The “Hero’s Welcome” editorial cartoon by Canadian artist Pia Guerra.
Continue ReadingNo More Crocodile Tears
There is only one way to stop gun violence. Take away the guns. Anything else is pure bullshit. I won’t even bother to quote all the studies that show this is right. Nor will I enumerate the outrageous statistics on the prevalence of guns in the United States. It’s a simple matter of systems dynamics, but a very complicated matter of politics. For those not acquainted with systems dynamics, it’s a method for describing the behavior of complex systems, especially ones with human actors. The most common pattern (or archetype) is fixes-that-fail. The name tells all we need… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Importance of Truth
What do I mean by truth? The answer is not as simple as you might think. My definition is an understanding of the world as it really is out there. A corollary to this comes in the criterion for establishing that we have discovered the truth: things have turned out the way we thought they would. Having said that, this kind of truth is very hard to establish, which fact means there is always some possibility that our actions will not turn out the way they should. When we are sloppy in efforts to unearth the truth (it is always… Read More
Continue ReadingWhere to Begin?
It has been such a long time since I posted my last real entry that I hardly know where to restart. I have two main streams of attention going on right now: getting my book done and the mess the US is in. They are closely tied together. For those who have followed my blog previously, you might have seen a bunch of entries about Iain McGilchrist and his divided brain theory. Rather than recapitulate his work, my understanding of it is available in a series of posts starting in June 2017 listed under the archives menu. His basic finding… Read More
Continue ReadingSurprise
Welcome to my newly redesigned blog. After relying on my son-in-law, Tim Swan, to keep me out of trouble since my blog started just about 10 years ago, I have set out on my own. But not without his help in getting me through the transition. This move has involved a switch in the platform I use to run the website and a major overhaul of the appearance of the blog. The older posts, prior to July 28, 2017 are still available on the site archive, although the format may be a bit messy due to losses in translation. The… Read More
Continue ReadingA New Trumpian and Congressional Vocabulary
The level of behavior in Washington has gotten to such a low level that the usual language of politics and government is no longer very useful. There’s little or no point throwing in words like liberal or conservative; certainly not progressive. Fairness, justice, or equality causes nothing but blank stares. Service simply raises an image of the huge tip left on the table by the donor that Paul Ryan had lunch with last week. Constitutional is limited to talk about the morning’s workout. Harassment is what the media are creating with their fake news. The following seven words have been… Read More
Continue ReadingIt’s Time to Return.
It’s time to return. I noticed a flurry of activity on the blog yesterday, but don’t know why. In any case, I see this as a signal to return in earnest. The timing is right. I can see the end of my book rewrite in sight. What started as an exercise I thought would take a matter of weeks has stretched into half a year. I am pleased with the results so far. I think it is going to be very good, but I am not quite sure. I gave about half of the book to my wife to read… Read More
Continue ReadingEmpathy and Politics
It’s Saturday. The sun is out. It’s early and my malaise hasn’t yet caught up with me, so I will try to post something. Ever since I “retired” from my active role as an academic researcher and teacher, I have been on a quest to discover what makes me and the world work the way they do. I put me first because I think I need to figure myself out before I can do the same for the world. Toward this end, I even taught a course on the history of the “self” at my life-long learning institute. My last… Read More
Continue ReadingSome Advice to Our Political Leaders, But Not the Usual Kind
The Trump election and Presidency have exposed some serious flaws in the system of morality and laws that underpin our country. Both of these foundations are pretty good, but not good enough to maintain a fair and just order in these modern times. My recent exposure to the divided brain model of McGilchrist keeps me awake at nights with new insights about the world and myself. Since, other than news about Harvey and Irma and other tragedies, there is little to read in the news except the present follies in Washington. I do see our political system these days more… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Politics and the Brain
I’m stuck in my thinking about the brain as my posts surely are showing. I can’t help seeing its separate hemispheres in people’s actions and personalities. At the same time, I cannot get over how powerful this model is in coming up with cogent explanations for what I see. Most people I know directly or observe through the media seem to have relatively balanced brains with the right and left acting together to avoid dominant extreme behavior. As McGilchrist takes great pains to point out in his book, The Master and His Emissary, both hemispheres need to be engaged into… Read More
Continue Reading