Category Archives: Culture

Beware Intuition and Common Sense

Posted on Tuesday 18 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Three tracks today: Steven Pinker on how democracy and enlightenment values are not intuitive (even though they’ve led to the betterment of humanity); Items about conservative meanings of ‘truth’ and ‘facts’; how evangelicals think sex is only for purposes of … Continue reading →

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Small Town Thinking, Climate Change, and Smoking Cigars

Posted on Monday 17 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

What people in small-town Oklahoma think; Today’s headlines about the effects of climate change; A lagniappe about Republicans who need to smoke their cigars; and recalling the assumptions of 1940s science fiction by Isaac Asimov. We coastal elites are sensitive … Continue reading →

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Change Control

Posted on Saturday 15 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

How even modest measures to ameliorate problems in NYC face resistance; How religious certitudes from Alito and others will not end well. Still under the weather, but let’s try a couple items from today’s NYT, about perhaps the broadest issue … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Morality, Social Progress | Comments Off on Change Control

A Table of Moral Polarities, Initial Take

Posted on Saturday 11 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve been making notes over the past month for a table of moral polarities, in order to align and summarize some of the concepts and the many news examples I’ve compiled lately. Recall how I’ve mentioned that certain attitudes, especially … Continue reading →

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Can Education Account for Evolutionary Change?

Posted on Wednesday 8 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Steven Pinker on education, and how it might prioritize overcoming base intuitions that don’t apply in the modern world; The naturalistic fallacy and DeSantis’ and Fetterman’s objections to lab-grown meat. This month I’m working my way through the last ‘big’ … Continue reading →

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How Art and Education are Not about Making People Feel Comfortable

Posted on Friday 3 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s reading is about art and education and how they’re not intended to make students feel comfortable, but rather to challenge their parochial assumptions and expand their worldviews; And a bunch of everyday items, today mostly about the right’s conspiracy … Continue reading →

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Slouching

Posted on Sunday 14 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Fascinating piece about a new book Slouch, about the curious preoccupation with posture, at least in America; Short items about Trump’s dumb attorneys; Christian rallies against the LGBTQs; why Trump’s “Christian Visibility Day” illustrates Christians’ persecution complex; and that traffic … Continue reading →

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Yuval Noah Harari, UNSTOPPABLE US, Vol. 2

Posted on Thursday 4 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “Why the World Isn’t Fair.” (Bright Matter Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House; March 2024. xv + 189pp. With copious illustrations by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz.) This is the second volume in … Continue reading →

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It’s Time for Another Round of… Stupid? Or Cynical?

Posted on Tuesday 2 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Stupid or Cynical: Republican/Christian conservatives respond to the coincidence of Easter and Trans Recognition Day; Some MAGA claims are just delusional, example from Steve Bannon; Robert Reich on Trump’s 5-step fascist plan; And how conservatives reject the idea of lab-grown … Continue reading →

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How Humans Live by Stories, and Myths

Posted on Monday 25 March 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A NYT essay that wonders if, given how political persuasions are aligned with community, we actually ever think for ourselves; An example from the fringe about a Republican who wants to outlaw “chemtrails”; A review of a book about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History, Narrative, Psychology | Comments Off on How Humans Live by Stories, and Myths