-
Recent Posts
Categories
Recent Comments
January 2023 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
Category Archives: Sociocultural
Pragmatic States
The United States has a lengthy history of pragmatism in both philosophy and action, a long tradition that may have helped the nation grow but may also have inspired, or at least prefigured, the serious political conflicts of the second … Continue reading
Posted in Sociocultural
Tagged de Toqueville, Franklin, John Dewey, philosophy, pragmatism, Republican, riots, tea party, Trump, United States, war, William James
Leave a comment
Change Le Même
One of the most common tropes around the beginning of the twenty-first century is a phrase that has been used to describe virtually every major event from the attack on the world trade center to the election of Donald Trump … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Sociocultural
Tagged behavior, change, focus, future, joy, observation, reality, significance
Leave a comment
Ban Books and More
As I write this we are in the midst of a national effort to ban ideas. This isn’t anything new; our politicians and pundits have been involved in what has become known as the “culture wars” for years, and previous … Continue reading
Real Magic
Arthur had come to the conclusion that even after years of dedicated effort, after all of those hours and hours of lonely practice, staring at himself in front of a mirror, watching attentively to micro-adjust his movements and his statements, … Continue reading
Posted in Fiction, Sociocultural
Tagged magic, religion, sorcery, witchcraft
Comments Off on Real Magic
Supreme Ego
In June this year the Supreme Court vacated Roe v. Wade with an extreme, repetitive, and oddly argued opinion that will, despite assurances to the contrary, threaten a constellation of basic rights that have been built up over the past … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Sociocultural
Tagged abortion, Casey, Christian, Dobbs, Eisenstadt, Federalist, Griswold, LGBTQ, Loving, marriage, Obergefell, originalist, religion, Roe, Supreme Court
Comments Off on Supreme Ego
No Such Thing
One simple economic principle that is all-too often ignored is the one represented by the acronym TANSTAAFL. Never mind that in order to create an easily pronounced phonetic entity the short instructive declaration behind TANSTAAFL has been often expressed as … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Sociocultural
Tagged brokerage, cost, economics, exchange, free, free lunch, investment, PFOF, services, stock market, TANSTAAFL
1 Comment
Big Boy Pants?
In recent decades we, as a society, have made progress in removing many of the vestiges of sexist behavior and thought from our society. For many of us it’s not enough progress, to be certain, just as for those groups … Continue reading
Posted in Sociocultural
Tagged anti-social, balls, domineering, masculinity, negative, progress, sexism
Comments Off on Big Boy Pants?
Imperial Failure
The 2022 invasion of Ukraine should not have been a surprise. Not to anyone. It was, in large part, a result of the imperial imperative; the desire of an egotistical leader with dictatorial powers to reconstruct the global prestige and … Continue reading
Posted in Sociocultural
Tagged expansion, Imperial, invasion, military, occupation, propaganda, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, war
Comments Off on Imperial Failure
Deniability
I’ve always been a company man. It always made perfect sense to me. Starting with the fact that I was, and would in all likelihood remain, a mid-level functionary in a large business establishment, it seemed that it would be … Continue reading
Posted in Satire, Sociocultural
Tagged accountability, ambiguity, analysis, anonymity, corporate, management, mission statement, strategy
Comments Off on Deniability
Maldistribution and its Consequences
In last month’s post I noted that the past four decades have demonstrated that there is a significant amount of surplus in the economic system and that that surplus, obviously and unfortunately, is not widely shared within our population. Benefits … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Sociocultural
Tagged depression, eonomy, equities, greater fool, income, inequality, inflation, instability, investment, New Deal, panic, real estate, recession, stocks, wealth
Comments Off on Maldistribution and its Consequences