Machiavelli today is known to many by sayings that aren’t actually his; pseudo-quotations or mis-attributed sayings that appear on slovenly, un-moderated, un-verified websites that do an enormous disservice to everyone by their very existence. These sites seem to feed one … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag: critical thinking
Chadwick's Blog & Commentary: The Bedside Library
When the books stacked beside the bed get tall enough to hold not only a cup of tea at easy reach, but a plate of toast with no threat of falling, then perhaps it’s time to cull the pile and put aside those … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What I Really Want For Christmas…
Were I given to the Christmas flights of fancy that prompt people to compile impossible wish lists that usually include a desire for world peace, the end of disease, and the termination of world hunger, I would add one more: politicians who show respect, rather than contempt, for the intelligence
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Taint of Ideology
Although I’m sure that I frequently fall victim to it, I am deeply offended by lazy thinking, our seemingly endless capacity to fall back on ideological bromides as a substitute for careful and reasoned consideration of an issue. Instances of such defective cogitation abound, and are especially noticeable in online
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Humbling Lesson About Critical Thinking
I am going to be offline for a few days as I join two of my fellow retirees on a trek to Algonquin Park, so I leave you with the following rather lengthy blog post: While I am always mindful of the vital importance of critical thinking, logic, and clear
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Embargo On Ideas In The Offing?
One of the pleasures of my retired life is getting together for coffee on a regular basis with my friend Ray, a retired vice-principal and one of the rare ‘good-guys’ of administration that I encountered in my life as a teacher. When we meet, we discuss a range of topics,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Mainstream Media’s Silencing of Important Voices
Probably two of the most important voices challenging the status quo today are rarely if ever granted access to mainstream media anymore. Both highly respected, Pulitzer Prize winner and former New York Times journalist Chris Hedges, and Noam Chomsky, a towering intellect who has for decades been warning us of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What The Extreme Right Doesn’t Want Us To Think About
Although it hardly qualifies as a startling or original insight, something occurred to me this morning as I was reading my Sunday Star. Two front page items, one about the bullied bus monitor, Karen Klein, the other about five-year-old Lovely Avelus a Haitian girl rescued from the ruble of the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Economy And The People
Several years ago, while he was still writing for Canada’s self-proclaimed ‘newspaper of record,’ Rick Salutin wrote a column entitled something like, The economy is doing fine, the people not so much. In it, he made some trenchant observations about how, over time, the well-being of the economy and the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What is Truth?
An age-old question without a firm answer, it is one I find myself regularly pondering as I continue striving toward an ideal I know will never attain, that of being a consummate critical thinker. Bombarded by information as we are, it is often difficult to separate the proverbial wheat from
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Do Bumper Stickers Reveal About Us? Part 2
I recently wrote a post entitled, What Do Bumper Stickers Reveal About Us? Part 1, in which I contemplated the implications of the one that reads: If You Don’t Stand Behind Our Troops, Feel Free To Stand In Front of Them. I ended that post by offering the opinion that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Purpose of Education
As a retired teacher who spent 30 years in the classroom, I long ago recognized how crucial the development of critical-thinking skills is to a good education. During my career, the cultivation of these skills was really an intrinsic part of literary exploration as we questioned, speculated upon and analysed
Continue readingFusing and Musing: And the point is?
After a few years practicing being a social commenter I have come to one certain conclusion. I should probably have my fucking head examined! Grief, that’s what you mostly get. Yet we all plug away, each of us for our own reasons from that unique perspective each of us can
Continue readingFusing and Musing: Vetted by Facebook?
In an age where the “online spying” and “indefinite detention” become tools by the government to suppress the population and create fear of dissent, I have become completely convinced that I am being vetted by Facebook. I have recently returned from the beautiful Caribbean coast of Honduras. I visited Copan
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Nurse, Interrupted
A pretty interesting video from Beth Boynton RN on what I call status interrupticus, the incessant and often needless interruptions nurses deal with when performing duties requiring critical thinking and judgement. It’s fairly well known, for example, at among nurses anyway, that many if not most med errors are attributable to nurses
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Where In The World Is This?
What follows is a series of pictures, the link to which my son Matthew sent me. They are all pictures of the same country, the last one offering you the only real clue as to its identity. I urge you to look at each one slowly, and when you come
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Warning From Gwynne Dyer
Author, historian and journalist Gwynne Dyer is offering a timely warning as the world seems to be going down the same uncritical path to bombing Iran as it did with Iraq and its non-existent weapons of mass destruction.Says Dyer, in an article entitle…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Time For A War On Error
Although I rarely reprint items from the newspaper in their entirety on this blog, occasionally someone says something so succinct and insightful that I can’t resist. Roman Haluszka from Newmarket has the lead letter in today’s Star that underscores t…
Continue readingOh, look: everything Team Ford touches turns to crap. Don’t look so surprised
I’m all for respectful dialogue and agreeing to disagree, but there’s a point at which you just have to admit it: we are right and they are wrong and clinging to their illusions just makes them look even dumber.For Christ’s sakes. All those disgruntled…
Continue readingThe ‘debt crisis’ and the undermining of democracy in Europe
While CK’s on the road, she’s invited me to blog and cross-post here. So I’m recycling this tasty little item, which I found via @NaomiAKlein. (They say she’s polarizing … )
A sample:
Vast swathes of public policy have already been closed off and rendered inaccessible to conventional democratic processes. Anyone who’s seen . . . → Read More: The ‘debt crisis’ and the undermining of democracy in Europe
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