I am often puzzled by various ‘environmentalists.’ (I put the semi-quote marks around the word, since there are many types and variations among folks who either go by the designation or are called that by others.) All the various professionals, activists, academics, and even politicians (well politicians more than any others) go about their work … More There are No Do-Overs Now.
As you may have noticed from prior posts here and/or from the Hopeful Realist Newsletter, I consider myself a ‘hopeful realist.’ The reason is twofold. First, neither optimism nor pessimism make any sense to me. I guide my thinking by what I know and do not know about the world. Since both optimism and pessimism … More Realism: The Only Hope
The obvious can be very difficult for people to see. That is because people are self-correcting systems. They are self-corrective against disturbance, and if the obvious is not of a kind that they can easily assimilate without internal disturbance, their self-corrective mechanisms work to sidetrack it, to hide it, even to the extent of shutting … More Madness or Method: We Know What to Do, But Not How to Do It
I am now a member of that not-so-exclusive global social network that I always intended to avoid. I guess you could call it the ‘COVID Club.’ Clearly, we are not able to control everything that confronts us in our lives, especially the invisible threats. I had done everything ‘right,’ such as getting the vaccine and … More On Joining the Club I Kept Trying to Avoid
Humans are an odd lot. We fret over the future, we lionize the past, and we are in denial about the present. Or, it might not really be about human nature, but rather about the present spot in the devolution of the dominant culture of our time. I think it is the latter. It seems … More Looking Forward: Doom Loop or Hope Spiral
Well, here we go again. The twenty-eighth United Nations “Conference of the Parties” (COP28) began last week in Dubai, the oil-rich city in the nation of the United Arab Emirates, led, believe it or not, by Sultan al Jaber, first CEO to ever serve as COP President. Dr. al Jaber directs Adnoc, the national oil … More Twenty-Eight Conversations Late: Words Without Deeds
I hear a lot of talk these days about the “Laws of War.” I always found that a strange concept. Certain legal principles of what is acceptable killing and destruction prescribe what is and is not included in the presumptive moral basis for proper and improper behavior by troops and their leaders in the conduct … More Thanks, But No Thanks: Morality and War
Well, that title sounds a bit ominous I guess. Nevertheless, we have seen various events, some quite catastrophic, which indicate that our ability to ‘hold it together’ is, well, fragile. We have also seen evidence of remarkable human resilience in confronting catastrophe, which I observed directly a couple of weeks ago. The Pandemic as Prolog … More Our Tenuous Hold on Reality
They are here now, faster and more furious than ever. The increasing intensity and frequency of “extreme weather events” is blatently apparent and associated with ‘global warming.’ Yet, television “meteorologists,” as they call themselves, can muster no more concern than to remark as to how many new high-temperature records were broken today, or what a … More Intensity and Frequency: The New Normal Cannot be Normal at All
Last Thursday, a practiced persona of cruelty and vindictiveness appeared to saturate the only mug shot of a former president in the history of the United States of America. “The Face,” his employees had called the scowl they had seen too often. We might wonder what that implies about his worldview and behavior, if that … More The Mug: Cultural Collapse and the Autocratic Attempt
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 