Here, Marcus Aurelius provides viewpoints on life that could be applied to current-day U.S. politics.
For instance, I can say that all this hatred and stupidity is, in fact, playing itself out in front of my eyes, but I’m fortunate enough not to be poor, uneducated, Muslim, female, LGBTQ, black, etc., so no big deal.
As it happens, however, I do have one small chink in the armor, in that I actually care about the well-being of others.
The reader who sent me this notes: I thought things were supposed to get better. In particular, weren’t prices going to fall?
Trump won the 2024 election fair and square; a plurality of voters re-elected a pathological liar to lead this country. This is the type of crap that the American people knowingly signed up for, and thus it’s hard to feel sorry for them.
When looked at in a certain light, this level of stupidity is actually funny. Saying that transgender people do not exist is like saying that cucumbers don’t exist; it’s just factually incorrect.
A reader sent me this question and supplied an answer: The United States.
I doubt it.
It’s true that the path our nation is taking is anything but sustainable, but it’s likely that our little bout with fascism will be short-lived. I predict that the common American will eventually realize that the concentration of power in the hands of a criminal sociopath really isn’t serving anyone well, beyond a few billionaires.
At a certain point it will become obvious that the United States needs:
A justice system that holds everyone accountable.
Solid, peaceful relations with allies and other trading partners.
An educational system that enables us to remain competitive on the world stage.
Active participation in averting the collapse of the environment.
An old friend replied when I asked her ca. 2017 about her perception of Trump, “It’s hard to know where to begin.”
During Trump’s first term, however, his actions were far more benign than they are now. For example, no one could have predicted that he would try to overthrow the U.S. government following his loss in 2020, and then, in his second term, worked tirelessly to install himself as a lifelong autocrat along the lines of Putin, Xi, or Kim Jong-un.
Putting Kash Patel into place, so as to incarcerate Trump’s opponents or otherwise cut them off at the knees, might just get the job done.
My favorite math teacher of all time posted the map below on social media.
Hope you enjoy.
There is a great deal of truth in the words at left. Yet any significant amount of climate change denial needs two components: Big Oil — and a huge population of uneducated people.
The whole deal is akin to Trumpism , which itself requires two related components: amoral rich people and a vast ocean of ignorance.
For all those fans of NPR’s The Hidden Brain, here’s my very favorite episode.
How orderly are our lives, and the paths that our lives take? We like to think that we’re in control, but is it just simply an illusion?
For those wishing to explore these ideas, you’ve hit pure gold.
In the year 2009, the year 2GreenEnergy was launched, the world of renewable energy had high hopes for the technology shown at left. At the time, solar thermal had a huge advantage over competitive approaches to clean power, in particular, the fact that the energy generated by the array was heat, and the storage of heat energy in huge vats of molten salt was extremely inexpensive, compared to the storage of electrical energy in batteries.
While the storage issue remains alive today, the cost of energy from solar PV and wind has sunk to the point that solar thermal is no longer competitive.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Trump’s character is that he has zero sense of restraint, regardless of the amount of rebuke that is cast about him.
Will any of this shut him up? Of course not. Sullenberg simply gets added to the “enemies list.”
