The new epidemic: Death cults and the culture of despair
An article in The Atlantic speaks to the growing death-fetish that is gripping more and more youth. It is a bad omen for the state of modern industrial civilization as…
philosophy
Imagine common sense
John Lennon, Imagine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRhq-yO1KN8 Think about how widely loved this song is. Then think about the lyrics and what they say – this is a song that is urging anarchist…
Country life, and the glory of silence
I say aloud to myself, “Ahh…it’s so quite here! Thank God I moved to the country!” And the words reverberate warmly through the room, their sound highlighting by contrast the…
New studies show generosity and cooperation are both natural and intelligent
A new study shows a mathematical proof that generosity leads to evolutionary success. Biologists offer a mathematically based explanation for why cooperation and generosity have evolved in nature “Ever since…
Love, sympathy and mutual aid are natural – we have to be taught to be greedy little narcissists
During a California wildfire rescue workers ran out of crates to place rescued animals, forcing them to put a fawn and a bobcat kitten in an office together. When they…
The Moral Compass
I have a laminated card beside me, wallet-sized so it can be carried around easily. I made it at my shop a few years ago; just a simple, two-sided business…
The Key of Keys
Egoless divine pride: the most glorious concept I have ever heard – from Tibetan Buddhism. The Uttara Tantra elaborates: There once was a prince, who lost his memory and forgot…
Review: The Silence of Animals
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars In 1961 Martin Luther King Jr. told an audience on the New York University campus: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step…
Get Help Choosing an Ethical Career
80,000 Hours is a student run organization at Oxford University that helps people find a job or career in something that makes the world better. This is great for so…
Science Denialism and the Future of Humanity, Part 1
Recently, answering questions about the future of scientific research in Canada and the ongoing transformation of the National Research Council from a basic science research organization into a facilitator of…
There’s an over-used, often-modified, bullshit slogan…
There’s an over-used, often-modified, bullshit slogan along the lines of “If you are not a socialist at the age of 20 you have no heart; if you are still a…
Don’t We All Hear Voices? A Mindfulness-Informed View of Schizophrenia and the “Normal” Mind
The hallmark of schizophrenia is perceiving things that are not there. Auditory hallucinations, including “hearing voices”, is particularly common. What if this clinically distinguishing feature of schizophrenia differs from the…
Mens sana in corpore sano: a sound mind in a healthy body
Mens sana in corpore sano: a sound mind in a healthy body – a very good motto that is. The saying comes from the Roman Juvenal, and it applies as…
Saturday At The Movies
We met Henri a few weeks ago. Here’s the first video in which he explores his angst:
Getting more out of job creators
Probably the best and most successful way to get more out of the job creators, is to convince them that they can make more money.
All you need to know…
It is said that all the philosophy one needs to live right can be found in a single source. Traditionalists choose the Koran or the Bible or the Talmud. Others…
Make Us Do The Right Thing
“I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932, in a statement to labour leaders who had advocated for bold…