Category Archives: Political Science

You See What You Expect

Posted on June 10, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Why do smart, sane, honest people sometimes disagree no matter how hard they try to find the truth? Name an issue: Abortion Feminism Immigration Islam President Trump Racism My friends and I often have stark disagreements about those issues. But … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology | Tagged Ames room, Assumptions, Constructive disagreement, Disagreement, Illusion, Optical illusion, Perception | 1 Comment

History Bends Toward Chaos

Posted on June 9, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Many people say that “the arc of history bends toward justice.” Pardon my French, but ce n’est pas vrai: It’s not true. It’s the opposite of the truth. If there is going to be justice in our world, we have … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Political Science, Society | Tagged American Revolution, Arc of history, Chaos, Disorder, Entropy, French Revolution, Justice, Order, Order versus chaos, Russian Revolution, Utopian, Utopianism | 3 Comments

Trick or Treat

Posted on June 7, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Is it okay to “trick people” for their own good? That question comes up early in John Staddon’s book The New Behaviorism. I’ve just started reading it, and it’s a thought-provoking analysis. Behaviorism is a psychological approach that, true to … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Society | Tagged B.F. Skinner, Behaviorism, Clickbait, Free Will, Freedom, Freedom of choice, John B. Watson, John Staddon, Operant conditioning, Power corrupts, Psychology, Staddon, The Fatal Conceit, Totalitarianism, Utopianism | 2 Comments

America and China Can Work It Out

Posted on June 5, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Tensions between America and China are as predictable as they are, well, stupid. Their tensions are predictable for two reasons: The United States and China are rival world powers, vying with each other for status and influence in the world. … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Political Science | Tagged America, Balance of payments, China, Ethnocentricity, Free trade, Group bias, Han Chinese, International Trade, Kin Selection, Tariffs, Trade, Trade dispute | Leave a comment

Too Centralized to Fail?

Posted on June 3, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Google Cloud went down yesterday, and it took a big piece of the internet down with it. Large areas of the United States, Europe, and South America lost internet services until Google fixed the problem. But Google is just one … Continue reading →

Posted in Political Science, Society | Tagged Antitrust, Bank bailout, Competitive markets, Complex systems, Crash of 2008, DARPA, Decentralization, FTC, Giant corporations, Google, Internet, Market power, Outage, Single point of failure, Technology, Too big to fail | Leave a comment

Tolerance or Violence?

Posted on May 29, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

A friend and I recently had a rational debate about abortion. Yes, rational debate is possible, even about touchy subjects. Neither of us convinced the other, but we understand each other better. Perhaps even more important, we confirmed that disagreement … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Society | Tagged Abortion, Base-10, Base-3, Coercion, Constitution, Definitional arguments, Definitions, Federalism, Fetus, Freedom of choice, Live and let live, Ternary, Tolerance, Violence | 3 Comments

X Marks the Spot

Posted on May 28, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

“Latinx?” What the heck is that? I see the word a lot lately. I finally figured out why media people have started using it. A Latino is a male Hispanic. A Latina is a female Hispanic. The words look like … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Relations, Life, Political Science, Psychology, Society | Tagged English language, Gender ideology, Hebrew language, Language, Latinx, Newspeak, Political correctness, Spanish language | 4 Comments

War is the Second-Worst Thing

Posted on May 26, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

“Give peace a chance” was what they said back in the Vietnam War era of the 1960s. And what reasonable person could argue with it? War is something to avoid — unless the alternative is even worse. Those thoughts are … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Political Science, Psychology | Tagged Courage, Martial virtues, Memorial Day, Military service, Negotiation, Patriotism, Peace, Perseverance, Persistence, Veterans, War, West Point | 2 Comments

What’s at Issue in the Abortion Debate

Posted on May 17, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

Abortion isn’t exactly a “third rail” of American politics, since people yell about it all the time. But it is a third rail of rational discussion. Many people have dogmatic beliefs about it and they react with blind rage to … Continue reading →

Posted in Life, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Society | Tagged Abortion, Alabama, Autonomy, Dogmatism, Fetus, Georgia, Heartbeat law, Heresy, Infanticide, Pro-choice, Pro-life, Rational debate, Right to life, State religion | 2 Comments

Follow Courage and Good Sense

Posted on May 16, 2019 by N.S. Palmer

I’m an optimistic kind of guy. I can usually find the “half full” in any glass, no matter how empty it is. But even I get discouraged sometimes. Most often, it’s because of human irrationality. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow … Continue reading →