Is the 21st century a time of great moral progress? Or is it a time of decadence? Ask different people and you’ll get different answers. In my view, the answer is “both.” On one hand, humans are progressing. The internet […]
*SPOILER ALERT FOR GAME OF THRONES, OBVIOUSLY. Don’t listen to this if you haven’t watched the show!* What is the right way to respond to the deaths of others? Should you be more loyal to your family or to your […]
When I walk in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park these days, I get a few moments where I see at a deeper level. I see hundreds of smiling people. I see couples in love, parents with children, and happy dogs trotting ahead of them. […]
Do you believe you’re free? Ask yourself how hard it would be for someone to enslave you – politically, emotionally, financially, physically, relationally, mentally. Do you have debt? We may no longer have debtor’s prisons, but for all intents and purposes, […]
Over 16 million humans died in the war that ended this day 100 year ago – on November 11, 1918. This is Armistice Day a hundred years later, and it should not go unremembered. Death like that deserves mourning, and peace […]
I was talking with some church friends last night about the frustrating cycle of history found in the Biblical stories. People turn to violence and injustice and fall to violence and injustice again and again, cycle after cycle. It’s really […]
WARNING: Major spoilers for Seasons 1, 2, and 3 in this post. I just finished watching the third season of Amazon’s amazing alternative history/sci-fi drama The Man in the High Castle, which is loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s novel […]
Circular reasoning. Strawmen. Appeals to nature. The “No True Scotsman.” Fallacies like these are easy for the casually-trained logician to spot in others, and they’re easy to pull out and critique in others. But what should you do if you make a […]
I’m undertaking a new writing challenge: write one post a day for as many days as possible based on things at my desk. This is day 7 of that challenge. One of my favorite things about my company is the […]
In the past year or so I’ve started to notice a new feature on my phone: with simple artificial intelligence the text messaging app is able to auto-generate simple, relevant replies to text. So if someone says “hi”, you can say […]
Was Abraham Lincoln really a moral leader who saved the United States and ended slavery? Did George Washington really save the Continental Army and win the American revolution? Was Thomas Jefferson really a forward-thinking liberalizer? Alluring Myth vs. Disappointing Fact The stories […]
Today I learned (or was reminded) that whale sharks regularly migrate thousands of miles across their oceans to feed and give birth They will travel incredible distances for food – far further by natural means than most humans who have ever […]
There aren’t many physical places left in this world where philosophical conversations happen between philosophical opponents. The Internet has made it easy to hole up into our own echo chambers, or to get into shouting matches. It would seem there is […]
“Speed checked by detection devices” If you’ve driven through Georgia, you’ve probably seen these signs. Fortunately, it turns out that they *don’t* actually mean that the roads have embedded smart detection devices monitoring drivers’ speed, or all of us Atlanta drivers would be in […]
If you live in a major city in the US, you’ve probably already borne witness to the scooter revolution. For short distance trips down city sidewalks, the motorized, smartphone-unlockable scooters provided by companies like Bird and Lime are kicking butt […]
“Radical” is a scary word, but radicals are (fundamentally) just very consistent people. If they believe in a principle, they believe that it applies to the very root (“radix” – a Latin term) of things. If they believe in non-aggression as a […]
By now, if you haven’t ridden in a Lyft or Uber vehicle, you at least have heard one amazing story from a friend who has. Philosophical conversations, sports talks, business opportunities, and friendships have all been born of these rides […]
WARNING: this post contains spoilers. “Whoever destroys a soul [of Israel], it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life of Israel, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” – The Talmud One of the […]
SPOILER ALERT: Last night I spoiled the ending of Saving Private Ryan. Now I’m going to have to spoil a good chunk of Les Miserables for you. We Americans love a good revolution. We can’t help it. We’re taught from early ages that […]
Waffle cone. That delicious scent is probably the first thing to draw my attention to the ice cream shop. It’s one of the most packed places in a busy Atlantic Station on a busy springtime Saturday night in Atlanta. Sitting outside […]
I’m a big believer that good mythology and stories can teach us how to live well. In the past year or so, that has led me to thinkers like Joseph Campbell and Jordan Peterson, who both have left a big mark on […]
I was driving to work today when I realized how nonchalantly I was piloting my land-speeding hunk of aluminum. Cars are extraordinary, complex, and dangerous machines, but most of us can drive them comfortably and without much second thought. That’s extraordinary. Then I […]
I live in the bright, sunny South, so when the skies dump snow on us, it’s kind a big deal. Children (and adults) build snowmen, cityscapes become more beautiful, and people slow down. But what I love most is snow’s way […]
I become a very fun party guest when the topic turns to politics. My mundane radicalism RE: politics I come at questions about policy from a different angle than most. I don’t believe in policy or politics at all. Specifically, I don’t […]
In part one of this argument, I explored how the methodology of political policymaking – cost/benefit analysis – fails to work at large scale. TLDR? Societies are much too complex for it to be easy or even possible to know […]
I hate policy debates so much. Should health care be delivered by government agencies? Should people spend more money on roads? Should kids be educated in the same age grades? Let’s put aside that these questions assume only one answer which […]
Have you ever noticed how no one complains about the commercialization of Halloween? Halloween is one of the most honest, self-aware holidays. It knows it’s about costumes, candy, parties, and fun scares. It knows money will be involved. And yet you […]
Incentives matter in politics, even in the politics of fantasy worlds. Spoilers also matter, and this post if full of them. In Game of Thrones, we see a fantastic portrayal of the ambitions, plotting, and warfare between would-be queens and would-be […]
Nationalism seems to follow predictable cycles. A culture becomes infatuated with its nation-state and that state’s dominance in the world. The nation-state does something really horrible and/or gets humbled. The nation-state’s surrounding culture withdraws approval from the state, and the […]
Political ideology is a powerful motivator. Touting our political action and allegiance publicly is our way of identifying who we are, who we align ourselves with, and how much we value our belief systems. We’ve all been there. Even many politically-unengaged […]