Cultism as a kind of collective personality disorder The enemy at the gates is us
Proteanism vs. cultism: The battle between open and closed societies
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity, ability, and willingness to understand or share the feelings of someone else. It is to harmonize with that person (or animal, or even fictional character…) and synchronize with their mood — to walk a mile in their shoes. The word empathy comes from a Greek word meaning “suffering,” which describes the […]
January 6 Attack: Donald Trump stormed the Capitol to stay in power
January 6: A Day that will live in ignominy. The day Capitol riots broke out when an angry mob, following instructions from Donald Trump, stormed the halls of Congress and came within minutes of a potential hostage situation or worse: a massacre. I’m still processing the events of Wednesday, as are many. Even though I […]
Lost Einsteins
A concept that describes the impact to the world of children in poverty, under excessive inequality, and in other circumstances that contribute to the loss of that individual’s gift to the world. It is one of many ways to try and measure the effect of the negative externalities of lightly regulated laissez-faire capitalism. There is […]
Kleptocracy
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Kleptocracy, a term derived from the Greek words “kleptΔs” (thief) and “kratos” (rule), refers to a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; it’s essentially “rule by thieves.” The nation’s leaders harbor organized crime rings and often participate in or lead them; the police, military, civil government, and other […]
Magical Thinking
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Magical Thinking abounds in late-stage capitalism Magical thinking is a form of purely imaginative cognition exhibited in childhood, in which children pretend that they will be able to get whatever they wish for without regard for the actual realities of the world. Not limited to children, magical thinking is a common trait exhibited by the […]
Optimism and the Condorcet jury theorem
Is it possible the Condorcet jury theorem provides not just a mathematical basis for democracy and the justice system, but a model predictor of one’s political persuasion as well? If you’re an optimist, you have no trouble believing that p > 1/2. You give people the benefit of the doubt that they will try their […]
Theory: Libertarians are the Narcissists of the Far-Right
I’ve been reading John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty” and am reminded of the quintessential liberal definition of the term: The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain […]
Capitalism vs. Democracy
Gather ’round, y’all — it’s the fight of our times… How much decision-making should be privately made, vs. collectively? Arguably, decisions that affect most of us ought, in some way, to incorporate input from the public. But as Elizabeth Warren 2020 (!!) notes — it’s getting harder and harder to do that, even as economic […]
Happy 2019, United States and world!
We have endured much together these past 2-3 years, Team America. Thankfully our civil society is incredibly robust — and time is accelerating demographic gains in an inexorably democratic direction. As Boomers give way to Millennials — slated to happen as early as this year — we are experiencing a seismic shift in the national […]
Oligarchy and the Creep of Fascism
Some people like to argue that more economic inequality is a good thing, because it is a “natural” byproduct of capitalism in a world of “makers and takers,” “winners and losers,” “wolves and sheep,” [insert your favorite Manichaean metaphor here]. However, too much inequality is deleterious for both economics and politics — for with oligarchy […]
Putin’s Greatest Weakness: The Russian Economy
Dictatorships generally do not foster, or even tolerate, the kind of creative disruption of the status quo necessary to the existence of a dynamic free market. Plus, the economy of the Russian state can best be described as a mafia state, or kleptocracy. Thus Vladimir Putin needs to find other ways to shore up both […]
Emotional Worldview: Are you an Internalizer or an Externalizer?
Considering your thought patterns and style of interacting with the world, which set of personality traits seems to characterize you more: Internalizer Externalizer Believe it’s up to you to change things Expect others to do it for you Mentally active; love to learn things Impulsive and reactive; take action before thinking about things, to blow […]
All politics is identity politics
There is no point belaboring a “stop the identity politics!” argument because there is simply no way to excise the political clash of factions from the identities of those factions. There would be no point in clashing if there were no identities. There is no polity without identity. The root of the word itself in […]
On the upsides of being underestimated, and a call to stand
There’s something those of us in marginalized groups know instinctively, having lived lives long in opposition to a dizzying continuum of Absurd Moral Authority: from outright violence, to secretive “technical” manipulations of statutes designed to erode or remove rights, to vague and carefully unstated “wink wink nudge nudge” moments from individuals of authority who had […]