As everyone who ever read 1984 knows, George Orwell understood the importance of truth. In these times of Trump, it is worth revisiting what Orwell had to say about societies where “truth” is what the government says it is. For some relevant quotations, see George Orwell on truth. Verifiable honesty on the part of politicians is rare. I am old enough to remember . . . → Read More: 1984 Redux
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 Comments are closed  Blog  1960s, 1984, ancestors, Apian Way, Civil Rights, climate change, crucifixion, fossil fuels, George Bush, George Orwell, gerrymandering, gladiator, global mean temperature, global warming, government, political purpose, protests, resistance is futile, Richard Nixon, rising sea levels, Rome, sit-ins, Spartacis, Tennyson, The Borg, Trump, truth, Ulysses, War in Vietnam “Fouling one’s nest” is an old metaphor, originally in reference to birds that excreted in their nests, and applied by extension to humans who failed to keep their environments tidy. The thought that led me here was about helium balloons used to help promote events such as weddings and open houses, cut loose after the event to come down wherever. And they will come down, and, when they come down, they cause problems for birds and other wildlife. People think about the immediate benefit of using the balloons to highlight an event without considering the after-event consequences of disposing of . . . → Read More: Fouling Our Nest Comments are closed Blog \, Al Gone, An Inconvenient Truth, ancestors, balloons, bird, black-lung, buffalo, cattle, coal, consequences, conservation, desires, Elton John, environment, exploiting resources, exploration, feast, fiction, fossil fuels, fouling, fouling our nest, grain, helium, history, humans, Jules Verne, lions, Los Angeles, movies, needs, nest, oil, planet a, planet Earth, planetary destruction, pollute, pollution, primitive people, religion, religious differences, Rocket Man, Santa Monica, science fiction, setting, wars When Martin Luther King said, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (in his I have a dream speech), he was, of course, referring specifically to racial disparities. Unfortunately, racial disparities haven’t disappeared, and perhaps even more unfortunately, our culture has added a variety of other disparities by which we judge people. Like skin color, they are all superficial in nature and say nothing about the content of their character. The first thing that occurs to me is the bias many hold . . . → Read More: Content of Character Comments are closed Blog ancestors, bill of goods, border wall, Bosnian War, cast the first stone, country of origin, culture, do it anyway, fear, feel the fear, Feelings Buried Alive, fences, future, gay, gender, genocide, husbands, I have a dream, Karol K. Truman, lesbian, LGBT, loving our neighbor, Martin Luther King, medieval, Mexico, military budget, MLK, NLP, past, present, racial disparities, revenge, revenge is sweet, Richard Bandler, royalty, second-class citizen, sexual orientation, skin color, slavery, Susan Jeffers, transgender, walls, wives, zombies On a cold and frosty late-December morning, when I lived in a previous neighborhood, I was out walking my dog. It was so long ago that in the years between then and now, not only has that dog died of old age, but my next two dogs have also died of old age. Even so, on that late-December morning I said something that still haunts me. A boy who lived in a nearby house, ran up to me holding up a new pair of gloves, saying excitedly, “See what I got! New gloves!” My reply: “They are really neat. Did . . . → Read More: What Did You Get for Christmas? Comments are closed Blog agnostic, ancestors, athiest, begats, Bible, Bible as metaphor, Big Enders, Buddhism, business communication, Cherokee, Christmas, Civil Rights, culture, English, ethnocentric, ethnocentrism, European invaders, fundamentalist, G.I. Bill, Georgia, go and sin no more, Hanukkah, heaven, Imagine, India, John Lennon, Jonathan Swift, King James, Little Enders, Midwest, Mother Theresa, National Day of Mourning, Native American, Norwegian, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, parents, Quaker, spiritual force, spirituality, the holidays, Trail of Tears, U.S. Army, Vietnam War, Western Michigan University, Western Tribes, WWII According to a top Saudi cleric, driving damages women’s ovaries. Does the fact (reality) that some people believe that make it true, if only for them? What—exactly—is the relationship between reality and what we believe? You may know people who believe that their beliefs accurately reflect reality. If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you know that one of my recurrent themes is the need for an evidence procedure that allows individuals to base their beliefs on reality to the degree that it’s possible. It was, for example, perfectly logical for our ancient ancestors to believe that . . . → Read More: The Reality of Beliefs Comments are closed Blog ancestors, ancient, atheism, atmosphere, babies, beliefs, border, Byron Katie, Catholic, cleric, CO2, driving, earth, fossil fuels, geography, global climate change, global warming, heaven, Hell, humans, Imagine, Islam, John Lennon, microscopes, mountain, Mr. Everest, Muslim, oceans, ovaries, Protestant, reality, river, Saudi, Shia, Sunni, technologies, technology, telescopes, war, women One of the things I’ve been paying increasing attention to (perhaps because of the ongoing political debate in the U.S.) is fear marketing. I find it amazing at how pervasive “fear appeals” are and the various ways they are used to sell “stuff,” including politicians and political “talking points.” The basic concept is that we really need to be afraid of X, and, if we want to be safe, we need to stock up on (or vote for) the anti-X. The world has a lot of risky stuff in it, of course, and we are undoubtedly safer when we . . . → Read More: Selling Fear in the New Year Comments are closed Blog 2012, advertising, airport, Alabama, ancestors, B.F. Skinner, ballot, big government, bogeyman, corporate profits, deficit, Democrats, elections, emotion, evidence, evil, FDR, fear, fear marketing, goblins, goons, Hell, illegal immigrants, jungle, Korzybski, long-term, metamodel, persuasion, persuasive appeals, political advertising, politicians, reality, reality-based, Republicans, risk, risk aversion, safe and secure, Satan, security, security theater, serious injury, smoke detectors, snakes, socialism, statistical, talking points, Tea Party, tobacco, trickle down, TV, voter fraud, warning, X-ray |
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