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- Good Advice from George Washington
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- Why The News Is So Bad
- Drug Policy: Good Is Better Than Perfect
- Don’t Live Thoughtlessly
- Beware of “Exceptions” to Freedom
- For The Chinese, Context Is Everything
- Character Is Destiny — For Nations, Too
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- Don’t “Other” Other People
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Category Archives: Psychology
Why The News Is So Bad
Why is the news so bad? I’m not talking about biased news. Yes, there’s bias, and it’s getting worse. But that’s not the issue here. I’m also not talking about why the news is full of so many evil and … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Psychology, Society
Tagged Accuracy, Corporate media, Corporate politician, Incompetence, Joseph Pulitzer, Journalism, News, News Media
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Drug Policy: Good Is Better Than Perfect
American laws about recreational drug use are a mess. Americans rot in prison for using or selling marijuana, which is relatively harmless. They rot in prison for selling cocaine and heroin, which aren’t harmless but harm mainly heavy users, and … Continue reading
Posted in Political Science, Psychology, Science, Society
Tagged Addiction, Cocaine, Corruption, DEA, Drug policy, Heroin, Marijuana, Perfectionism
6 Comments
Don’t Live Thoughtlessly
The American philosopher John Dewey argued that for most people, most of the time, thinking is a last resort. They only think when a problem or obstacle blocks their path. And he wasn’t wrong. Most of the time, we live … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Political Science, Psychology, Society
Tagged Conformity, Cruelty, Customs, Groupthink, Herd behavior, Independent thought
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Beware of “Exceptions” to Freedom
Yale University historian Timothy Snyder wrote a short book called On Tyranny that’s quite good. Each of its 20 chapters explains a way to preserve freedom and civilized society in the face of attacks by tyrannical government. The book came … Continue reading
Posted in Political Science, Psychology
Tagged America, American ideals, Community, Courage, COVID-19, Emergency powers, Freedom, Lockdowns, Patriotism, Tyranny
2 Comments
For The Chinese, Context Is Everything
It ain’t much, but it’s the first story I’ve written in Chinese. I’d wanted to write about Chinese political philosophy, but I found that my vocabulary was too limited to do it. Surprisingly, some Chinese ideas about governmental legitimacy are … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Psychology
Tagged China, Chinese, Culture, Diplomacy, Language learning, Languages, Mandarin
3 Comments
Don’t “Other” Other People
Most people aren’t familiar with the idea of “othering,” but they are familiar with what it is. They’ve seen it. They’ve done it to other people, and they’ve had it done to them. To “other” a group of people is … Continue reading
Posted in Human Relations, Life, Political Science, Psychology, Science
Tagged Evolution, Group bias, In-Group, Kin Selection, Othering, Out-Group, Partisanship, Social Conflict
1 Comment
Be a Winner in 2021
Life is like a game of chess. I was going to say “life is like a box of chocolates,” but apparently someone else has used that already. In high school and college, I played a lot of chess. A chess … Continue reading
Posted in Life, Psychology
Tagged Carpe diem, Courage, Life, Losing, Meaning of life, Personality, Psychology, Risk, Winning, Wisdom
2 Comments
Freedom Means Responsibility
My first summer job in high school was as a copy boy for The Indianapolis Star newspaper. Yes, it was so long ago that we were called copy “boys” and nobody got triggered about sexism or patriarchy. Every morning when … Continue reading
Why Are People So Mean on the Internet?
(Originally written for The Jewish Journal, published on August 16, 2016.) Why are people so mean on the Internet? Political polarization is sad, but it’s not the problem. Every day, we encounter people who disagree with us, but we do … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology
Tagged Anger, Internet, Misdirected anger, Polarization, Social Conflict, Social Media, Trolls
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A Moment from the Middle Ages
Let’s consider a moment from the Middle Ages. Of course, people in the Middle Ages didn’t think they were living in “the Middle Ages.” That term was invented during the Renaissance to denote the era between Late Antiquity (after the … Continue reading
Posted in Psychology
Tagged Courage, COVID-19, Fear, Freedom, History, Propaganda, Psychology, Rationality, SARS-CoV-2
2 Comments