-African population will create a [...]
US Naval fleet falls apart before our eyes
WASHINGTON—The piracy crisis over a lone hostage in the Indian Ocean took on the familiar air of a cops-and-robbers standoff, with the U.S. Navy seeking advice Thursday from seasoned FBI negotiators. Their goal: Resolve the incident without military force. As the FBI joined the delicate negotiations, the shipping company Maersk said that the safety of [...]
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