Below is yesterday’s “poem for the day” from Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac.” There’s a lot to like here, but one thing that I want to comment on is “Don’t think that progress exists. It doesn’t.” Well, that’s a downer, and …
Tag: The Enlightenment
Is Civilization Making Progress?
Tagged with: and the U.S. Constitution, authoritarian governments popping up all around the globe, Magna Carta, rise of tribalism, the abolition of slavery, the Age of Reason, the civil rights movement, The Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Geneva Convention, the Renaissance, the United Nations, women's suffrage
Sorry, This Is a “No-Retrograde Motion” Zone
Here’s a pithy little something from Evangelical Christian and meteorologist Paul Douglas; it’s his attempt to persuade his fellows to accept the evidence for climate change.
Is Human Civilization Reversing Course?
Errr…no. This has been a weird little perturbation in the political scene, much like the witch trials in 1692; the phenomenon came and went, and a year later, most people of that place and time couldn’t even explain how it …
Tagged with: civil rights, environmentalism, gay marriage, Magna Carta, the abolition of slavery, the Age of Reason, the end of legal segregation, The Enlightenment, the feminist movement/gender equality, the French Revolution, the Renaissance, the U.S. Constitution, women's suffrage, workers' rights
Are We Making Progress as a Civilization?
A friend wrote to me last night: I will tell you, Craig, I was so utterly horrified by the dolphin video (that she had shared on Facebook, re: Japan’s considering dolphins pests and slaughtering them wholesale) I doubt I will …
Is Environmentalism a Fad?
As I wrote the other day, the concept of environmentalism in Western culture (or at least any real popularizing of the idea) is almost brand new. It dates to the mid-20th Century, and can be said to have begun with …
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Corruption in Government
It’s the birthday of social philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a leading figure in the Enlightenment, whose writings contain the basic ideas behind the U.S. Constitution, the French Revolution, and so many other important elements of the way Western civilization has developed …
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Denis Diderot's Ideas Lie At the Base of Modern Western Civilization
Last Friday was the birthday of French philosopher Denis Diderot, who said, “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” Holy cow, that’s some powerful language. It appears to summarize …
Denis Diderot's Ideas Lie At the Base of Modern Western Civilization Read More »
Clean Energy May Be Right Around the Corner
A number of folks commenting on my piece The New Living Large Is Living Small noted that perhaps we need a precipitating event to pull the world together, and teach us once again how to live with one another. But …
Tagged with: abolitionism, alternative energy, BP oil spill, chandeliers, clean energy, corporations right of free speech, Craig Shields The New Living Large Is Living Small, extreme weather events, Fukushima, fur industry brutal, green energy, precipitating event to pull the world together, Renewable Energy, The Enlightenment, U.S. Constitution
