We had our philosophy discussion last night, six of us using one of the online video chat tools. The question of the evening: Is goodness natural? Certainly we could have wrestled with the definition of each of those terms. I have thought about this question in its many variants for years. The three words…
Did not post anything yesterday. An important appointment early in the day foreclosed the opportunity to give adequate consideration to what I had on my mind. I would have written about the current President of the United States as our *fire-starter; like a troubled child, or disturbed adult who finds an adrenaline rush in…
Friday! A sense of accomplishment to reach the final day of the workweek with my sense of self intact, given all the events swirling around. It goes without saying it is my choice to be aware of events, political, economic, and social that happen. Dumb and happy is a live option. There is the…
I am tired of writing about the bully that we’ve installed in the White House. It’s only by means of words that his dissimulation can be revealed to be darkness, a grim future which his lies hold for all of us. I’ll continue to have my say until he and his supporters are out…
How about a fist in the face! A friend recently relayed the story of a family member who works in retail. The point of his tale was the cascade of anti-social, loutish behavior suffered by a seasoned retail employee dedicated to helping customers, that was told to him. The disconcerting behavior took place during…
Today June 4th is the anniversary of the uprising of students in Tiananmen Square, China. The resistance to authoritarian incompetency, suppression of freedom took place April 15 – June 4th, 1989. Everyone remembers the image of the solitary individual standing, one man obstructing a column of tanks. Did the uprising matter? Did it make…
There are appeals for peaceful demonstration, the peaceful exercise of free speech. These appeals predictably come from elected officials, those placed in charge. They are in charge of a formal system, — as well as approaches, attitudes, and comments informally expressed by thousands, perhaps millions of members. Hypothetically consider an HR administrator, or maybe…
The rioting continues, despite the efforts of governors to use police and national guard to protect property, and to minimize the use of force against those who are protesting systemic racism, and particularly the disproportionate killing of black people by police. At the national level, the President rages like a mad emperor. Subsequent to…
Choosing to refrain from news media consumption over the weekend, I dedicated time and emotional energy to personal projects and to others in my family. Can I afford this type of choice because I am white, male, a member of the dominant class in this society? Are some Sunday afternoon hours reading Nietzsche by…
Yesterday was Memorial Day. I read of several remembrance ceremonies for our veterans, and for those who died in wars. I is hard to conceive of dying in war as hallowed, an event with transcendent meaning. War is a nightmare, a feast of death, the failure of government to deliver the welfare of communities,…
