The tension in America has hardly lessened by the fact that Trump is now a “lame duck” president wallowing in his infantile denial of failure, unwilling to cooperate in the American tradition of a peaceful transition of power. Instead, he continues to rally his ‘base’ with foolishly tweeted feeble claims of, “I won!” or that … More Moral Fraud: Liberty, Responsibility, and Mutual Aid
“What is a UFO?” I asked the students attending my Research Methodology class. I intended the question to get them to think about how it is that we know what we think we know and how we determine the quality of evidence we use to judge “reality.” “A flying saucer,” one replied. “It’s an alien … More Arrogance and Ignorance: Not the Best Package for National Leadership
The other day at a rural intersection, I pulled up behind a pickup truck towing a small trailer. At the stop sign, his left-turn signal light was blinking on the trailer. So, naturally I expected him to turn left. He turned right. As he rounded the corner, I could see the turn signal on the … More Getting Our Wires Crossed and Going the Wrong Way
Leah Stokes is an important young climate writer and Assistant Professor or political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She recently wrote an eloquent description of the relation of California’s record wildfires to the accelerating global climate chaos in an article in The Atlantic. It reflects her solid work on the growing climate … More Why Climate Policy is Failing
In a recent blog post on the Corespondent.com, Eric Holthaus’ observations were as astute as ever. I frequently hear advocates for social, economic, and climate justice argue for the inclusion of justice actions along with climate action. As an extension of fossil-fueled empire-building following colonial confiscations and brutality, the global political economy was founded in … More Climate Action that works IS Social and Economic Justice
Who sees the courage and sacrifice of the fallen Hero as foolish acts of a “loser” or a “sucker”? Only the charlatan, the crook, the swindler, and the coward dismiss or deride the valor of which they are incapable. The ordinary man or woman, whether fearful or brave, recognizes heroism for what it is. The … More The Warriors and the Cowardly Charlatan
Where is your heart? Apparently, for many Americans today, it is not at home. The old saying, “Home is where the heart is,” retains little meaning these days. The heart seems located at our next destination. When the COVID-19 disease went pandemic, one of the first things I noticed was how crazy people were becoming … More Home is Where the Home Is
I hear a lot of talk these days of “returning to normal,” after “this coronavirus thing blows over,”—as if nothing else has changed. We will not return to normal; what we thought of as normal is gone, if it ever existed. Nor will we arrive at some “new normal,” either bad or good. Change is … More No New Normal Now
How to manage a societal crisis: that is the question. Or, is it a question at all? Why is it so difficult for a society of ostensibly free people to work together to make life better? To be accurate, we humans are in quite a pickle these days. With looming climate chaos before us, we … More Tyranny vs Leadership: Authoritarian Exploitation or Mutual Aid for Survival
The COVID-19 pandemic is so bad now that it is impossible to test and trace its spread, as some countries were able to do early on to knock it out. The number of new cases is growing so fast in some states that even if the US government tried to increase testing and employ people … More Here is the Plan to Control the COVID-19 pandemic, which will probably not happen, and why
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 