When I was a little boy my grandfather told me, “Try to leave this world a better place than it was when you got here.” That sentiment is less common today than it was 60 years ago, but it certainly …
Tag: Environmental and Social Justice
And Now, This from Emerson
Of course, not everyone sees it this way. Especially in modern times, there are plenty of people who view the world as “dog-eat-dog.” Fortunately, they’re in the minority. Think of all the teachers and the nurses. Then consider that there …
Tagged with: Environmental and Social Justice
Environmental and Social Justice
The other day I mentioned to a friend that there are more than 200,000 groups on this planet in “environmental and social justice,” which sent the conversation down the rabbit hole about controversies surrounding social justice. I’ve had this happen …
Threats to Human Civilization
A friend and I were talking about the threat to our civilization posed by runaway artificial intelligence; I recommended neuroscientist Sam Harris’s TED Talk on the subject (see below). He writes: “It’s excellent. Though I don’t have a well-structured thought process …
Broken Friendships in the Age of Trump
What Jefferson said here sounds good until you put it in the context of what other philosophers have said on friendship, and think about how it applies, or fails to, in our own lives. Aristotle, for example, argued for the …
What You Need To Be Reading from the Harvard Business Review
Here’s a hopeful article in the Harvard Business Review called “The Fortune 500 Can’t Go Along with a Rollback on Climate Policy.” As much as I try to stay away from cynicism, I have to say, “Good luck with that.”
A Quick Case for Optimism Re: Civilization’s Future
A reader comments, “Your claim “The U.S. Citizenry is in the Process of Taking Back Its Democracy” is (quite) dubious!” I grant that it’s dubious. It’s a prediction of the future, which makes it inherently uncertain. I happen to believe …
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An Auspicious Trend in US Politics
I hope readers are following the daily 2GreenEnergy Instagram feed, mainly built on pics I’ve taken around our very rural neighborhood near Santa Barbara, CA. At the left is today’s post with caption: Along with all the horrifying developments in …
Achieving a Better Civilization Means Confronting an Important Fact: Free Market Capitalism Has Limits
Those who read the comments on this blog recognize frequent commenter MarcoPolo is a man whose position is that free market economics should be the only force guiding our civilization. Using his words, “Attempting to create a “moral” or “ideological” …
The Legacy of Frederick Douglass
All of us Americans who use Google (pretty much everyone) know that today is the birthday of Frederick Douglass, one of the most influential forces for social reform in U.S. history. He’s probably best known today for his summary of …
