Every thing I see is perfect. If only for this infected bite on my thigh and the panting impatience of my bored dog. Dense grass. Blooming clover. Green leaves on lilac and ash. Sinewy spruce. Rippling cedar. The blighted Norway maple out of view at the front, while I slouch over candescent screen, at the table, on the patio, in the back yard. Don't dwell on the sagging plastic shed stained with a... [Read More]

I’ve been in psychotherapy twice. The first time I was in my mid-twenties. It lasted for about a year. The second time in my late forties, for six years. The first time helped me get through an acute crisis. The second time I was trying to address a chronic problem. While I gained some insight, the problem is still with me. I suspect I have more than one emotional problem. But they all seem to co... [Read More]

Have you heard of the “metacrisis”—also called polycrisis, human predicament, long emergency, and other terms? It is the umbrella for all the crises that we face now or in the coming future, with a high degree of certainty. It includes critical threats to the economy, government, democracy, human health, climate, ecology, and the entire biosphere. The metacrisis—and all the particular crises it i... [Read More]

Online trolls are strange. On the one hand, it seems clear what they’re up to. Whether they are insecure, or bored, or confused, they want to pick fights and annoy people because it makes them feel powerful. But how does this really work for them? How do they interpret the act of trolling as a personal accomplishment, or evidence or their superiority? Especially when trolling strangers, and even ... [Read More]

Everyone wants to be thought good. By the people that they consider good. But “good” is a divisive concept. And it always will be. Can goodness be defined empirically? No. Goodness is subjective. No two people can ever completely agree on what “good” means. Goodness is what people prefer. What people prefer is good. People prefer different things, both innately, and culturally. So, good is arbitr... [Read More]

I was going to write about this initially. But I got distracted by the wider context, and wanted to address that, first. Like I said: I am privileged. I have opportunities. I want to be more egalitarian. But while this is superficially easy, I am not a naturally open and empathetic person. I try to be compassionate, but I can be a little cold. I’m not that great for the front lines of charity. I... [Read More]

Sometimes I am naive. I like to believe that some aspects of our lives—especially our social relationships—can be simplified. Maybe this is an error. What do I mean by “simplified”? I think a lot about language. I’ve even studied language in school, both in humanities (English Lit Crit) and science (computer science). Really, a lot of higher ed is about clarifying language. Although art critici... [Read More]

Businesses should be semi-democratic. Everyone should participate in decision-making. Everyone should share in the fate of the business, and help direct that fate. The problem with that ideal is that it nullifies the benefits of specialization, upon which most organizations depend. And not just businesses, or even human organizations in general. Sophistication of an organization relies on the dis... [Read More]

I don’t know why I think about this stuff. I could probably spare myself the trouble, and read a book by someone who has done the work. But here I am, amateur philosopher, doing a terrible job. I can’t solve global warming, or similar problems. I doubt that any individual can. They would have to be the leader of a global cult, with billions of followers, and an ethical paragon. Though if they wer... [Read More]

I am a macroscopic particle, bouncing around the social universe. Do you ever try to understand yourself? To explain yourself? It’s probably a futile act. There are limits to the ability of a system to understand itself. But “understanding” is a slippery concept. “Understand” basically means “describe accurately and mechanistically”. Which is awkward, for a person. Most people don’t want to cons... [Read More]