Author: Paul

Sadly, I keep hearing stories about people slashing at each other for “cultural appropriation.” I had hoped this issue would die on its own, but evidently it hasn’t. And so I think it’s worth a brief post.

Cultural appropriation refers to a sort of robbery: the stealing of something created by a member of one group, by a member of some other group. The most common example I’ve run into is when someone of a lighter skin tone quotes Martin Luther King, Jr., and is told that they’re not allowed to do that, because they’re stealing the words of a black man. Continue reading “Cultural Appropriation Is A Good And Necessary Thing”

Several years ago, an unusual set of events found me at Starbucks on a Saturday night. It had been a reasonably decent day, but somehow the pressures of the world – its parade of negativity – had had its effect on me.

Sitting in the Starbucks cured me. Continue reading “A Saturday Night In Starbucks”

It’s a massive waste of time and energy, not to mention seriously depressing, to turn on your computer in the morning and get slapped with the worst news that can be found. It is a blow to your overall health.

Veraverba.com, our sister site, is now an alternative. We are working up to a 365 day rotation of images and brief explanations of good, noble and uplifting things. It’s the right way for humans to begin their days. Continue reading “Start Your Days With Healthy Images”

People remember Thomas Jefferson mainly for the Declaration of Independence, which he wrote in 1776. Some remember that he served as president from 1801 to 1809, but aside from that, few know much more of his life and work. In fact, he lived and worked until 1826, when he died on July 4^th, fifty years to the day after the ratification of his Declaration.

What’s lost to history is that Jefferson was convinced Americans were losing their fight for freedom. Continue reading “Jefferson’s Warnings”

For some time I’ve been talking about upgrading human processes and behavior from a primate model – or, more properly from a hybrid model – to a post-primate model. I’m so deeply convinced of the importance of this that I’ve been devoting a good deal of time and effort to it. And recently I’ve found reasons to believe that a change from our hybrid primate model to a post-primate model would be in the range of a 2 sigma improvement… a very large improvement.

 

This line, which I’m swiping from Izzy Rabi’s mom, would be a good thing to write on billboards and bumper stickers, as persistent reminders that we should all ask something interesting every day.

Notice that I’m not saying “Ask the hard questions,” or “ask a smart question,” only that we each ask an interesting question each day. If we did, I think we’d be much improved creatures after only a few years. Continue reading “Have You Asked An Interesting Question Today?”

I’m quite serious about the serfdom part. Please read on.

If you want millions of dollars thrown at your new company, the way to do it is in “tech,” which usually means a new Internet service. If you can find a way to suck a new part of people’s lives from the world of atoms to the world of data, your odds are good… far greater than trying to launch a construction company. Continue reading “The Corporatization Of Everything (Serfdom In Our Time)”

Humans have long been, and remain, deeply attached to morality. Even confirmed criminals will routinely say things like “That ain’t right,” which is purely a moral judgment.

This focus on morality holds firm across the panorama of human of life. Examine any workplace and you’ll find a long stream of moral judgments: “He didn’t treat me right,” “She’s arrogant,” “That’s a man you can respect,” and so on. Continue reading “The Dispersion of Moral Energies”

Your responses to my request for family-friendly entertainment were overwhelming. Thank you all.

At first I intended on vetting the list and commenting on the various titles, but there were far too many. And so, you’ll have to look into these yourselves prior to viewing. Imdb.com seems to be a useful resource for that. I’ve also appended a useful comment at the end.

Here’s the list, in no particular order: Continue reading “A List of Family Entertainment”

Those of us who aren’t mainlining TV and Facebook have a fairly clear understanding that the rulership of the West is in trouble: their debts are far beyond payable, while the global East and South are starting to pull away. Having only two primary options – system collapse or reduced standards of living – many are opting for the second. (We’ll leave war out of the discussion for today.) 

The great challenge facing rulership, then, is to make their flocks accept being poorer… to get used to being poor. And to make that happen, they’re promoting a new religion, which we can simply call Green. Continue reading ““Green” Means “Poor””