Fear controls the lives of most moderns as we lack goals at the community level. We watch movies about abductions, murders, and superheros saving the day, and since we don’t even know who our neighbors are let alone our selectmen and other community leaders, fear rattles around in our brains. We feel that if it can happen [...]
Posts Tagged ‘control’
2081 (or Harrison Bergeron): Film Adaptation on the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Classic Short Story
2081 I look forward to this movie, but undoubtedly Hollywood will change something or make it all about the relationship between the two extraordinary dancers instead of focusing on the actual point of the story. Still, I’m surprised Hollywood would ever allow this to be produced. Should be an interesting film when compared to the [...]
There are no radical ideas
Sometime in my early twenties I realized that “radical ideas” are marketing twists, not actually anything radical. There is nothing new under the sun, and nothing all that surprising, unless of course you venture away from reality and then you can have unicorns and eudaemoniac imaginary friends. The universe itself is mind-blowing, but that mind-blowingness [...]
The war against all but the material
How might most of us experience the effects of the mind on the body? In an average week you probably experience numerous examples of how what’s going on around you affects your subjective health. Most people instinctively know that when bad things happen, they affect your body. You can’t sleep, you feel anxious, you’ve got [...]
How propaganda works
Implicit attitudes on race are assessed by tests like the Implicit Association Test. (You can take the test here.) Subjects are presented with photos of blacks and whites in succession and asked to pair positive or negative words (e.g., “intelligent,” “law-abiding,” “poor,” “success”) with the photos. Eighty percent of whites take longer to associate positive [...]
Populations Starve; National Resources Burnt Up
SRIHARIKOTA, India (Reuters) – India launched its first unmanned moon mission on Wednesday following in the footsteps of rival China, as the emerging Asian power celebrated its space ambitions and scientific prowess. Chandrayaan-1 (Moon vehicle), a cuboid spacecraft built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) blasted off from a southern Indian space center shortly [...]
Europe Wants A Mini-Europe Due North of US
“The problem with Canada,” senior EU official involved in the talks told me, echoing a view that is heard in many of the EU member governments today, “is that it’s not really one place. You think you’re talking to Canada, and you make a deal, and then it turns out that someone else, in one [...]
Polarizing views of gun control miss the point
The gun-control activist whose provocative billboards have been turning heads along the Massachusetts Turnpike for 13 years today will unveil one of his most eye-popping messages yet – a fake neon advertisement for American gun shows where people can buy weapons, no questions asked. “Gun shows are the equivalent of Al Qaeda terrorists walking directly [...]
Quaint, Token Gestures Replace Real Parenting
Having a license was, at one time, considered a privilege. Today, there are certainly restrictions on teen driving, but most other drivers have a sense of entitlement: as long as I don’t get caught by a cop, the logic goes, I’m free to do anything I want on the road. Teenagers, some of whom abuse [...]
