Category Archives: Past

Rating Ourselves as Information Consumers

We all have our favorite information bubbles, but they’re not necessarily bad. The secret is to accept that they don’t reflect the whole world!

Mysteries of Public Opinion Polling

Insiders May Know … But the Rest of Us? This November’s election for President looks really, really close! For months now, despite felony convictions, unhinged rhetoric, and polarized media coverage, the polls haven’t budged much. Joe Biden and Donald Trump are each a coin toss away from a January 2025 inauguration. I, for one, can’tContinue reading “Mysteries of Public Opinion Polling”

War in the Year 2024: Why Do They Fight, and How?

It’s true that warfare has persisted throughout human history. Evidence exists that tribes even fought in paleolithic times – like chimpanzees today. But, at least since Plato’s time, we humans have also believed in idealism. Peace is better than war, and continuous warfare is never thought to be the ideal human condition! Indeed, those whoContinue reading “War in the Year 2024: Why Do They Fight, and How?”

Everything I Know About Politics

Most readers will agree that politics is about power. It’s about interpersonal power in social settings. It’s about group influence over governance. Decision-making. Organizing. Motivating followers. Some people are good at the personal side of this – the art of politics. Others expend great effort to understand the dynamics of politics – the ideologies andContinue reading “Everything I Know About Politics”

Where Have All the Anarchists Gone?

understanding political philosophy — like anarchism or socialism — requires a quick dip into its intellectual history — anarchism’s Big Three thinkers were Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin (in that order!)

War, What Is It Good For?

I belong to the generation that fondly remembers Edwin Starr’s 1970 Motown hit, “War.”  It was meaningful to our Vietnam generation because it both reflected our predominant philosophy of war (generally pacifist) and apparently justified our antipathy toward the specific American war of the age. It was most likely recorded and marketed with that zeitgeistContinue reading “War, What Is It Good For?”