I have borrowed the title of this blog from Shakespeare’s play, Richard III. Richard III was not a nice man, although the real Richard was probably not as evil as Shakespeare and others have made him out to be. He was the last king of England to actually lead his troops into battle and died in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Shakespeare portrays him as evil, and he may well have been. Medieval kings had a tendency to be corrupt and cruel, and someone I have quoted before, Lord Acton, famously said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts . . . → Read More: Winter of Our Discontent
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 Comments are closed  Blog  Abraham Lincoln, Boston Tea Party, Chinese Revolution, democracy, economic influence, England, evil, fake news, fool all the people, Founding Fathers, French revolution, George Santayana, health care, health insurance, history, human spirit, infrastructure, King, media, met the enemy, national debt, news media, Paul Simon, plutocracy, Pogo, political influence, Republicans, resisting evil, revolution, Richard III, Russian revolution, Shakespeare, Simon and Garfunkel, Slip Slidin' Away, Social Security, tax cut, tax cuts, the man behind the curtain, the States, U.S. election, wealthy, Winston Churchill, Wizard of Oz In some ways, a picture really is worth a thousand words. A picture can often tell a story or communicate feelings that would take a thousand words to tell. If you are old enough to remember the 9/11 attacks, you doubtless remember the video of the buildings on fire and smoking, and people jumping to their deaths to avoid being burned alive. That video has more emotional impact than any of the stories you might have read about it. Reading is more cognitive: we understand more fully. Video is more visceral: we feel more. When I was an undergraduate . . . → Read More: Who Reads? Comments are closed Blog 1950s, communicate, Dean Madonia, discussion, feelings, Frankenstein, group discussion, images, Mary Shelley, Melville, Moby Dick, movie, Nineteenth century, peace, picture, readers, sailing vessels, script, September 11, story, text, University of Illinois, verisimilitude, video, Vietnam War, visual presentation, war, whaling, writing fiction, Young Frankenstein When we’re young, time seems to creep at a petty pace, but the passage of time accelerates as it goes by. When I was young, I had the sense that a week was a long time, and summer vacations lasted for ever. Now, days and weeks gallop by, and even months pass quickly. When I first read Andrew Marvell’s plea To His Coy Mistress, I didn’t fully understand his impatience. At this point, even without a mistress, I can hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near. When I was young, I wanted time to pass quickly so that I could grow . . . → Read More: March of Time Comments are closed Blog after death, afterlife, birth and death, calendars, deal with the devil, Einstein, Faust, Goethe, hardest words of tongue or pen, history, it might have been, knowing and believing, life after death, march of time, Martin Luther, petty pace, prelife, reincarnation, rise and fall of the tide, saddest words of tongue or pen, science, scientists, seasons, Sigmund Freud, sin boldly, stopping time, the Devil, the less you fear, the more you know, time, time and tide, time flies, tomorrow If you watch any commercial television, you have surely noticed how much of the advertising is for prescription drugs If you think that the advertising for prescription medication has increased over the past few years, you’re correct. Such advertising is legal in only four countries, with the U.S. being one of the four. Marketing of pharmaceutical products has been “big business” for a long time, of course. Companies making such products trained an army of sales representatives to take samples around to physicians and others responsible for writing the prescriptions. They also initiated a major lobbying effort to persuade . . . → Read More: Ask Your Doctor…. Comments are closed Blog big business, blood and soil, cats, choice points, Civil Rights, commercials, Confederate States, congress, consumers, corporate equivalent, disability, dogs, fast forward, fear-based politics, fossil fuels, Germany, global climate change, Hitler, knowing our present, mark territory, minorities, minority, newspapers, newsweeklies, pharmaceuticals, Pogo, prescription medications, science, scientific method, scientists, self-interest, short-term gains, slavery, something new, television, the less you fear, the more you learn, the States, tribe, vote, Walt Kelly An English poet, Thomas Grey, ended his 1742 poem, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, with what has become a well-known aphorism: “where ignorance is bliss, / ‘Tis folly to be wise.” The part that’s quoted most often is, “Ignorance is bliss.” Considering ignorance bliss has a long history. One of the central stories of both Judaism and Christianity is Eve’s being tempted by Satan to eat the fruit of knowledge and then persuading Adam to do the same. The theme has been important to me for a long time. The title of my 1974 Ph.D. dissertation . . . → Read More: Ignorance Is Bliss Comments are closed Blog blood and soil, Chinese Revolution, French revolution, George Santayana, God, Hitler, ignorance, ignorance is bliss, John Lennon, modern times, Nineteenth century, Old Testament, repeat the past, reversion, Russian revolution, Satan, skin color, temptation, the Beatles, Thomas Grey, Tree of Good and Evil, tribal conflicts, values, Victor Frankenstein I have borrowed the title for this blog from a song by . . . → Read More: Another Brick in the Wall Comments are closed Blog American Revolution, and Mary, Another brick in the wall, Berlin Wall, Chinese Revolution, fossil fuels, French revolution, Gordon Gekko, great and beautiful wall, Great Wall of China, human history, medieval warfare, migration, Paul, Pete Seeger, Peter, Peter Paul and Mary, Pink Floyd, plants and animals, pollution, revolution, Russian revolution, shared resources, sustainability, Troy, uranium mining, walled cities, Where have all the flowers gone Although the impetus for this blog was a “customer service” call I experienced with the “help” available at Charter/Spectrum when my cable was out, most everything here applies to all companies that assume artificial intelligence can serve customers as well a breathing, thinking, human being. Eventually, my problem was solved—but not before I developed a deep and abiding hatred for Charter/Spectrum in spite of a long history of good service from the human technicians who work for the company. Here’s the story: I was at home nursing a very sore back (which probably reduced my tolerance for the stupidity . . . → Read More: Customer Service Comments are closed Blog artificial intelligence, Best Buy, bottom line, cable box, cable TV, Charter, Charter-Spectrum, cord cutter, corporations, customer, customer service, Direct TV, Downtown Marathon, Hudson's, human technicians, Illinois, K-Mart, local stores, march of time, online competition, radio programming, Satchel Paige, Sears, service, Spectrum, TV programming, Urbana Last year, 2017, ended not with a bang, but a whimper. While how the current year, 2018, will end is still unknown, the world in general and the U.S. in particular, are not on a good trajectory. While some countries are doing reasonably well, most are not. Even in the States, the microcosm of individuals and places doing well, doesn’t change the macrocosm. I am not worried about the planet as a whole. Earth has survived mass extinctions in the past, and life has continued. The life forms, however, changed. It is as though the planet was saying, “Well that . . . → Read More: 2018 Ready or Not Comments are closed Blog 100 years war, 1960s, 2817, affirm life, asteroid, atomic warfare, children, Civil Rights, England, Europeans, France, John Lennon, New Year's Day, not with a bang but a whimper, Pete Seeger, protest music, radical activist, saber rattling, Star Trek, the Beatles, the Fugs, the States, War in Vietnam, WW II The expression, May you live in interesting times, is usually considered an ancient-Chinese curse. Whether it’s true that it is an ancient Chinese curse is doubtful, but the part about the curse definitely seems true. The reason the expression is considered a curse rather than a blessing is that interesting “times” result from political intrigue and wars rather than from peace, happiness, and tranquility. We (and that includes the mass of humanity at this point) are living in interesting times. Charles Dickens begins his great novel, A Tale of Two Cities with the following paragraph: It was the best . . . → Read More: Living In Interesting Times Comments are closed Blog 1960s, Africa, Central America, Charles Dickens, Charlottesville, Chinese Curse, Chinese Revolution, Civil Rights, Civil War, counterculture, deficit hawks, fire or ice, French revolution, Interesting Times, learning from history, marches, mass migration, partnership, peaceniks, protest, Robert Frost, Rock and Roll, Russian revolution, South America, Southeast Asia, T.S. Eliot, Tale of Two Cities, the way the world ends, Vietnam War An English poet named William Butler Yates wrote the poem, The Second Coming, in 1919 not long after the First World War had come to an end. I was thinking about the current political situation in the U.S. when the poem bubbled up into my memory. Here’s the entire poem. As you read it, think not only about the chaos during and after the First World War, but also about our current politics: THE SECOND COMING Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the . . . → Read More: Slouching Toward Bethlehem Comments are closed Blog 1919, beast, Bethlehem, Book of Ezekiel, Charlottesville, Civil Rights, crystal blue persuasion, English, Europe, falcon, First World War, Hitler, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Carr, passionate intensity, poet, rock & roll, Second Coming, sexual misconduct, Spiritus Mundi, the more things change, The Second Coming, the States, Treaty of Versailles. Germany, US, Vietnam War, widening gyre, William Butler Yates, WWII |
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