Category Archives: Social Progress

Links and Comments: Sports and Trump; Pinker and Gates; Tribal Allegiance and Actual Progress

Posted on Saturday 3 February 2018 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, 3Feb18: Trump’s Blood Sport Politics. The writer recalls “”The Sporting Spirit,” an essay written by George Orwell in 1945 that sought to reckon with the rise of our modern athletic-industrial complex.” For Orwell, the rise of sports was bound … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Social Progress, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Sports and Trump; Pinker and Gates; Tribal Allegiance and Actual Progress

Passages from Pinker

Posted on Friday 17 November 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

As a palette cleanser from my last post, here are some thoughts from my ongoing reading of Steven Pinker’s THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE, a history of the world with focus on violence, that summarizes that history through phases: … Continue reading →

Posted in Humanism, Social Progress, Steven Pinker | Comments Off on Passages from Pinker

Links and Comments: On believing; Waking up; Health care fantasies

Posted on Wednesday 3 May 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a long, multi-panel cartoon from The Oatmeal called Believe, which illustrates how readily or not we take in new information that conflicts with our previous assumptions, or foundational beliefs. (Via We Should Celebrate New Information Even When It Means … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion, Social Progress | Comments Off on Links and Comments: On believing; Waking up; Health care fantasies

Two Interviews about Current Books, about Reproductive Technologies and Social Cohesion

Posted on Saturday 4 June 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

Two radio interviews this week worth noting, in part just for the pleasure of listening to smart people, in contrast to what we dutifully hear every day from our politicians. First, this KQED forum interview in which Bioethicist Hank Greely … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Social Progress, Technology | Comments Off on Two Interviews about Current Books, about Reproductive Technologies and Social Cohesion

Links and Comments: Trump; Democrats v Republicans; American exceptionalism; government regulations

Posted on Saturday 19 March 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

As Donald Trump seems to be on the path to claiming the Republican nomination for president, Republicans who are appalled by him are increasingly expressing misgivings. Salon has this fascinating article about how some Republican pundits admit that the crude … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Politics, Religion, Social Progress | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Trump; Democrats v Republicans; American exceptionalism; government regulations

Review of David Silverman

Posted on Wednesday 6 January 2016 by Mark R. Kelly

The book is FIGHTING GOD: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World, just published in December 2015, and I’m not linking it with a cover image as I often do with books I review, since I can’t especially approve of … Continue reading →

Posted in Atheism, Book Notes, Culture, Politics, Religion, Social Progress | Comments Off on Review of David Silverman

Links and Comments from Sunday’s New York Times

Posted on Tuesday 15 December 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m finishing up a book by Chris Mooney that explores motivated reasoning and how we are all subject to seeking out evidence that confirms our pre-existing views, and disputing evidence that challenges those views. And that nevertheless claims that conservatives/Republicans … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Religion, Social Progress, Thinking | Comments Off on Links and Comments from Sunday’s New York Times

We Are in a Post-Reality [Science-Fictional!] World

Posted on Saturday 19 September 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I saw (part of) the Republican debate this past week, and the responses, and saw how the obvious lies and misrepresentations did not seem to matter to the crowd; it was how the candidates played to the crowd. This seems … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Lunacy, Social Progress, Species Reset | Comments Off on We Are in a Post-Reality [Science-Fictional!] World

The Irish Need Not Apply

Posted on Wednesday 15 July 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

» New York Times, Timothy Egan: Not Like Us Donald Trump is attracting quite a following with his comments about Mexican immigrants: When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Human Progress, Morality, Social Progress | Comments Off on The Irish Need Not Apply