Category Archives: Social Progress

What If We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know?

Posted on Tuesday 10 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Plato’s cave and what we don’t know, or don’t know that we don’t know; David Gerrold on “woke” and why I think citing “woke” (or religion) dismisses one from any serious conversation; Short items about how a third of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Social Progress | Leave a comment

Institutions, Tribes, and Faith

Posted on Monday 9 December 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Paul Krugman’s last NYT column, in part about what has changed in the past 25 years, including the collapse of trust in the elites; Helen Lewis echoes Fareed Zakaria yesterday: the mainstream media is part of the “elite” system that … Continue reading →

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Violence as a Public Health Issue, and Media Bias

Posted on Sunday 27 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Two New Yorker pieces today. I mentioned an article a couple weeks ago about whether violence is a disease (or actually, whether MAGA is a disease like violence is taken to be). Here’s another perspective. The New Yorker, Michael Luo, … Continue reading →

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Further Notes from Our Report on the Third Planet

Posted on Friday 4 October 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

What would alien spectators taking notes on modern American society observe? Society is unsettled, and political compromises are fragile; yet those advocating actual violence are a minority (Adam Lee) Society has developed high principles to overcome tribal conflicts, but while … Continue reading →

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Today’s New Insight

Posted on Sunday 22 September 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

What ‘woke’ means, to different people; How the ancients overcame biases in understanding the world, in order to discover and navigate the world; How moderns have tried to overcome cognitive biases through constitutions and “political correctness” and being “woke,” and … Continue reading →

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Seculars, Human Nature, Abstraction

Posted on Wednesday 14 August 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Some more abstract, intellectual topics for today. As the rise of ‘nones’ increases, what will society look like in a hundred years? How people are instinctively nice, more often than religions give them credit; An idea from S.I. Hayakawa about … Continue reading →

Posted in Morality, Religion, Social Progress | Comments Off on Seculars, Human Nature, Abstraction

Stories, and Change

Posted on Tuesday 9 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Miscellaneous items today, including a few from a couple weeks ago. Oklahoma, insisting the Bible be taught as an historical document, seems intent on mis-educating its children and ill-preparing them for life in the 21st century; How conservative attacks against … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Religion, Social Progress | Comments Off on Stories, and Change

On This July 4th

Posted on Thursday 4 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s worth paying attention from time to time what conservatives really want, and more importantly, their rationales. NY Times, Ruth Graham, 4 Jul 2024: Why a New Conservative Brain Trust Is Resettling Across America, subtitled “Pro-Trump professionals aren’t just talking … Continue reading →

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It Can Happen Here

Posted on Tuesday 2 July 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m not the first to make this observation. Trump’s rise echoes a famous 1935 novel called (ironically) It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis. Wikipedia: The novel describes the rise of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President … 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